Annington.......again!!

[Grimweasel]

I know that this is off the site topic but I need some keen advice from like minded souls!

More ex-MQ's up for sale in our area soon. Sales office opens mid May, houses released early June. What I want to know is WHY Annington make people queue in a spare garden (in tents) for up to three weeks for the right to be first in the door on the sales day?

To join the tented queue one has to show a mortgage certificate and lay down a reservation fee of £250. What I am at a loss to understand is why, after paying the reservation fee, do they insist you THEN join a tented camp for three weeks? Surely once you have paid and shown the ability to obtain a mortgage, you are deemed interested enough to want the property?

Then as if that's not enough, they only release the price on the sales day! So effectively you could queue for three weeks only to be 1st/2nd thru the door only to find out that you can't afford the house!!!

Is this all legal or is this just explotation of people for the sake of Annington's PR ("Look how good our houses are! People queue for weeks to get one, Blah,Blah")

[solotk]

More importantly Grim

Why the hell are MQ's still being sold off?

[EESDL]

It's a marketing ploy to make you think that the freshly-painted house is a good bargain and that you'll save loads of dosh by waiting in a tent!!! Then you tear off the layers of magnolia'd wallpaper to discover that the wires need replacing, the attic is full of asbestos, the pipes are poisoning the water and damp has won the race skywards.

They're beeing sold-off because the shareholders want a dividend and there's jot all that anybody (including that t7at Portillo) can do about it.
Next question?

Try buying a house with a builders' warranty:-)

Have they put up a white picket fence ouitside the sales office yet?

[Yeller_Gait]

And my chances of getting 3 weeks off work so that I can camp out for the chance to buy a house are ........??????

I live on an estate where some of the houses have been sold off, and I would still have to have a tent and camp out. So much for preference to the military :mad:

[Background Noise]

They don't get people to queue and houses cannot be reserved before the sale day. On the sale day you have to have a mortgage certificate (or proof of mortgage offer) and it's first come first served. There are not usually more buyers than houses available but if you want a specific property you need to get in first - thats why people queue. Annington help out the queuing by making a house available for ablutions and give out a queue number but you (or a representative) have to stay there. In fact the campers are usually self policing and its all quite amicable. I've been there - not queuing, just pitched up and bought the place.

[Grimweasel]

Sales office opens Monday..........so, people started queuing on Thursday Morning just to be the first people to reserve a property. Then they queue up for a further 3 weeks in a tent outside just to be firtst in the door on the release day!
Why do you have to queue, because like has been mentioned above, not everyone can get 3 weeks off work?
Surely if you RESERVE a property then, until you say otherwise or can't stump up the cash, the property has your name on it?
Quick call to the fire brigade should do the trick for having an Illegal camp site with no fire fighting facilities!! Fire Inspector will have it shut down in no time!!