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It was the same situation with me as well. Sales person promised so many things and fraudlently induced me to sign the contract and now Toll is saying we will go by the contract.. I wish I had known about this company before signing it. Here are few things Sales person said:
1. Lot sign.. marketed lot size is different then whats delivered. They have a sheet displayed to customers with a larger lot size. In the contract they have atleast 1500 square feet smaller.. they said all the lot size is yours but we have to give some easements to county for electric, gas etc purpose but the lot is yours.. then when they built the house they build walkways... which they never mention during the contract.
2. They said they will give the same basement wall size as model home which is 9 feet but they are delivering 8 ft instead.
3. She said in their schools they have after school programs for age group 3 but they don't
4. She said community center will be ready by march but now its not going to be ready for next two years.
5. She promised Road size will be 36 feet and now its 30 ft.
6. After I signed the contract within 10 days I had a major family emergency and I had to adjust some money so I requested them to move me to a smaller home but she said you signed the contract so we can't move you.. so I sold my home very cheap and paid them the 5 % deposit and now I am not going to qualify for loan because of my job pay cut and lending rule changes and increase in RE taxes but even now toll is keeping all my deposit and they are going to come after me for another 5%. Now I don't have my townhome, can't close on new home..no savings because I paid all of my savings as deposit.. and I requested toll to go down on sales price to market price, which is 30k so that I will be qualified for the loan and I can buy the house.. but they don't want to do that either.
7. Importantly they forgot to have pre-construction meeting with me and built the home.. so I could not do my religious ceremony, which is psycologically bothering me.
I am working with a lawyer.. but i am not sure how its going to work out for me.
These stories aren't at all surprising to me--there are a lot of unscrupulous builders, not just Toll, and waaaay too many people who are willing to give away the farm to buy new construction.
We just closed on our house with another builder, and we had to fight on a number of issues. We have an absolute piranha of a real estate attorney, and he was worth every penny. I think a whole lot of people have gotten themselves into these situations because they didn't receive sound legal advice, and they trusted the builders and their reps.
These stories aren't at all surprising to me--there are a lot of unscrupulous builders, not just Toll, and waaaay too many people who are willing to give away the farm to buy new construction.
We just closed on our house with another builder, and we had to fight on a number of issues. We have an absolute piranha of a real estate attorney, and he was worth every penny. I think a whole lot of people have gotten themselves into these situations because they didn't receive sound legal advice, and they trusted the builders and their reps.
We are closing on our Toll Brothers house soon. In the development we are building in, TB just posted the starting cost of our style of home as being 34K cheaper than it was the day we signed the contract over 1 year ago. Has anyone had this experience? If so, we you able to get TB to go down the price?
We are closing on our Toll Brothers house soon. In the development we are building in, TB just posted the starting cost of our style of home as being 34K cheaper than it was the day we signed the contract over 1 year ago. Has anyone had this experience? If so, we you able to get TB to go down the price?
I think once you sign there is no going back unfortunately. Ask your lawyer.
According to my new lawyer, if I specifically ask about certain things and sales person confidentally says yes to induce me into signing the contract then it seems it is fraudulently inducing customers to sign the contracts and this is illegal. This guy is a litigation attorney and he says I have a very stong case as I do have evidence for the same. I have to see how it turns out for me. Right now I have made all kinds of efforts to get something worked out in my favor with the builder with no luck, I have also tried sending a contract breach letter to Toll with settlement options, I have not received any positive response yet.. if I don't get a good response my next step would be sending a stong contract breach notice from new litigation attorney asking them to give my deposit back.
From my experience I have few tips for people who are planning to sign new contracts on to be built homes. I am not an expert but this is what I have been advicing my friends to do.
1. Talk to a real estate attorney before signing the contract and get an appointment to go over the contract with him.
2. If possible, ask for couple of days from sales representative to go over contract before even signing it (Sales reps always say you will have three days minimum to reject the contract because of POA act (hoa docs)) but trust me three days will not be enough for you to go over HOA docs and the contract. Atleast if possible do not accept HOA docs on the day you sign the contract, tell them you need extra time and you will come back to take HOA docs.
