Help - Builder Pursuing for Costs After Withdrawing From House Purchase

vaseand

Hi,

Looking for some advice for my inlaws who were looking to buy a house which was being renovated by a builder. They withdrew from buying the house pre-exchange of contracts and they are now pursuing them for a number of costs. Timeline:

- Viewed house in the middle of buidling work. Agreed to pay full asking price if builder installed a shower in bathroom rather than a bath that they were planning.
- Vendor agreed but requested a £5k deposit to be placed to take house off market
- In-laws said they would be willing to consider and said would discuss it with solicitor
- Estate agent issued memo of sale with the £5k deposit mentioned in it
- In-laws solicitor advised that a pre-contract deposit was not a good idea and stated should go for a quick exchange of contracts - this was communicated to vendor and estate agent and proceeded on this basis with no objections raised
- Delay in water search as vendor solicitor did not provide required details for 4 weeks
- Start of last week, vendor stated they wanted exchange by end of week or would remarket house at increased price
- No exchange happened as water search still outstanding and house price increased on rightmove (note that the house was never actually taken off market). Vendor stated house price was now increased and that would to be paid
- In-laws stated they were withdrawing from purchase
- Vendor sent letter directly to in-laws solicitor stating that £5k deposit was agreed verbally and that this was now due. Also demanded extra 2.5k for fitting shower instead of bathroom and gave 7 days to pay
- Solicitor stated today that had received a court claim for the above.

Am i correct in thinking there is no valid agreement in place to pay this "deposit" that was never placed or the costs of changing bathroom as there was no written contract and no contracts were exchanged? Very confused that builder trying to get money for a house he didnt want to sell to them?!

kinger101

I doubt a judge would believe the deposit was ever agreed to if it wasn't paid. Deposits are paid upfront. The fact it's vague probably also means there's no contractual obligation.

The builder has caused the sale to collapse by being a bell-end.

The best thing to do for now is probably nothing.

anselld

.... and what does the Solicitor advise regarding your inlaws' liability?

vaseand

They stated he has no case but they can't support in litigation

diggingdude

counter claim for stress and harassment developer sounds like a muppet

davidmcn

vaseand wrote: »

- Solicitor stated today that had received a court claim for the above.

What exactly do you mean by "court claim"? A threat to take them to court? Or that court proceedings have actually commenced? The former can be ignored, the latter can't (though it seems unlikely that anybody would waste their time/money trying it on).

Beardmidget

Builder sounds like a vexatious litigant. He/she hasn’t sent the normal pre-action letter, and their conduct won’t sit too well with the county court judge.

The timeline you give will form the basis of a defense.

The solicitor rightly stated that a pre-contract deposit was inadvisable. Given that it wasn’t paid, and the upshot of that is that the property was not off the market (they didn’t take the reciprocal action needed to even make the constitution of a contract arguable).

The shower vs bath issue may be slightly problematic, but I would have thought the builder should have delayed this work until contracts were exchanged (knowing that they could not rely on the sale until then).

I suppose you could make a renewed offer to continue the purchase at the agreed price, but there’s now quite a bit of bad faith in play here, so there’s a risk to that.

Naturally, you should be taking your own legal advice, but beware that taking a solicitor on for this kind of case may be costly and there’s no guarantee of having costs awarded even if you win.

tacpot12

I'd recommend your in-laws don't proceed with the purchase at any price, and reply back asking the builder to explain what he has lost by installing a shower. Chances are he has increased the value of the property by more than the cost of the shower so he has lost nothing.

Dean000000

Is the vendor and builder two different parties?

I think you made it clear - but others may not have seen .

Pls confirm

vaseand

Dean000000 wrote: »

Is the vendor and builder two different parties?

I think you made it clear - but others may not have seen .

Pls confirm

Yes they are one and the same

t0rt0ise

tacpot12 wrote: »

I'd recommend your in-laws don't proceed with the purchase at any price, and reply back asking the builder to explain what he has lost by installing a shower. Chances are he has increased the value of the property by more than the cost of the shower so he has lost nothing.

It's obvious that he will have lost potential buyers. Many would not look at a house without a bath. Definitely not increased the value.