Need some help on a legal matter

soolin

OP looking at previous posts it seems you are having other issues with this house purchase. I echo the above, regardless of how you try and explain the issue, which frankly sounds complicated even with your simplified time line, this is not the place to seek advice. If your solicitor is unable to help get another one, why risk all this on random advice here, this is possibly one of the most expensive things you will buy and it seems crazy to ask for legal advice with such a muddled and complicated story.

Phone your solicitor tomorrow, if they still can't advise you ask them to refer you to a more specialised practice.

angieb1606

i have answered under the questions

gwynfil wrote: »

I'm just replying with what I can understand.


You wanted a garage built, they said they couldn't do it. So in all fairness, they did tell you a garage could not be provided. You understood that, so that was the end of that issue it seems.

"They said the couldn't do it then told us they could so we went ahead with the purchase"


Then it seems you sold your home. You needed a new place to live. But if you sold your own home- how can that then be a part exchange deal? I thought a part exchange was that you let the property developer have/sell your house in exchange for a new one.

"we sold our home as our buyer really needed to move in but our new build want ready so the developer put us in one of their part exchange properties which we were renting until ours was ready"


You moved in to one of their part exchange properties. But did you actually part exchange?

"no explanation is above"

I can't see how you could move in to a part exchange property without a contract. That would be impossible to do on both sides. There must have been a contract before you moved in to the part exchange property. Did a solicitor not read the terms of the contract?

"see above"

How can you put down a deposit without a contract or signing? the whole thing does not sound legal. The solicitor must be daft if they can't advise you on simple contract and and land law.

"the solicitor advised us not to hand over the 5% deposit"


How things work:


You sell your house - the land registry transfers the deeds to someone else (the buyer) and you get the money from the sale usually. Did you sell your own home and get the money? If not why?

"yep sold and got the money"

What happened at this point? did you sign a contract for part exchange? If so, the part exchange company would have your house and part exchange it for a new home with agreed terms. The one you move in to. Here lies the issue. The solicitor should have told you about all the terms and a contract should have been signed.


How on earth can you have sold or part exchanged your home without any contracts being signed? That is not legally binding otherwise.



At the moment it sounds like you liked the look of a new build, but they couldn't provide a garage. At this point you still owned your own home. You then sold it and moved in to thier property- how? Without buying it? As a tenant?


I hope it all sorts itself out for you- but you need to list the process of how you sold your home and ended up in another one you don't own or rent.

angieb1606

"we reserved our new build with a garage attached in Feb 2017, July 2017 they told us of a problem with the garage we pulled the house off the market while discussions were taking place 2 weeks later they then told us problem had been solved garage can be built house went back on the market, we then sold our house and had agreed with the developer that we would rent one of the properties they have taken in as part exchange from someone else, a week after selling our house and renting theirs they pull out of the sale of our new build stating we had held up the sale which is why they were pulling out we had the mortgage and HTB in place only thing missing was the contract which they had witheld, 1 week later they phone back up asking if we want the house still but without the garage.......... so since last July they have lied to us as the garage problem had never been sorted after all.

I am feeling that yes i do need proper legal advice but thought as this is a helpful forum i would put it on just in case anyone else had come across this problem and how did it work out.

shaun_from_Africa

angieb1606 wrote: »

I am feeling that yes i do need proper legal advice but thought as this is a helpful forum i would put it on just in case anyone else had come across this problem and how did it work out.

Whilst this forum is fine for consumer rights issues that relate to things such as faulty goods or services, this is because these sorts of disputes are very common and the legislation that covers them is pretty much black and white.
Your situation however is fairly complex and even if someone else had a similar problem in the past, it's highly unlikely to be identical and any advice given by someone else may not be too useful and could even end up making matters worse if you tried to follow that advice.

mije1983

angieb1606 wrote: »

this is a firm that was recommended to us by the company and i believe doesn't want to get involved as they are obviously still getting work from them.

Ah, the dreaded 'recommended solicitor'. Another reason NEVER to use ones suggested by EAs or developers!

Of course they don't want to get involved. They will be getting a nice steady stream of jobs from the developer.

I echo the suggestion of getting legal advice, but definitely not from the 'recommended' firm you used.

[Deleted User]

angieb1606 wrote: »

I am feeling that yes i do need proper legal advice

I fear that any "similar" account would be not at all helpful to your situation.

It would also be extremely unlikely that anyone here has had the exact same problem.

Your problem really is far beyond the scope of this forum. Get specialist legal advice.

gettingtheresometime

I have no idea on the legal aspect of things but working in the industry I know that development layouts change all the time (bane of my life) so it might be that the layout changed subtle meaning that a garage was impractical rather than it physically couldn't be built .....it might even be that whilst house type a is the same as house type b, house type a has a garage whereas house type b doesn't.

Whilst I endorse the others advice about getting independent legal advice, do you have anything in writing to say the house would now have a garage? Without it I think you'd have a hard job proving that you said it would have.

angieb1606

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I have no idea on the legal aspect of things but working in the industry I know that development layouts change all the time (bane of my life) so it might be that the layout changed subtle meaning that a garage was impractical rather than it physically couldn't be built .....it might even be that whilst house type a is the same as house type b, house type a has a garage whereas house type b doesn't.

Whilst I endorse the others advice about getting independent legal advice, do you have anything in writing to say the house would now have a garage? Without it I think you'd have a hard job proving that you said it would have.

"The house on the plan didn't have a garage when we went to view it we said we wouldn't be able to go with it as the garden was to small if we put a shed on it we would lose a fair chunk of the garden, they said that they could build a garage on the side so we wouldn't lose the garden and we signed a reservation agreement that included the price of the garage, we kept checking even right up to us selling the house that yep garage was fine and they went along with it we were confused as to why they would pull out so close to completion until they made the phone call to ask if we wanted it without the garage, i then got the valuation report from Halifax and surprise surprise no garage, so i wondered if this would come under consumer policy as mis selling.

lincroft1710

What is important is what your contract with the builder actually states

bris

As Above, he said she said simply won't cut it. If you have a plan then that's what to go on, no garage and no written contract for one puts you at a sticky wicket.


Without concluded contracts either party can pull out. You really do need specialist advice.