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

Cakeguts

And you are still happy to buy a house from them?? Why?

kirts90

Well I am certainly not happy to buy a house from them anymore but at the same time, what are my choices? If I don't buy the house, it would set me behind by 1-2 years and of course I would lose a lot of money. To be fair with them, I received an e-mail yesterday that they are slowly addressing the issues, but after all this has happened.. it has created a lot of doubts in my mind.

Interestingly enough, the lawyer basically says, that she cannot do anything and that she have been provided with two different forms with different information and the best way is to resolve it with the developer.

ComicGeek

kirts90 wrote: »

Interestingly enough, the lawyer basically says, that she cannot do anything and that she have been provided with two different forms with different information and the best way is to resolve it with the developer.

Your solicitor deals in facts, not 'he said, she said'. It's not up to them to decide which form is correct, and even if they had an opinion they don't have any powers to force the developer to do anything.

If it's purely the exchange date that you're arguing over, are you ready to exchange or not? If you still want the house but aren't ready to exchange, then communicate with the developer about progress and they're very unlikely to cancel your reservation if things are moving forward. Normally its 28 days to exchange, what did your reservation form say then? If it's longer, then it was probably a mistake that they've corrected, albeit in a stupid way.

If they do cancel it before the date noted on your reservation form, then you have a case to sue them and let the courts decide whose piece of paper is correct.

Take the emotion out of it, either it's the right property to buy or it's not. Don't forget that you will lose a lot of money from the 'value' of the new property as soon as you move in, so losing £5k now and buying another house somewhere else might actually save you more money in the long term.

kirts90

Unfortunately, there are are a couple of remaining things which they are addressing slowly after all this has happened. There was some progress yesterday (I received an e-mail 6pm with a course of action to resolve one of my main issues). Of course, this wouldn't have happened if this whole situation didn't happen in the first place but that's another thing.

In regards to your question about the reservation form, it was longer than 28 days as I specifically asked them to, as I wouldn't sign it otherwise. So this bit was communicated as clearly as possible and there was no mistake from either side.

I guess at this point, it is wait and see what they will do. Unfortunately, they are completely incompetent and they cannot communicate within their own organisation. I did agree that I will view the house this week and if they would address my main issue on top of that then I would exchange but then my lawyer is being told other things and they insist on exchanging today. Let's see how it goes...

LandyAndy

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.

Always initial or sign every page and keep a copy.

kirts90

I have learned my lesson, that's for sure.

Thrugelmir

You haven't clarified why you are reluctant to exchange contracts. 28 day terms are standard on new builds. Though there's flexibility to breach this. Providing matters are progressing. The developer isn't going to expend time,money and effort on the property you have reserved if it is indeed unsold. They would prefer to focus their attention elsewhere.

maisie_cat

You may well have dodged a bullet there. If they are sneaky enough to replace pages in a reservation document, how can you really trust them, especially given the appalling quality of new builds now. My advice would be to back out, I can't see any grounds for suing them

Thrugelmir

maisie_cat wrote: »

I can't see any grounds for suing them

Makes you wonder if there's something missing from the story. When matters degenerate to this level.

kirts90

Obviously, this is not my first choice, to sue them, and honestly speaking, this would probably cost me more than I can afford to get a conclusion to this matter.

Other than the issue to keep our original deal and what I was told, then there is no other issue with the exception of what has happened now! If they resolve all of these issues (which they seem to try to after all this has happened) then there wouldn't be an issue.

Thrugelmir, I can reassure you that I don't have any hidden agenta here, I am simply seeking the opinion and advice of people here.