Redrow pocket £14K from collapsed house purchase

[The Preacherman]

We paid £14,000 to a developer even though our house purchase collapsed

Redrow insists on keeping the cash for upgrading an unbuilt home after coronavirus sinks deal

Earlier this year, we agreed to buy a newly built home in Kent from the developer Redrow. We had sold our home and all was proceeding well. Having come under considerable pressure to agree some upgrades, we paid almost £14,000 upfront for granite kitchen tops and Siemens appliances. We were told that this would enable the purchase and completion to go through on time.

Within hours of the coronavirus lockdown starting, the person who had agreed to buy our house pulled out. With no possible way to find a new buyer in the current climate, we, in turn, have had to withdraw from the Redrow purchase.

We assumed that we would receive our £14,000 back, but the company has refused. It claims its terms and conditions state that all items ordered are non-refundable. I have asked for evidence these items were ordered or installed by Redrow but they are unwilling to share this information. The site in question in Ebbsfleet Valley has been shut, so no work is happening.

It seems Redrow is happy to let us pay to upgrade its unbuilt home and pocket the extra cash when the house is finally sold. I can’t believe it is behaving this way.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/13/developer-house-purchase-redrow-coronavirus

 

[smash]

12 minutes ago, The Preacherman said:

We were told that this would enable the purchase and completion to go through on time.

Seems the wrong way round. Surely an upgrade would add phaff giving rise to possible delay?

[regprentice]

1 hour ago, smash said:

Seems the wrong way round. Surely an upgrade would add phaff giving rise to possible delay?

It'll be sales nonsense, normal installations get done by a normal staff as and when they have time, but special installs get done by a special Siemens a-team of installation professionals who, presumably for £15k, drop in by helicopter as required. Some ******** like that. Anything to sell extras

[kidgorgeous]

At least they don't have to move to Ebbsfleet now though

[MonsieurCopperCrutch]

Spending £14,000 on granite kitchen tops and Siemens appliances is going to seem like the last days of empire once all this is over. 

[smash]

34 minutes ago, regprentice said:

It'll be sales nonsense, normal installations get done by a normal staff as and when they have time, but special installs get done by a special Siemens a-team of installation professionals who, presumably for £15k, drop in by helicopter as required. Some ******** like that. Anything to sell extras

Oh, I can imagine the laugh the sales team are having. This technique is what I call sowing the seed of doubt. In this instance the seed is the suggestion to the customer that there could be a problem, a delay, with the complete house purchase if they don't spend the 14k extra. And from that seed a mighty oak grows as well as some healthy additional profit margin. I can imagine a bullied husband having the missus yelling at him "what do you mean not get the granite worktops and Siemens? They've told us that if we don't there could be a problem with moving in"

Bathroom upgrades, fitted wardrobes in the master bedroom....

 

[stop_the_craziness]

8 minutes ago, smash said:

Oh, I can imagine the laugh the sales team are having. This technique is what I call sowing the seed of doubt. In this instance the seed is the suggestion to the customer that there could be a problem, a delay, with the complete house purchase if they don't spend the 14k extra. And from that seed a mighty oak grows as well as some healthy additional profit margin. I can imagine a bullied husband having the missus yelling at him "what do you mean not get the granite worktops and Siemens? They've told us that if we don't there could be a problem with moving in"

Bathroom upgrades, fitted wardrobes in the master bedroom....

 

It's all a bit similar to the budget airlines making stuff go the opposite way.  You used to get allocated a regular seat that you could change to any another regular seat for free or pay a premium for a nicer one (emergency exit etc).  Now you get allocated one (usually a middle, rather than an aisle or window) and ANY change costs you money.   So "normal" suddenly becomes "premium" and then there is a kind of "sub-normal/less desirable/problematic" that becomes the new "normal"

Gouging.  Plain and simple.  And it stinks.

[markyh]

2 hours ago, The Preacherman said:

 

 

Straight to small claims court, do not pass go, do not collect £200, (but pay about £500 in fees.)

[longgone]

36 minutes ago, MonsieurCopperCrutch said:

Spending £14,000 on granite kitchen tops and Siemens appliances is going to seem like the last days of empire once all this is over. 

granite big deal. natural stone is so cheap now i got it installed with full wall splash backs and window sills. for 2k 

siemens are the same as bosch units. these people are just mugs   5k worth of gear max for the lot. 

[Locke]

7 minutes ago, markyh said:

Straight to small claims court, do not pass go, do not collect £200, (but pay about £500 in fees.)

Courts are shut. Redrow will be in liquidation come the lifting of lockdown. 

Should have bought 10 gold britannias instead

Good luck.

[Locke]

1 minute ago, longgone said:

natural stone is so cheap now i got it installed with full wall splash backs and window sills. for 2k 

What stone? Also what size? 

