Claiming back a deposit and costs to date

biggles3309

We have been looking to move for a while now, but hadn't done much more than get the house ready for sale. Then we found what we thought was a wonderful house at a good price in a lovely development in Melksham calleed 1 Scholars walk. It had a pylon in the field behind it, but that didn't worry us and for us it explained why it hadn't sold. We rushed home and put the house on the market and priced it to sell quickly as we were told there was other interest and we had to complete by the 31st March to keep the price it was on at. We also had to have a complete chain to reserve it. After two nail biting weeks of tidying up, partially packing and showing people round the house we had the right buyer, though it was at £5K under asking and £15K under market value.

After taking a £500 (50% non-refundable) deposit we found out that the house was fed by LPG rather than mains gas (as we had been told initially), but that wasn't a deal breaker so we instructed a solicitor and carried on. Eventually the developer sent the contract over and we saw the report the solictor wrote about it. Somewhere in there was alittle titbit about a planning restiction on the garage becasue of a Bat Loft. Scholars Walk was built on the old Primary School, in which bats roosted so as part of the planning consent one house had to have a bat loft. There are also a lot of covenants that leave us wide open to having our boundaries changed post purchase that have to agree to.
Now teh developer say that they don't have to declare anything that will come up as part of the searches, but by then we have spent money.

My question therefore is how would we stand if we were to demand all our cost back (deposit and legal fees to date) given the developer had not declared something that 99% of people would not buy a house with?

wealdroam

biggles3309 wrote: »

We have been looking to move for a while now, but hadn't done much more than get the house ready for sale. Then we found what we thought was a wonderful house at a good price in a lovely development in Melksham calleed 1 Scholars walk. It had a pylon in the field behind it, but that didn't worry us and for us it explained why it hadn't sold. We rushed home and put the house on the market and priced it to sell quickly as we were told there was other interest and we had to complete by the 31st March to keep the price it was on at. We also had to have a complete chain to reserve it. After two nail biting weeks of tidying up, partially packing and showing people round the house we had the right buyer, though it was at £5K under asking and £15K under market value.

After taking a £500 (50% non-refundable) deposit we found out that the house was fed by LPG rather than mains gas (as we had been told initially), but that wasn't a deal breaker so we instructed a solicitor and carried on. Eventually the developer sent the contract over and we saw the report the solictor wrote about it. Somewhere in there was alittle titbit about a planning restiction on the garage becasue of a Bat Loft. Scholars Walk was built on the old Primary School, in which bats roosted so as part of the planning consent one house had to have a bat loft. There are also a lot of covenants that leave us wide open to having our boundaries changed post purchase that have to agree to.
Now teh developer say that they don't have to declare anything that will come up as part of the searches, but by then we have spent money.

My question therefore is how would we stand if we were to demand all our cost back (deposit and legal fees to date) given the developer had not declared something that 99% of people would not buy a house with?

The House Buying, Renting & Selling Board is the best place for this.

bris

Basically the searches bring these things up so technically they are right but you don't get the searches until the solicitor stage.


I would definitely take it to court for the reasonably low cost this would be claiming that the information should be regarded as so important it should have been disclosed up front.


The courts would have to decide but I think you would have a good case. Covenants are normal but the bat loft is what I would consider to be crucial information.