New Home Buying Upgrade $$$$$

I wanted to know if I am entitled to receive all my upgrade money back, when the sale office's required lender was unable to give us a loan. The sales agent knew that they could not give a loan after purchase agreement was signed. However she proceeded on as if we had a loan and we thought no differnet either. So after 13, 900 in deposit & upgrades we have no house and no money????
We went as far as a walk through and a closing date of 2 days later. Well the closing date never came, they had no loan.

In the beginning we had told the sales agent we had a pre-qauil with another lender. We were told that we can not use any other lender we had to stay with theirs for the incentives and that thier lender would meet of beat my lender anyway. We had to sign something stating we used their lender.

Now as of today, some 30 days after are original closing date we have recieved our deposit back of 3,000. But the other 10,900 in UPGRADES will not be refundable unless they sell to new buyer with ALL UPGRADES.

Is all this legal, can they say for instance sell 5.00 in upgrades and I lose all that money we saved to purchase our 1st home??????

Please help, do I need to get a attorney????

[HomeGuru]

In my experience, you may be out of luck. Read your purchase contract or have an attorney review if for you.

First, the fact that you state your builder required you to go with thier lender is against the law in most states. They are not allowed to tell you what lender you can or cannot use. You have the right to use whomever you are comfortable with in getting a loan. Many builders have their own mortgage and title companies as one more way of controlling the situation and making a buyer be at their mercy.

At the time you signed your contract it should have stipulated whether or not your money was refundable for upgrades. Many times builders require you to deposit half the money of your chosen upgrades to cover thier costs. But you should have had to sign something stating whether or not it was to be refunded if a loan or the contract was cancelled. Read your contract to see what stipulations it makes since the builder was at fault for this deal falling through. I would also file a complaint with your state's department of Real Estate and the Attorney General's office. Since the contract was not voided because of something you were at fault for all your money should be refunded. They will sell that house and charge the new buyer for all those upgrades - the new buyer won't have the choice to have some upgrades removed from the house and some left in. The louder you raise your voice the quicker they will act because they wouldn't want to lose any potential customers based on what you were saying.

Tracy Schofield
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, Arizona Chapter
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