New Flat Help - Direction Needed

Slithery

davidmcn wrote: »

It depends what your contract says. You had already read it and had it explained by your solicitor before you signed it, right?

And please don't say you used the solicitor that was 'recommended' by the developer. Or did you?

AdrianC

Slithery wrote: »

And please don't say you used the solicitor that was 'recommended' by the developer. Or did you?

<points upthread>

mkosucu wrote: »

We found our solicitors. Did not use theirs. I contacted our solicitors today to see what we can do.

mkosucu

I feel like we have been conned.. The insurance or warranty provider is CRL, I have checked the certificate, but it does not say anything about defects. I tried to reach them, their phones are down. I will try again. Has anyone had experience with this company? If these people do not cover, can we co to small claims court for our defects? it is so annoying that developer or the person who we bought the place from are not responding. Many thanks..

Tiglet2

Have a look at this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5827521/crl-warranty-not-accepted

eddddy

mkosucu wrote: »

I feel like we have been conned.. The insurance or warranty provider is CRL, I have checked the certificate, but it does not say anything about defects. I tried to reach them, their phones are down. I will try again. Has anyone had experience with this company? If these people do not cover, can we co to small claims court for our defects? it is so annoying that developer or the person who we bought the place from are not responding. Many thanks..

CRL is in administration (i.e. they have gone bust).

But don't be confused by the thread that Tiglet2 mentioned above - that's about Alpha Insurance going bust in 2018.

Alpha Insurance were the underwriters that CRL used to use. If you bought your flat in August, Alpha Insurance were long gone by then.

I believe CRL have been using Casualty & General Insurance more recently - is that the name on your policy?

If so, I think they are still in business, so your warranty is still valid.

(But maybe check with Casualty & General Insurance that the policy is active. There are rumours of CRL not passing on premium payments to insurers, so insurers cancelled policies.)


But none of that helps with your current problem.

mkosucu

I talked to them... The provider which is CGICE. They said they do not cover snags... Only structural...
So, like you said they are in administration.

I talked to project manager company(basically the company who is managing the project). They said you should have checked before you moved in.. OK, we did not. We assumed that when we move in, we will do snagging, and get them fixed... But does this make us to accept all these snags and live with it?

We are prepared to spend a couple of thousands pounds to take the developer and the person who we bought the flat from to the court. I am not sure we have a chance or not. Our solicitors do not do such cases. So I will need to find one.

So is it fair to say that there is no such rule protects us for these unfortunate issues?

eddddy

mkosucu wrote: »

I talked to project manager company(basically the company who is managing the project). They said you should have checked before you moved in..

(But obviously, you're not going to take their word for that.)

So the CRL warranty isn't going to offer any help, so you need to see what your contract says about snagging.

Arguably, your solicitor should have checked that there was reasonable provision for snagging in the contract.

Tiglet2

Apologies for the confusion mkosucu and eddddy - I knew that I'd seen a thread about the CRL warranty - obviously didn't read it properly before linking!

mkosucu, unfortunately the responsibility for checking all is well, does sit with you. You should have compiled a snag list before completion and made sure the work was done to your satisfaction. Obviously, there is the risk that you might miss something before you actually start living in the property, but the onus is on you to provide a snagging list (or employ a professional to do it for you). You might be better off spending a couple of thousand pounds on putting right some of the issues, rather than risking losing your case at court. Conveyancing solicitors only act for you in the capacity of transferring the legal ownership from the seller to the buyer, with a good legal title and with satisfactory paperwork in place.

mkosucu

eddddy wrote: »

CRL is in administration (i.e. they have gone bust).

But don't be confused by the thread that Tiglet2 mentioned above - that's about Alpha Insurance going bust in 2018.

Alpha Insurance were the underwriters that CRL used to use. If you bought your flat in August, Alpha Insurance were long gone by then.

I believe CRL have been using Casualty & General Insurance more recently - is that the name on your policy?

If so, I think they are still in business, so your warranty is still valid.

(But maybe check with Casualty & General Insurance that the policy is active. There are rumours of CRL not passing on premium payments to insurers, so insurers cancelled policies.)


But none of that helps with your current problem.

Tiglet2 wrote: »

Apologies for the confusion mkosucu and eddddy - I knew that I'd seen a thread about the CRL warranty - obviously didn't read it properly before linking!

mkosucu, unfortunately the responsibility for checking all is well, does sit with you. You should have compiled a snag list before completion and made sure the work was done to your satisfaction. Obviously, there is the risk that you might miss something before you actually start living in the property, but the onus is on you to provide a snagging list (or employ a professional to do it for you). You might be better off spending a couple of thousand pounds on putting right some of the issues, rather than risking losing your case at court. Conveyancing solicitors only act for you in the capacity of transferring the legal ownership from the seller to the buyer, with a good legal title and with satisfactory paperwork in place.

Thanks for your reply. People buy house once or twice in their life. We were not told by anyone to go though the snags before we move in. Yes I understand that we should have done it, but these people build and sell house. Or sales agent sells house daily basis, nobody mentioned that at all. How many people check the window frames if there are deep, very deep scratches on the window frames? Or how many people check the toilet if it is chipped. So these things can well be missed. If I were a developer, I would have come to house on completion, check everything and hand the flat over. I think it is easier to say that we should have checked. Yes maybe. but dont the builders have any responsibility? We started the ventilation on the second bathroom the other day and it started to make awful amount of noise. Something is touching inside. Why should I take responsibility for this? I would be really surprised if the court thinks that this is all my fault. Yes I understand cracks, silicons, or forgotten screws, light scratches on the wall and so on. But I when I add all the issues that we reported since day one, I do not think court will turn to us and say, oh well you should have checked this. all in all, I treat this as a good, and I have been sold a faulty good. If there is no laws to protect buyers here. I would be really disappointed..

Fire_Fox

When you are buying a property you must carefully read and check everything your solicitor provides.

Faulty ventilation fans may be a Building Control (local council) issue, not snagging. Form a paper trail with the developer/ builder.