How f-***ked are we?

[Frazzled252]

We bought a Barratts David Wilson (BDW) five bed home in Bedford this year. It has turned out to be the home from hell, with sewage smells, gurgling and no ceiling or floor plumb.
BDW have admitted that they need to take the house back to brick to sort the issues, and that we will need to move out. That’s not okay with us as we bought a newbuild for the convenience. BDW have offered three months mortgage payments, but we don’t have a mortgage so have no idea what this cash goodwill would look like.
BDW have also offered to provide a cash settlement in lieu of fixing the house but then we’d have to pay ourselves to fix the house and would likely lose money.
We are also keen to move from the dystopian and apocalyptic looking area (Wixams). The issue is that the house was relatively cheap because it is in such a horrific area.
what options do we have?
is there anywhere in the south east that we can get a decent house for 800-900k?
TIA for replies

They have said they will (buy it back) but they want us to move in three months.(we dont fancy this)

What what whaaaat????
Bite their hand off.

Get average mortgage % uk apply to value of yout house to a mortgage calc to workout a notional mortgage payment... say 2.5k.
Explain you habe no mortgage but have additional moving costs. Ask for 7.5k

Stick your stuff in storage and rent. Get on with your lives.

If they decline the 7.5k - STILL SELL.

If they retract the offer or decide to drag it out you will be "fully fucked"

Have you read Broken Harbour by Tana French?

Nothing good comes of staying in a shitty new build in a bad location.

Cceppt their offer and rent for a bit. It will save the u a lot of hassle and you'll be I. A great position as cash buyers.

£800k for a new build! Am staggered. Take the money, rent and then buy something decent.

I had to look up where wixham is. It’s in Bedfordshire. It’s very easy to buy a house in Bedfordshire for £800k.

i can’t think of anywhere in the uk you couldn’t buy a property of some sort for £800k and the vast majority of the south east you can buy a house.

sell it back with costs refunded qns compensation and run like the wind

Why? It’s not like new builds are cheaper than old houses?!

is there anywhere in the south east that we can get a decent house for 800-900k?

You could definitely get a good house in the Bedford area for that. It looks though like this is an opportunity for you to get all your money back and move to the south east, if that's what you want. So see it as an opportunity.

Exactly. I've always thought the opposite, in fact. They tend to be more expensive for less.

You would be fucking MAD not to take their offer to buy and leave in 3 months. Assuming it's a fair price of course.

Sell it back to them, rent and find something else.

So what do you want? They’ve offered you many solutions. We had issues with our new build, let them come in and sort them. It’s been fine ever since.

I don't know how you managed to move to Wixams in the first place without noticing that it is just a collection of housing estates in a field. I believe they originally promised a train station for connecting to Bedford and London and then never built it. There are nicer villages in the area.

this ^ take the money and get out

get the 3 months mortgage payments on a 25% deposit and 75% borrowed

so if house was £800k then mortgage payments on £600k for 3 months would be what id want so ask for more and negotiate?

Id also want removal costs and for them to pay solicitors fees

do you both work?

This actually has happened to me. With David Wilson twenty years ago. We lived in the house for a year before we managed to get them to buy it back for what we paid for it and they also gave us a deposit on a new David Wilson house. Which we took.

Obviously it had to be one that was already built and not bought by someone but that was fine and that’s what we did as it expedited the moving process as we were desperate by then. We ended up in a better house than we had in the first place but the whole thing was horrible. Davis Wilson were so dismissive at first. We were a young couple with a baby and that they could just give us a bunch of flowers or something.

just looked on booking dot com and there are plenty of places to stay in before for £2,500 a months - which gives you 3 months after your 3 months in the house - so a total of 6 months to look for something else

if you don't have ties to uk then id move to Portugal for the winter and rent there for 90 days, as it'll be warm and possibly a bit cheaper

Not that f**ked if you cut and run, GOOOOO!!!!

It does depend what you mean by a decent house but there’s nice villages around Bedford or there’s Olny, Newport Pagnell, Stony Stratford, Cranfield which are all nice (in my opinion!)

Let them buy the house back. Push for some compensation as extra for the stress and inconvenience. Then just go. If you need advice then see a solicitor.

There are 175 5-bedroomed houses on Rightmove in the Bedfordshire area between £600-800k. Surely one of them would suit you?

Take the money and accept the inconvenience, then move somewhere you actually like.

I’d take the money and run OP. I appreciate that it will take longer than 3 months to find a house AND actually go through the purchase process so rent somewhere. Negotiate as big a settlement for compensation as you can from them and this might very well cover most of your rent.

In fact on a different aspect all together, start researching where you would potentially move to and rent a property in that area.

Negotiate with them. Go big and then negotiate from there. Ask for the house to be bought back, moving costs, furniture storage costs and 6 months of rental payments.

But definitely take the money (especially as you’re not keen on the area anyway). Hopefully the 6 months in rented will give you enough time to find a new home.

Let them buy it back ! It would never feel like home after all the stress it has caused

As others have said, take the money. I know renting isn't cheap, but rent the smallest (some of the interest on your lump sum will help), cheapest house you can for six months. It'll probably take a while to sort paperwork out (get them to pay for your legal expenses!), so if you start looking now, you'll have longer than nine months.

The area you live in is a separate matter, but if you stay, you may have to declare any recent issues on sale, or there might be local knowledge about this problem that will put others off (you may not be the only ones that will experience it).

What's most important with the money you have, five bedrooms or a nice area with amenities and a better quality of live?

Of course you can get a decent house for your budget!

If you're in Bedford start looking at surrounding villages, other small towns like Ampthill, Olney, Flitwick, etc.

Do a search on Right Move.