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P
Beginner June 2009

Reserved a new house. Our buyers pulled out. What would you do? Solicitor help maybe?

Po, 9 July, 2008 at 22:24 Posted on Off Topic Posts 0 7
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If anyone could offer any advice on this I would really appreciate it.

We had reserved a new build house on 24th June, our buyers pulled out literally last minute that same day at 4.50pm ( ten mins after I had handed over cash and signed reservation form) and refused to sign missives. We reserved the house for 14 days and if we didn't sign missives within those 14 days, they kept our £500 reservation fee. The house builders knew the situation from very beginning re: buyers had pulled out, we let them know within minutes of finding out/paying them the money. They 'said' they would hold the house for us.

The 14 day period was up yesterday. Except the house builders have had the house up for sale the entire time online. The only indication that we had actually reserved the house with them was the 'sold' sign in the house window...which they replaced with a 'for sale' sign on Saturday. Which was day 11 of the 14 day period.

My question is this. Are we able to ask for the £500 back? They say we signed a contract stating we wouldn't get the money back if we didn't conclude missives within 14 days. Which is true. But the contract also stated that they would reserve the house for us for 14 days...and they didn't.They had it back on sale within ten.

We have had 4 offers on our house fall through since February and, to be honest, we could do without handing £500 over for nothing.

7 replies

Latest activity by Po, 10 July, 2008 at 13:47
  • Hecate
    Beginner
    Hecate ·
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    I don't think you will be able to get the reservation fee back to be honest.

    Many builders adopt this policy, whilst it states in their contract they will reserve it for 14 days - that doesn't mean they have to take it off the market as many builders will line up "back up" buyers. As long as they can prove that they haven't accepted another reservation fee on the property within the 14 days then they haven't breeched their contract.

    As a property lawyer I would be advising you not to contest this as the cost of a solicitor doing this for you would rise quickly

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  • ClareMarie
    Beginner August 2006
    ClareMarie ·
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    I can't see that you're entitled to your money back - whatever signage is on the house as long as they don't 'sell' it to someone else then it was reserved for you.

    Could you look at part-x? We did this for a new build and it worked out very well for us.

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  • NickJ
    Beginner
    NickJ ·
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    It doesnt matter that it was for sale. the fact is they didnt sell it, so there is no breach of contract. as far as getting your money back, a "reservation fee" is rarely refundable, but you need to check your contract.

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  • P
    Beginner June 2009
    Po ·
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    Thanks for your replies everyone. Just need to chalk that one up to experience then.

    This particular company don't do part exchances, unfortunately ☹️ or we would have jumped at the chance.

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  • Hecate
    Beginner
    Hecate ·
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    Just to add if you want to either post here the paragraph of the reservation form with regards to fees or PM me I'll happily take a look just to make sure, but these things are usually pretty watertight

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  • P
    Beginner June 2009
    Po ·
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    Hecate, that would be great thanks. I will try and pm you it later when H brings the form back from work.

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  • Roobarb
    Beginner January 2007
    Roobarb ·
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    I agree with the others. As they didn't actually sell the house to someone else I think you would find it difficult to get your money back. It may be that the best you could hope for would be that if you do sell yours they won't charge you a further reservation fee if you do decide to go ahead with the purchase in future or that they will take the reservation fee you already paid as part consideration of the purchase price of the house. There would probably be no obligation on them to do this but in the current housebuying market they might. Take consolation in the fact that you haven't concluded missives and it's better to lose the £500 than to end up contractually obliged to go ahead with the house purchase without having sold your own.

    ? you're having a pretty cr@ppy time on the house front, aren't you?

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  • P
    Beginner June 2009
    Po ·
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    Hi Roobarb...

    Yeah it's been a bit of a nightmare. If we had known back in January what we know now ?

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