About to exchange but housing association won't sign it off - asking to demolish extension - please help

[gluteustothemaximus]

I'll try my best to be brief as possible.

Shared ownership 75% owned. Had to have the property listed via HA first, but they didn't sell it. Went through an estate agent next, they sold it within a month or 2.

Been through a thousand hoops/paperwork from HA. They've been difficult.

Paperwork has been missing, accused us of owning 50% only and we were under the 'illusion' we'd bought more. We had to prove otherwise.

From the offer, to 2-3 months down the line, we then get an email from HA threatening to charge us 2 admin fees (£1000) - as we failed to let them know which estate agent we were using.

Ignoring the fact that they have been putting the buyer through paperwork hell, they know it’s sold, the estate agent had informed them immediately they were able to start listing the property.

All going fine ish, and then we are through the worst it seems - almost about to exchange. Solicitors are ready, but then another email from HA asking why we had built an extension without planning permission and not told them.

We again had to dig up old paperwork to prove that the planning permission was granted 10 years before we bought the house, and it wasn’t us that built it but the previous owners. No reply from this person.

Then we get a phone call a week later, saying they are coming out to inspect the extension.

We phone up, and no one wants to talk to us. Everyone is either busy or not interested. We try again, speak to a different guy who says he can see the notes and they’re going to ask us to tear down the extension. Horrified by this, we try and find out more, but we get passed onto another person who says the person we spoke to was new…blah blah blah, shouldn’t have said that.

They can’t do inspection for 2 more weeks. These delays are killing us.

After inspection, we can’t get hold of anyone, no one will answer our emails or calls. We are then told we’ll get a report soon. Eventually, a week later, we are told to demolish the property or they won’t sign it off.

We’ve asked why, they say it’s not been built correctly.

It’s been there 21 years. It was there 10 years before we came along, it was sold to us in the same condition it is now. We have proven all of this. But still it must come down.

Now their legal team says in keeping with our lease, we must maintain and repair the property, including extension. Either it’s poorly built or we haven’t maintained it, which one?

No one wants to speak to us, explain anything, talk anything through. We don’t know why it’s an issue now, when they sold it to us in this condition. They want it all gone, including the concrete foundations and put back to the original state, then the planning permission will be null and void.

We have no money left, we were expecting to complete weeks ago. Now DH is expected to become a demolition man overnight, or they won’t sign it off.

Sick, stressed, hardly sleeping between us, no one will help. We asked our solicitor, but they just want more money to fight this. And I understand.

Can anyone help us? Are the HA within their rights to do this? Are we responsible for something we didn’t build, and how come they knew they were going to ask us to tear it down before the inspection had taken place?

Our EA says they hold all the cards. If the buyer pulls out, we are in huge trouble.

Thanks for reading this (not so brief) thread x

[Elfieselfie]

No advice but that's awful. You must be tearing your hair out.

Hope someone useful sees this thread.

[gluteustothemaximus]

Thank you elfie - I posted this again in chat, and had lots of lovely replies x

[goddessofsmallthings]

Having first let the relevant organisation's legal service know that you intend to refer the matter, I suggest you call the Housing Ombudsman Service: //www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/contact-us/#.WCUMsPS_T6M