Just imagine. You’ve been to the show house, fallen in love with the housing development and signed up to buy a house off plan for £500,000 and paid the 10% deposit. The only problem you may have thought was that you’d have to wait 12 months to move in.

Ten months later the letter arrives to say that the house will be ready in 8 weeks. But things have changed. House prices have fallen and the building society values the house at £425,000 and, as business is not so good, your income has fallen too.

What do you think the building society will say? Yes, you guessed it – no mortgage! But you have signed a contract to pay the balance of £450,000 for your new home and the builder wants his money and you’ve signed a legal contract to pay.

This sort of situation does happen. Berkeley Homes is in the process of taking an unknown number of it’s clients to court to recover the money they are owed.

So please be very cautious if you are tempted to buy a home off plan especially if you are having to raise a hefty mortgage to complete the deal. And also be aware that, despite the recent upswing in house prices, some commentators are still forecasting that house prices will go into reverse again next year.

Please be careful.