N. Thornton wrote:

Part of the plan with new builds is you dont pay the last x% until 3
months after you've moved in. So if they want their money...


Will large housebuilders agree to this? When we bought this house we
part-ex'd our old one (out of necessity before anyone tells me we were
ripped off) and /they/ retained £500 of the price they gave us in case
we left it in a mess[1] and they had to get professional cleaners in.

I tried (half-heartedly admittedly) to retain part of the cost of the
new house, but they weren't having any of it.

[1] Even though it was already empty (we had re-located and were
renting) so they could have checked on it's state.