New Build Developer threatening to release our reserved property – Advice Please

tuck60

Hi All,

 

We reserved a new build property and paid an upfront fee of £1,000 and have since paid for upgrades to the house the sum of around £3,000 as we had to do this.

 

We haven’t yet exchanged and are past the 28-day period by 4 weeks through no fault of ours. We have our deposit of £50,000 sat in our solicitor’s bank account and are ready to exchange from our side.

 

The issue is that our lender needed a wet signature from our developer which only got provided on Tuesday April 27th and now our solicitor now has to wait for them to green light this. They have said they will release the property at 4pm on May 4th if not resolved but obviously as it is bank holiday weekend that doesn’t help us a great deal.

 

We have a call with the developer’s management team on Tuesday AM and was after some advice on how best to handle this from anyone who has been in a similar position?

 

They have been in regular contact with our solicitor throughout the process and know the delay is nothing to do with us. Our solicitor thinks its laughable they are threatening to release the property when it is well known there are delays currently to COVID and Stamp Duty extension. The property won’t be built until October as well.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as my partner is very stressed and upset by the whole situation. Thanks

user1977

I would tend to agree with your solicitor. You've got this far, why would the developer want to start from scratch with somebody else? Probably just sabre-rattling.

moneysavinghero

Maybe they are just trying to pressure you into getting it done as quick as possible and have no real intention to release your plot.

Or maybe they have had a lot of interest in that plot and have someone lined up who is willing to pay a lot more for it than you were.

1st option is most likely.

tuck60

It is one thing we are waiting on to exchange, which is approval from the lender on a wet signature from the developers which was only provided on Tuesday 27th April. Just seems crazy to me. 

Thrugelmir

Until contracts are exchanged there's no certainty. Developers will also be scheduling their resources accordingly. Focusing on completing sold properties first.  There's a shortage of some materials currently as well.