Advice needed

regedit

We've given the deposit for a house that is going to be build. When we spoke
to the estate agents, they gave us the date of November, possibly December
2005. When the survey was carried out, the letter mentioned January. Today
we got a call from them to say that the hosue will not be ready before
August - September 2006. This is very dissapointing. The agents were adamant
that we pay the booking deposit, than the remainder, giving us deadlines
which we honoursed. Now that they are not doing the same, I was just
wondering what alternatives do we have. As you can all see, the delay is
gread (allegedly, problems with ESB).

billsteersnose

Unfortunately I went through the same malarky with my house. They kept on pushing the finishing date out, even to a point where I was paying the bank a bridging loan for the deposit until the mortgage could drop (which couldn't happen until the house was finished). In hindsight (is always 20/20...looking back it's still a bit fuzzy), the builder is pushing you into a situation where you are paying more money out than was originally agreed (on bridging loans, etc). Perhaps this is something the solicitor could threaten the builder with. I dunno, just an idea...

RicardoSmith

It doesn't take that long to build a house 3-4 months. If its taking longer than then the builder is suiting themselves in how they build it, especially in a large scheme they tend to do the work in batches like 20 houses at once. So your house could have nothing done on it for weeks as they bring the rest of the 20 house all to the same point. These is more cost effective and easier to manage for the builder. Which is fine but theres no reason for you to have to pay for facilitating the builder. You've made an agreement paid a deposit. Hes now changing the terms and conditions, so that they have more money in the bank.

Wait till you have to chase the builder for fixing snags and other problems. You'll be pulling your hair out. So I say make him wait for his money. Just be uncontactable and avoid his calls. He'll get tired of chasing you after a while.

regedit

RicardoSmith wrote:

It doesn't take that long to build a house 3-4 months. If its taking longer than then the builder is suiting themselves in how they build it, especially in a large scheme they tend to do the work in batches like 20 houses at once. So your house could have nothing done on it for weeks as they bring the rest of the 20 house all to the same point. These is more cost effective and easier to manage for the builder. Which is fine but theres no reason for you to have to pay for facilitating the builder. You've made an agreement paid a deposit. Hes now changing the terms and conditions, so that they have more money in the bank.

Wait till you have to chase the builder for fixing snags and other problems. You'll be pulling your hair out. So I say make him wait for his money. Just be uncontactable and avoid his calls. He'll get tired of chasing you after a while.

Any money that they requested, was given to them. The contract was signed and at the time, the solicitor said that the deposit was non-refundable! We accepted this as something standard but again, were hoping that the house would be finished on time (Nov. - Jan). But now they came up with August - September 2006 the EARLIEST. As I said, allegedly, they are having problems with ESB. I dunno if that is a cliche of theirs or does ESB realy cause havoc for builders. We had to take out a loan in the CU (as most FTB do) to pay the depost (which is later refundable on a 100% mortgage) as we wre getting calls from the estate agents almost every day telling us this/that is the deadline! Anyway, we have accepted that these things happen in this country (they would never happen in France, Germany...).
Can someone please advice if there are any oibstacles in us selling the house once we get the keys? What is the legal position? Does one have to live in a house for such and such years to be able to sell it? Does one have to pay any "penalty" taxes, if the home is sold immediately.
TIA

RicardoSmith

For some reason I read your post completely wrong. You have to pay the deposit by the given date. As for the finish date well, it really has to go by whats in the contract. What does the contract say?