What constitutes "minor changes" in a contract to buy an apartment?

Last September I bought an apartment off plans.
The apartment I was buying was supposed to have a separate kitchen and living room.
Only a small number of the apartments on sale were supposed to have separate kitchen and living-rooms,
and I told the auctioneer I was not interested in the other apartments.

The builder refused to give me access to the apartment before the contracts were signed,
but the auctioneer was allowed in and she gave me measurement of the living room alone.
At no stage did she say that the rooms would not be divided even thought she knew I only bought this apartment because it was supposed to have separate rooms.
I signed contracts in Dec06, after the auctioneer gave me measurements for my living room and she confirmed both room were a good size.

But when I finally got in to snag the apartment in Feb 07 there were numerous issues.

• No dividing wall had been put up between the kitchen and living-room and now it is all the one room. (in the plans I received there were 2 rooms)

To make matters worse, both doors leading from the hall into this room remain in place (less than 1.5M apart) which looks ridicules

• The storage press in the hall is missing (this was also on the plans I was given)

• The second bedroom is very small 2.10m * 2.9m and the wardrobe has been placed in the centre of a wall leaving less that 5.7 m2 of free space.

Because of the positioning of the wardrobe, the wardrobe door hits off the light bulb when the door is opened. This is very dangerous and the builder is refusing to move it.

I have spoke to my solicitor who said that the contract allows the builder to make “minor changes” to the plans.
I do not count the above as minor changes to the plans of a 2 bed apartment.
This “minor changes” of erecting walls and moving wardrobes will cost me thousands of euros to correct.
Both the builder and the auctioneer were aware of these changes when I signed contracts, but neither informed me of it and refused me access to see for myself before I signed.

The builder is now looking for me to close the sale within two weeks and my solicitor said that the builder is covered in the contract.
Can anyone advise what constitutes “minor changes” and if I have any rights in the above situation.

Your solicitor needs to work harder for you. The contracts were signed on the basis of the plans furnished. You are clearly not happy. Your solicitor should be communicating your views to the builder's solicitor. It is not up to the solicitor to make decisions on what is minor: you instruct, he acts. Of course take his view into account but get other opinions too. Did you have the property professionally snagged, what does the snagger think ? These items do not sound minor to me.

Did your soliciter come with the place? If so perhaps they have a vested interest.

wheels said:

Did your soliciter come with the place? If so perhaps they have a vested interest.

Click to expand...

I am thinking he/she is a 'budget' solicitors and is not going to do a cent more than their 'fixed fee' covers.

towger