Misled..?

[stephmayes]

After some research on the design of a new build, we went for the Persimmon Finmere 3 bed detached.
Having gone into several including the show home we were more than happy to go ahead and reserve one for completion Dec16th 2006.
After reserving the property, the marketing girls said there may be a problem with the landing window as the apex of the attached garage may interrupt with the said window. Therefore they were leaving the window out and bricking up the space ! To say we were disappionted was an understatement as the stairs are now very dark without absolutley no natural light coming in.
I have spoken to our solicitor who has approached Persimmon legal dept who have basically said ' tough '.
I personnally cannot see how this window would cause such a problem as it could quite clearly be opaque in glass and therefore the apex of the garge wouldnot be in view. The attached pic shows the greyed out bricked up area where the small rectangular window would be.
What redress do we have with Persimmon ?
We have not put a deposit on the property yet although its iminent?
Should we ask for a different window, would persimmon play ball ?
Should we retain a certain amount of funds via our solicitor in order for this to sorted out ? Would Persimmon drop us and us consequently lose the house ?

[Tony]

Hi,

As you have not exchagned contracts they are not obliged to sell the house to you and could sell it to someone else.

It is possible that the house contravenes the Property Misdescription act. However, only Trading Standards can take action under the act, so you should speak to them. You can make a civil claim for misrepresentation, which your solicitor can help you with.

I hope this helps

Kind regards,

Tony

[stephmayes]

Thanks Tony,

It appears from advice from the NHBC inspectors that the landing window concerned is not covered by the building regs so therefore Persimmon can do what they like with the window. So if they decide to leave it out, they can.Just like that..The absence of the window does make the whole staires and landing however i will reserve judgement for when the house is finished,painted and handed over to us.



:angry:

[Colin Jack]

stephmayes,

I would be very wary of any advice from the NHBC Inspectors - the vast majority are not conversant with the Building Regulations or indeed qualified to be giving out such advice.

If you had spoken to the local authority building standards unit then the advice would have been more plausible. Remember the NHBC are the builder's insurer (paid for by the homeowner unfortunately – sad but true – see my other posts on this site).

At handover it will be too late and the bother you will have to go through to have it corrected (if it needs corrected) - you wouldn't believe.

Begs the question though – If the window wasn’t needed in the first place then why did this problem arise, considering all the extra design and work costs putting a window in. All sounds a bit suspect. Doesn’t say much for the Designer of the property either. In fact the whole thing smells fishy.

You say you had gone into several including the showhome? Were these all the Finmere? If so did these all have said window in place? The more I think about it the greater the concern that there is something far more serious wrong with the property. It is not just the window it is how the whole situation came about. Please seek professional advice from your local authority or a Chartered Engineer – you won’t get it from the NHBC or Persimmon.

Setting out problems at a lower level spring to mind.