To escalate a complaint after finding fraudulent activity?

[Wherestherumgone]

Long story short, we're at the beginning stages of reserving a new build property and we have found our signatures have been forged on a legal document. We've highlighted this to site and head office as it doesn't sit right with us that this was done. We understand why, they forgot to ask for one of us to sign, but they should have phoned us to go back. The site have admitted it to us but offered a half hearted apology and had a go for escalating it to head office. We spoke to head office and although they apologised there were no suggestions of what steps would be put in place to prevent it happening again.

Now we have 2 dilemmas; we could take it further but I don't want the person to be sacked or anything but I'm not sure this has been taken seriously. Secondly, do we continue with the purchase? We would still have to deal with the person on a regular basis and there will undoubtedly be an atmosphere.

I suppose the AIBU is are we being unreasonable to continue with the purchase when we know this and even more so if we continue down an escalation route? Is it worth escalating or do we just leave it with the half hearted apologies? Thank you.

Solicitor here. Yes what was done was wrong, illegal and you can report to the regulator. I agree with the posters who say you can report and still proceed with the purchase.

However, I also totally agree with your feeling that you don't want this person sacked. Many people in positions of responsibility panic and do stupid things like this in the heat of the moment. There are many examples of legal professionals of all levels doing so, never mind agents.

In your shoes the outcome I'd want is: (a) confirmation they have been spoken to by a supervisor who has outlined the seriousness of what they have done; (b) a promise they receive training/retraining on the correct procedures; and (c) confirmation that you'll be dealing with someone else going forward (they sound big enough for that to be reasonable).

Outcome (c) is the only one I'd follow up on/ensure was done. You could make this a condition of coming into resign i.e. the appointment must be with someone else).

I'd put the above in writing to them so they have it on their records.

This would not however put me off buying my dream home. The agent won't have anything to do with the actual building side (so you can't draw any conclusions relating to that from this behaviour). Moreover once the reservation is done properly, the rest of the legalities are done by actual solicitors. So no risk this person (or other agents) will be able to forge anything going forward. To be honest the reservation form/fee is not terribly important in the overall process; especially not once the fee itself has been paid (which you may already have sent them). It's for these reasons I'd not be too upset by this.

If they’re willing to do that, what else will they do?

The person is already fired. There is no way that after they go through the normal hoops they aren’t.

they don’t want you to go to the regulatory authority as it will cause them issue, but the employee is out.

it’s up to you on the house though. Is this a symptom of something wide spread or a rogue employee.

I'd agree that the person doing the forging is as good as out. If you go to the regulator the easiest defence is one bad apple who has been sacked.

The question really is whether you still want the house? If you want to proceed then do so with caution, if not use the threat of regulator complaint to get your reservation fees etc back.

OP my concern would be that if someone committed a completely illegal act and the company has tried to downplay the issue, what other corners are they cutting ??

There's lots of horror stories about the quality of new builds. We have some friends who have been in their new build for two years and there's always complaints on the neighbourhood chat about on going problems that are never fully resolved. Plumbing issues are a big one.

I just don't know how you can trust this company to build a quality house when they are not bothered by the fact that a member of staff illegally forged your signatures on a legally binding document and think that a suitable reaction is to have a go at you and try to down play the issue ?

Surely a company who is invested in building quality properties for their customers would be extremely apologetic that such a scenario has occurred ?

You say this is your dream property and therefore don't want to pull out. But I really think you really need to report what has happened and see how things play out. The outcome could be the deciding factor between whether buying the property is a good idea or not.

Thanks all. I've taken your comments on board and have contacted the ombudsman who were unable to help as the complaint has to be with the builder for 56days so they have directed me to Citizens Advice. Waiting on them to call back now.

Update* spoke to citizens advice and in a nutshell because there has been no financial detriment to us there is little we can do. They said police wouldn't be interested either because of this.

We have contacted the solicitors that were going to help us move and asked for their advice, waiting to hear back. It does sound like there's not a lot we can do.

I think that @LittleBear21 's advice is worth bearing in mind. This might not be the huge issue that you think, and I certainly wouldn't assume that the whole company can be judged by the action of one person.

I think it would be huge overreaction to pass up on your dream home over this.

I’d be out. You found one evidence of forgery, who the fuck knows what else they’ve forged your signature on?

