Cala Homes delay. Advice required

cshimmons · 3 April 2018 at 11:57PM

I!!!8217;ll try and keep this as short as possible. In July last year I reserved my Cala Home with an anticipated move in date of Feb 2018. When I recieved the missives they stated Mar 2018, not a problem as it was only a months difference. Since then the anticipated move in date has been delayed twice and I now have a new anticipated move in date of 24th May. With my last delay Cala gave me £500 off the price for the inconvenience but this time refused to offer anything despite the inconvenience the delay has caused. The sales person wasn!!!8217;t the most understanding on the phone and just suggested that I take legal action and you will get a formal reply from the legal team.
After the call I read through my missives and it turns out that Cala had to give 8 weeks notice to move the move in date and failure to do so would result in Cala having to provide temporary accommodation and pay for reasonable costs to store my furniture. Ive had to extend my lease already and move my holidays at work not to mention make the decision not to enrol my kids into the local school with just a month left of the year. I contacted Cala with all of these points and today I heard back and they have offered another £500.
I guess the question I!!!8217;m asking is should I be pushing for more as my expenses due to the delay outweighs the £1k offered? There was no reason reason given for the first 2 delays but this time its down to the bad weather. I appreciate we have had a couple weeks at max but not 3mnths worth. In between my complaint Ive had friendly emails from the advisor asking if Id like to take them up on the 3.7k flooring package I enquired about...strangely enough Ive declined. Anyone else experience the like with Cala? Or am I to accept that this stuff just happens with new builds? Sorry for the essay but thank you if youve read it all, Id appreciate your opinions folks.

Thanks,

C

davidmcn · 4 April 2018 at 7:27AM

cshimmons wrote: »

After the call I read through my missives and it turns out that Cala had to give 8 weeks notice to move the move in date and failure to do so would result in Cala having to provide temporary accommodation and pay for reasonable costs to store my furniture.

Can you quote this clause exactly please? I haven't seen such a provision before, though it's a while since I've looked at Cala offers.

I presume you've concluded missives?

Have you sought advice from your solicitor?

cshimmons · 4 April 2018 at 10:59AM

!!!8220;In the event of the sellers notifying the purchasers of a new completion date for the property during the eight week period prior to the anticipated completion date as applying immediately prior to such notification been given, then the sellers will, if required, arrange temporary accommodation for the purchasers and shall reimburse the purchasers for any reasonable additional furniture storage may be incurred as a result. The temporary accommodation shall be available from the anticipated completion date as applying immediately prior to such notification being given until the date of entry.!!!8221; That is in my missives but also n the CALA headed paperwork !!!8220;if there is any need to change the anticipated date for legal completion, we will advise you of this no less than eight weeks prior to the initial targeted and anticipated date!!!8221; quite long winded but to me Cala are in clear breach of the contract. I haven!!!8217;t spoken with my solicitor as I don!!!8217;t really wish to incur fees for something that I feel is their failing. Thanks for taking the time to reply

davidmcn · 4 April 2018 at 11:39AM

cshimmons wrote: »

I haven't spoken with my solicitor as I don't really wish to incur fees for something that I feel is their failing.

Has your solicitor said they would charge additional fees? This sort of stuff is par for the course and ought to be included in a standard conveyancing fee.

I suppose the question is whether you have been required to arrange temporary accommodation and/or furniture storage, and it doesn't sound like you have.

I doubt they are in breach of contract, as I expect it otherwise doesn't actually bind them to complete by a particular date. So anything else you get out of them will be a goodwill payment.