TL;DR What kind of things can a house builder offer as part of a goodwill gesture/compensation package in your experience?
So, myself and my partner originally reserved our new build property off-plan at the end of June 2021 and then went on to exchange contracts in August 2021. At the time of reservation we were told that the house wouldn't be ready to complete until December 2021 and December 2021 was on our exchange of contracts as the expected completion date. Essentially, we had been awaiting another property to come available and they called to tell us about this one that we eventually went for - the previous buyer dropped out and we had originally enquired about this one so they gave us a bit of a "First Refusal" option which we were buzzing about so duly went ahead. It is a shared ownership property.
For context, our Long Stop date is June 2022 and we extended our mortgage offer from 14th November to 16th February.
However, visiting the site quite regularly, we got closer and closer to December only to realise that nothing was being built on our plot. We made many fruitless attempts to contact the housing company but were often rebutted with excuses like "sorry, we have a build sales meeting next week then we can update you" etc etc. Those updates never came.
Then, in October 2021 I went into the builders office to complain and then i ended up having a call with the regional sales manager for this development. He apologised, explained that there has obviously been a delay to the building of our plot and that after visiting the site he expected it to be completed in February. So, understandably annoyed we just left it at that and got on with xmas etc.
Still, visiting the site regularly as a bit of a drive on a weekend we could see that the house still wasn't being built. It got to the first week back after xmas and new year and I was emailing and calling again - 4th January 2022. It was only until I then managed to guess email addresses of the sales manager, head office, head of sales and copying them all in demanding a response and explanation before I was to submit a formal complaint. Someone rang me within half an hour (funny that, eh?).
On this call from the sales manager who originally told us that February would be the new date, he conceded that again there would be another delay because there has been issues with the plot and the street that the plot was on (there were other houses in a cul de sac, the street of which our house was at the beginning of; who must have been waiting well over a year to move in, that were fully built but delayed) - and they were very sorry but it was now looking like a solid date of JUNE 2022 (!) which, conveniently is when our long stop date is.
At this point, they offered us three options:
1 - cancel the contract entirely and refund us our deposit plus any financials we may have incurred e.g. mortgage advisors, solicitors etc
2 - An offer to swap to a new plot entirely that was closer to completion
3 - wait until June but offer us a compensation/goodwill gesture package
So, out of those options:
Option 1 for us is not the outcome we set out for. We are back living with my parents; 6 people in a 3 bed semi which is really cramped with no space or privacy whilst paying for a storage unit to hold furniture and belongings - we just want somewhere to live. That's all we want and getting a refund etc would mean us having to restart the whole process again and we would not get a deal as good as we got for the small deposit the shared ownership enabled us two 20-somethings to get.
Option 2 was the original option but the difficulty was, they had no other shared ownership properties either available now, or completing earlier than June 2022 which would otherwise defeat the point. They claimed that if we wanted another plot (that was the same property type or similar) that was on an outright sale tenure; they would need to apply and go through legalities to have it switched over to a shared ownership tenure; which they said would take longer than June 2022 anyway (so basically they weren't willing to do this).
Option 3 now seems like the only option available to us which, doesn't get us into our house any sooner; I feel like they just offered us 1&2 to make us feel like they were doing something to help us and probably knowing we would reject Option 1.
All of this alongside high pressure at work for myself and my partner; stressful living conditions; having to extend mortgage offers AGAIN (this second time is about to cost me £75 and a new payslip), being ignored and/or lied to about the status of the house; paying for storage units etc, not being able to take out new lines of credit through fear of having our mortgage offer rejected on completion (my girlfriend wants her first car but can't afford to buy one outright, I am coming to the end of my car's finance agreement too so will need a new one soon) - after all of that, I want to absolutely make sure that the housing company will PAY through their nose in "goodwill gestures" to make things up for us.
SO, after all of that (congrats if I didn't bore you enough for you to get to the end); outside of the obvious like claiming back from the house builder the £75 mortgage offer extension; what kind of things are they ABLE to offer us? Has anyone got experience of having recieved these kinds of goodwill gesture and/or compensation and if so, what did you get out of them/how much?
The only reason I say this is that I have a feeling they'll try and get out of this offering the least amount possible; so if I know what other people have managed to get out of house builders and also what is within their power to give out if necessary; then it will give me a good basis of things to go after to make the most out of the situation. I have asked what's in their power to give us but they've kinda brushed around the topic and said it would be better to have a meeting with them and their head of sales face to face to sign it off... So i want to go into that meeting prepared!
We already have fully fitted and tiled/floored bathrooms and kitchen incl dishwasher, fridge and oven.
Things I have heard:
- Flooring (the sales manager mentioned this himself but he's in for a shock if he thinks that's the only thing they'll be giving us)
- Washing machines/dryers
- Grass (we get turfed anyway)
Anything else people can let me know about that we can do to benefit ourselves?
P.s. in other forums I have seen people asking similar and some claiming "they don't owe you anything because it's not a delay to a fixed completion or long stop date" which I understand but: 1. it's past the completion date written into the exchange of contracts, 2. Completion is likely to be on/around/past our long stop date and 3. they've already offered us a goodwill package so, it's on the table now.
