Apartment 8 months behind schedule - can I get out of the contract?

Hi

Myself and my girlfriend bought an apartment in block B on a development in Donabate last June (signed the contracts and paid 15k). Block A was due to have show apartments ready by November 2004 and was due to be complete by Christmas 2004.

Now the show apartments for block A are not even due to be complete until late May and block B won't be ready until "AT LEAST August" (according to the selling agent). I have heard that most developments were delayed 3 or 4 months, but at this rate, it's looking to September or October.

My solicitor has said that there is no way out of the contract without losing the 15k deposit but I can't believe that a delay this big doesn't entitle the consumer to some way out?

Has anyone had any experience with something similar?

Thanks

Kev

Unless there was a condition in the contract saying it must be completed by such a date, and I assume your solicitor has gone through it with a toothcomb then, I dont think there is a way out of it.

You could try the softly softly approach with the builder, saying for example, that you are renting and the lease is up ' What can you do for me?'

We waited two full years for our house after we signed the contract. We had no way out either as a finish date was never specified in the contract. No amount of rent/lease stories made it go any quicker.
In our experience it was a case of .....just wait your turn.

your solicitor deserves a rap on the knuckles for letting you sign under those conditions

The apartment is worth les that 317k so we could sell it to some other first time buyer I'd say but then would we lose out on our first time buyer status even if we have never lived in it?

I might try and ask the selling agents can they give offer it to someone on the cancellation list, although, if the law is on the their side then they can just stick to their guns and we'll lose the 15k deposit. I mean, what incentive would they have to help us out? I suppose I may as well ring up and ask nicely and see what they say...

Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick but, if the price has risen by more than €15k since you put down the deposit (and given the delays that seems quite likely), it would be in the developer's own interest to hand you back your deposit without a struggle.

The selling agent basically said said it was out of their hands: We'd have to get our solicitor to get in touch with the builders solictors and then they would hammer out what would happen next (presumably she means how much, if any, of the deposit would be returned to us). After that, the builder would then release the apartment back to the agents to sell again.

I also asked if they had gone up in value since last June and she said no, they are still selling for the same price as they were then - which is disappointing too.

Ah well.

eamonn66 said:

your solicitor deserves a rap on the knuckles for letting you sign under those conditions

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The standard Building Agreements for new properties has an 18 month completion period specified. Most solicitors will tell their clients that a new property will be ready when its ready and if its not within that 18 month time frame that they may have some comeback. With a new build too many things can go wrong to nail down a fixed time period and ,yes, some builders are just crap to deal with.

If a fixed time period is vital then its important to consider whether perhaps the increased cost ( say with stamp duty) balances out the uncertainty of when the proeprty will be ready.

Often the value ( if any) increase is enough to soften the pain. Sometimes its not.

mf

mf1 said:

Most solicitors will tell their clients that a new property will be ready when its ready
mf

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I do remember that the solictor said something to that effect. While I was absorbing that though he added that it's in the builders own best interest to finish a property on time because they would want to move on to the next project or block a.s.a.p. ... they too have bills and investors to pay.

To which And I nodded because it made sense.

I just thought that since it is (at least) 8 months late that there'd be a get out clause, even if it was from some consumer-rights point of view, and mf1 has answered my question in that respect:

mf1 said:

The standard Building Agreements for new properties has an 18 month completion period specified.
mf

Click to expand...

Thanks mf1 and thanks everyone else too. The help is much appreciated.

Kev