St Modwen (New Build) relisting dream home, and keeping my money!

darkstryder360

We reserved a plot back in April, both me and my partner were really excited to move in once the building was finished, we were told around August. 

Coerced into paying £8000 for Flooring (and a Shower) in May, rather than going through Carpet Right. 

June comes around and we are all of a sudden being pressured into exchanging money/contracts at the end of June, despite expecting the last comms telling us it was to be finished in August.

Issues with my chain meant I had to find another buyer in late June, St Modwen threatened to relist the house. Remarketed, and found a new buyer a week later, so the process started again.  St Modwen said they would extend the "deadline" till end of September.

End of September comes round, my buyer has an issue with with their circumstances (middle of a divorce). St Modwen pressured us into remarketing our house rather than wait a week or two, as they threatened to relist the new build once again. 

I was told they will wait a week for me to find a new buyer, and then was assured they will wait the appropriate time for the legal process to go through. 

Found a new buyer quickly (early October) updated St Modwen, assumed everything was OK. 

A few days later I get a call to say St Modwen won't wait for the legal process to run it's course, they wanted, and expected an exchange within 40 odd days of the offer being put in.  They say if it was just before Xmas they will wait!  But as its likely to be middle of January, they won't wait! 

Words cannot express how annoyed, stressed, disappointed, depressed, frustrated, and how angry I am.  To go through all this for NOTHING is the icing on the cake.

But wait, there's more.. St Modwen seem to believe they get to keep the £8,000 I spent on Extras. I have wasted a few more thousand on Solicitor fees, for each of the buyers - for NOTHING.

They have stolen my savings, and shattered any hope and positivity I had in starting a new life.

My solicitors and estate agent are both in agreement, that they are being unreasonable.  I am considering removing my house off the market, because we have nowhere to go.  

And I still have to pay the solicitors for the failed purchase!

lika_86

Is there no chance of you completing before Christmas?

anselld

It is normal for “extras” to be well over priced and not returnable once ordered/fitted.
It is normal to pay abortive fees unless you have some sort of protection agreed in advance.
Why can completion not happen before Christmas?  Can you not proceed with all possible speed and tell St Modwen you intend to complete before Christmas.  How can they know otherwise?.  They are unlikely to look a gift-horse in the mouth when you are ready to exchange and they are unlikely to find another buyer who will get to that point before you.

Olinda99

I am suprised they can keep all of your 8000 as their losses on the carpet etc would not be that I assume ?

did you sign anything - if so, what did it say about this? Also what does your solicitor say ?

ThisIsWeird

Have they bought or installed your specific choice of fittings?
Have they actually breached the T&C's you agreed to? Double-check.
It does sound as tho' they are being 'unreasonable', as the time scales you have mentioned do not seem to me to be particularly excessive in the house chain-buying world. I cannot see a huge difference between Xmas and mid-Jan, although, of course, this isn't the first delay imposed on them.
I have no idea what your legal position is, but if they stick to these terms, perhaps all that's left is press-pressure? A family 'losing' their new house along with £8k of savings just before Chrimbo doesn't have a very festive ring to it.
When was the actual house completed? And how far into the presumed estate build are they - more houses to go?
NB, I really don't know if the threat of going public is a good one - you need better advice. Appealing to their 'reason' is usually best, until that is exhausted - for them, this is an unemotive deal - all they want is a sale, and who to is very secondary.
I would, tho', try and leave 'coerced' and 'stolen' out from any description, as they most likely have followed the agreed terms. It may certainly feel as tho' they've done this, fair enough.

user1977

We have had various previous threads here which suggest the developers do not have to refund for "extras". But obviously that depends on what terms you signed up to before you handed over your £8k. Did you get any legal advice before you did that?

GixerKate

I understand how frustrating this process can be - I went through exactly the same three years ago - I reserved a new build that was dependent on selling my existing property.  We lost the first two buyers (the first one disappeared never to be heard from again, the second found he wasn't as financially divorced as he thought he was) and all the time I was getting pressure from the developer to complete. 

I kept the developer informed through everything and built a good relationship with the sales manager, it got extremely fraught with a lot of pressure and I did get threatened with being relisted at several points but as I managed to get another buyer in place quickly it never materialised. 

My buyers buyer messed us around a lot which almost destroyed the whole chain and in the end I was issued with a letter from the developer's solicitor to exchange by xx date and complete by xx date which forced us down the route of exchange and complete same day as we missed the exchange date set by the developer's solicitor.  We then missed the exchange and complete same date deadline due to our buyers buyer and somehow my solicitor managed to get agreement to exchange the following day with completion a week later.  The whole process was unbelievably stressful and we just gambled it would actually happen and thankfully it did.

Are you sure you can't complete before Christmas?  If the chain is just you and your buyers then perhaps there is a chance that it can go ahead?  Have you made it clear to your buyers that they need to get a shifty on as otherwise everything is off?

darkstryder360

This is the paperwork I signed when I reserved the plot.  It mentions based on their discretion - but I am not the one cancelling the reservation, they are. 

What other industry is there, where you can pay upfront for a service, and the seller can turn around and deny you what you paid for? 

How can they just take the £8,000 from me?  It may be "common", but it not right.  Is there any legal advice I can seek?  

What country are we living in here if that's just common practise?

RAS

There are certain things that will have to have been purchased separately from their bog standard and may well have already been fitted. They are most unlikely to refund these, or other items already purchased separately and not re-usable.

You do need to reply to the queries here and to make your buyer aware that you need to complete in a very short timescale.

Postik

This is one of the things amongst others that would put me off buying a new build. I haven't heard of St Modwen, but they're all as bad as each other and they're all crooks in one way or another

user1977

darkstryder360 said:

Is there any legal advice I can seek?  

You've got a solicitor - as I asked above, did you not seek advice from them in the first place about the terms?