Whag if they forge your signature on the snagging document, saying nothing needs fixing? What if they forge your signature on an agreement that the ground rent doubles every five years? What if they forge your signature on a document changing the property boundaries?

I couldn’t have any further dealings with a company that forged my signature, sorry.

If you want the house, then don’t back out, but do contine with your complaint. State you do not want forger to have anything to do with the sale. He could have got an electronic signature from you -easy peasy- lazy not to.
Forger unlikely to loose job, unless there are other performance issues, just be retrained.
Volume housebuilders lack quality staff & skimp on training. I work with most of them -example- currently working with a fresh sports science grad apprentice got Taylo Wimpey, on a complex contract, nice enough guy, but knows nada about contracts & TW won’t waste £ training him.
Hold their feet to the fire.

If you still want the house say you are not happy, you require an apology in writing and an undertaking that training will be undertaken.

Then ask for every upgrade to be included free of charge in your purchase price including carpets, kitchen upgrade, bathroom upgrades, turf or paving in the garden if this does not come with it etc.. how much you push for is up to you.

If it is your dream home go for it but make sure they know you are doing them a favour not the other way round.

I would also want a contact number for someone in head office so when you move in and snagging needs doing you can contact someone directly.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot! I wouldn't walk away but I would insist on working with someone else to complete the same as you no longer trust the last person. And once the houses are all built, they won't be onsite anymore and you can continue happily living on your home.

If you don't want the person firing, I wouldn't escalate it either. No doubt they feel sick to their stomach that you've complained to head office so I think that's punishment enough.

Miller Homes by any chance? They forged my signature on some documentation after we'd completed.

I'd pull out straight away personally. I love my new build house but the developers are downright crooks.

Listen, I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time the person in question has done it. And also the way the company are being very relaxed about it says a lot. It's probably the culture there and he wont get sacked because they're all in on it.

I think if you want the house, you need to just suck it up.

New build developers cut corners all the time during the builds, it’s hardly surprising that they cut corners on in the sales process too.

They’re greedy and manipulative, and sell sub standard houses for massively inflated prices. My friend bought the massively overpriced show home on a development - they’d wallpapered directly onto plasterboard, and the walls weren’t plastered. On a house bought for well over £400k.

But if you want the house, get over it and buy it.

Dishonest or genuinely trying to save OP the hassle of coming in again to sign a document they were happy to sign? Yes, they should be told in no uncertain terms to never let that happen again but I can't see why all the drama personally

You still haven't explained how you know this document has your forged signatures on OP

If it’s Taylor Wimpey then avoid avoid avoid! I can’t state this strongly enough! And whoever it is, I’d be not buying the house, escalating and contacting the police. The fact they’re minimising this makes it so much worse. They’ve proven to have dishonest staff (that should automatically have been dismissed) and they don’t care. Anybody that continues to purchase from this company after this must be stupid. Sorry if that sounds rude, but it’s true.

@Wonnle they sent it over, it had his signature and date - he never signed anything and the date was incorrect too. They've admitted it.

I don't want to name the builder but someone has said it so that's food for thought.

It's the blasé approach to it that his annoyed me and the apology was quite backhanded if I'm honest. I think we'll be pulling out.

I agree with this, we had a dodgy financial advisor fail to do income checks, forged our signatures on forms he filled with nonsense (I had corrected his work and he went back and used the uncorrected version on purpose and cut out and pasted signatures onto that one, then photocopied to hide it - it was a long tume ago!!) to sell the product and get his commission. Lost his job and his ability to be an IFA rightly so! He left a trail of shit & ruined lives behind him. Report and demand satisfaction.

@MenaiMna that sounds awful, glad you got it sorted.

We have reported to ombudsman but they can't help until 56 days have passed, citizens advice said as there has been no financial distress there's not a lot they can do and thats the stance the police would take. We left it with the solicitors but not sure if there are any other avenues to explore.

We have reportesman can't help until

Give them an inch....

😂

Was there a deadline where I it wasn't signed, you'd have lost the house?

Could there have been someone else wanting to swoop in and take that particular house?

If you don't want to ask for monetary compensation, ask to level up on all the fittings or get an extra parking space or something.

I don't understand why you are so concerned that a person prepared to commit fraud may be sacked for committing fraud.

You are leaving it open for that person to do this over and over with no consequence. I actually don't understand why, if the company already knows, they haven't done that anyway . It seems to be they are trying to guilt trip you into not reporting elsewhere.