Reservation issues, "forgery" and breach of contract with Linden Homes

kirts90

Hi,

I am currently in the process of buying a new property with Linden Homes and this past week it seems that everything went downhill. Thankfully, I have not exchanged contracts yet.

I was promised several things which have been changed the last moment which is the reason I am hesitant to proceed at this point until they are addressed but I will spare you these details and move into the main topic.

They have changed the first page of my reservation contract with a different page, changing the date of exchange date to a month earlier and they are now pushing me to sign the contract immediately. I have gotten everything approved and they are waiting for my signature on these papers but I was expecting to return these documents a little before the exchange date which is a month away!

I have a copy of the reservation form but they now claim that it was a mistake and that they have addressed that issue with me, which of course they did not and of course they haven't provided any evidence to their claim. Having said that, I also did not receive the Consumer Code for Home Builders together with the reservation form but rather at a much much later date after I had instructed the mortgage adviser and lawyer which I believe results in breach of Code requirement 1.2 which states that home buyers: "should be provided with a copy of the Code Scheme with the Reservation agreement."

The Consumer Code says it is a "voluntary industry code that is led and run by the industry." Since the Code was launched, around 16,000 house builders registered with the NHBC, Premier Guarantee or LABC Warranty must comply with the Code and its requirements. Failure to do so can result in exclusion from all registers run by the home warranty bodies that participate in the scheme, effectively making homes they build un-mortgageable.

They have also consistently lied about things even after all this such as telling me that Authority to Proceed would expire in 2 weeks (it actually expires around February!) to force me to sign the contract.

At this point, I am left with 3 options:
* Sue them
* Proceed with the deal
* Cancel the deal and deal with the loss of over 5000 pounds, being unable to get another mortgage and deal with the interest rate increases etc etc..

I am of course in contact with my lawyer but any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

Comms69

Sue them for what?

kirts90

Forgery of the reservation form. The reservation form is 3 pages long and of course in the last page you put your signature. Apparently, they changed the first page with their own after I signed it. This results to the exchange date being changed to a month earlier which was of course passed to the all relevant parties including my lawyer.

Aside from the above, they were also in breach of Code requirement 1.2 per the Code Scheme with the Reservation agreement. The details are in my original post.

Comms69

kirts90 wrote: »

Forgery of the reservation form. The reservation form is 3 pages long and of course in the last page you put your signature. Apparently, they changed the first page with their own after I signed it. This results to the exchange date being changed to a month earlier which was of course passed to the all relevant parties including my lawyer.

Aside from the above, they were also in breach of Code requirement 1.2 per the Code Scheme with the Reservation agreement. The details are in my original post.

So you have a copy of the original reservation form?

kirts90

That is correct.

eddddy

You can insist that they (and you) adhere to the original terms of the reservation agreement that you signed.

There isn't really any basis for suing them - unless/until you suffer some kind of loss as a result of them breaching the agreement that you originally signed.

paddycharlie

What is your basis for a financial claim if you sue them? Have you lost any money due to their actions?


As you have said you can still complete on the property

moneyistooshorttomention

Not having bought a brand new house ever - but I'm wondering if a form like this would have to have your signature on every single page? (ie so that they couldnt craftily swop one page and say you had signed something different to what you actually had signed).

Do you have a photocopy yourself of each page you signed in the first place?

kirts90

Unfortunately, the reservation form which they provided me, only allows me to put my signature in the last page rather than every page. I do have a photocopy of every page.

The issue is that their lawyers are asking my lawyer and in turn me, to sign everything and return them today/tomorrow otherwise they will cancel the deal which will result to severe financial loss. They are putting an enormous amount of pressure on me to sign the contract something that I don't want to until they adhere to the original deal.

As mentioned in my previous posts, they were also in breach of Code requirement 1.2 per the Code Scheme with the Reservation agreement as they did not provide me the document at all together with the reservation form which can result to severe penalties for them (see my original post).

Obviously, I am not interested to take them to court as my first action, but I will definitely will not be bullied into signing the contract to exchange without having addressed everything they promised first.. especially not a month earlier due to them changing my reservation form without my consent.

eddddy

Just send your solicitor a copy of your copy of the agreement - explaining that the developer (or their solicitor) appears to have made a mistake as the pages they have sent are not from the agreement that you signed. - and you intend to exchange contracts in line with the reservation agreement that you signed.

(I wouldn't use provocative words like "forgery" at this stage.)

moneyistooshorttomention

Sounds like the appropriate word is "try on" - but you just keep that one there in your mind and deal with it like its a try-on but keep schtum as to what to call it imo.