Do I have grounds to pull out

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dub1

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I'm hoping thst I can get some advice with a major problem that I am having with the house that I have bought. I put the initial deposit down in February. I was told that it was almost ready at that stage. It was in actual fact not. Things went on for a number of months. I was then told 6 weeks or so ago thby the builder that I was to snag or he would put matters into the handsof his solicitor. At this stage the kitchen was only half in and the electrics were not finished etc. He basically forced me to snag. I got a structural engineer in. His report showed up a number of extremely serious issues. One of which was dampness throughout the whole building. Apparently the builder cut some major corners. He put a costing to rectify this and the other issues at approx €40k--€50k. That was 4 weeks ago and I have heard nothing from the builder at all. I have been to the house a few times and it doesent look like the place has been touched in weeks. I met with my solicitor who is very concerned and sent their solicitor a letter last week asking for access to the site for him, myself and the engineer. He has heard nothing since. He is reluctant to go into much detal about pulling out at this stage. Does anyone know how I might stand here. My own opinion is that the builder is not in a great financial position and may not have the funds to carry out this work. I have heard through the grapevine that he owes money left, right and centre.I have paid a €54k deposit. This money is still with the builders solicitor. Any advice would be appreciated
 
Re: Do I have grounds to npull out

Cmon, 40-50k to get the house right because of dampness and its a new house!!!! Try as much as possible to get deposit back.....Mercantile quality and all that...

As you might know if you signed contracts and paid a deposit then it might be hard for you to get it back, but if you have the engineers report and go to court then who knows what could happen.....
 
Re: Do I have grounds to npull out

Dub1 is right, the builder may not have the money. I know of one who left his subbies unpaid and now has two bodyguards to keep them at bay.
 
Re: Do I have grounds to npull out

Towger said:
Dub1 is right, the builder may not have the money. I know of one who left his subbies unpaid and now has two bodyguards to keep them at bay.
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What happens when he cant pay the bodyguards?
 
I know that his solicitor still has the deposit that I paid as I got my solicitor to check this. To be honest I either think that he does not have the money to fix this problem or else he is not sure what to do. My solicitor finally got hold of his last Thursday. They said that they were working on the problems but I know that they arent because I've been down to the house. They want my structural engineer to meet with their architecht to go through the problems. I think that they will look to my engineer to suggest solutions and will probably look for some kind of comprimise. It'll be months before its sorted. My engineer also thinks that Homebond may not give their guarantee either. I wonder how Homebond would feel if they knew that there may be the same sort of problems in the other 11 properties that they have already guaranteed???. At this stage I either want it fixed now or I want out so that I can find somewhere else. It's driving me crazy
 
You have commited to puchase a completed property. Why should you go to the expense of having you and your engineer agree a compromise with the builder's architect. You were asked to snag the property. This you did. Unless the matters are sorted I wouldn't accept anything less, unless he wants to reduce the price enough for you to complete the work with your own builder. It really is up to your solicitor to act on your behalf and not to have to listen to such petty excuses.
 
"He put a costing to rectify this and the other issues at approx €40k--€50k":confused: what are you talking about here! If its a snag then its not a costing issue to you as you have already agreed a price, if the builder has to fork out 40-50 k to reduce dampness I think some one some where is saying more than thier prayers. To reduce dampness usually means drying out a house a few days and correcting the insulation/moisture membrane which is basically a small job, especailly if a new home. So I am confused as to the issue here!
 
The OP undertook the snag at the request of the Builder. He received a professional opinion and he would be crazy to accept anything else and at a lesser cost. No one has seen the extent of te dampness so it could be far worse than already mentioned. He has purchased a completed house, not a half finished ruin.
 
mercman said:
The OP undertook the snag at the request of the Builder. He received a professional opinion and he would be crazy to accept anything else and at a lesser cost. No one has seen the extent of te dampness so it could be far worse than already mentioned. He has purchased a completed house, not a half finished ruin.
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This gets more confusing! OP was requested by the Builder thats a 1st. And he would be crazy to accept anything else and at a lesser cost, this makes no sense to me sorry, I thought you wanted to remedy the problem, all I am saying is this problem would not take 40 to 50 K no matter what way you slice it. You say "He has purchased a completed house, not a half finished ruin" but he says at the begining he put down a deposit and that the house was not finished i.e kitchen and so on. Look this just doesnt all add up for me lol I will leave it to you guys, I obviously am missing something (dont be rude!).

