Has anybody pulled out of a contract to buy an apartment and been pursued??

timeframe was 18 months, notice was served and ignored. How do we go about bringing winding up proceedings. We do want an end to this but currently arent been let ou of contract
You served a completion notice and the builder has ignored it. What is the next step that your solicitor is proposing and have you asked what the fee for this will be? If you think the builder is going to go bust you might be better off not wasting your time going to court.
For the legal eagles I don't understand how a contract with a certain completion date in it can be basically ignored by builders as Foxylady is not the only one who has had this problem. Is the contract not biased towards builders to the detriment of ordinary people purchasing homes?

As for the OP I agree with MF1, a person with plenty of experience should not have signed a legally binding contract and really has no excuse whatsoever for trying to get out of it. With all his other assets he will no doubt be able to raise the mortgage and would be well advised to complete as the builder for sure will be throwing the book at him. There will be no sympathy for an experienced investor in a court.
 
Foxylady, it isn't surprising that the builder ignores the letters but it is not necessarily up to him to let you out of the contract in this instance. You would need your solicitor to check all the special conditions to make sure General Condition 40 wasn't excluded too.

It may be worth your while asking your solicitor to get a barrister's opinion as to what you can do not before taking any action.

As far a I remember, to petition the court to wind up a company as far as I know you lodge the petition in the Central Office of the High Court and then they notify the company that the petition has been lodged. You then need an affidavit setting out that the company wont pay its debt to you so you would have to be able to show that the deposit was properly returnable and the company had failed to do so.

Other option is circuit court proceedings for the amount of the deposit which the builder would then have to defend. This might scare him into backing down but it might not also.

If it was me I would make sure firstly that Condition 40 was not excluded in the contract and that the completion notice was valid, also make sure letter sent after 28 days calling for return on deposit and treating contract as at an end. If all this is in order I would write to company stating that as company if company did not return deposit within 2 weeks would have no option to assume they were insolvent and that I was petitioning High Court to wind the company up and then lodge petition maybe 2 weeks after that lodge a petition. As notice goes in the newspaper this might scare them into action. Again it might not.
 
It's the standard law society condition in contracts delaing with what happens if vendor or purchaser doesn't complete the transaction of the closing date. It deals with service of completion notice etc.
 
It's the standard law society condition in contracts delaing with what happens if vendor or purchaser doesn't complete the transaction of the closing date. It deals with service of completion notice etc.
Could you type out the special condition 40 on here please?
 
COMPLETION NOTICES

40. Save where time is of the essence in respect of the Closing Date, the following provisions shall apply:

(a) if the sale be not completed on or before the Closing Date either party may on or after that date (unless the sale shall first have been rescinded or become void) give to the other party notice to complete the sale in accordance with this condition, but such notice shall be effective only if the party giving it shall then either be able, ready and willing to complete the sale or is not so able, ready or willing by reason of the default or misconduct of the other party;

(b) upon service of such notice the party upon whom it shall have been served shall complete the sale within a period of twenty-eight days after the date of such service (as defined in Condition 49 and excluding the date of service), and in respect of such period time shall be of the essence of the contract but without prejudice to any intermediate right of rescission by either party;

(c) the recipient of any such notice shall give to the party serving the same reasonable advice of his readiness to complete;

(d) if the Purchaser shall not comply with such a notice within the said period (or within any extension thereof which the Vendor may agree) he shall be deemed to have failed to comply with these Conditions in a material respect and the Vendor may enforce against the Purchaser, without further notice, such rights and remedies as may be available to the Vendor at law or in equity, or (without prejudice to such rights and remedies) may invoke and impose the provisions of Condition 41;

(e) if the Vendor does not comply with such a notice within the said period (or within any extension thereof which the Purchaser may agree), then the Purchaser may elect either to enforce against the Vendor, without further notice, such rights and remedies as mat be available to the Purchaser at law or in equity or (without prejudice to any right of the Purchaser to damages) to give notice to the Vendor requiring a return to the Purchaser of all moneys paid by him, whether by way of deposit or otherwise, on account of the purchase price. Condition 38 shall apply to all moneys so to be returned, the period of five working days therein being computed from the date of the giving of such last mentioned notice. If the Purchaser gives such a notice and all the said moneys and interest (if any) are remitted to him, the Purchaser shall no longer be entitled to specific performance of the sale, and shall return forthwith all documents in his possession belonging to the Vendor, and (at the Vendor’s expense) procure the cancellation of any entry relating to the sale in any register;

(f) the party serving a notice under this Condition may, at the request of or with the consent of the other party, by written communication to the other part extend the term of such notice for one or more specified periods of time, and, in that case, the term of the notice shall be deemed to expire on the last day of such extended period or periods, and the notices shall operate as though such extended period or periods, had been specified in this Condition in lieu of the said period of twenty-eight days, and time shall be of the essence in relation to such extended period;

(g) the Vendor shall not be deemed to be other than able, ready and willing to complete for the purposes of this Condition:

(i) by reason of the fact that the Subject Property has been mortgaged or charged, provided that the funds (including the deposit) receivable on completion shall (after allowing for all prior claims thereon) be sufficient to discharge the aggregate of all amounts payable in satisfaction of such mortgages and charges to the extent that they relate to the Subject Property;

or

(ii) by reason of being unable, not ready or unwilling at the date of service of such notice to deliver vacant possession of the Subject Property provided that where it is a term of the sale that vacant possession thereof be given) the Vendor is, upon being given reasonable advice of the other party’s intention to close the sale on a date within the said period of twenty-eight days or any extension thereof pursuant to Condition 40 (f), able, ready and willing to deliver vacant possession of the Subject Property on that date.
 
There you go (cut and pasted not typed). You could ask your solicitor for a copy of the building agreement and contract that you signed.

It is possible to amend a general condition of the contract by putting in a special condition. Sometimes builders try and reduce the 28 days to 14 days. It is unlikely that it would be deleted altogether.
 
Does anyone know if the expiry date on the contract is approaching but the purchaser is not in a position to complete on the contract as the value of the property has dropped so much that there is too large a gap between what the banks will loan, does this mean that according to post 67, the purchaser can not get out of the contract at any point as they are not able to complete? Surely this is not the case?

Tks
 
Hello,

I have aquestion regarding completion for the starta project.

I reserved a two bed flat in Strata.
However, there is a possibility I wont be able to complete.
Would the developer allow me to swop my flat for a cheaper one bed flat in the project so I would be able to complete?
Is this an acceptable procedure?