3. Take it to a attorney, it will cost you atmost $400, but it is worth this amount instead of spending thousands later.
4. Try and negotiate a deal with minimum losses for you in case you have to backout of contract incase of hardship situations (put contingent clauses)
5. Have everything in writing (this is very important). Visits to construction site, religious ceremonies anything you think you will do during the construction.
6. If possible and if it is legal, hide a camcoder or tape recorder in a bag which can be used later if sales person does not agree to your accusations.
7. Also spend lot of time in researching the area where you are going to buy a home.
8. Never sign the contract in a hurry.
9. Ask any questions you have in the meeting to sales reps.
10. Some realtors are great and you may think they are good enough to review your contract, but keep in mind Attorneys are only ones legally competant to suggest you anything. If you get into trouble most realtors would say this is first time I encountered this kind of situation and I will give you a real estate attorneys number you can talk to him.
11. In contract carefully look at numbers used by Sales reps for your monthly payments estimate. They manupulate the numbers and say its computer mistake and they have no control over correcting it. If they say they can't correct it, have that in writing.
12. Apply for mortage with builder lender but also get another pre-approval with another lender as well to match the numbers.
13. Try avoiding builder recommended title company unless your incentives are tide with them. At settlement you should have someone who is not baised to seller or buyer and from my experience they are not.
13. During construction process, do not care for $300 or $400 inspection costs, hire inspector to come with you for pre-drywall meeting to inspect insulation material. Keep in mind builders will refuse to make any changes after walls are closed.
14. Try to have your realtor come with you for all meetings you have with them.
15. Send emails and ask them to respond to emails for any communication.. cc realtor as well.
I have another list of tips we should ask the builder at settlement.. if any one interested send me an email to sbh45487!gmail.
If I got to settlement on this house.. it will not be smooth ride for Toll.
13. Try avoiding builder recommended title company unless your incentives are tide with them. At settlement you should have someone who is not baised to seller or buyer and from my experience they are not.
I agree 100%. We had a situation with a newly constructed townhome that directly relates to this advice.
We were having problems with our builder all during the construction process so we had an attorney representing us all the way through including closing. Our attorney also advised us to use an independent title company instead of the builder's recommendation. Well, that was a great piece of advice and we learned why at the closing table.
We could not close on our newly built townhome because we could not get clear title. There was a huge electrical eavesment with Atlantic Electric. This eavesment encompassed our entire lot and included the lots of 11 other townhomes in it's path. We were completely surprised by this and heartbroken that we had to walk away from the settlement table that day.
Even more surprising? The builder's title company never mentioned the eavesment to any of the other new owners and they all closed on their homes without even being aware of the situation.
If the price has been lowered by more than your deposit, you may be able to negotiate. Let's say you only put 20K down as a deposit, and the price has been dropped 34K. If you walk from your contract, the builder keeps your 20K and now needs to find someone to buy your place for 34 K less. It is a lose-lose. The builder is down 14K and you are down 20K. In this case, see if the builder can give you a 10-15 K kickback. That will keep you in the deal and will let them sell it for more than they would have to sell it for if it went back on the market. That's a win-win. Now, I am in no way a lawyer, and I have no idea what is in your contract. Consult with a good attorney to make sure there are no other consequences of backing out of the contract. If you signed an agreement where the builder can collect other damages if you cancel, then this may not work. An attorney can give you the best advice.
However, even if this doesnt apply, there is no harm in asking for a kickback!
Other than that, and far more importantly, I would say not to panic that the builder is selling that low. While frustrating that someone will get a better deal than you (I was recently in a similar situation), the large HBs are selling below fair market value b\c they are desperate to clear inventory. The fair market value is probably somewhere between what you paid a year ago and what the builder is trying to unload it for now. I assume you bought this place b\c you liked it, so dont worry that someone else is getting a better deal, and have faith that the market will come back within the next 5-10 years.
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Closing on a TB Home
