Given incorrect info by builders - can we withdraw before legal completion?

TheGonch

We've exchanged contracts on a new build and are due to complete in a week. Today we had our demo meeting and were told that the garage has no electricity due to being across a boundary. This directly contradicts what we were originally told before we agreed to exchange contracts!

Back when we wen to reserve the plot we asked whether the garage had electricity and were told "most probably" but the salesperson said she would verify this with the site manager. We went back a few weeks later and were shown various site plans and were told that the garage definitely had an electricity supply (they actually read out the plot numbers that had garages with an electricity supply).

I've contacted my solicitor to see where we stand as we wouldn't have agreed to buy the house had we known that there would be no electricity in the garage. To be honest, the solictors didn't seem very interested.

Does anyone know if we've got a good case for pulling out? We aren't in a position where we can afford to lose our deposit but I'm so angry that we were given false information when we directly asked for confirmation that the garage had a mains supply.

Many thanks.

mr.broderick

Interesting post, this isn't a case of buyers remorse is it?

jonesMUFCforever

This should have been sorted BEFORE exchange of contracts.
You are stuffed unless you can prove that you are right.

TheGonch

Depends what you mean by remorse.

I can't fault the house itself, the price or the area - we looked around hard for a year before settling on this development. The fact is though that we wouldn't have entertained buying it if we hadn't been told (incorrectly) about the electricity supply as we planned to put a big chest freezer and some other bits and bobs in there.

Other houses of the same type on the development have garages with a supply and I'd have no complaints if ours was one... that's what we were told after all.

The builder's reaction was one of "oh - you shouldn't have been told that" and then a shrug of the shoulders, which doesn't really help.

wishiwasarichgirl

unless you have it in writing that your garage will have electric I don't think you will get very far. Will they not put a few plug sockets in for you if you ask nicely? (or just buy an extension lead! )

mr.broderick

Generally with large purchases especially houses the old buyers remorse syndrome can raise it's ugly head.
Maybe you are looking for an excuse in your own mind to pull out of the deal.
With all the talk of house price crashes etc it is understandable.
It wouldn't be major surgery to have electricity put in the garage, wouldnt stop me buying a house i really wanted to buy that's for sure.

TheGonch

wishiwasarichgirl wrote: »

unless you have it in writing that your garage will have electric I don't think you will get very far. Will they not put a few plug sockets in for you if you ask nicely? (or just buy an extension lead! )

I'd be happy with that (well, maybe not the extension lead... ) but it looks like there's a boundary issue that may mean that it's not possible.

The annoying thing is that we actually sat down in the sales office and were shown a map of the development, together with a list of the garages that had a supply, that included out plot. Hopefully we'll have something similar in the stuff we took away from the meeting.

TheGonch

mr.broderick wrote: »

Generally with large purchases especially houses the old buyers remorse syndrome can raise it's ugly head.
Maybe you are looking for an excuse in your own mind to pull out of the deal.
With all the talk of house price crashes etc it is understandable.
It wouldn't be major surgery to have electricity put in the garage, wouldnt stop me buying a house i really wanted to buy that's for sure.

If we can put the supply in then it's not such a dealbreaker to be fair - more of an annoyance. But as I said above, the whole reason why there doesn't appear to be a supply in there is due to a boundary issue (it's a detached garage) so it may not even be an option. They still have one or two of the same type unsold - I'd even settle for switching for one of those if the garage was wired up (I might suggest it actually rather than tussle with them).

This just came to light this morning, so obviously I need to get home and check all our documentation etc. We couldn't be happier with the house itself, but I can see us flogging it and moving around the corner if we end up stuck with it.

chriz1000

Is the garage quite close to the house or next to another garage?
If its in a block of garages and the rest have power, make friends with a neighbour and offer them £120 a year towards there electricity bill if you can use there feed in your garage?

Unfortunately if it was such a big deal and things were a bit up in the air about what garages had power you should have informed your solicitor and had him write it into the agreement.
I know it’s easy to say that now, unfortunately its just one of them things, your word against there’s.