New build purchase

RanjB

Hi all, 

Hope all of you are well. I am not sure if anyone would know a definite answer but hoping someone would have seen something similar to this and may be able to guide us.

We offered to purchase a new build show home and our offer was accepted by the developer. The sales team initially was very nice and said whatever minor snags were there, we'll fix but as soon as we went for reservation, the sales team took a 180-degree turn and said it was a show home and "sold as seen" and their team earlier was not experienced and didn't know what can and can't be done. She denied everything promised and said take it or leave it.

We gave a negative review for misleading us and then their sales director came down and agreed to fix a lot of snags, not all but a lot as compared to the second sales team member but for a lot she continued "Sold as Seen". Then suddenly she dropped a bombshell that they missed to tell us that the extra patio door in the living room opening outside of the house was wrong and there should have been a window as per the planning permission. She said it was a mistake, and apologised.

Whilst this was a big mistake, how can you miss a whole two-door glass exit? We asked them if we liked this and they said "Sold as Seen" and their sales team said it was a great feature and no one else in the development has got it. It'd have cost you to build on your own. 

They are not budging on this and she indirectly has been saying if you don't like the property, cancel the reservation, and I'll refund you. I said why are you pushing us to cancel, your team made mistakes, not us. She is saying, I am sorry, but there is no negotiation on price or this door, we'll take it out and put a window here.

I am just asking if as part of the reservation agreement we have any recourse about them misleading multiple times? And they backed out of their words again and again.

We really liked the property but the way was handled, was not appropriate. We were rushed and pushed as they knew we liked the property. Backing out for us would mean losing this house and getting into another cycle of viewing and finding a property we like. We also think, the property was probably £10K higher than the market value but we really liked it, so we went for it.

user1977

Not sure what recourse you want to have, if they're offering a full refund?

RanjB

user1977 said:

Not sure what recourse you want to have, if they're offering a full refund?

They are but that's just £500. The hassle of going through a search is so massive, should we suck it up or should we keep arguing, which is just stressful honestly.

RanjB

RanjB said:

user1977 said:

Not sure what recourse you want to have, if they're offering a full refund?

They are but that's just £500. The hassle of going through a search is so massive, should we suck it up or should we keep arguing, which is just stressful honestly.

Recourse as in - we were misled and they shouldn't do that without having to suffer some consequences

user1977

RanjB said:

user1977 said:

Not sure what recourse you want to have, if they're offering a full refund?

They are but that's just £500. The hassle of going through a search is so massive, should we suck it up or should we keep arguing, which is just stressful honestly.

It's just looking for a property. Which you were doing anyway. And it sounds like this hasn't taken a great deal of time or caused you to incur any actual costs.

What would make you feel happier about it?

BlueVeranda

As it's an ex show home, I suspect the patio may have been put in for their convenience with the understanding that it would be changed to match the other houses once sold. It sounds as though the sales team weren't briefed properly on how (or why) this house differed to the others they'd been selling on the development.

That is not great, but may not have been deliberate. It doesn't sound as though they are considering it a big enough issue to offer you additional compensation. It may be that they feel they could get another reservation very easily if you were to back out and thus have no incentive to negotiate with you.

MultiFuelBurner

Firstly it is good you have made them stick to a verbal agreement.

However the extra patio doors, if they are not on the plans then yes they will have to put a window in. You could.approach the local authority to see if they would agree to the patio doors. Do these doors make or break your love of the property?

At the moment of course you have only put down a £500 deposit so just walk away if you want.

RanjB

MultiFuelBurner said:

Firstly it is good you have made them stick to a verbal agreement.

However the extra patio doors, if they are not on the plans then yes they will have to put a window in. You could.approach the local authority to see if they would agree to the patio doors. Do these doors make or break your love of the property?

At the moment of course you have only put down a £500 deposit so just walk away if you want.

I reached out to the local authority, and they said they may approve it retrospectively but will review it once a formal application is received. I asked the Developer team and they said our planning team doesn't agree and we can't go back on our agreed plan even if the council says to you they'd agree. Council said I don't own property, so I can't request it, it'd have to be a developer but they don't want to.

It doesn't end my love of property, in a way, it is more secure and safe to have one less door. It is just them saying sold as seen on all of our requests but when they mess up, they are saying oops sorry. That makes me wonder what if these guys missed something else, there is a trust deficit here.

RanjB

BlueVeranda said:

As it's an ex show home, I suspect the patio may have been put in for their convenience with the understanding that it would be changed to match the other houses once sold. It sounds as though the sales team weren't briefed properly on how (or why) this house differed to the others they'd been selling on the development.

That is not great, but may not have been deliberate. It doesn't sound as though they are considering it a big enough issue to offer you additional compensation. It may be that they feel they could get another reservation very easily if you were to back out and thus have no incentive to negotiate with you.

Exactly, I am surprised how rigid they have been in negotiating. They never agreed to our request fundamentally. So now it's just me thinking, shall I go to their head office and raise with them rather than the local team and make them realise? I doubt I'd get anything other than another sorry, lol.

No19v87

Get your refund and move on. If they’re being this difficult now, they’ll be even worse after you move in if anything needs doing.

RanjB

user1977 said:

RanjB said:

user1977 said:

Not sure what recourse you want to have, if they're offering a full refund?

They are but that's just £500. The hassle of going through a search is so massive, should we suck it up or should we keep arguing, which is just stressful honestly.

It's just looking for a property. Which you were doing anyway. And it sounds like this hasn't taken a great deal of time or caused you to incur any actual costs.

What would make you feel happier about it?

Happier me would be when I'd have to pay less but that's not happening. So it's making sure they don't mess up in other things and with others I guess if there is no legal right on my part.