vallumlj

Just bought a brand new house and have got a problem with the developer already. We bought the house in June and planning to move in September.
My girlfriend fell in love with the staircase in the hall way as it was quite wide and now we have found out that the staircase in the show home was the wrong one and they have put a sign up stating this. This has ended up with us getting a bigger living room, its about 7cm wider and the staircase is now 7cm smaller. We said this to the sales rep we bought the house off and she said she could get us some extras done for free eg turf , chrome towel rails and mirrors on our walldrobes done for free. We have just got back from our holiday and have had a letter from them saying as our living room is now bigger they dont think we our is any worse of so they are not going to do anything.

What can i do can i fight ? Is it worth ringing the sales manager direct ? I spoke to our solicter and she said in the contract they are allow to change materials and sizes of things.

P s we paid them the 10% deposit last week then found this out 2 days later.

thanks for any help

coolangatta

If your solicitor says you're foofed, then it's pretty much a done deal
Try to get some compensation and accept that your staircase is 'fractionally' smaller than expected.
Why is 70mm so important on a staircase
I can understand that 70mm could be important in other measurements

vallumlj

i agree mate but she loved the stair case the 70mm was a piece of wood that run along the side of the stair case it looked different. ( like a cat slide lol ).

I think i might call the sales manager and have a word with him and see what we can do

Iwan

Have you spoken to your solicitor yet? I'd imagine his/her opinion is probably more worthwhile than most people on here. It might only be a small change, but at the end of the day the design of the house has changed - it's not what was originally sold to you.

7cm might not sound a lot, but imagine if you were buying the house as a disabled/elderly person and you needed the extra space for fitting a stairlift or wheelchair access. It could make all the difference in that situation.

At the very least try and get actual money off, rather than be fobbed off with free stuff to go in the house. They've always offered that with new houses, and it's more of a buyers market now.

coolangatta

I can understand that the minor change in the staircase could be a disapointment, but I'm sure the house had more to offer than that.
If so, accept the small alteration (mentally) and play merry hell to the developer. You 'will' get something from it

DYK

what i don't get is,why didn't anyone notice it was the wrong stairs in the showroom to start with.you put a deposit down on the house,then they tell you a few days later,the stairs will not be the same as in the showroom as it's the wrong one.If you don't get anywhere with them,you could always call Bluff,and say your not going through with the purchase because of the stairs.You risk loosing your deposit but,chances are they will not loose out on a house sale because a strip of 70MM wood..Who Dares Wins

IanF

Hi there,

What are you looking to do? I guess you still want the house, but want to be compensated in some way. Their letter in fact is an admission, they have admitted the house is not as originally described so that's a good first step.

Whilst in their view there may be benefits to having a large living room, you do not share their view so therefore this is largely irrelevant. You can argue that had you been shown a home with a smaller staircase you would not have proceeded.

With my new build, I found a polite exchange of letters followed by the threat of court action usually got the desired result.

With reference to your solicitor's advice, I would read the contract yourself, misrepresentation can be deemed as a breach of contract, it depends on how tightly worded the contract is. You can, quite genuinely, argue that the staircase was a key feature of the house for you.

Good luck and don't let the developer fob you off, as mine tried to do several times.

IanF

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

the building trade is shagged mate, you have the upper hand, make lots of threats even if you dont plan to go ahead, I can pretty much assure you they will back down in some shape or form.