Letter in Guardian:
“We reserved a Bovis home in February 2016 and exchanged on 6 June. However, after signing the contract, we were informed the completion date had been delayed from October 2016 to March 2017. This was a complete surprise as we weren’t made aware of any issues. It’s since been further delayed to May 2017.
We’ve not been given any explanation. Meanwhile, the sale of our flat completed and we are incurring large costs renting a home and paying for our furniture to be in storage. My wife has also given birth to our baby, who we’d planned to have in our new house. Bovis insists the original October completion date was realistic. At the end of January, it finally offered us £1,100 to cover storage and commuting costs, but our total costs are nearer £16,700 including the early mortgage termination fee we were forced to pay.” RJ, Watford Herts
ANSWER
“Since you wrote in, the completion date has been put back by another month. This means you will have to apply for a new mortgage as your current offer expires in late May.
Bovis has offered to let you withdraw from the contract but that would mean you have to start searching for a new home from scratch. It blames “operational issues”, but declines to explain how problems great enough to cause an eight-month delay had not been identified when you signed the contract the day before the completion date was postponed.
It has now agreed to your demand for £6,000 to help with some of your costs, but you are still in suspense, wondering whether you and your new family will have a proper home in June.”
East Devon Watch 