NC for this as very outing.
I am a resident of a new build on a development.
Myself and my husband bought this house in March 16. At the time we were sold we were told that no new build properties in our council were being sold as freehold and assured that the development would not be selling the leaseholds on our property, as they had to be given back to the council after a set period of time, giving us some security.
we bought and just over a year later the leaseholds have been sold to a private company who is requesting hundreds of pounds just to apply for a price so we can buy our land,
we used the solicitors recommended by the developers, who have seemingly forgot to mention these huge clauses within our purchases.
From building an extension would cost us thousands of pounds for approval, to what animals we can have in our home, to charging us for application and permission to change our carpets, door handles, light fittings etc. insisting we decorate at specific times during our lease. They are not responsible for any maintenance of the grounds of pipe work.
There is a clause in the lease that says they can force entry if we are late on our ground rent or if we break any of the 32 pages of regulations (although written notice is required from LL). I have been advised that this is just a scare tactic, but from my own knowledge if it's written into the lease then surely its enforceable?
They refer to themselves as our landlord which I know they technically are (but it still irks me), it doesn't matter myself and my husband spent 130K for the property and our land was sold on for between 5-7k they in effect can tell us how to live our lives.
This has made our house virtually unsaleable as mortgage companies are starting to refuse mortgages on these grounds
The developers as a company have lied at every stage of our application changing plans after we had already placed 100s into the process,
We have lived on a building site for more then a year with no regard shown for our standard of living from heavy ground work at 7am to blocking my car in at least 10 times even after I have explained I have a disabled child and need to be able to get in and out of my property at all times.(I know this bit is illegal)
Legally required checks have not been carried out, and the building is of such poor quality that many owners have had to spend 1000s just to get them up to a livable standard.
they broke the legal terms the day we moved in by having a telephone pole blocking all residents access for 6 weeks, I should have known then but realistically it was already too late.
So myself and my neighbours have been scrambling around trying to nail down the details of this and how to take the next steps, so leaflets have gone round and we are having a meeting with the council (who also had no idea this was happening and didnt grant approval for the houses to be sold in these terms, they now have a legal team working on it themselves)
so a lady who had just completed on her house went up to the sales office and tried to ask for some further clarity (as she had been told the same lies as us), they refused to discuss the matter with her.
She mentioned she would come and see me instead and the sales agents response was
"she is a trouble maker"
I find this rather insulting as all I have done is offer the residence the guidance we should have been given in the first place, so AIBU (please be gentle, I have had about 2 hours sleep in the past..... god knows)
AIBU?
To dislike being called a trouble maker
duckintrouble · 18/05/2017 12:01
Thank BillSykes I think its just getting to the point I want some professionalism from them.
And obviously a rant on here 
We have banners that we can hang on our cars arriving today (banned from hanging them on the external or putting anything in our windows that is visible from the outside) And ive stopped 260k worth of sales going through in the last 2 days, so I can kind of see why they dislike me
Bloody well done OP . Take on them developers and I hope you win. Cheek of them .
In situations like this it's no bad thing to be labelled a trouble-maker imo. You are well within your rights to take this as far as you need to because it sounds bloody disgraceful. I'm in a HA flat and have less conditions imposed on me than you do!
Your 'landlord' sounds to be in breech of a LOT of things and need to be made accountable for any 'lies by omission' (which failing to mention various clauses in your lease). Press, local MP, solicitors, whatever regulatory body is most relevant etc. I'd resort to anything legal here. They sound like total shits 
.
Have you got legal cover on your house insurance? Would be worth talking to them for a start...
I would also be talking to the solicitors that acted for you in the sale - just because they were the ones recommended by the builders doesn't mean that they can get away with giving you false information or forgetting to mention huge problems with your lease... Do you have anything in writing to confirm that you were told that you were told that the leaseholds were not going to be sold? And don't they have to offer them to you before selling them to anyone else - so did they ever send you anything to offer it to you? There's no way that they should have let you sign anything that required you to get permission to change your carpets or doorhandles - to not bring it to your attention is shocking. I would be threatening that you will all (I assume other purchasers also used them and are also unhappy!) be reporting them to the solicitors watchdog, making a complaint about unprofessional conduct and expecting compensation for the financial pickle that you find yourself in. Even if nothing comes of it, it might make the solicitors stop and think for a moment about how they are lacking in integrity. Are you able to afford to go to a local decent solicitor or CAB and get a little advice on what you were told vs what you should have been told - and if there's anything you can do about it?
It's usual to expect to have a leasehold flat - that might impose conditions. But you shouldn't have those sorts of conditions imposed on a house! 
.
Do you have a friend that the developers wouldn't know is connected to you - could they come and pretend to be interested in buying a new build, get them to record (covertly if necessary, or even just audio, or they could have a partner who was recording them and just happened to get the important bit recorded by 'accident') the sales blurb, just to see what they are currently saying about leaseholds and the conditions imposed on purchasers, it would be helpful to show that they are still peddling lies if that is the case.
Would you be interested in getting the local press involved? Or somebody like Watchdog? There's definitely been somebody on tv talking about poorly built houses recently.
Is there any social media that you can use to find out or ask questions on, for the head office, as to why you were lied to?
one of the big house builders has just had some really bad press for rushing to finish so many houses that they all ended up really shoddy. I can't remember which one it was but somebody else on here might - look them up, see what they did to make their campaign effective.
unfortunately you can't contact your mp at the moment, but do so as soon as the election has happened. You could try talking to your local councillor and your parish councillor too - they can be very helpful.
And whilst I agree with others that troublemaker is something to be proud of here - when talking to her and others remind her that you're not a trouble maker, you're a victim of their lies, deceit, and that if they had acted legally, decently with integrity then there wouldn't be any victims that needed to make trouble stand up for their own rights.
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