Sale fell through - house builder unreasonable?

jez9999

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

Funny that I managed to sell my house and buy a new one!!!!! In fact this Friday we has bin inn it for 17 years! Pipe and smoke it?

You were lucky your sale didn't fall through. Apparently buyers pull out about 30% of the time. As far as I'm concerned there should be some financial penalty for them doing that, especially if it's just on a whim.

garth549

The problem is a lot of new builds are purchased by first time buyers so the standard terms are bad for people with a house to sell.

Personally I would only ever buy a new build that's:

Already complete
In perfect condition
Built using quality materials
Freehold
Not overpriced

So in other words I'm never going to buy one as 95% of new builds don't even tick one of those boxes.

jez9999

garth549 wrote: »

The problem is a lot of new builds are purchased by first time buyers so the standard terms are bad for people with a house to sell.

Personally I would only ever buy a new build that's:

Already complete
In perfect condition
Built using quality materials
Freehold
Not overpriced

So in other words I'm never going to buy one as 95% of new builds don't even tick one of those boxes.

This one's a £300k 4 bed detached - not too many first time buyers gonna be buying it. You'd think they'd be keen to keep me as the buyer, actually.

garth549

You'd be surprised with help-to-buy.

A couple I know on low-ish incomes without any savings managed to buy a £225k new build recently. No idea how they managed it.

Davesnave

jez9999 wrote: »

Well Davesnave, you certainly seem to be "unaffected by sentiment". I'm not saying they don't have the legal right to be doing what they're doing, but it would seem that a slightly less callous approach would be to give me a week or two to sell my house, or to offer to refund some/all of the money I've paid. Would you be happy to be £3,000 down in my situation?

Having had the lost sales experience I described in my first post, I'm doubtful I'd find myself in that situation now, but life is a learning curve.

Without exaggeration, I found myself roughly £60k down as a result of those lost sales in a plummeting market, ten years ago. Being £3k down would have been infinitely preferable.


However, I didn't have to sell, just as you didn't have to buy from this developer. It was my choice to take a hit and move my life on, and presumably you chose this development, and the contract that went with it, for good reasons too.


Yes, it would be more 'sympathetic' for you to be given a window of opportunity to find another buyer; nobody disputes that, but it's impossible to know what the other side of the story is and what pressures the builders might be under. It's very tricky deciding to ignore the terms of a contract too; if they can be varied on a whim, then what use are they?

It would have been politic not to publicly name the builder until you were sure they'd treated you unfairly or with disrespect, which is partly why I gave a brusque, unsentimental response.

As it is, you may still find a buyer and all will be well, and I'm sure everyone here would wish for that to happen if doing so meant they had any influence over the matter.

societys_child

Apparently buyers pull out about 30% of the time. As far as I'm concerned there should be some financial penalty

A percentage of those will have pulled out because they, for whatever reason, couldn't raise the cash. (maybe their buyer pulled out)
Your builder believes, due to your buyer pulling out, the same could happen in your case.


As the "financial penalty" you wish for doesn't exist, the builder has a clause in the contract . . .

parkrunner

jez9999 wrote: »

Well then you're basically saying they wouldn't buy a new-build house. Those fees are going to be required by any builder as they have to pay for the costs of upgrading the house. I don't really have a problem with that, I just think they should hold it for a couple of weeks given the investment I've already made, showing that I'm a good faith buyer.

No, I wouldn't buy a new build under any circumstances. If I was that way inclined though I'd only do so if I had no restrictions ie I could move in as soon as it was ready.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

jez9999 wrote: »

You were lucky your sale didn't fall through. Apparently buyers pull out about 30% of the time. As far as I'm concerned there should be some financial penalty for them doing that, especially if it's just on a whim.

I was selective who I sold to. The highest bidder was a fool who could not come up the the readies.

Onemanandtwolittleladies

Personally I think it’s harsh. If you were asking for months then I could understand but for the sake of a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately house builders seem to have forgotten that buyers are actually their customers. Not sure many other industries would treat their customers as badly (snagging delays etc).

babyblade41

I sometimes struggle to understand why people go after new builds except maybe a first time buyer . I read so many horror stories on here and other property boards

So many don't read the contracts thoroughly and see the implications especially when reservation relies on the sale of a house as well... in normal circumstances of buying and selling the percentage not reaching completion are pretty high for so many reasons so to add in all the idiosyncrasies of a new builds this would be stress overload

To the OP as hard as it is you were happy to lose 3k on a possibility rather than an actuality as in you had an offer on your house but that is all ... you may get another offer and that may fall through too

Do you know why your buyer pulled out? could it be something you could do to stop another buyer from doing the same .

It's no consolation to you but most of us who have bought and sold over many years we have probably lost many thousands on bad decisions .. sometimes we win and sometimes we lose and I suppose over many years we probably even out eventually

I would accept that the 3k is gone but I'd consider an older property in future .. For me a new build would never be on my radar ever for too many reasons I could list here