After exchange told issues installing heating

mangomaz

Hi all, I have a flat buying question if anyone can help. I think it's a bit legal.

If after contracts have been exchanged you get told that the flat you are part buying is having some issues with getting heating installed (it's a new build), is there anything you can do? Especially if the housing association is basically trying to get you to agree to complete and move into the flat without heating, and say they'll try and install it later, but admit that it could take months and they can't guarantee when it would get done by.

The housing association are meeting with the developers tomorrow to try and negotiate something but they can't guarantee an agreement will be made.

Solicitor seems to be a bit useless and siding with the housing association to encourage setting completion now, and moving into the flat with no heating (obviously, since this makes their life much easier).

Should the solicitor be standing up for you and your contract (which stipulates that the flat will have heating)? And negotiating on your behalf with the housing association who you are part buying the flat from? Or not; are they just mechanically going through the process of getting the sale completed as quickly as possible? And this turns into a case which would require getting some kind of property contracts lawyer involved?

Any advice appreciated.

Browntoa

Id ask for a legally binding agreement from the HA/developers that they supply alternate heating (portable heaters ? ) and pay for the cost of running them until heating installed

JoJo1978

I can’t offer any legal advice at all I’m afraid and neither have I been in this situation. However, if I was then I would probably do the following:

1. Request to be told the outcome of the meeting between the developers and the HA asap afterwards
2. Find out if the HA has any obligation to provide you with temporary heating e.g. portable heaters until the situation is involved. CAB may be able to help you with that one
3. Ask your solicitor for advice on whether it is possible to make the heating installation within a given reasonable timeframe a part of the conditions under which you agree to complete

Sorry not to be of more help

Norman_Castle

Browntoa wrote: »

and pay for the cost of running them until heating installed

Minus the cost of running central heating.

OP If you move in without heating can you withhold the cost of installing heating until it is done or alternately get a reduced price and have the heating installed yourself.

davidmcn

Generally there's not much you can do if there are delays in construction. Yes, your solicitor ought to be fighting your side, but I can understand they may take the view that they've already negotiated your contract and you're not paying them to renegotiate the terms.

Assuming you're buying with a mortgage, is your lender happy to complete on a property with no heating installed? Their valuation will have assumed it's properly complete.

G_M

Yes your solicitor should be advising you, so write to him for his formal explanation of the legal position, and yoour legal options.

One might be that you agree a retainer with the seller. Your solicitor holds back £X in his client account, to be paid when th heating is fully installed to your satisfaction.

You could perhaps also include a penalty condition - eg if it is not installed within, say, a month from Completion, then £Y per day will be deducted from the retainer (and returned to you).

Not sure how this would all be agreed /drawn up, but your solicitor should advise.

Hopefully you're using a proper local solicitor you can go in and talk to, not an internet conveyancing warehouse with 100 'admin staff' doing the work.....

Much easier for this to be agreed before Exchange, so i'm not sure if it can be now.

Alternative may be to refuse to pay at all (or move in) since the builder has not Completed as per the contract. But that hurts you as well as them.

eddddy

mangomaz wrote: »

Should the solicitor be standing up for you and your contract (which stipulates that the flat will have heating)? And negotiating on your behalf with the housing association who you are part buying the flat from?

A conveyancing solicitor wouldn't negotiate things as such - but they would pass on your proposed terms to the sellers solicitors. But that's probably an inefficient (slow) way of communicating. It's faster to do it direct.

With new build contracts, they generally say that you can withdraw after exchange, if there is a significant change to the spec/plan.

No heating sounds like a significant change, so I guess that would allow you to withdraw and get your deposit back. (And that really is something that your solicitor can check in the contract and advise you on.)

pinkteapot

Was the solicitor one recommended by the builder/mortgage company, by chance?

Personally, I have to say that I probably wouldn't be keen on moving in and getting heating later. Getting snagging issues sorted post-completion on new-builds is notoriously slow and hassley - once the builder has your cash, they've got little incentive to fix things. With minor things I'd go ahead, but heating is pretty significant.

What exactly is the problem? Is it meant to have gas or electric heating? If it's electric then there really shouldn't be any problem installing it - electric heaters are easy to install! If it's gas then are they having an issue getting the development connected to mains gas?

davidmcn

eddddy wrote: »

A conveyancing solicitor wouldn't negotiate things as such

A good solicitor ought to be negotiating rather than just acting as a postbox (and leaving their client to ask weirdos on internet forums what they should be doing).

No heating sounds like a significant change, so I guess that would allow you to withdraw and get your deposit back.

I don't think they're proposing a change to the specification, it's just something they haven't installed yet. So the contract stays in force until either they have properly completed the construction, or the longstop date (if there is one in the contract) allows the purchaser to pull out.

eddddy

davidmcn wrote: »

I don't think they're proposing a change to the specification, it's just something they haven't installed yet. So the contract stays in force until either they have properly completed the construction, or the longstop date (if there is one in the contract) allows the purchaser to pull out.

Perhaps I wasn't clear in the point I was making.

The OP seems...

1) to be panicking that he/she will be forced to complete on a flat before the heating is installed

2) to think that he/she can somehow force the developer to install heating in a certain timescale

Neither of those is correct. The points I was making were:

The buyer (probably) will not be in breach of contract if he/she refuses to complete on the flat without heating.

The seller (probably) will not be in breach of contract if they fail to install heating before the longstop date. But the buyer can (probably) pull out and the developer will (probably) have to return the buyer's deposit.

Unless they negotiate something different.

davidmcn

eddddy wrote: »

Perhaps I wasn't clear in the point I was making.

The OP seems...

1) to be panicking that he/she will be forced to complete on a flat before the heating is installed

2) to think that he/she can somehow force the developer to install heating in a certain timescale

Neither of those is correct. The points I was making were:

The buyer (probably) will not be in breach of contract if he/she refuses to complete on the flat without heating.

The seller (probably) will not be in breach of contract if they fail to install heating before the longstop date. But the buyer can (probably) pull out and the developer will (probably) have to return the buyer's deposit.

Unless they negotiate something different.

All agreed, I was just clarifying that the purchaser is (probably) not entitled to withdraw before the longstop date - your previous post suggested they could withdraw immediately.