Thank you so much in advance!
L
So, myself and my partner originally reserved our new build property off-plan at the end of June 2021 and then went on to exchange contracts in August 2021. At the time of reservation we were told that the house wouldn't be ready to complete until December 2021 and December 2021 was on our exchange of contracts as the expected completion date. Essentially, we had been awaiting another property to come available and they called to tell us about this one that we eventually went for - the previous buyer dropped out and we had originally enquired about this one so they gave us a bit of a "First Refusal" option which we were buzzing about so duly went ahead. It is a shared ownership property.
For context, our Long Stop date is June 2022 and we extended our mortgage offer from 14th November to 16th February.
However, visiting the site quite regularly, we got closer and closer to December only to realise that nothing was being built on our plot. We made many fruitless attempts to contact the housing company but were often rebutted with excuses like "sorry, we have a build sales meeting next week then we can update you" etc etc. Those updates never came.
Then, in October 2021 I went into the builders office to complain and then i ended up having a call with the regional sales manager for this development. He apologised, explained that there has obviously been a delay to the building of our plot and that after visiting the site he expected it to be completed in February. So, understandably annoyed we just left it at that and got on with xmas etc.
Still, visiting the site regularly as a bit of a drive on a weekend we could see that the house still wasn't being built. It got to the first week back after xmas and new year and I was emailing and calling again - 4th January 2022. It was only until I then managed to guess email addresses of the sales manager, head office, head of sales and copying them all in demanding a response and explanation before I was to submit a formal complaint. Someone rang me within half an hour (funny that, eh?).
On this call from the sales manager who originally told us that February would be the new date, he conceded that again there would be another delay because there has been issues with the plot and the street that the plot was on (there were other houses in a cul de sac, the street of which our house was at the beginning of; who must have been waiting well over a year to move in, that were fully built but delayed) - and they were very sorry but it was now looking like a solid date of JUNE 2022 (!) which, conveniently is when our long stop date is.
At this point, they offered us three options:
1 - cancel the contract entirely and refund us our deposit plus any financials we may have incurred e.g. mortgage advisors, solicitors etc
2 - An offer to swap to a new plot entirely that was closer to completion
3 - wait until June but offer us a compensation/goodwill gesture package
So, out of those options:
Option 1 for us is not the outcome we set out for. We are back living with my parents; 6 people in a 3 bed semi which is really cramped with no space or privacy whilst paying for a storage unit to hold furniture and belongings - we just want somewhere to live. That's all we want and getting a refund etc would mean us having to restart the whole process again and we would not get a deal as good as we got for the small deposit the shared ownership enabled us two 20-somethings to get.
Option 2 was the original option but the difficulty was, they had no other shared ownership properties either available now, or completing earlier than June 2022 which would otherwise defeat the point. They claimed that if we wanted another plot (that was the same property type or similar) that was on an outright sale tenure; they would need to apply and go through legalities to have it switched over to a shared ownership tenure; which they said would take longer than June 2022 anyway (so basically they weren't willing to do this).
Option 3 now seems like the only option available to us which, doesn't get us into our house any sooner; I feel like they just offered us 1&2 to make us feel like they were doing something to help us and probably knowing we would reject Option 1.
All of this alongside high pressure at work for myself and my partner; stressful living conditions; having to extend mortgage offers AGAIN (this second time is about to cost me £75 and a new payslip), being ignored and/or lied to about the status of the house; paying for storage units etc, not being able to take out new lines of credit through fear of having our mortgage offer rejected on completion (my girlfriend wants her first car but can't afford to buy one outright, I am coming to the end of my car's finance agreement too so will need a new one soon) - after all of that, I want to absolutely make sure that the housing company will PAY through their nose in "goodwill gestures" to make things up for us.
SO, after all of that (congrats if I didn't bore you enough for you to get to the end); outside of the obvious like claiming back from the house builder the £75 mortgage offer extension; what kind of things are they ABLE to offer us? Has anyone got experience of having recieved these kinds of goodwill gesture and/or compensation and if so, what did you get out of them/how much?
The only reason I say this is that I have a feeling they'll try and get out of this offering the least amount possible; so if I know what other people have managed to get out of house builders and also what is within their power to give out if necessary; then it will give me a good basis of things to go after to make the most out of the situation. I have asked what's in their power to give us but they've kinda brushed around the topic and said it would be better to have a meeting with them and their head of sales face to face to sign it off... So i want to go into that meeting prepared!
We already have fully fitted and tiled/floored bathrooms and kitchen incl dishwasher, fridge and oven.
Things I have heard:
- Flooring (the sales manager mentioned this himself but he's in for a shock if he thinks that's the only thing they'll be giving us)
- Washing machines/dryers
- Grass (we get turfed anyway)
Anything else people can let me know about that we can do to benefit ourselves?
P.s. in other forums I have seen people asking similar and some claiming "they don't owe you anything because it's not a delay to a fixed completion or long stop date" which I understand but: 1. it's past the completion date written into the exchange of contracts, 2. Completion is likely to be on/around/past our long stop date and 3. they've already offered us a goodwill package so, it's on the table now.
Thank you so much in advance!
L