Living in house for 9 months and still not signed for it

Long story but here are basics:

Moved into house on December 1st 2007

Due to Christmas snag list dragged out a bit

Got Sky dish installed. Builder went nuts as house not ours yet as not signed for. Told us we couldn't get blinds, carpets etc until signed for. Explained not signed for as snag not completed. Spoke to our Solicitor. Compromise was that money paid to builders for house but contracts would not be signed until snag completed. This allowed us to get carpet etc

Snag still not completed to date! Solicitor sent stern (obviously not stern enough) letter to builder on April 28th. Met with builder that week to go through snag and all jobs listed agreed to be done. Told us it should be completed within 2 weeks.

One of the major issues was tiling in bathrooms that was done by site junior as professional tiler unavailable on the day! Builder agreed to re-tile at his expense and requested we give him our recipt for tiles which we did............that was at Aprils meeting.

2 weeks ago builder sent site worker over with lump hammer to knock tiles off wall. Site worker informed my partner his instructions were to remove some tiles only for replacing! This was done, shower taken off wall & bath unsealed. Bathrooms in bits. Nobody came back since.

Its the straw that broke the camels back...........have had enough at this stage....... the stress is too much after 9 months..........

Have meeting tomorrow with builder to discuss this ridiculous situation and want any advice on what I should say and demand i.e. what are my rights?

Also, house price has dropped 40k. As contracts not signed yet have I any comeback on this?

Thanks in advance

So you have paid the money but not signed the contracts ?

How did you get money off the bank without signed contracts ?

jhegarty said:

So you have paid the money but not signed the contracts ?

How did you get money off the bank without signed contracts ?

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And they have been living there 9 months...

Don't know?? Didn't think final contracts had to be signed for drawdown?? Solicitor looked after all that. Had house insurance and Life Cover in place which was what we were told we needed for drawdown of mortgage cheque. We sold our house and had funds from that so mortgage approx 19% of value........maybe that has something to do with it??

What happens if the builder goes bust? The bank will own the house and OP will just be another creditor of the builder! Madness..

Aoileen said:

Had house insurance

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Not much point in that, you can't insure the builders house....

I think you need to talk to another solicitor tbh, it sounds like you got terrible advise from this one... especially thinking about what Towger said...

Okay..........getting a bit worried here. Put trust in Solicitor and never thought of any of the issues raised by ye. I can't change whats happened so far. Understand I've been stupid but I didn't post for people to tell me this, I posted looking for advice on what I should do now........

Surely you made some stage payments and you had to sign contracts at that stage?
Very good friend of mine has a similar situation, snag was not completed (serious issues and also 3rd party had an imterest in his back garden , which he only found out about after signing - in the mean time the builder refused to sort it and he has the house rented to tenants - after friend furnished it!! and he had signed contracts!!).

Defo get another solicitor and if the builder hasnt/can perform the contract snag (bathrooms etc) then adjust the price accordingly and fix the problems yourself, either way get your name on that house builders are going bust every week now.

At least you have a house my buddy has none and is going through a long protracted leagal thing (thats taken over his life) and someone else is living in the house with all is belongings - get it sorted fast - some builders show no mercy espically in the current climate - you need to get it sorted asap.

Hope you get other posts with good advice, best of luck!

J

If I were you I'd ring up your solicitor asap and find out what exactly your position is. For any solicitor to allow money to be paid over before a contract is signed is highly negligent.
How did you move into the house before you'd signed for it or paid for it? No builder I know would allow this.
Also as been said you have paid out money but got nothing in return. The builder has your money and from what you've said still owns the house.

All I'm thinking is that you haven't the full facts. Either the solicitor is holding the money in trust or he has some sort of a contract signed by the builder.

I am really puzzled as to what you were doing in the house in the first place.

My experience is that the only way you get builders to complete a snag list is by witholding payment until they do so.

I really think there is something missing here.

