Dishonest developer advice

saajan_12

Three separate issues..
1) Stoves - was there an agreement to to provide them upon / after completion? eg were they included inthe fixtures & fittings form, or chosen appliances list or any other writing of what would be included in the property? If yes, you can go through your original solicitor to claim the developer failed to complete on the purchase (but this may be expensive in legal costs). Do you have any email from the developer agreeing to provide the stoves?
Write a letter before action asking for the order details and firm date for installation within 14 days, and a deadline for having the thing fitted within x weeks. State that if they fail you will be going to small claims court to claim the cost of the stove + labour.

2) Carpets - do you have pictures of the stains? You may be able to argue that with a new build, you had a reasonable expectation of brand new, clean carpets. Do you have an agreed opportunity for snagging? However in general there's no requirement for a property to be sold clean, so it may just be a case of sucking it up.

3) Interest costs: prior to exchange, you were bound by the reservation agreement. If the developer thought the proposed completion date was delayed / too late, they could have pulled out / increased the price to account for the interest costs / negotiated. However after exchange, the transaction contract superseeded this and specified the purchase of that property for that price, on x date. If you complete on x date, you've fulfilled your contract and the builder has no further claim.

frowner wrote: »

No we were not the cause and don’t accept that we were, the delay was caused by the local Authority search outstanding. - who caused the delay is irrelevant. The LA is a party you commissioned / chose to involve for the mortgage you chose to fund your purchase. As far as the developer is concerned, you have to get all your ducks in a row by x date decided at exchange.

ThePants999

frowner wrote: »

It was the Local Authority search that held things up, this was needed for exchange then we completed a few days after as that was the last thing we were all waiting on. Sorry for not explaining everything clearly.

As I said, then, the developer has no claim on you for exchanging later than they wanted. if you're confident you have a claim against them for the carpet, go ahead with it, as their argument that they're offsetting that against what you cost them by completing late is nonsense.

frowner

saajan_12 wrote: »

Three separate issues..
1) Stoves - was there an agreement to to provide them upon / after completion? eg were they included inthe fixtures & fittings form, or chosen appliances list or any other writing of what would be included in the property? If yes, you can go through your original solicitor to claim the developer failed to complete on the purchase (but this may be expensive in legal costs). Do you have any email from the developer agreeing to provide the stoves?
Write a letter before action asking for the order details and firm date for installation within 14 days, and a deadline for having the thing fitted within x weeks. State that if they fail you will be going to small claims court to claim the cost of the stove + labour.

2) Carpets - do you have pictures of the stains? You may be able to argue that with a new build, you had a reasonable expectation of brand new, clean carpets. Do you have an agreed opportunity for snagging? However in general there's no requirement for a property to be sold clean, so it may just be a case of sucking it up.

3) Interest costs: prior to exchange, you were bound by the reservation agreement. If the developer thought the proposed completion date was delayed / too late, they could have pulled out / increased the price to account for the interest costs / negotiated. However after exchange, the transaction contract superseeded this and specified the purchase of that property for that price, on x date. If you complete on x date, you've fulfilled your contract and the builder has no further claim.

There was an agreement to provide the stoves after completion and they were detailed in the fixtures and fittings form. We have several emails from the developer agreeing to provide them but by no fixed date (which I guess is where we have gone wrong).
We have pictures of the carpets. I’m not sure what you mean by an agreed opportunity for snagging, we provided a snagging list upon moving in which they looked at and agreed to which things they would and wouldn’t be able to resolve, there are still many snags outstanding. There was no reservation with this property it was sold via an estate agent.

frowner

Originally Posted by frowner View Post
No we were not the cause and don’t accept that we were, the delay was caused by the local Authority search outstanding. - who caused the delay is irrelevant. The LA is a party you commissioned / chose to involve for the mortgage you chose to fund your purchase. As far as the developer is concerned, you have to get all your ducks in a row by x date decided at exchange.

Re the above I was just answering somebody else’s question as to whether we felt we were responsible for the delay. The search held up exchange and completion was a matter of days later as we were all ready to go.

Sachs

Sajaan is right and the poster who is saying because it was a local authority search delay means it's not your fault is providing bad advice.

Searches are not a requirement for buying a house (although are good practice and usually required by mortgage companies), unless they are referenced in your contract for sale.

What actually matters is the date agreed in the contract for sale for completion and what penalties for missing that date apply (of which paying the developers interest costs could feasibly be one).

ThePants999

Sachs wrote: »

What actually matters is the date agreed in the contract for sale for completion and what penalties for missing that date apply (of which paying the developers interest costs could feasibly be one).

That will be academic, because the searches were done before exchange as usual, so there was no contract until after the searches.

Sachs

That's simply not true. Reservation agreements are a very common part of the new build buying process. You cannot tell OP with any certainty that they have not signed a reservation agreement.

What makes you so sure they didn't sign a reservation agreement that stated 'the property will be held for you for 28 days from the date of this contract for you to exchange. The property can be held for a further period but interest of x% will be charged on a daily basis from 28 days from the date of this contract to exchange."?

Personally I think it's just the builder trying it on but OP needs to read the contracts they signed if they are looking for advice. Stating 'youre not liable for anything' without knowing what OP actually signed is not appropriate.

DoaM

Sachs wrote: »

You cannot tell OP with any certainty that they have not signed a reservation agreement.

No need to - the OP confirms there was no such reservation agreement:

frowner wrote: »

There was no reservation with this property it was sold via an estate agent.