Paid for flooring of a new build house, but now the sale might fall through.

deannagone

Not overly helpful comment now.  I am sure the OP is feeling bad enough.  I hope the OP will be able to persuade the building company to wait a bit longer.  But unfortunately, as has been pointed out, the company will now have an added incentive to encourage other buyers to want the house.

Flugelhorn

hopefully the company will wait - they certainly do put pressure on people to get on with exchanging when often the delay is nothing to do with them

[Deleted User]

Hi all. Sorry for the late reply.

When discussing the flooring, the sales executive told us to contact them once an exchange date had been agreed, and they would then install the flooring, ready for moving.

We never provided an exchange date, as our buyer never sent his correct contracts for exchange. However when we were told our reservation had expired and they would be relisting the house, i asked Wain Homes about the flooring, and they said it had already been installed.

I've asked both of the site's sales executives, and both have said they will speak to the head office, but they typically don't do refunds once installed. And now we're just waiting to hear back.

I've been reading the invoice, which states "These items must be paid for at the time of order. Please refer to our reservation and exchange documentation for you rights regards refunds (sic) should you not proceed with the purchase of your Wain Home". However there is nothing on the reservation form regarding this, and obviously we never received any exchange documents. No details or terms and conditions on their website either. So it doesn't say anywhere that this is refundable, however it also doesn't say anywhere that it is non-refundable.

With regards to the buyer, i've tried chasing directly, and he promised the contracts were signed and sent three weeks ago. This was the last i heard from him. The last i heard from my solicitors, is that the contracts were incorrectly filled and returned to him. He is now ignoring me, his solicitors and the estate agents. So it looks like the sale is dead in the water. As such, we have now put our current property back on the market.

I will be contacting NHBC and Consumer Code to see what they say. 

Thanks for all your replies.

eddddy

[Deleted User] said:

I've been reading the invoice, which states "These items must be paid for at the time of order. Please refer to our reservation and exchange documentation for you rights regards refunds (sic) should you not proceed with the purchase of your Wain Home". However there is nothing on the reservation form regarding this, and obviously we never received any exchange documents. No details or terms and conditions on their website either. So it doesn't say anywhere that this is refundable, however it also doesn't say anywhere that it is non-refundable.

As I said in a previous post, if you were not given any information about what would happen if you didn't proceed - the legal position is "What would a reasonable person expect to happen in those circumstances?"

[Deleted User] said:

When discussing the flooring, the sales executive told us to contact them once an exchange date had been agreed, and they would then install the flooring, ready for moving.

So that puts you in a much stronger position. You were told that the flooring would not be installed until you contacted them - and you didn't contact them.

But I guess the problem might be that the sales executive will deny saying that.

GDB2222

At some stage you might have to issue proceedings against the builder, so that a judge can decide. It is not very difficult to do using MCOL and it will concentrate the company's mind whether they want to spend executive time defending. 

NameUnavailable

If you paid for the flooring it's yours - tell them you want access to rip it out!

deannagone

I am not sure how legal the above is, (as the OP doesn't own the house the flooring is in) but I love it even so.  Might be worth seeing a solicitor about the situation, with all the paperwork, if your present conveyancer won't help.

GDB2222

The OP possibly only paid to upgrade the flooring?

eddddy

I suspect that there are no terms in the contract that would allow the OP to rip-out the flooring.


(And making threats about ripping-out flooring would probably be counter-productive, when the OP is trying to negotiate a good outcome. Especially if getting a 'good outcome' involves getting a goodwill gesture from the developer.)

CSI_Yorkshire

NameUnavailable said:

If you paid for the flooring it's yours - tell them you want access to rip it out!

That's not how these contracts normally work.  The OP likely paid for "flooring to be installed in the house on plot X".