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Buying a new home
Jst1990
Posts: 19 Forumite
Hi
I am looking for a bit of guidance on where we might stand with a situation we are in.
We reserved a new build development from a small developer a number of months ago. A slight complication is that the property we are purchasing remained under the ownership of the original landowner, who effectively was getting our property to sell to us in consideration for the acquisition of the land by the developer (who was building it for them to sell).
We paid a reservation deposit based on a heads of terms and have been going through the conveyancing process. Throughout the process we have changed a few things at the property as it was built, and installed some extras on the property which we have paid for as they were installed, through agreement with the developer. We had sold our house so were in no chain and had a mortgage offer agreed on the property before we committed to any of this.
We were due to exchange imminently when the original landowner (who is effectively selling our plot, despite the developer building it) has decided they want to change the boundary to benefit them by removing some of our garden. So, via their solicitor, we received an updated title plan, which shows a reduced boundary relative to the one we all have been working from, and conducting our negotiation on for some months. We have pushed back in the strongest way on this as we feel it is unreasonable and opportunistic to do this at such a late stage, when pretty much everything is agreed and we are ready to sign.
My questions are:
1) Do they have the right to do this? We haven’t exchanged contracts so I suspect they technically can. I’m not sure what rights we have under the heads of terms / reservation
2) Where do we stand with respect to the deposit, should the sale not go ahead because of this?
3) Where do we stand with respect to the extras installed at the property, should the sale not go ahead because of this? We could remove some of them, but some of them are physically installed (e.g. flooring) and would we have legal recourse?
We have invoices for all the extras and evidence of prices agreed etc for what they are.
I appreciate no-one will be able to give legal advice but any pointers would be appreciated.
I am looking for a bit of guidance on where we might stand with a situation we are in.
We reserved a new build development from a small developer a number of months ago. A slight complication is that the property we are purchasing remained under the ownership of the original landowner, who effectively was getting our property to sell to us in consideration for the acquisition of the land by the developer (who was building it for them to sell).
We paid a reservation deposit based on a heads of terms and have been going through the conveyancing process. Throughout the process we have changed a few things at the property as it was built, and installed some extras on the property which we have paid for as they were installed, through agreement with the developer. We had sold our house so were in no chain and had a mortgage offer agreed on the property before we committed to any of this.
We were due to exchange imminently when the original landowner (who is effectively selling our plot, despite the developer building it) has decided they want to change the boundary to benefit them by removing some of our garden. So, via their solicitor, we received an updated title plan, which shows a reduced boundary relative to the one we all have been working from, and conducting our negotiation on for some months. We have pushed back in the strongest way on this as we feel it is unreasonable and opportunistic to do this at such a late stage, when pretty much everything is agreed and we are ready to sign.
My questions are:
1) Do they have the right to do this? We haven’t exchanged contracts so I suspect they technically can. I’m not sure what rights we have under the heads of terms / reservation
2) Where do we stand with respect to the deposit, should the sale not go ahead because of this?
3) Where do we stand with respect to the extras installed at the property, should the sale not go ahead because of this? We could remove some of them, but some of them are physically installed (e.g. flooring) and would we have legal recourse?
We have invoices for all the extras and evidence of prices agreed etc for what they are.
I appreciate no-one will be able to give legal advice but any pointers would be appreciated.
Thank you
0
Comments
-
1. Yes. In the same way that you can lower the price. You're still negotiating. If you want all of this nailed down, you need a contract. That's what contracts are for.
2. What do the terms say?
3. What was agreed at the time you paid?0
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