[longgone]

2 hours ago, The Preacherman said:

 

 

if they paid a £100 on a CC card they could claim the whole lot back under a section 75

silly people 

[longgone]

1 minute ago, Locke said:

What stone? Also what size? 

star galaxy granite about 12 meters or so.  the stone cost bugger all now the the bloke cutting it and making drainers and curves sink cutouts etc polished edges. that was 10 years ago too. 

[longgone]

14k upgrade ? on top of what was going in anyway ? HAHAH 

[markyh]

5 minutes ago, Locke said:

Courts are shut. Redrow will be in liquidation come the lifting of lockdown. 

Should have bought 10 gold britannias instead

Good luck.

Courts are still open, even county courts, just slow as less staff.

[smash]

14 minutes ago, longgone said:

14k upgrade ? on top of what was going in anyway ? HAHAH 

The only fully plausible explanation for why the standard fit would cause a delay over the upgrade is if the upgrade is the standard fit. Namely they are mugging over more buyers than not. What a laugh those boys are having.

[The Preacherman]

1 hour ago, stop_the_craziness said:

It's all a bit similar to the budget airlines making stuff go the opposite way.  You used to get allocated a regular seat that you could change to any another regular seat for free or pay a premium for a nicer one (emergency exit etc).  Now you get allocated one (usually a middle, rather than an aisle or window) and ANY change costs you money.   So "normal" suddenly becomes "premium" and then there is a kind of "sub-normal/less desirable/problematic" that becomes the new "normal"

Gouging.  Plain and simple.  And it stinks.

The Ryanair analogy is spot on.

This is the way that the big house builders are now operating. Having overpaid for the land and knocked up the house for as cheap as possible, the list price is break even. The basic fit is very basic standards to encourage an upgrade. They are relying on high pressure sales from overpriced upgrades to make a margin.

[smash]

Inside the seeded mind of Mrs Redrow buyer;

"That can only mean that most people have the granite and Siemens and if we don't we will be the few that have the regular stuff"

LoLs like Siemens its quality stuff.

[MinistryMan]

“We had sold our home and all was proceeding well.”

No, you hadn’t sold a thing! You had an interested party say they’d put things in place to buy your house.

You jumped too early. Was the money in your bank? No it wasn’t...now feck off

As for paying 15k upfront and not reading small print...you can feck off again!

When will people start giving a sh!t about their money?!! 

[Andy T]

" We were told that this would enable the purchase and completion to go through on time. "

How can people fall for this tripe?  why doesn't pressure selling ring alarm bells for these people? why would you trust a house builder to install an expensive kitchen anyway? 

[HardBrexitNow]

1 hour ago, longgone said:

14k upgrade ? on top of what was going in anyway ? HAHAH 

Yep, complete joke of a price. Designed to ripoff gullible muppets.

[stop_the_craziness]

1 hour ago, MinistryMan said:

“We had sold our home and all was proceeding well.”

No, you hadn’t sold a thing! You had an interested party say they’d put things in place to buy your house.

Recent anecdotal.  Colleague selling their 3 bed house to buy 5 bed "forever home".  One more in the chain above that.

My colleague with the 3-bed had two buyers drop out, neither could get the mortgage for the price they had offered.  In the end the only way to get the chain to complete was for the people at the very top of the chain to buy my colleague's 3-bed with a vague notion that they might "rent it or sell it at a later date".

This tells me that the smart people at the top of the chain would rather be stuck with the haircut they might take on my colleague's 3-bed than the massive haircut they stood to take if this chain collapsed and they had to sell their own house again.

Edited to add:  I feel concerned that my colleague has therefore also overpaid for the 5-bed, because it was a "forever home" moment where emotional thinking overtook reason

Edited April 14, 2020 by stop_the_craziness
additional point

[longgone]

50 minutes ago, HardBrexitNow said:

Yep, complete joke of a price. Designed to ripoff gullible muppets.

but 14k is only £49 a month for 25 years on the mortgage 

shame the kitchen will be worn out in 15 and the appliances in 10 

[Andy T]

1 hour ago, longgone said:

but 14k is only £49 a month for 25 years on the mortgage 

shame the kitchen will be worn out in 15 and the appliances in 10 

Probably like the extra options sheet put in front of you when you PCP  a new car, tick the box for paint protection £/month, tyre insurance, alloy wheel cover etc. 

Must of been an expensive house to start with (assuming over £750k) to not need that £14k for the deposit or other.

[longgone]

2 hours ago, Andy T said:

Probably like the extra options sheet put in front of you when you PCP  a new car, tick the box for paint protection £/month, tyre insurance, alloy wheel cover etc. 

Must of been an expensive house to start with (assuming over £750k) to not need that £14k for the deposit or other.

looks like 800k for the detached ones and 400ish for the semis. 

you get a beautiful view of electric pylons though for that premium. 

https://www.redrow.co.uk/developments/ebbsfleet-green-ebbsfleet-212404 

https://www.redrow.co.uk/developments/regent-square-at-ebbsfleet-green-212481

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