The managing director responded by telephone to give his side of the story. He apologised for all the confusion, but had to agree that the situation was less than ideal. He says that the people who are now buying the house we wanted had the advantage, because they have no house to sell, whereas we were wanting to part-ex ours. He also said that they viewed the house and expressed an interest before we did, therefore gaining the advantage in the queue. But in that case, why did the company take our cheque for £1000 to reserve the plot, and then not tell us that anyone else was interested? It was a full five days later that we were told that we had lost out to another couple. By then we had instructed solicitors, and spend a lot of time and effort gathering the necessary paperwork etc in preparation.

The managing director promised to look into things to see if he could do a deal with us on another house which is similar but not quite as good for what we need. He promised to ring us again on Weds evening. Weds evening came and went, as did Thurs and Fri with no contact. Later on Friday we emailed him again to ask what was happening. We also informed him that we had been approached by the Sunday Telegraph ‘Property Nightmares’ section, who had heard about our dilemma and who thought that ours was a suitable nightmare worthy of press coverage.

We then received a curt email reply saying he would be in touch over the weekend. We are waiting with baited breath before we go back to the newspaper to give our story.

…..were definitely buying this house we instructed solicitors, and dismissed our estate agent as this was a part-exchange arrangement with Esprit Homes. On Friday we had a phone call to say that the managing director had decided to sell the house to someone else who was able to pay up front as they didn’t have a house to sell, so the company wouldn’t have the hassle and cost of part-exing. We have sent a letter of complaint to the company as we consider this to be a rather underhand way of doing business. At no time were we told that the arrangement had to be authorised by the managing director before it became viable.

It seems incredible to me, in the current flat housing market that it is still possible to be gazumped! Surely if we have paid money for a property to be reserved, then it is reserved for us? Apparantly not! The money has been returned to us (they didn’t actually cash the cheque). Has anyone else had an experience like this? Is this common with new builds? We have bought and sold older houses many times but have never been involved with a new one before. Looks like it’s a completely different ball game.

….children like to visit us from time to time and need a place to rest their heads when they come to see their poor old mum (me). We live in a Midlands town, in a 4 bed plus boxroom 1930’s extended semi, but long for a 5 bed + study detached house, in order to fulfil our dreams and be able to house our various peripatetic relatives who like to descend upon us with very little notice. We already have a sofa-bed in the lounge, but that room has to double as a playroom/musicroom which is not very conducive to inviting Granny and Grandpa for the weekend.

So we have been trawling the local housing stock to see if we can find our dream house. Here it is! We’ve found it! 5 bedrooms, study, conservatory, detached house, garage, close to schools, near the post office and shops, but off the main road tucked away at the bottom of a small cul-de-sac. Perfect! Off we go to try to raise enough money, and to our surprise and delight we find that we can just about manage it financially, so down goes our reservation fee and the house is reserved in our names. (This was Monday 27th June 2005). We have decided to part-ex our existing house with our builders, Espirit Homes, to prevent build-up of a chain and enable us to get on with the move without hindrance. We have never lived in a modern house before, I have only ever lived in Victorian, Georgian, or pre-war houses previously, so this is a whole new ball game for me.

We are worried that a large tree in the garden of the new house could cause potential subsidence problems in the future, so we will need to get advice about that. A million other niggly things lurk around in the depths of our minds causing us worry. My mother has sent me a newspaper cutting today about New Build Inspections Ltd, -this could be just what we need to enable us to hang on to our sanity while we go through this very scary process……
……watch this space….