House elevation issue with new build

IrishMeadow

Dear folks,

Would someone be able to advise a first time buyer how to get out of this situation?

Bought a new house off plan and realised house elevation between my row and back row of houses differs during snagging time.
The house elevation ranges from about 1M to 2M and my unit has the highest elevation of 2M. I am on the lower hill. As a result,
my rear garden wall is 4M in height, 3M to the right and 2M to the left.

Still wishing to close the transaction, I have asked my solicitor to enquire with the developer's solicitor if we can switch
to another unit with lower elevation. AWait reply. Worst case, we may have to pull out and risk losing the 10% deposit.

1) How can I get out of this situation without losing my 10%? Marketing agent did not highlight this. Observing from earliest phases,
elevation was less than 1M.

2) Planning appeal in 2015 (before the new development was allowed to proceed) says garden wall should not be more than 2M
in height but a 2018 planning permission for these rows of houses were approved with the known elevation that could result
in higher boundary walls. Restriction of height of boundary walls were not mentioned here.

Greatly grateful of any advice here.

Thank you.

Fran.One

Hi OP - Just wondering what the outcome was of this? In a very similar situation at the moment and looking at options.

Thanks

Gumbo

Fran.One wrote: »

Hi OP - Just wondering what the outcome was of this? In a very similar situation at the moment and looking at options.

Thanks

Buy or walk away.

Brian201888

Fran.One wrote: »

Hi OP - Just wondering what the outcome was of this? In a very similar situation at the moment and looking at options.

Thanks

Have you subject to final loan approval in the contract? If so just get the bank to turn you down and you'll be out with no penalty.

IrishMeadow

Hi Hi, eventually we walked away. Developer ignored our request to swap houses. The marketing agent went silent. Took > 4 months to get back my deposit - really went mental on it.. Waited for the mortgage offer to lapse and citing no mortgage to support contract closure. Bank did not want to write a letter to turn down prematurely hence, the best option was to wait for the offer to lapse. Complained to my councilor and town council and the inspector came to survey. was this route effective? I don't know.

Is yours a new build? Please ask your solicitor to read the purchase agreement if there is a clause in the contract to rescind a contract if there is no loan offer approval. My contract has this so we were able to use this point to get out. My solicitor explained that developer may remove this clause to lock in buyer after snagging. Please check this point. Still the developer was able to sell of that house at the end of the day after we took back our deposit.

All the best.

Fran.One

Yep its a new build. Thanks for the information. I'm checking with my solicitor if that is an option hopefully so but ill have to weigh up, is it a big enough factor to pull out at this stage. Thanks again