Dishonest developer advice

frowner

Hi I’m hoping you can offer me some advice, I’ve recently moved into a new build property the property was purchased with two woodburning stove‘s but as there was a delay in the installation of the stoves due to them supposedly being on order we agreed to complete on the property with the proviso that the stoves were to be installed as soon as possible and we documented this on the conveyencing documents. Two months after moving in we still don’t have them installed and the developer is telling us that they will order the stoves when they are ready to and that they have other priorities at present despite previously telling us they’d been ordered. They have advised us that it is not a priority for us to have the stoves as the weather is not cold enough to use them at present! We have sought legal advice through our home insurance and they have advised us that this is a matter for the Small Claims Court if we cannot resolve it directly with the developer. In addition the property was purchased with flooring installed, two of the carpets had stains on them upon moving in which were reported to the developer the developer has advised that they do not consider them bad enough to need replacing so is refusing to do so the argument being that we took too long in completion and they had to spend more on interest fees. We are absolutely heartbroken that we are in this situation and feel completely betrayed by the developer any advice at all or if anyone has been through something similar I really like to hear from you please as we are completely at a loss now and can’t believe that we have no rights over something we have already paid for. Thanks for reading.

MovingForwards

Have you taken advice from your solicitor who did your conveyancing?

frowner

MovingForwards wrote: »

Have you taken advice from your solicitor who did your conveyancing?

Thank you for taking the time to reply, have left a message with them today and waiting to hear back.

Comms69

frowner wrote: »

Hi I’m hoping you can offer me some advice, I’ve recently moved into a new build property the property was purchased with two woodburning stove‘s but as there was a delay in the installation of the stoves due to them supposedly being on order we agreed to complete on the property with the proviso that the stoves were to be installed as soon as possible and we documented this on the conveyencing documents. Two months after moving in we still don’t have them installed and the developer is telling us that they will order the stoves when they are ready to and that they have other priorities at present despite previously telling us they’d been ordered. They have advised us that it is not a priority for us to have the stoves as the weather is not cold enough to use them at present! We have sought legal advice through our home insurance and they have advised us that this is a matter for the Small Claims Court if we cannot resolve it directly with the developer. In addition the property was purchased with flooring installed, two of the carpets had stains on them upon moving in which were reported to the developer the developer has advised that they do not consider them bad enough to need replacing so is refusing to do so the argument being that we took too long in completion and they had to spend more on interest fees. We are absolutely heartbroken that we are in this situation and feel completely betrayed by the developer any advice at all or if anyone has been through something similar I really like to hear from you please as we are completely at a loss now and can’t believe that we have no rights over something we have already paid for. Thanks for reading.

Who says you have no rights?


You've been advised to take this to small claims - which seems appropriate. Why are you delaying this?

frowner

Comms69 wrote: »

Who says you have no rights?


You've been advised to take this to small claims - which seems appropriate. Why are you delaying this?

We were advised to try and resolve it with the developer first, the legal advice we had said the difficulty is that they are not outright saying they won’t install the fires but are delaying. Up until this week we were of the belief that they were on order but this is now not the case so we are now trying to ascertain where we go from here.

Comms69

frowner wrote: »

We were advised to try and resolve it with the developer first, the legal advice we had said the difficulty is that they are not outright saying they won’t install the fires but are delaying. Up until this week we were if the belief that they were on order but this is now not the case.

No reason for that to be an issue.


You write to them giving them 14 days to resolve (letter before action) then you go to court.


Whoever advised you was only half right basically

frowner

Comms69 wrote: »

No reason for that to be an issue.


You write to them giving them 14 days to resolve (letter before action) then you go to court.


Whoever advised you was only half right basically

Thank you for your advice we will do that without delay. Is it wise to detail on the letter that this is a letter before action? Sorry never been in this situation before.

need_an_answer

In your situation I would most likely advise the developer that you have taken advice and been directed to the small claims procedure and therefore that is the route you will be taking if you do not have a firm date for installation within 7 days.

Chances are if you move this forward then they will suddenly come up with the goods

frowner

need_an_answer wrote: »

In your situation I would most likely advise the developer that you have taken advice and been directed to the small claims procedure and therefore that is the route you will be taking if you do not have a firm date for installation within 7 days.

Chances are if you move this forward then they will suddenly come up with the goods

Thank you for your advice we will draw up a letter this evening. Do you think we should detail the carpets or do I not have any grounds here?

need_an_answer

frowner wrote: »

Thank you for your advice we will draw up a letter this evening. Do you think we should detail the carpets or do I not have any grounds here?

no harm in requesting both the carpets and the stoves...it will be judged as one claim and adjudicated as 2 separate items.

frowner

need_an_answer wrote: »

no harm in requesting both the carpets and the stoves...it will be judged as one claim.

Thank you, the developer has already advised us they will not be replacing these due to our apparent delaying of completion costing them in interest fees.