New build delay a week before completion!

nowhereboy

House was due to be signed off yesterday and our home demo booked today. I have just received a very unsympathetic call to say our home demo has been cancelled and house has not been signed off, completion is likely to be delayed due to our kitchen work tops not being fitted. We were due to complete next Friday and we were already advised last week about kitchen work tops and promised this wouldn't hold things up and told to continue with our completion plans.

The call was from a sales Lady we have never spoke to before and apparently our usual sales woman is off work until Thursday. We are not happy at all. We have kicked up a bit of a fuss and demanded answers so are currently waiting for a call back.

I appreciate delays happen and had anticipated one however not this close to completion and after we have been advised we are safe to put everything in place.

On the word of previous sales lady we have gave notice on our tenancy, packed our lives into boxes, booked moving vans, booked carpet fitters, taken holidays off work etc. A delay will be a huge issue this late in the process as we will have nowhere to live and are unlikely to be able to get more holidays in at work.

I understand they can move completion date at will but I'm very disappointed with the service from our developers, this is the straw that broke the camels back after months of being messed about and wasted holidays at work etc.

How quickly can completion take place once house is signed off? If our house is signed off this week is it realistic to still complete at the end of next week?

Is it common practice for completion to be delayed this close to the due date?

Flugelhorn

Have you exchanged contracts ? the completion date should be in the contract

davidmcn

nowhereboy wrote: »

How quickly can completion take place once house is signed off? If our house is signed off this week is it realistic to still complete at the end of next week?

This is really a question for your solicitor. We don't know what needs to be done to put together the completion funds etc.

Flugelhorn wrote: »

Have you exchanged contracts ? the completion date should be in the contract

If it's still to be built then no, you don't get a specific completion date in the contract, as nobody knows for certain when they'll have finished building it. It will just describe the mechanism by which you ascertain the completion date (generally, "x days after it gets certified as complete").

RelievedSheff

The house can't be signed off without worktops. But they should be able to get worktops fitted pretty quickly.

In theory you can get the house signed off and complete on the same day.

We often have last minute queries from developers trying to get houses CMLed with the customers sat waiting in their removals vans!

Flugelhorn

davidmcn wrote: »

This is really a question for your solicitor. We don't know what needs to be done to put together the completion funds etc.


If it's still to be built then no, you don't get a specific completion date in the contract, as nobody knows for certain when they'll have finished building it. It will just describe the mechanism by which you ascertain the completion date (generally, "x days after it gets certified as complete").

Wow - didn't know that - haven't bought a new house since 1988

AdrianC

Delays happen. Are the developer themselves doing the worktops, or are they being supplied and fitted by an external contractor, who's let them down for reasons outside the developer's control?

This is, unfortunately, a natural side-effect from trying to complete so soon after the property is finished. Any small delay means a knock-on delay, because there's no slack.

nowhereboy

Thanks for the responses. I have an update with some potentially good news.

The developer has back tracked and stated house can be signed off this week and completion can still go ahead at the end of next week so long as our solicitor is able to complete in that timescale.

We have finally managed to contact our solicitor who was not impressed with our request to complete next week, I appreciate he was awaiting notice from developers solicitors however he has known from day one completion was supposed to be the end of this month so it shouldn't come as a surprise.
We asked if house is signed off this week will a completion next week be possible, his response was probably not as help to buy loan takes 6 working days to clear, he stated he will call them and call us back (that was hours ago and we've heard nothing).

We have since called help to buy ourselves who confirmed funds can be sent in two working days so even if notice to complete was served next Tuesday they have time to draw down by the end of that working week. With this in mind I can't see any reason why we should have an issue completing (other than our solicitor dragging his feet).

A few more questions please,

Our lender is Halifax, I'm under the impression they can draw down funds quickly, is this correct?

I have read stories about the report on title triggering an Audit at the last minute, does the report on title get sent when we exchanged or when funds are requested? Would an audit when requesting funds be unlikely? Obviously the lender doing an audit on request of funds could result in us missing completion date through no fault of our own and delaying things.

This forum has been really useful but I can't help but feel it also exposes you to the things that can go wrong etc and it's caused me to be way more nervous than what I'd imagine I should be.

Thanks

davidmcn

nowhereboy wrote: »

Our lender is Halifax, I'm under the impression they can draw down funds quickly, is this correct?

Yes, very quickly in my experience (though you won't get any promises).

I have read stories about the report on title triggering an Audit at the last minute, does the report on title get sent when we exchanged or when funds are requested?

When funds are requested, but I've never heard of it "triggering an audit".

G_M

So a New Build project has not completed as per the schedule. What a surprise!


Maybe there's a lesson there for HS2. Or for every IT project ... ever.

nowhereboy

I've heard a few on here who have pondered over that being the reason for last minute Audits, it didn't make sense to me as obviously this would be terrible timing for an Audit given the Lenders have weeks/months to do them prior.

Just noticed it's gone 5 o'clock and still no phone call back from solicitor (no surprise), he is the only thing I can see holding things up at this point. Hopefully he will pull his finger out once he gets the notice to complete, he hasn't filled me with confidence today and frankly I wasn't happy with his attitude given the large sum of money he's charging.

ethank

Hey - did you go with a new build specialist solicitor. Some lawyers just don't have experience.

Sounds like he is just being lazy!