Builder cancelled sale on exchange day (new build)

[Loncan]

Hi everyone. Wondering if anyone has been in this position and might have some advice...

I’ve been in the process of buying a new build flat since early May (with help to buy if that makes a difference). The flat is complete, and was move in ready when I viewed it in May.

The builder’s solicitors have been atrocious (ignoring emails, waiting 1.5 months to send a form even with almost daily follow ups from my solicitor, etc). I was supposed to exchange today but, after ignoring my solicitor for almost 2 weeks, they advised at the last minute that the builder has not and will not give them permission to exchange. Apparently a new sales manager joined the company over the summer, and has refused to allow the exchange on any sales made by the previous one. They would offer no further information except to say that it’s no longer in their best interest to exchange and that I needed to contact the building’s sales team ASAP. My multiple calls and emails were ignored, except for the 3 calls where someone answered and promptly hung up on me. The emergency contact number I was given is inactive, so I can’t get a hold of them that way either.

My solicitor has said he’s never experienced anything like this before. He suspects that they never intended on completing the sale and that the solicitors dragged out the process on purpose. The builder’s solicitors are no longer answering his messages either so we don’t really know exactly what’s going on.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Do I have any recourse? Is this worth pursuing with the Property Ombudsman? Apologies if these are stupid questions; I’m a first time buyer and have had quite the disappointing day. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Wow @Spirals33 well done on working that out! And least @Loncan knows what's going on now. They're not a developer I've ever had anything to do with. I would be concerned though about going through with the sale as I can't imagine they've been thorough so far, and might be very hard to get snagging issues etc sorted?

Inspired had a good name for many years. It isn't clear what has happened and whatever has happened probably doesn't meet any normal expectations.

I think it sounds like you had a lucky escape - if they are in admin I doubt if you will get reservation monies back but its worth logging a claim, your deposit will be held by your solicitor in a client account so will be dafe

safe even

It is worth staying hopeful for a bit if you like the flat. The administrator is going to take a short time to get things back up and running and will very likely get to the sales which have stalled. @Loncan, I hope your solicitor can help you with this information. (Though it depends a bit on which block you're buying in, they are in various different legal states, the administrator will soon be able to tell you or your solicitor more).

I just saw this, but see a PP has beaten me to it:

insidecroydon.com/2019/09/04/developer-in-administration-after-owner-jailed-over-car-crash/

I'm not sure what that means for your purchase, OP - maybe the assets may will be sold to another developer, and put up for sale again, but I'm guessing that will all take some time if it were to happen.

'Crashing his Porsche into a tree while high on cocaine...' classy. Seriously though, that accident looks horrific!

@PiedImperial: the assets are mostly still controlled by Inspired. Inspired is now controlled by administrators who are taking some time to get fully up to speed with the company's finances and assets. They will then aim to continue trading "as normal". Best advice is for @Loncan or her solicitors to contact the administrator as soon as possible, so that all options are open for her. It's a nightmare situation and it is good that the company is now being managed responsibly, it gives the best chance to anyone who is already financially exposed.

We were once buying a house, albeit BTL, where the vendor went bankrupt an hour before exchange.

Prices were rising fast but we hung on, partly because we could not find anything else. To our surprise the administrators sold to us at the agreed price, albeit about 7 months later. I guess they were happy to be able to liquidate one asset quickly.

My recollection was that contact happened via solicitors. Somehow our solicitor became in contact with the administrators solicitors and was able to confirm we were ready to roll. Once they had completed whatever they had to do, they exchanged.

Good luck. It suited us, but you are in a different position. One silver lining is that prices are falling. My advice would be to stay in contact with the administrator, perhaps via your solicitor, but also to keep looking. A first time buyer ready to go could pick up a bargain.

Wow! I’m shocked. Thanks for all the info @Spirals33. My solicitor has essentially washed his hands of this as it’s apparently not in his list of duties...who would I contact to speak to the administrators? I’m angry I’ve been left to deal with this myself

I’m so stressed...I’ve been working 10-12 hour days prepping for a huge work event next week and I’m just so angry this is happening :(

Appalled by your solicitor washing your hands of this OP.

Ditto PP - I'm appalled with your solicitor too!

Sorry, I’ve been terrible at responding to messages today, but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. You all have been so kind and extremely helpful (and definitely more helpful than my solicitor).

Small update, I’m arranging to view a few properties this weekend, and I have the number of the administrators so I’ll be calling them tomorrow. I want to know all my options before pulling out of the sale or not.

@Loncan I think that is sensible, you don't need to pull out now, and easily can later, but definitely have a look at your options.

Good luck today @Loncan. Fingers crossed for you. Keep us posted.

I have an update.

On Wednesday I received an email and had a call with someone who works for the senior lender for the specific building I bought at, who advised that the building was fine and sales would continue very quickly.

On Friday, my solicitor received an email from the builder’s solicitors advising that a new agreement is being made between Homes England (Help to Buy) and the building company, however the deal won’t be done until mid October at the earliest. Once the deal is done, I need to reapply for HTB, and apparently re-apply for my mortgage as well. So it looks like if I continue with the sale I won’t be in until 2020 which is really awful.

I apparently need to contact a company called Countrywide, who are the new agents dealing with sales progression, however no one will provide me any contact details, so that’s frustrating.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do. All of the other properties I’ve seen have been duds, so I’d like the sale to progress, but I can’t afford to move into an AirBNB for 3+ months while it gets sorted.

Thanks again for the support, you have been so helpful...I never would have known what was going on with the company without your input.

It's not ideal, but have you spoken to your landlord and will they let you stay or have they found another tenant? Instead of Airbnb, look for a six month tenancy somewhere. It might not be what you want but for one thing the extra time will give you some breathing space. You don't need to give all the ins and outs of what has happened.

Countrywide are a huge EAs - they trade under different names in different local areas. Your solicitor should contact the administrators and ask them which Countrywide office is dealing with the specific development you were looking to buy in.

@wowfudge My solicitor has said I need to figure it out for myself as it is not his job to get that information for me, and that I can google. Which is really unhelpful, because I really need someone to give me a clear outline of what exactly is happening, what I need to do, and who exactly I should be contacting. I’m not a property solicitor and I’m a first time buyer, so I don’t know why he thinks this is something I can figure out on my own.

@Loncan put the building postcode into this: www.propertywide.co.uk/sell/estate-agents/directory/ then phone them to check they're the right branch!

Gas your solicitor forwarded the email they received to you? You can contact the administrators yourself. I'm fact, look on the Companies House Beta Service website and the details of the administrators will be there under the filing tab. You don't need to be a solicitor to get that info. Your solicitor is not being helpful though.

@wowfudge No, he just copy and pasted it in the body of his email so that I couldn’t have any of the emails. Stupid question, but what is a House Beta Service?

@Dinosauraddict Thank you, I’ll do that.

Companies House Beta Service - free information regarding companies which is in the public domain. There will be filings by the administrators and you can see what their contact details are there.

Ask your solicitor for the email address though - you're paying them!

It's on Inspired's website: www.inspiredassets.com/, the email address is [email protected]

Countrywide are pretty big so should be easy enough to track down the local branch.

Can you swap solicitor at this point?