Best of luck !
 
I think it seems quite clear what the problems are and how it could cost this much to remedy. As far I am aware there is no moisure membrane installed(im fairly sure that is what the engineer said) and this is serious. Plus there are pools of water inside the doors and all windows when it rains. How the builder thought he was going to get away with this I dont know. At the end of the day its a structural engineer with over 20 years experience that i had look at it. I have to "believe" what he says.

I was thinking today that what if say no to my engineer meeting their architecht. The reason im saying this is that at this stage ive lost all faith in this builder and property. I love it but would prefer to get out of the contract at this stage. I would say that they will look to my engineer for possible solutions. I really dont see why it should be up to him to provide this information anyway. I went down there again this evening and the place hasnt been touched from what I could see. Is there a time limit that can be put on the builder having to have the property finished from the time its snagged. I put my deposit down in February and there is an 18 month finish date in the contract. My solicitor dances around this question when i ask it and does not give me a definitive answer.
 
They should really build you a brand new house at this stage. These problems could haunt you over and over again. Barring that, pull out.
 
Well your solicitor needs to give you a definitive answer on if you can pull out, only he can do that as it will be (should be) in the contract somewhere. Also a new build that requires such serious work sounds like a house that will never be right and I would not compromise in any way with the builder.
 
i just found out today that another purchaser(who has been living there over a year) has had terrible problems with water flowing in from her balcony, to the extent that seh has had to make an insurance claim for her flooring and has had an engineer do up a report regarding the problem. Apparently its a structural problem. She is now chasing the builder. It does not instill any confidence in me at all. I just feel that if I take this place on I'm going to have problems at some stage down the line.
 
That's clear enough so. Tell your solicitor how you feel and ask him to help you get out at the least cost.
 
I'm going to tell the solicitor that I want to pull out tomorrow but I know the builder won't just concede and hand back the deposit. I just wish that there was something definate that I had to go on. To be honest my solicitor does not seem great at all. I can't seem to get a definate answer out of him at all. I'm sure there must be some kind of time frame regarding how long a builder has after snagging(considering that he forced us to snag) or that he has breached some building regulation, considering the fact that he said that the place was ready when it was far from it and he obviously tried to cut major corners. Does anyone know of a goodproactive slightly aggressive(if thats the right word) solicitor who will really fight your corner for you???That may be the difference between me getting out of this contract and not
 
Before you go down the route of another solicitor (which will be costly and you could just end up in the same situation) why don't you write down the questions you want to ask your solicitor and give this to him to answer. There was on AAM another person in your situation (about 2 months ago I think) and they had a dreadful time trying to get the deposit back, it was nothing to do with the solicitor but the builder for some reason was able to delay paying, if you do a search you might find it and it might be helpful to you.
 
thanks, I did a search but couldnt find the post that you were talking about. I spoke to the solicitor today. He said that the other solicitor is basically ignoring him so he has faxed him a letter saying that he will put into the hands of councel if he does not revert back. he is getting a barraster to look over it tomorrow. he is not clear when I ask him specific questions. One minute he is saying things in a very optimistic way then he said at one point today that we dont really have a case to pull out yet because the builder basically has 18 months to finish the build from last april. he then contradicted this by saying that the as the builder basically forced us to snag that this changes the situation. I'm none the wiser after speaking with him today. It would be great if somebody read this post that was in a very similar situation. It could work out very costly. I didnt realise that if we pull out the builder can sell the property at a price that he now sees fit and then sue me for the balance. The solicitor at one stage suggested maybe pulling out and completely risking the whole deposit. His point is that even if this was lost house prices have dropped by so much that it would not make a massive difference. The deposit is €54000. We paid €540000 for the property. Its too much money to walk away from
 
This appears as if you are going to have a heap of additional costs. Your engineer has cost you as the builder instructed you to snag the property. Remember I do not think you would be obliged to complete on the purchase if there was no Homebond Insurance in place. Before this goes any further have you mentioned this to them on the basis that Insurance is not in place. If it is not or will not be you may not have to complete.
 
dub1 said:
The solicitor at one stage suggested maybe pulling out and completely risking the whole deposit. His point is that even if this was lost house prices have dropped by so much that it would not make a massive difference.
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I cannot believe a solicitor has offered this advice. Did he tell you the builder could still come after you if you did this. Today there is a thread on this very subject.
 
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