Buying a new build with completion on notice

[dirtychinchilla]

Afternoon,

So as the title suggests, I'm buying a new build, completion date of which has always been on notice. They are required to give us "reasonable notice", as defined by the NHBC.

Assuming this means reasonable legal notice (because the building company always fall back on the fact that none of what their typical employees say is legally binding), what would you consider to be reasonable notice?

Our solicitor hasn't yet been in contact, but the builder has said "legal completion is on 11th December." This was sent to us on Thursday last week, so that gives us 15 days notice, but not actually legal notice because it hasn't come from our solicitor (and consequently theirs).

This building company has screwed us around throughout the whole process, even moving the completion date by 3 months at one point, so this may sound petty but it's just another problem that we have with them. We've incurred numerous costs as a consequence of their poor planning, and they offer nothing to reduce the burden on us, so I am looking to recover costs from them.

We have had to pay rent, extra fuel as a consequence of not having what would be a reduced commute, bills, we've had to pay for another mortage evaluation because they've taken so bloody long, bearing in mind the mortgage offer is valid for 6 months! They are apparently paying us back for this last one, but the fact that we had to front their cost is just unnaceptable. They say they'll pay us back on completion...great.

The company in question, by the way, is Kier. Both personally and professionaly, I know them to be terrible now. Please don't buy anything from them as they are useless.

 

[Jobe]

I work for a large builder and they can be utter *****.
They may give you only a weeks legal notice....
But, you don't have to legally complete just because they say you should.
It's December so is their half/full year end so they will be desperate to complete before December finishes.
My suggestion is when they serve notice, say you can't sort everything on such short notice and say you'll complete in Jan. Tell them your removal company want a deal more money for short notice.

As long as you play hardball, they will offer to pay your extra fees at the very least.
Oh and do you use 'their' solicitor?
Don't forget they get a lot of business from Kier so will be biased towards them. Again if it feels they are not on your side fully, threaten to contact the ombudsmen for not representing you properly.

Other than that, enjoy your new home.

JB

 

[dirtychinchilla]

We absolutely will be contacting the ombudsmend. The problem us, you're telling a group of people that solicitors are being terrible...if I wanted to take up a case against someone being terrible, I'd get a solicitor. I think they'll just wrangle their way out of it! But it is "their" solicitor and we have been deeply unhappy about that from the start. However, to be put to the top of the waiting lit, we had to use them, so we didn't have much choice if we wanted the house.

If we weren't so eager to move into the house, that would be a bloody good plan. I will actually discuss it with my partner because I would love to mess them around if we could. I know it's dirty, but they couldn't give two ***** about our lives and how they affect them. THanks for the advice.

 

[blueboy2001]

"Reasonable notice" was 2 weeks when I bought a new build completed in September, they were clear about this from the point they took our reservation fee.

Mine was on time, it was only about 4 weeks off being finished when I exchanged, but the contract was extremely one-sided about any delays and the builder not having any liability.

I didn't use the developers solicitor but wish I had done because I got no help from the one I used it, just cost me a few hundred extra. Solicitors doing conveyancing are universally useless in my experience. I'd go with whoever's cheapest in future.

However, pressuring you to use their solicitor to gain some sort of advantage is not on. Problem is the solicitor will deny all knowledge saying they know nothing about it.

One thing I would demand is an inspection visit before you move in and go over everything carefully. Allow a few hours. Check every switch, socket, appliance, gas fitting, tap, toilet, drain, make sure the plaster work is right and give them a list to sort it before you move in. It's a real pain having tradesmen coming and going once you've moved in, and the trades are used to working on site rather than occupied houses so they tend to be pretty messy.

We had no waste pipe fitted to the shower, when I had a shower the first night I moved in the entire shower water ended up on the hallway and had to put up with 4 weeks with no flooring in the hall whilst it dried out. We also had about 90 small plaster patches that needed doing and it made a right mess. We also had many other snags. They did all get fixed, and we did get some extra work done by the developer as compensation, but it has left a sour taste.

 

[FishThrower]

When I purchased my new build... I asked my solicitor to add a stop gap clause in the contract... Which would have allowed me to pull out after exchanging contracts without any penalties and with my full 20% deposit returned back to me if they had to push the completion date back. I was surprised that the builders accepted it really.

As stated above, it will be very unlikely for the builders to postpone your build to the new year now, as the sales director would want a increased bonus due to the year end. Definitely make sure you visit the house a couple of days before completion to see if it's in a decent state though!