We sold our house and had to vacate by November 23rd which left us technically homeless.

Our new house was built but kitchen, bathrooms etc had to be fitted so was unhabitable. Builder did not have jobs completed when he was supposed to (November 26th). We would have been unable to move on this date anyway if house had been ready as we were still waiting for our Life Cover to come through as there were major issues with it.

As the builder did not have house completed on agreed date for us he allowed us move in on December 1st as a favor seeing as we had nowhere to live and things were almost finalised our end anyway.

Our Solicitor sent through our 10% deposit from funds from our old house sale and this we did sign for.

Remaining balance was sent on December 18th. This money did go and is not with Solicitor as I have a mortgage account and have been paying it since January 1st.

I did raise concerns regarding this to the Solicitor as I felt if they had our money then they would be lax with the snag. The Solicitor assured me that the builder needed final contracts signed and this was the most important thing to him. She told me if the builder did not keep up his end of the contract that was on the table that he would legally have to return the money to us so it was a win win situation for us.

Aoileen said:

She told me if the builder did not keep up his end of the contract that was on the table that he would legally have to return the money to us so it was a win win situation for us.

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Unless he goes bankrupt tomorrow , then you get kicked out of house , and told to join the line of creditors

What J Hegeraty says is exactly the point I was going to make. It was a naive and stupid thing for a solicitor to say. Reckless and very negligent.

I really hope things straighten themselves out for you. This is not of your doing - you should have been able to rely on your solicitor.

Get that contract signed asap. After 9 months the builder isn't going to break his neck fixing things up if he has your money. you can always keep after him, but with the comfort of knowing you own the house.

Best of luck

What kind of snagging is left ? Absolutley get contracts done.....even if you have to swallow the snag !

A lot of small things like filling, plastering, painting touch ups to be done.

Main big things on snag left to be done are the tiling of the main bathroom and ensuite, plastering of bathroom ceiling and our garden.

Garden was waterlogging, soil full of builders materials, and completely uneven. Drains were put in in May to stop waterlogginfand gardener then had to spray the garden to kill everything off before rotivating etc. He sprayed it the first week of August and said he would be back in 14 days time. He wasn't. It wasn't too bad until I came home one day last week and noticed 3 gardens in estate in houses people not yet moved into were done by the gardeners.........ours now looks like hay. Its like they are ignoring us.........

We also had to have all our windows replaced.......all done now bar one.

This post will be deleted if not edited immediately, that a hell of a lot, and the builder has no urgency to do the work as he has the money already!!
I'd go to your solicitor now and ask him what your legal standing is? you paid for something you dont own.
I know it wont work, but i'd look for the money to be repaid and just get out of there, as you said prices are down 40K and i'm guessing that's advertised price, so probably a good bit more.
You should really consult a different solicitor. Did the EA who sold the house recommend the the Solicitor? it sounds very dodgy.

I did contact my Solicitor regarding this in April. She sent the builder a letter stating that all jobs needed to be completed within 10 days or we would be taking further action. This is what led to our meeting with the builer at the end of April when he promised things would be done asap.

I contacted my Solicitor on May 26th again requesting she do something about the situation as it had gone beyond a joke and after all she had sent a 10 day letter on April 28th. She replied back to me stating that we had to give the builder reasonable time to complete the outstanding jobs. I replied back to her: 'is 6 months not reaonable time?'............no contact since..........

To be honest Aoileen, going by what you are saying, getting the snag list completed is the least of your worries. You really need to get the contract situation sorted.

you need to see another solicitor today .... not tomorrow or next week but today...

God you poor thing, deffo get the contract signed cant believe your solicitor has you paying a mortgage to a house that doesnt have your name on!

And76 said:

God you poor thing, deffo get the contract signed cant believe your solicitor has you paying a mortgage to a house that doesnt have your name on!

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This still puzzles me. Why would a building society advance the money if the there wasn't a signed contract?