Barratt Homes Reservation Extension?

Crinkles90

Hi All,

Our journey has been a bit of a whirlwind so far and we have now found ourselves in a situation where we are going to have to ask Barratts if we can extend the date on our reservation form. 

For context:

We are using a broker and had our DIP before we went to view the house. When we viewed and asked to reserve it we were told that before it could be reserved we had to do an affordability check through their (we now know it's their preferred) mortgage broker. We spoke to them, went through affordability with them and they asked to see our DIP. They then said they can use the DIP we have to get the mortgage and we would need to go through them. At this point, they advised us of a range of solicitors that are on the lenders panel and said we would need to instruct one of them.

 I called the broker we had spoken to initially and explained the situation as we would prefer to use him and wanted to see if there was a way around it. Our broker told us that what they had done was bang out of order and happens quite regularly! We do have the choice and whilst the sales lady was not happy that we decided to use our own - we are using our own.

Fast forward to yesterday our lender has come back and advised that the solicitors chosen are not on their panel so we have now had to instruct another solicitor! There is now no way we are going to be ready to exchange by the date initially stated at the time of reservation. We will probably have the decision on our mortgage application by the end of next week however we will now be waiting on legals. 

Has anyone ever had to request an extension before? They are closed today so can't call them until Monday. Was hoping to hear others experiences. To me, not extending and then putting the house back on the market and going through the whole process again including waiting for someone to buy the house seems like cutting off their nose to spite their face. 

Thank you in advance.

RelievedSheff

Don't panic. They come across this all the time.

ReadingTim

It really depends on demand for properties on the development you're buying on, so unless anyone else here is buying where you're buying, what happened to them won't necessarily happen to you.  

Ultimately, if Barratt can sell 'your' house to someone else for more than you're paying for it, then why wouldn't they?  The bigger the difference between the 2 prices, the longer they'll wait, so restarting the whole process could well be more profitable for them, which is hardly cutting off their nose to spite their face.  All you can do is suggest that you can complete far sooner than anyone else, so you're their best bet, even if it's slightly later than you'd previously agreed.  

The one thing that could swing it relates to the financial year end of the company.  They'll want to complete as many sales as they can this year, rather than next. Barratt's year end is 30 June, so if you can complete before then, that will help you greatly.  A week later however, really won't.  

Crinkles90

ReadingTim said:

It really depends on demand for properties on the development you're buying on, so unless anyone else here is buying where you're buying, what happened to them won't necessarily happen to you.  

Ultimately, if Barratt can sell 'your' house to someone else for more than you're paying for it, then why wouldn't they?  The bigger the difference between the 2 prices, the longer they'll wait, so restarting the whole process could well be more profitable for them, which is hardly cutting off their nose to spite their face.  All you can do is suggest that you can complete far sooner than anyone else, so you're their best bet, even if it's slightly later than you'd previously agreed.  

The one thing that could swing it relates to the financial year end of the company.  They'll want to complete as many sales as they can this year, rather than next. Barratt's year end is 30 June, so if you can complete before then, that will help you greatly.  A week later however, really won't.  

Thank you.

At the moment there are 6 houses for sale on the development 5 of which are the same house type as the house we are in the process of purchasing and they have been advertised for some time now - they recently reduced the prices on the remaining houses and they are still showing as available to purchase on their website. Based on that I am going to say that the demand is not that high.

We should definitely be able to complete by 30th June.

Appreciate your input thank you.

Crinkles90

ReadingTim said:

It really depends on demand for properties on the development you're buying on, so unless anyone else here is buying where you're buying, what happened to them won't necessarily happen to you.  

Ultimately, if Barratt can sell 'your' house to someone else for more than you're paying for it, then why wouldn't they?  The bigger the difference between the 2 prices, the longer they'll wait, so restarting the whole process could well be more profitable for them, which is hardly cutting off their nose to spite their face.  All you can do is suggest that you can complete far sooner than anyone else, so you're their best bet, even if it's slightly later than you'd previously agreed.  

The one thing that could swing it relates to the financial year end of the company.  They'll want to complete as many sales as they can this year, rather than next. Barratt's year end is 30 June, so if you can complete before then, that will help you greatly.  A week later however, really won't.  

Worst case scenario - Could we just pay another fee to reserve the house for another 28 days is that something that happens?

RelievedSheff

Crinkles90 said:

ReadingTim said:

It really depends on demand for properties on the development you're buying on, so unless anyone else here is buying where you're buying, what happened to them won't necessarily happen to you.  

Ultimately, if Barratt can sell 'your' house to someone else for more than you're paying for it, then why wouldn't they?  The bigger the difference between the 2 prices, the longer they'll wait, so restarting the whole process could well be more profitable for them, which is hardly cutting off their nose to spite their face.  All you can do is suggest that you can complete far sooner than anyone else, so you're their best bet, even if it's slightly later than you'd previously agreed.  

The one thing that could swing it relates to the financial year end of the company.  They'll want to complete as many sales as they can this year, rather than next. Barratt's year end is 30 June, so if you can complete before then, that will help you greatly.  A week later however, really won't.  

Worst case scenario - Could we just pay another fee to reserve the house for another 28 days is that something that happens?

You won't need to do that.

Just talk to them and be open and honest. They will extend the date.

[Deleted User]

Are you sure you want to buy from these scammers?

If they behave like this, what are they going to be like when it comes to snagging?

Tell us they haven't got a management charge scam going too.

eddddy

[Deleted User] said:

Are you sure you want to buy from these scammers?

If they behave like this, what are they going to be like when it comes to snagging?

Tell us they haven't got a management charge scam going too.

What behaviour are you referring to?

The developer required a financial evaluation of @Crinkles90 - but that's good practice. For example, the Property Ombudsman says that all estate agents should do financial evaluations of prospective buyers.

The bad thing is that the mortgage broker used the financial evaluation as a route to do a hard sell of their services. But @Crinkles90 resisted that hard sell. So that's ok.



I don't think @Crinkles90 has mentioned anything else that amounts to scamming.

(Or are you basing your comments on something other than @Crinkles90's post?)

[Deleted User]

Getting buyers to use their rip off broke is a classic scam.

kingstreet

Having been warned of the solicitor panel for the chosen lender, how did you end up with a non-panel member?

chanz4

[Deleted User] said:

Are you sure you want to buy from these scammers?

If they behave like this, what are they going to be like when it comes to snagging?

Tell us they haven't got a management charge scam going too.

I have one, they are a pain to get things done. Barratts like you to use theirs, sols give them £300 referral fee