Forced to close the new home without final walkthrough

[Hugo Township]

How can they force you to close? What would have happened if you refused?

They basically told us we must close that day - the only scenario they wouldn't close was that if the gas meter was not in. And it was installed on that Friday morning.  I was telling them that I was not comfortable to close with all the outstanding items (about 20 items) and no final walk through.  They told me they would fix everything and both sales and construction VPs were involved.  The sales rep also said they could cancel the deal if I don't close that day.
I have some contractor work lined up so I didn't plan to move in immediately, but still bothers me how the whole thing was handled by the builder.

I would have refused to sign in this scenario, sounds awful.

 

[marmott]

Closed with KB very recently and while we closed with a sizable list of fixes on their part at no point they pressured us to sign. KB was almost overly opened since the start that they needed to close us by November 30 to meet their year end which give us leverage. My neighbor felt the same way, KB did everything they could to close him on time. Having dealt with their customer service rep for our previous house and having him now as customer rep / superintendent for the development may have helped.

We wanted to close ASAP to be able to rip out the entire flooring and start installing the new one before we moved in. They did most of the disruptive fixes like painting around our flooring guys, the deal was that our guys had priority over anything else they had to do. It saved us at least a week in our rent back which was nice.

We still have a list of pending items but they are related to poor craftsmanship and cosmetic touch ups. I don't have enough experience with new build or other builders to say if that's the norm nowadays or if they rushed a bit too much on their part.

 

[dream16]

How can they force you to close? What would have happened if you refused?

They basically told us we must close that day - the only scenario they wouldn't close was that if the gas meter was not in. And it was installed on that Friday morning.  I was telling them that I was not comfortable to close with all the outstanding items (about 20 items) and no final walk through.  They told me they would fix everything and both sales and construction VPs were involved.  The sales rep also said they could cancel the deal if I don't close that day.
I have some contractor work lined up so I didn't plan to move in immediately, but still bothers me how the whole thing was handled by the builder.

I guess it depends on what your contract says but that does not seem right to me.  Since it already happened, it is too late but it would have been good to tell them that you are talking to an attorney.

My sense is that they had to close for a number of reasons unrelated to you...extra costs/end of the year reporting. 

Exactly right, it was to make quarterly "numbers" and/or not to get billed additional interest.

But that "additional interest" is slapped on to the buyers face - having gone through it once, i know how weird my lender reacted when i asked them to delay the closing to save a few hundred dollars in additional interest i ended up paying.

Regardless, in OP's situation, they should have been more firm and held their ground rather than signing papers under their threat of deal cancellation.