PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING
Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.Vendor Forced Me To Exchange - Help
Georgedunn
Posts: 27 Forumite
Okay so a bit of background to the story before I ask for advice.
I had agreed to purchase a property from Crest Nicolson in January. I am a first time buyer and a fairy young one too at 21 years old. The house I agreed to buy was £550k which is a large commitment for anyone. I am on a commission based job so my earnings can vary from month to month.
Having agreed to purchase the house, I put down a £500 reservation fee, under the understanding the estimated completion date was going to be May. I appreciate this can change a little however this seemed reasonable.
I then went through the whole mortgage and agreement in principle process which I was accepted on and then this progressed to a formal approval. The mortgage advisor did make the point that it was a fairly borderline approval, due to my high outgoings.
At this point Crest have moved the estimated completion date to July / August, which I was a little concerned about as my mortgage offer expired at the end of August and as I was on a commission based job I didn’t want the pressure of having to re apply. My mortgage has been approved by Santander who take your lowest commission pay in the last 3 months into consideration.
In April, Crest started putting pressure on me to exchange, I know this is normal for new builds for the builder to put pressure so they can get the deal into their sales figures. I however made it clear I wouldn’t exchange until I had a fixed completion date.
The following week I was given an ultimatum by Crest and told that unless I exchanged they would refund my reservation fee and re market the property, they told me they still expected to complete July / August and that they worked closely with the mortgage advisor to ensure I wouldn’t have to re apply.
I then contacted my solicitor to ensure if I wasn’t re accepted my deposit would be safe if I was declined, they advised I was protected as I was using the help to buy.
I wouldn’t have exchanged however there were few properties left in the new build and this area was highly sought after.
I then exchanged with Crest.
Everything went quiet for 2 weeks until I got a phone call saying they had pushed the estimated completion date to the end of October.
I want to know if there is anything I can do here? I feel like I have been mis sold and forced to exchanged. They would have known full well before I exchanged that it would have been pushed back.
I am now under immense pressure to keep my earnings up at a certain point, as a first time buyer this has been a horrendous experience and I would recommend to stay away from Crest.
Please let me know if anyone has been in a similar situation or who I should complain to.
I had agreed to purchase a property from Crest Nicolson in January. I am a first time buyer and a fairy young one too at 21 years old. The house I agreed to buy was £550k which is a large commitment for anyone. I am on a commission based job so my earnings can vary from month to month.
Having agreed to purchase the house, I put down a £500 reservation fee, under the understanding the estimated completion date was going to be May. I appreciate this can change a little however this seemed reasonable.
I then went through the whole mortgage and agreement in principle process which I was accepted on and then this progressed to a formal approval. The mortgage advisor did make the point that it was a fairly borderline approval, due to my high outgoings.
At this point Crest have moved the estimated completion date to July / August, which I was a little concerned about as my mortgage offer expired at the end of August and as I was on a commission based job I didn’t want the pressure of having to re apply. My mortgage has been approved by Santander who take your lowest commission pay in the last 3 months into consideration.
In April, Crest started putting pressure on me to exchange, I know this is normal for new builds for the builder to put pressure so they can get the deal into their sales figures. I however made it clear I wouldn’t exchange until I had a fixed completion date.
The following week I was given an ultimatum by Crest and told that unless I exchanged they would refund my reservation fee and re market the property, they told me they still expected to complete July / August and that they worked closely with the mortgage advisor to ensure I wouldn’t have to re apply.
I then contacted my solicitor to ensure if I wasn’t re accepted my deposit would be safe if I was declined, they advised I was protected as I was using the help to buy.
I wouldn’t have exchanged however there were few properties left in the new build and this area was highly sought after.
I then exchanged with Crest.
Everything went quiet for 2 weeks until I got a phone call saying they had pushed the estimated completion date to the end of October.
I want to know if there is anything I can do here? I feel like I have been mis sold and forced to exchanged. They would have known full well before I exchanged that it would have been pushed back.
I am now under immense pressure to keep my earnings up at a certain point, as a first time buyer this has been a horrendous experience and I would recommend to stay away from Crest.
Please let me know if anyone has been in a similar situation or who I should complain to.
0
Comments
-
Delays in completion are common for new-builds.
Presumably you have not lost the mortgage offer.
You will in any case remain "under pressure to maintain income" in order to repay the mortgage and HTB loan in due course.0 -
1) No one forced you to exchange (i.e. held a gun to your head, that is force). You could have walked away with minimal losses.., you chose not to, even without a sure completion date and knowing it had been extended already. You must be aware completion date extensions are quite usual with new builds.
2) You applied for quite a high cost property, knew your outgoings were high, knew your earnings could vary.., so I assume you had some plan to overcome these potential difficulties. If not, that needs to be worked on NOW.
3) REDUCE YOUR OUTGOINGS as a priority. Consider taking a lodger if you need to.
4) Ask your solicitor what your position is with regards to the ever extending completion date and if it is now far enough away from the original completion date to withdraw legally and at what cost? I assume you have an independent solicitor or did you use a recommended one? We can't see your paperwork so any advice we would give is little better than a guess. Your solicitor has access to what you have signed.
5)If you do have to complete, you might have to consider other mortgage options or getting the one you have extended. Reducing your outgoings will help any affordability figures.
6) House buying is always a stressful process. Its just the way it is. I am sorry but you started it, you had time to reconsider but didn't. You can deal with it, but it will be stressful. You can't just refuse to do what is required once you have signed the exchange papers. No house purchase is stress free. Remember why you signed up originally and cling to that as an end goal. You wanted a new build specifically, and there is a down side to this (there are more lol). Changing completion dates almost always occurs with new build properties. At least you don't have a house to sell as well.0 -
You should take some responsibility for your own actions. Whatever the cost of a property, the purchaser has to maintain their income level to afford the mortgage repayments. If you thought maintaining your income was too hard or not possible then you should have bought somewhere cheaper or held off buying until you had a larger deposit, thus facilitating a smaller mortgage.
No-one to complain to.If you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales0 -
21yo
£550k property
Genuine interest - what job/income level and what sort of deposit ?
Being brutally honest maintaining your income for next few months to obtain the mortgage is probably the least of your pressures0 -
Of course will stay under pressure to keep my income where it needs to be. Over a course of a year that will happen however as Santander take your lowest commission earning over the last 3 months there could be a case where I have a bad month.0
-
For clarity, I could have pulled out at any point yes.
The reason I am so annoyed is that the delay is due to the properties behind me being built and the access to them. They have confirmed my property will still be ready in time but can!!!8217;t let me complete because of health and safety.
All of the above is fair enough however they would have known this when pressuring me to exchange, seems very deceptive.0 -
Georgedunn wrote: »I am now under immense pressure to keep my earnings up at a certain point, as a first time buyer this has been a horrendous experience and I would recommend to stay away from Crest.
You will be under that pressure for as long as you have the same job. If you can't keep your earnings at a certain level then you can't afford to repay the mortgage.It's nothing , not nothink.0 -
Georgedunn wrote: »Of course will stay under pressure to keep my income where it needs to be. Over a course of a year that will happen however as Santander take your lowest commission earning over the last 3 months there could be a case where I have a bad month.
You're missing the point - the 'lowest commission' bit only applies to getting the mortgage in the first place. What happens when you have it and you have a couple of bad months ?0 -
You're missing the point - the 'lowest commission' bit only applies to getting the mortgage in the first place. What happens when you have it and you have a couple of bad months ?
Maybe I haven't explained it properly. Over the last 18 months, 17 out of 18 would have qualified for the mortgage comfortably, one month where a number of factors caused me to have a lower month would have meant I wouldn't have qualified.
With a mortgage even if you do have a couple of bad months you would have hoped that you would have enough savings to tide you by.0 -
deannatrois wrote: »1) No one forced you to exchange (i.e. held a gun to your head, that is force). You could have walked away with minimal losses.., you chose not to, even without a sure completion date and knowing it had been extended already. You must be aware completion date extensions are quite usual with new builds.
2) You applied for quite a high cost property, knew your outgoings were high, knew your earnings could vary.., so I assume you had some plan to overcome these potential difficulties. If not, that needs to be worked on NOW.
3) REDUCE YOUR OUTGOINGS as a priority. Consider taking a lodger if you need to.
4) Ask your solicitor what your position is with regards to the ever extending completion date and if it is now far enough away from the original completion date to withdraw legally and at what cost? I assume you have an independent solicitor or did you use a recommended one? We can't see your paperwork so any advice we would give is little better than a guess. Your solicitor has access to what you have signed.
5)If you do have to complete, you might have to consider other mortgage options or getting the one you have extended. Reducing your outgoings will help any affordability figures.
6) House buying is always a stressful process. Its just the way it is. I am sorry but you started it, you had time to reconsider but didn't. You can deal with it, but it will be stressful. You can't just refuse to do what is required once you have signed the exchange papers. No house purchase is stress free. Remember why you signed up originally and cling to that as an end goal. You wanted a new build specifically, and there is a down side to this (there are more lol). Changing completion dates almost always occurs with new build properties. At least you don't have a house to sell as well.
Completley agree with all these points, I am just annoyed they gave me an ultimatum when they knew it was going to be delayed.
i have 2 lodgers moving in who are essentially paying my mortgage for me, I am not worried about affordability at all just don't think the way Crest have treated a first time buyer is correct. Especially with all the 'treat your customer fairly'.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.2K Work, Benefits & Business
- 607.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173K Life & Family
- 247.8K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards