A nightmare that began with the purchase of a brand new home from Charles Church (part of the Persimmon Group, which includes Persimmon Homes, Westbury Partnership). The experience Charles Church gave us has been one we regret every day, we wish we had never seen the house, let alone bought it. Years on, we’re still unable to sell it – they avoid fixing it.

Paula Walter and John Davies (above), backed by other residents of The Haven, claim Barratt Homes promoted 37 top-of-the-range Selsdon properties for sale after being granted planning permission for the house type but actually built bottom-of-the-range Sutton homes.

Persimmon Homes and two other smaller developers Allison Homes and Stamford Homes have been fined for polluting a stream in Deeping St Nicholas stream with raw sewage.  The companies were fined £8000 at Grantham Magistrates’ Court last week and were ordered to pay costs.

Barratt Homes leads the way with the smallest home in the UK – ‘Manhattan pods’ in Harlow  have only 34 metres square of space, and a living room measuring a mere 3 x 3.6 metres.

CABE conducted the research with the owners of 2,500 private new homes, to explore views on the adequacy of internal space.

“The majority of householders – 57 per cent – said they did not have enough storage space, while 72 per cent said they did not have enough space for three small bins required for proper recycling.”

http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/space-in-new-homes

The housebuilding industry has failed again to get its house in order. First, they failed to improve customer service as set out in the Barker Review, which led to OFT Market Study. Now the industry has failed to keep to the agreed deadline and the OFT will be recommending that the Government introduces legislation to protect consumers. You can read more here

The housebuilders struggle to build quality homes so please don’t let them meddle with the roads. Nice one Barratts

Buckinghamshire County Council spokesman Si Khan said an inspector would be visiting the site to check guidelines had been met but added the junction was the responsibility of Barratts as part of the original planning application.

She added: “We’ll be making sure Barratt Homes meets the criteria and guidelines set out and we will be working hard to make sure the situation is rectified as soon as possible.”

Barratt’s technical director Phil Jones said: “The signs saying ’roundabout in use’ is being covered.

“We envisage the road markings being painted in the next few days and the roundabout will be in use shortly after that.”

According to Paul Farrow of the Telegraph new build house prices began to fall in 2006 and not 2007.   He give an example of a home in East Anglia that was valued at  £246,995 in April 2006 and is worth  £225,000 today.  A reasonable fall of 9pc according to the Nationwide House Price Index calculator.    He argues that this online tools does not  differentiate between a new-build and older homes.   In reality the home would be worth as little as  £120,000, if it were a new build.

The Guardian has reported today that Barratt Homes have dropped the prices of their homes by 19% over the last year.  The outlook for the company does not look good and they have moved to cut costs by closing their final salary pension scheme.    According to the CEO, Mark Clare, site visitors are also down by 4% compared to this time last year, but there has been about a 10% increase since last month.  The region worst hit according to Clare is the Midlands.  Read more here.

Since 2004 the residents of the Redrow Poets Wood housing development in Streetly have been fighting to get their new homes brought up to standard. Some of the homes have been knocked down and rebuilt but the problems persist.

One resident of the estate, Veronica Fitzgerald, exchanged at the beginning of 2004 but had to wait two years to move in while Redrow rebuilt the property.

The NHBC has received more that 20 complaints from residents of the estate with faults including loose tiles, dodgy light fittings and flooding.

You can read more about the story here.

It has always been the case that residents of affordable housing get a better quality of home as the snagging is addressed in the housing association’s contract with the build. Private buyers do not have this luxury and struggle for months and years to get their home finished to standard.

Now Boris Johnson, the Major of London, has published a guide for the design of all new public funded London homes being built from 2011. Residents of of affordable housing will get:

• better space between and around buildings
• better shared areas including car parking, a major source of complaint for new build buyers, and cycle and waste storage
• new minimum room sizes – 10% more than the 1961 Parker Morris benchmark
• And much more…

Although, this is a great initiative why does it not cover private homes and why only London?

I had to call the NHBC claims team. Despite having received my letter advising them of the issues disputed by Fairview, they had not acted on the letter until I called. After that I received a guide explaining the procedures . Of course despite already knowing that Fairview have declined to rectify the faults disputed, the NHBC has to go through a formal procedure involving writing to  and then receiving a formal reply from , Fairview . That has apparently been sent already , so today I will chase up  the date for an inspection. On a negative note, the guide from the NHBC actually advises that , if they reach a conclusion and I am not happy with that, at any stage, they can actually walk away from dealing with the matter! Hopefully with all the furore that they attracted with recent TV appearances on Watchdog, this will not come to pass.

We have faulty spot lights again. The spots were replaced by SMAC lighting , the original contractors , as they were a fire risk. However when replaced, a key silicone seal, that makes the light Part “c” compliant for fire and smoke reasons, was left out of mots of the lights. Fairview know this because a fellow householder has brought it to their attention. However as yet , they have not had a recall  on the lights , as they previously did . I assume they feel that our safety is not of paramount importance? I have referred the matter but as yet , their electrical specialist , Mr J Glavey, has not called…..another phone call today….

We are still waiting for our new front door…Benlowe the suppliers , have sent two doors that were not up to scratch.The last one was of such poor quality and had pieces that did not match. Turns out that they had done a patch repair on the first that was sent back….

Next update after further events .

The following week, the report came through. This vindicated  most of the items we had mentioned, the stairs are indeed non conforming and will need rectifying, the bath does indeed need to be installed level, the tiles should not be cracking and perhaps Fairview need to consider putting  in the correct joints in the screed. The drive would have to be re inspected by the manufacturer and the NHBC would give their verdict after that report. Overall though I felt that the procedure had gone well but now I wait to see Fairview’s response . They have already applied for an extension to the time they are allowed to complete the repairs but today we have the stair manufacturer coming to measure up, so that’s looking promising.

The house is once again full of workmen, particularly good workmen mind you. Dean Murphy , plumber extraordinaire, was upset that I had not mentioned him in the blog, so there you go Dean. You and Darrel ( aka Donut), the side kick apprentice, are doing marvellous job. Poor Dean has spent an inordinate amount of time repairing the cock ups that the original plumbers visited upon us.

Mr Burbidge is here again to try to sort out  a variety of ongoing issues  involving incorrectly fitted timber to the windows and holes in walls where the pipes for the radiators enter rooms, along with a gale force wind…

Summary to date: 26/03/08 over three months after completion date
– Main Kitchen & Annex Kitchen not completed
– Garden still unusable
– New Fireplace Unusable – may need wall taken out to rectify
– Replacement white goods outstanding
– Agreements by Bovis to interconnect property changed

And a snagging list that includes, refitting of doors, plastering, painting and tile replacement to be completed

This is what we keep asking ourselves! The truth about our Bovis enhanced house.

As a last resort to try and get Bovis to complete our work in progress we have decided to share the problems we have had with other owners of Bovis houses and more importantly with potential purchasers of standard Bovis and enhanced properties.

Our story starts back in November 2007 and is still continuing in March and in our mind will probably continue for the remainder of 2008.

We are a professional family with four young daughters and juggle a busy life between our business and our children. But lately we have had a new role that has taken up a tremendous amount of time had and in turn has had an impact on our business and personal lives. Since the purchase of our Bovis home on the 21st December 2007 we have been spending most days trying to get our house completed. This has involved taking on a new role as project manager, tradesman and trouble-shooter. For anyone who is currently involved in a self build with an external project management team, I can now relate to what you are going through.

This web site will include a full detailed breakdown of our home all the problems we have had, the build quality, how we eventually got them dealt with and the problems that are still not being dealt with. It will also give you an insight into how in our view a lack of communication in a large house builder can cause such a high level of stress for a family after they have completed and Bovis have got their money.

We have taken pictures and tried to make each account as brief as possible for light reading.

We will be adding a blog & live chat room to this site so any existing Bovis owners can share their problems. This is also more importantly available to new prospective purchasers, that I feel should have all the facts available to them to be able to make an informed decision when considering purchasing a Bovis home. Glossy brochures and a new show home are a great sales aid but by looking at our alternative “Work in Progress” show home pictures, you can see the reality of Bovis build quality and aftercare.

This site will of course be advertised locally but will be optimised on all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, Ask & MSN to capture a the national opinion of issues.

We will also be arranging an open evening in Cambridge with Wine and Canapés (to relax the mood a little) so people can vent their frustration and share the problems they have had and discuss how we can all work together to make sure any outstanding problems are dealt with.

To let us know the problems you have had or to see if we can help you please send you an email to yourvoice@whybovishomes.co.uk

As a final note to all. This site was not produced out of malice but by a family who has simply run out of energy trying to get their family home completed.

Truth Statement

This page was created on March 11, 2008. All information contained herein is true to the best of our knowledge as of that date

And so, the end is here. It is just over 6 months since I posted my first entry, and we have been through so much together. We’ve had:

• snags galore (here and here)
• gadgets galore (here and here)
• near disaster (here and here)
• killer flies (here)
• and sexy lingerie (here).

I hope that my posts have informed and entertained you. They have certainly provided me with a welcome outlet for many of the frustrations involved with buying a new home.

It only remains for me to thank my wife for her unending support and New Build Inspections for sponsoring this blog. Oh yes, and to provide one final, shameless plug for my hilarious novel ‘A Foreign Education’. Please visit my web site at www.CraigAlanWilliamson.com to download a free preview, or head straight to Amazon UK or Amazon USA to buy a copy of the paperback!

Congratulations – you have just bought a new house. Commiserations – you have now have to deal with ‘snagging’. Snags are all of those little imperfections with your new home that your builder promises to rectify within the first few weeks of you moving in. Here are my top 3 snagging tips:

1. Bring in the experts – You will probably be able to spot a missing cupboard door in your kitchen, but would you be able to spot non-matching screws on a light switch, or exterior guttering that doesn’t comply with building regulations? It is well worth employing the services of a Snagging Inspector (such as New Build Inspections) to ensure that tiny details and technical details are all uncovered as early as possible.

2. Never settle for less-than perfect – Do not put up with very small defects because you are embarrassed to point them out. Do not put up with workmen doing bodge-jobs of snags that you have given them to repair. You have paid a lot of money for a brand new house and everything should be perfect. Make sure that your builder makes it happen!

3. Take charge of the snag repair process – If you leave snag repair scheduling to the builder, they will send out a cleaner first, then a decorator, then a carpenter. The carpenter will drop glue on your carpet and damage some paintwork, meaning that the cleaner and the decorator will have to come out again. Then the painter will splash some paint on your floor, which will mean that the cleaner has to come out again. Then the kitchen fitter will come out and damage your paintwork and mark your carpet . . . I think you get the picture. My advice is to take charge of the order in which snags are repaired. Refuse to let the decorator visit until you are 100% happy with everything else. And only when the decorator has finished should you let the cleaner visit. Life will be much less frustrating if you can follow this advice!

If you can follow these 3 simple tips, then you will be well on your way to resolving all of your snags quickly and without too much stress. Good luck!

New homes come with lots of little hidden costs. For example, did your builder install a door bell for you? How about a house number on your front door? Not even a mirror in the bathroom? Only after you have moved in does the extent of this little list of hidden costs actually become clear. Below is my attempt to forewarn you of some of the more common hidden costs you may have to face:

• Washing line (£5 – £20)
• Door bell (£5 – £50)
• Dustbin (£10 – £15)
• Door mat (£10 – £15)
• Coat hooks (£10 – £25)
• Toilet roll holders (£10 – £25 per bathroom)
• Towel holders (£10 – £25 per bathroom)
• Curtain tracks/poles (£10 – £50 per room)
• House number (£15 – £50)
• Bathroom mirrors (£20 – £50 per bathroom)
• Curtains (£30 – £80 per room)
• Satellite dish installation (£50)
• Connection of phone line (£140)
• TV aerial and loft distribution box (£150 – £200)
• Grass/landscaped garden (£200 – £5,000)
• Carpets (£2,000 – £5,000)

You’ve picked the perfect house style with a workshop area for your impressive collection of power tools, and you’ve selected the perfect plot with a prime view of the all-girls college. Surely your work is done? Well, not quite, as you’ve still got to pick your extras.

‘Extras’ are the additional niceties that you can buy from your builder at the time of purchasing your new home. It’s all too easy to get carried away and spend many thousands of pounds on pointless additions, so make sure that you only go for extras that fulfil at least one of the following criteria:

Good value – Would you like a 50 inch plasma TV in your new lounge for £50? You betcha! Would you like an integrated weighing scale in your kitchen worktop for £300? On your bike!

More practical – If you would like your home fully cabled for satellite TV and computer networking in every room, then you probably don’t want to be ripping out walls once you have moved in. Let the builder do it and you’ll have a much more practical solution.

More convenient – You could turf your new garden yourself, but by the time you get around to doing it the weeds will be several feet high and you may have lost a few small children in there. Paying to have this job taken care of before you move in will probably prove worthwhile.

As well as thinking about extras that you want, it is also worth thinking about the standard features of your new home that you really do not want. For example, we didn’t want a fireplace but one came as standard with our home. It would have been messy and annoying to remove the thing after moving in, so we asked the builder to leave it out. Our reward? A nice empty wall for a big TV, and over £1,000 refunded by the builder. Result!

Unleashing the wife on John Lewis was definitely the right plan. No sooner had I published my last blog entry than we received a phone call to arrange delivery of our new sofa. It arrived last week and we are extremely pleased with the results. Our old sofa was in need of removal from the first floor, but we didn’t fancy incurring all the bumps and scrapes on our walls that happened when it was first moved up there. So my wife baked a few buns, brewed a few cups of tea, and no doubt wore some skimpy lingerie in order to entice a few of the site workmen around to solve the problem. Armed with only chocolate chips, Tetley’s, and plenty of fine lace, she soon arranged a fork lift truck and two sturdy men to winch the old sofa through our first floor balcony. I’ve said this before in this blog and I’ll say it again: if I didn’t have a wife I’d have nothing.

Having the new sofa makes the move more final now. As does the fact that we had the removal company come to collect all of their empty cardboard boxes. As does the fact that we finally gave about 5 boxes full of unwanted but good quality items to a local charity shop, thus clearing up some space in our garage. As does the fact that Christmas is almost here, and my blog will soon be coming to an end! Don’t worry though, I have a few special new home buyer guides planned for the final few weeks. And I might even allow my wife to write an entry on how to flirt with workmen and get things done around your new build house.

We managed to get a viewing on Friday.

All seems good and the Site Manager says everything is on track.

It was a bit odd going inside the house, when the wiring/pipework is all on show and there is only 1 side of each plasterboard wall fitted.

I couldn’t believe that they use plastic pipes now, whatever happened to copper piping?!

Fingers crossed that everything remains on track.

Well nothing much happening really, the house is progressing as planned as far as we are aware.

It’s now got the roof, doors and windows fitted, but we aren’t sure how much (or little) they have done inside.

On the exterior, they are still due to build the carport and render the outside of the house. Obviously, there aren’t any timelines available to us to know when this will be done.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any flexibility in the build process
We asked Redrow if it was possible to fit a bath in the main ensuite, as the room is MASSIVE with a lot of wasted space.

We were told that they will only build to plan and if the plan doesn’t have it, then it’s not possible.

Surely there must be some flexibility in the build process, especially when there is more than enough space. It’s not even as if we wanted it for free!!!

We are now officially the owners of a big house full of many boxes. Surprise surprise the 70% of the snagging items have not been done……..

We’ll update soon and let you all know how were getting on.

Received the report from Newbuild inspections.

They have spotted several fairly small cosmetic items that need sorting. However, they also spotted items such as the en-suite loo not working. In my opinion it was worth every penny.

The report has also gone to site. We’ll have to wait and see if they actually bother to read it.

Went in for the home demo today. To be honest it was more of an ‘Unofficial Snag’ for me as I am fairly well versed with how a central heating thermostat works and how to lock and unlock doors.

In the short time that i was in the house I raised 20+ items with the site manger. Most were fairly trivial and simply down to a lack of attention to detail. A few examples are:

1 – A power point in the washing machine space that will be 75% covered by the machine when its on place – they agreed to move it…

2 – Our rear garden slopes towards the house. The patio has no means of drainage and was already filling with water – They agreed to put a drain in.

3 – Garage power not working.

4 – A hole in the soffit was covered over with an extractor vent. They agreed this was a bodge job and that the soffit would be replaced.

The site manager was a reasonable guy and took all of the points on board. He was actually picking up points that I’d missed. He promised to try and get all of the items sorted for our completion date. I have issued a list to the site to make sure everything is down in black and white.

We completed the sale of our previous home last friday. Compared to the previous experiences of our buyers solicitor, everything went through surprisingly well!

It felt a little odd when we got the call from our solicitor saying that the sale was complete and we were no longer “home owners”.

We’ve settled into our rental home for now, and already started to become part of the community as it were, with the supermarkets all checked out, leisure centre investigated etc. Just the Doctors to register with now.

It also means we can keep an eye on our house (read as keep an eye on the builders!), our new house is now up to roof level, with the joists/A-Frames now in place as well as the dormer window frame and the velux windows also in place.

Hopefully the felt/tiles will be in place soon before the really bad weather strikes and then they can continue internal work without being delayed by the weather.

Photo’s to follow soon.

I had agreed with the sales office that I would be snagging the house on the 24th with our home demo on the 27th. I received a call on Tuesday 21st letting me know that snagging would now not be possible. It was suddenly not company policy to allow snagging.

After various heated calls to the sales manger and eventually the sales director DWH finally caved in but only if I instructed a third party. I honestly believe that they were hoping that I was only prepared to snag it myself and wouldn’t be willing to pay someone else to do it. I immediately instructed Newbuild Inspections. DWH will only allow them in to snag after the 27th, therefore not leaving much time before we move in on the 30th.

Lessons learned from my experience so far:

1 – Do not trust the sales office if they say that snagging is possible. Get it confirmed in writing from a ‘Grown Up’ at your house builder’s head office.

2 – Do not instruct a solicitor that is recommended by the builder. Mine was absolutely spineless on this issue and clearly did not want to rock the boat due to a conflict of interest. He would not so much as even speak to DWH on my behalf to try and apply some pressure.

3 – Start worrying if builders say no. I did…….

4 – Phone Newbuild Inspections – It was only after taking there advice and pushing certain people that I managed to get the snagging agreed – (Many thanks guys for your help).

We moved into our rented house over the weekend, that was hard work!

Friday saw us rent a van and move the items we would need over the next 4 months into our rented house.

The rented house is on the same development as our new house (just an earlier phase), meaning we can keep an eye on the builders

We tried out the local pub on friday night as well, good food, couple of beers and the company of my good lady wife, what else could I ask for.

Next stage is completion on our house, this friday hopefully.

Gave the sales office a call to check up on the progress yesterday. After a bit of chasing around they came back to me and confirmed that the house will be inspected on Friday (17th) for NHBC sign off. They hope to serve our ten-day notice on either Friday or Monday depending on when they get the inspection completed.

We have been popping over to the site quite frequently and to be honest they appear to have done a reasonable job from the outside. It’s quite strange actually as I keep spotting minor issues with other houses on the development but the only thing that I can spot on our house is the missing outside tap and a couple of holes that need sorting under the soffits.

We have very bravely decided to snag the property ourselves. I’m an engineer by trade and tend to be bit of a fussy git at the best of times. Coupled with a reasonable grasp of the trades and a couple of refurbs under our belt I’m hoping that I should pick up a majority of the problems.

Hopefully I’ll be back with a fairly short snagging list and a moving date in a few days………

We’ve done it!!!

We finally managed to exchange contracts! So the move is definitely on!
Thankfully, everything is now in place and we can start to relax a little bit.. well at least until we start removals on Friday into our rented house.

So, plan from here…
Move into rented house Friday 17th
Complete the sale on our current house Friday 24th November

It all seems very real now, with the end firmly in sight.

I’m most looking forward to moving onsite at Kennet Heath, getting to know the area, registering for Doctors etc and most of all…. keeping an eye on the building process of our new Redrow home!

Thanks to all those of you that kept fingers crossed for us, it clearly worked!

Not sure when the next update will be, hopefully sometime around next weekend, once we’ve moved into the rented house, hopefully I’ll be able to post some more progress pictures once we’re on site.

Means I can actually start using the “Post Exchange” category now!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been very busy!

Crest have made good all of the snags I was concerned about, including the window lock and the faults on the cistern lids. I am very happy with how things have turned out. They have also said that after 6 months they will come out again and fix any new snags we have found.

Primary fixes that were listed in previous post;

1. A small crack on the patio door – this was just glue that eventually rubbed off
2. A fault in the porcelain on 2 of the toilet ‘lids’ – fixed
3. Only 2 coats of paint in some upstairs rooms – 3 coats were applied, but because a roller was used to paint the walls, a paint brush had to be usd above the skirting board, giving the impression of a ‘band’ being visible. Happy with explanation.
4. Some large splodges of white paint on some of the wall, mostly upstairs – fixed
5. An exposed and unsealed piece of wood-end near the bath that would expand if water entered it – not wood, but plastic. Now sealed.
6. Poor finishing on the top of all doors – Not sanded or painted. Actually were painted, but not sanded. Left as they were.
7. Mixture of gloss and emulsion paint inside the built-in wardrobes -Decided against getting this done.
8. Window lock on one of the windows doesn’t work – fixed
9. We are missing a part for the oven – the ‘Cooker Handle’ that helps when taking the tray out of the oven – not missing, just no longer given out by Bosch, manual not updated.

I would like to thank New build inspections for all their help in getting me a satisfactory conclusion.

The carpets are now in, the desk has been assembled and the furniture has all arrived (apart from the sofa).

The only issues that remain are the following;

a) No phoneline. BT cannot put a new phone line in because all of the lines in the cabinet are taken (bad planning methinks!). They need to put new ducting in and new lines to the site, so this will affect every new build on the development. My estimated completion date is 11th December, so with a bit of luck I should have phone and broadband by Christmas!

b) TV reception is poor. We are only allowed to have an aerial in the loft unless the signal is very bad, in which case you can apply for permission to put one outside. I have mine in the loft, and I am restricted to the BBC channels and E4+1 if I am lucky (it’s intermittant). I have applied to Crest to have an aerial fitted externally, and I await their response.

c) Sofa. We are still waiting for delivery of our new sofa, but I have been told by MFI it should be delivered sometime next week.

Well yesterday we got the keys! I got the call at 11:10am from my solicitor to tell me everything had gone through, and I could go and pick up the keys from the site office. When I got there, I was taken to read the Gas, Electric and Water meters and then left to wait for my inspector to arrive.

She arrived at around 12:50pm, and go to work almost immediately. The Assistant site manager from crest had asked if he could watch her at work (!) but she asked if he could come back at the end for a summary. The whole inspection took around 2 hours, and I was impressed with the findings. She was extremely thorough, and picked up things I would never have noticed. Even things that are obvious when you know about them, I would never have thought to look for. I would definitely get another inspection done if I ever buy another new build.

Although largely there were no major errors, there were quite a few minor snags that I would really want fixed. These were (pictures to follow on Monday);
1. A small crack on the patio door
2. A fault in the porcelain on 2 of the toilet ‘lids’
3. Only 2 coats of paint in some upstairs rooms
4. Some large splodges of white paint on some of the wall, mostly upstairs
5. An exposed and unsealed piece of wood-end near the bath that would expand if water entered it
6. Poor finishing on the top of all doors – Not sanded or painted
7. Mixture of gloss and emulsion paint inside the built-in wardrobes.

And I also noticed later on –

8. Window lock on one of the windows doesn’t work
9. We are missing a part for the oven – the ‘Cooker Handle’ that helps when taking the tray out of the oven.

But apart from those things, I am pretty happy with the job that has been done. I will post some more detail on the report when I get it. Crest has agreed to correct all of the snags shown above (apart from 8 & 9 which they don’t know about yet) which will be nice.

We had the home demonstration on Wednesday and it went pretty well. The crack near the patio doors has been sufficeintly filled in, and I am happy with the explanation of its cause. There were a few minor snags that I pointed out, and I was told they would be fixed before we move in, which would be desirable.

On the whole, there weren’t many problems, but i’m no expert – I’ll leave the detailed scrutiny to the inspector who is coming next Thursday. The problem Nik had with the handles on the drawers coming off in the kitchen doesn’t seem to be there, and we have got the same units as he had.

I hear that knowledge of this blog has spread and a few of the builders have seen it – all i can say is good job so far lads, but don’t let me down at the last hurdle! And no christening of the toilets – trust me I will know!

The garage door looks nice…

With planning a wedding, studying for a post grad and a new job. It was time to give up fighting. We had exhausted most affordable avenues.

We decided to pay joiners and builders to carry out the repair of the upstairs floor in the worst bedrooms and we fixed the master bedroom ourself as we had ran out of money. The repairs cost us over £2000. We had to spend a long time sleeping in the living room.

We are fed up fighting and repairing the house but we keep on going. It is still a long way away from a comfortable home.

The impact of the constant chasing and argueing was taking its toll on our health and happiness.

Sheesh, we noticed some funny smells in the bathroom and the boiler room, and wondered what it could be.

After taking up the covering near the sink pipes, lo and behold, there’s been a small leak that must have been going on for ages and the area underneath is covered in mold and soaked through. As the building is made of wood, it’s quite worrying as wet wood must rot quicker. Not to mention the health hazards of breathing in mold spores all these while. No wonder I’ve been having headaches.

Anyway, contacted Laing and after chasing them a couple of times, we’ve finally managed to get someone to look at it. Not exactly sure what they’ve done apart from pull out a couple of pieces of wood and left them in our bathroom and declaring that it’s fixed. The mold’s still there. The leak? No idea, we haven’t used the ensuite for the past month now.

Looks like there’s more chasing up to do..

Lo and behold, the sink pipe in our ensuite has been leaking, very slowly and mold has formed around the pipe. Extremely disgusting.. and dangerous, as we have found out via the internet. Breathing in any spores could be very dangerous. We’ve contacted Laing about it naturally, but so far it’s not been attended to.

We resorted to not using the ensuite for the time being, leaving the window open and door closed to let the place dry out. Unfortunately weather has not been kind and it’s been freezing the past couple of days. Not to mention not very secure having the window left open.. it’s just an open invitation to any unsavoury characters (fingers crossed that there are none around). Going to need to chase Laing up again!

I’m just wondering, how in the world can I prevent mold from forming in the bathroom? Surely it can’t be that I have to leave windows open all the time? I’ve found condensation inside the windows of the room quite a bit. Although I’m assured that it’s normal, surely there’s something not quite right about the ventilation to have such a high content of moisture. And cooking smells linger on.. *sigh*..

So, we’ve finally moved in. In the end, Laing didn’t allow entry to professional snaggers for whatever reason. Workmanship on the surface was fine, but when you look more closely there were tell tale signs of unfinished jobs.

Sure there were a few nicks here and there on the walls and leftover paint on tiles and doors, but that’s something we could live with. After moving in, you do get a visit from the site manager and we got to show them things we wanted fixed or corrected. That was after we’d chase them to come to do the visit though.. their excuse was that they have 7 WORKING days to contact us after completion to do the home visit which includes weekends and all the bank holidays over Christmas and New Year. Wasn’t the same position for us regarding completion, it was 14 CALENDAR days after they had served notice, so didn’t include weekends and bank holidays. Talk about double standards!

Nevertheless, they’ve got most things sorted, like gaps in the windows and leaking showers, but still have yet to finish up on missing mastic behind the toilet pipes and around the basin, and windows not closing properly. You do find out things like components not being fixed properly on the shower door, and various other bits and pieces the longer you’re there. But Laing are always friendly when they come visit. (they are coming again in 3 months, or was it just a phonecall?) Wish they didn’t leave the lights on and internal doors open after coming to finish up on the odd job though. After all, they did advise us that if internal doors weren’t closed, and there were to be a fire, we’d not be covered by insurance!

We were invited over to do a home demonstration in our new flat last week. Purpose of which was really for Laing to show us how the various things worked..

from the radiators to windows and even the dishwasher. Very helpful little tips thrown in like rubbing baby oil on the doors every so often to keep the moisture in. There was undoubtedly a lot to take in, but we were assured that we’d get a manual upon completion, which incidentally is very very soon.

The flat was in good condition, as one would expect with a new build property. I didn’t think it would be in a bad state, but it was pleasing to note that marks on the wall and gaps are assured to be filled and corrected before completion, as well as things like funny sounds from the fridge motor and uneven kitchen doors that were noted to be checked out. Undoubtedly told again not to waste money on snagging, but I am rather curious to see what professional snaggers would pick up on that we missed.

Anyway, Christmas is only a couple of days and we’ll be home owners soon, in hours literally I hear. Daunting prospect, but exciting nevertheless.

When we asked to arrange an appointment for New Build Inspections to
carry out a snagging inspection, there was another confusion on site. At first the appointment was made, then it was not going to be allowed, then it was uncertain whether it would be allowed or not.

Finally we spoke to the site manager Mark Thompson, who stated that the Laing policy was not to allow a snagging inspection or an inspection by any other professional or contractor to be carried out prior to completion. From our experience with the sales people, it does not seem to be a very clear or well known policy! Certainly, this was the first we heard about it.

In other words, we are allowed to rely only on our own (lack of) knowledge and experience to satisfy ourselves that a satisfactory job has been done. Moreover, Mark said that he would tell us how to inspect the property. Sounds helpful, but there is an obvious conflict of interest in the developer advising you that the property is “an excellent property” and telling you how to look at it. We were told that because New Build Inspections weren’t the purchasers, whatever they had to say didn’t matter.

What?? You mean, what any expert is saying does not matter because they are not the purchaser? Why in the world do we get a surveyor in to have a look at a building before we purchase it? Sure, it looks fine to me, so whether the surveyor is of the opinion that the building is about to collapse does not matter! Is that what they are trying to say??!!

His rationale was that you pay an “extortionate” amount in fees for a
snagging report, and the inspector has to find as many faults as he can and “tear the place apart” in order to justify the fees you have paid. I really wonder that this is actually the service you want from a snagging inspection. Wouldn’t you be much happier if the report could just say, here is a list of minor defects, some we think a developer will remedy, others not, and we didn’t find any serious problems. At least there would be two sides to the story, instead of just the developer’s side.

More importantly, according to Mark, Laing’s (and any other developer for that matter) main concern is if a purchaser refused to complete on the basis of a list of minor defects, especially if it were a pretext for not completing to their timetable. Perhaps it’s worth remembering that they are holding a substantial deposit paid at exchange, and you may forfeit that deposit by refusing to complete.

So what happens if you go ahead and complete, and then you have the snagging done? It doesn’t take long to guess that the developer may argue that you had caused some defects since moving in. In any case, how urgent is it going to be to rectify defects now that the legal process is over? A developer may simply refuse to entertain a post-completion snagging report. Even where they are more receptive, when will defects be remedied? You begin to understand why there are snagging report companies in the first place!

All the time, Mark is trying to reassure us that the flat is “excellent” and that we’ll see at the home demo. At the same time he reminds us that he “doesn’t do perfect”, and that he will tell us if we are being unreasonable when we point out a defect. His idea of reasonable, and he says that this is in accordance with NHBC as well, is whether defects can be seen from the middle of the room or 2 metres. My question is, why should there be two different standards of snagging – one of the uninformed buyer, and another for the professional snagger? Are developers trying to pull the wool over our eyes? If it is NHBC standard, then professional snaggers should be snagging to that standard too, no?

I don’t care if there’s a small scratch on the surface of the skirting board. I’m more concerned with what else we may have missed that a professional snagger picks up on. Ill-fitting sinks, curved walls, eneven/ sloping doors. That sort of thing. But no, we’re not allowed to have any professional snagger come in on our behalf before completion. Laing has a policy of not allowing professional snagging. If they are as excellent as they say they are, what’s there to be scared of? They say they are reasonable, well, so am I!

Having contacted our local concillor we received a letter from him stating although he sympathizes with us, he too has experienced the frustation of communicating with Redrow and trying to get them to do the right thing with no avail.

The councillor had been fighting for other residents on the estate with similar poor workmanship issues and he managed to get nowhere with Redrow.

A new book published by the council is currently being updated to warn other future homebuyers about what has happened with other residents so they are prewarned.

What about the rest of us though?

We received a nasty reply to the folowing letter we sent to Redrow’s Chief Executive. We usually have to prompt a reply but this one was sent of their own back..

Redrow’s official line. “In light of the above and the previous NHBC resolution I therefore inform you that we will not be forwarding a cheque in the sum of

Gas leak has been repaired yesterday. Redrow contractors came up with an idea to fix it with less hassle. Was worried they were making a quick fix of it again.

Made several calls yesterday. Seems we are too late for a surveyor to come in because the floor boards are already lifted up.

The NHBC – Friend or Foe?

Quote from NHBC Report on our upstairs floors….

“A 2m and 1m level were used to gauge the deviations in the evenness of the floors and measurements taken. Under our requirements the floor decking is required to be suitable for the intended use. There are specific measurements detailed in the NHBC’s document, a consistent approach to finishes, however these figures are only recommendations, not requirements, and should only be used as a guide.

The nature and extent of any work necessary to remedy minor variances from the tolerances given should be appropraite to the circumstances. In this instance although a few of the measurements taken exceeded the guide tolerance, the amount by which they deviate is not considered to be excessive”

The guidelines state a floor should be level with in

Tony over at New Build Inspections has been sending out some press releases about these blogs, and they’re starting to be noticed. This has also led to some press attention…

Stuart Bruce, self proclaimed PR Guru, says that this is “One of the best examples of a small business blogging I’ve seen.”

Which is nice.

I’ve also spent a lot of time on the phone with Jane Hughes. She’s writing a piece for the Mail on Sunday, about blogging and the benefits it brings.

In Crest Nicholson news, still no sign of a statement of work for the work that they’re supposed to be carrying out tomorrow…

I just sent this to Crest Nicholson. It should be self explanatory.

Kisby, Jeanette wrote:

I am writing to advise that a cheque for the sum of £120 will be sent out today in the first class post to your address at X Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxx.

I’ve just confirmed that those funds have cleared my account, and I have called the Court to arrange for matters to be concluded.

I will of course be updating the pages at

http://www.newhomeblogs.co.uk/weblog1/

with the latest developments. And hello to your other colleagues who appear to have been reading that site over the last few months.

While I have your attention, I wonder if you could give John Lewsley a bit of a kick — he’s been promising to send me a statement of work for work that Crest have booked for next Tuesday, but he’s not returning my phone calls, and so far, hasn’t provided that statement.

It’s been a while since the last update. Not that things haven’t been
happening, but it’s been a hectic few weeks, and it wasn’t until the 15th that I got broadband access at the house. But that’s now installed (Freedom2Surf, with an ADSL router supplied by Solwise) and things are ticking along, so it’s time for another update.

Read on for more.

Court

As described in an earlier entry, kicking off the process of taking Crest Nicholson to court has got them to move a little faster.

I received a letter from them dated the 6th September¹ that says:

Please find enclosed a cheque for the sum of 3,000 as refund of retainer with regard to the above property.

and then on the 15th September (after more prompting from myself)

Please find enclosed a cheque to the value of 120 as refund for the County Court fee incurred.

They’ve now been deposited, and when the funds clear I’ll do whatever’s necessary at the MoneyClaim site to cancel the proceedings.

You’ll note that neither of these letters contain any hint of an apology, or explanation as to why Crest Nicholson breached the contract.

¹ They didn’t even have the wit to date the cheque earlier, and claim that the delay was down to the post.

Snagging

Snagging’s been an ongoing process.

John Lewsley, Crest Nicholson’s HomeCare Manager came over on the 6th, and we spent some time going around the house.

This included pointing out that some of our windows still don’t have insulation seals fitted. Incredibly, this is work that Crest Nicholson’s own worksheet (which they left for us to find when we moved in) showed as being complete.

John’s visit also served to highlight the duplicitous behaviour of some of Crest Nicholson’s other representatives. If you cast your mind back, you’ll recall that I wrote about getting a list of work that was required written down, agreed to, and signed by Steve Driscoll. This included:

Decoration around sockets in the study is poor — bare plaster is visible. Remove sockets, repaint, re-fix sockets.

I showed this to John (as, not to my complete lack of amazement, that work’s not been done) and he tells me that he can’t understand why Steve would sign this, as there’s no way that Crest Nicholson’s decorators ould remove sockets once they’ve been wired up.

At this point I don’t especially care whether Steve was lying when he agreed to sign the document, or John’s lying when he tells me Crest won’t do this. I just know that dealing with the mendacity is getting tiresome.

One of the other things John was supposed to do when he was here was locate and read the meters. Electric and gas meters were read with no problems. But despite searching high and low John failed to find the water meter.

I find it absolutely staggering that Crest Nicholson would send out someone to read the meters without first making absolutely sure that the person they send out knows how to find the meters. It speaks volumes about their competence.

I’m waiting for the first water bill with interest.

We walked around the house pointing out things that still weren’t
right.

These include:

• Missing equipment from the oven (it’s taken two attempts, as they sent the wrong size bits the first time, but Crest have now partially rectified this; we’re still waiting for the final items though).
• A faulty extractor fan in the downstairs WC
• Loose fittings in the shower on the top floor
• The aforementioned missing window seals
• Light fittings that don’t work
• Replacing the handles on the kitchen units, many of which are loose after light use, and some have detached completely

When he left John promised me that he’d send me a full statement of the work that Crest Nicholson are due to carry out when they visit on the 27th. That was almost two weeks ago. Despite repeated chasing, it’s not been forthcoming. Just another commitment that Crest Nicholson have, so far, failed to honour.

Stop Press

We had Crest Nicholson’s electricians, Riley McLaren, in the other week, to comission the telephone extension sockets after BT had enabled the master socket.

This took some chasing from Crest Nicholson, who eventually decided it was something they’d do. The letter said:

I have spoken with your Homecare Manager John Lewsley and
he advised that Crest Nicholson only hard wire extention(sic) sockets which is something that should have been explained to you by our Sales Department. However, on this occasion as a gesture of goodwill we will instruct our Electricians Riley & Mc CLaren (sic) to contact you to make arrangements.

There are four extension sockets on the ground floor, and one on the first floor.

At the moment, only one of them works…

Well we had been due to exchange last Friday 2nd September

, but as usual things have not been running too smoothly…… On Thursday late afternoon we happily wended our way to our solicitors office to take in the cheque for the deposit and tweak the last few bits of paper. Low and behold, it became apparent to us that the boundary line on one side of the house had not been amended (in our favour) as had previously been agreed. We had spoken about this at length to our solicitors and assured that it would be attended to, but obviously it had not. Everybody rushed around trying to sort it out, we needed an amended plan to be sent from the builders, which they hurridly faxed through the next morning.

Friday morning turned into early afternoon and we still had not had the call from our solicitors. We rang them, they informed us we would not be able to complete on the Friday because of the delay with the paper work but that they would exchange on Monday instead. On Monday we rang expectantly to be told that we could not exchange

on Monday because one of the searches had come back as unaccepteble because the plan did not have a scale figure. (Huh? We were previously told that all the searches were ok)

Oh yes, but this is a last minute search we were told, that couldn’t be done until just before exchange. So now the builders are scurrying around again getting yet another bit of paperwork in order. The re-amended plan has to be sent to Gloucester to the Land Registry (LR) before it can be agreed. Tuesday morning arrived, still no LR satisfaction. We are told we can’t exchange now until Weds lunch time at the earliest. Eeek! Because we already live in a big house our removal firm is taking two days to move us – they are arriving Weds morning at 8.30am to pack up, and we still havn’t exchanged. What if it all goes pear shaped and we can’t move at all – all our belongings will be stuck in a removal van somewhere at a huge cost to ourselves for storage. We decide to take the risk, and go ahead with the packing.

After another sleepless night, Weds morning is here – most of our belongings are now in the vans, and it is not until 2pm that we get a call from our solicitors to say that finally, we have exchanged contracts and can complete tomorrow, Thursday, and so move into our new house as planned. Phew! Never mind going grey, I’m going bald due to tearing my hair out at the roots every three minutes due to some other new fiasco. At the moment I don’t think I will ever, ever want to move house again for the whole of the rest of my life. (But actually I know that by the time I am holding a glass of wine in my hand sitting in my new conservatory tomorrow night I will have changed my mind on that one). So here we go, it really is moving day tomorrow, and now there is no going back.

I will be offline now until 26th September, as our broadband connection cannot be installed till then, so in the mean time, wish us luck – I’ll let you know how the day goes in due course.

… take them to court. Well, that’s what it seems like. I just received an e-mail from Crest Nicholson.

From: Jeanette Kisby

Please be advised that we will make arrangements to process your retention fee of £3000 back to you as soon as possible without delay.

I’ve replied, reminding them that this needs to include the £120 I incurred in starting the legal action. John Lewsley from Crest Nicholson is coming round tomorrow to do the proper handover. I did suggest they give him a cheque to give to me…

Did you know that you can kick off a small claim online? I didn’t until a few hours ago. Just start at http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/ and follow the instructions. That saves me a trip to the local court on Monday morning.

Of course, I found this out because I was researching how to make a claim against Crest Nicholson. Pictons had no luck getting a response from Crest Nicholson, and said that the best way to proceed is via the Small Claims Court. I’ve done that now. The text of the claim is below the fold.

On August 15th 2005 I completed purchase of a property from Crest Nicholson. The purchase included the part exchange of my previous property. Per the contract, Crest retained

I’ve spent the week chasing up some money that Crest Nicholson owe me. It’s not looking too promising at the moment. Here’s the story…

As part of the part exchange contract, Crest Nicholson retained

John Lewsley from Crest Nicholson called me back again today, as promised…

… yes, I was a bit shocked too. Anyway, we’ve agreed to meet at the house next Tuesday morning to run through the post move snags, get the meters read, and so on.

He did say that the earliest Crest Nicholson will be able to rectify any of these matters is the 27th September though. I wonder how many times that date is going to slip?

Hurray…we are making progress again. Having walked around the house again with our snagging report in our hands we checked off everything that has been done and everything that has not…..

I am pleased to say that the majority of the 200 items listed have been rectified – with only minor issues remaining. For example, one of the toilets is not flushing properly, and the latch on the garden gate is bent. Esprit Homes have promised to put these issues right between exchange and completion. I believe them – because so far they have delivered when promised on these types of defects.

We are scheduled to exchange this Friday, with completion on the following Thursday, 8th September. We had hoped to complete before the start of the new school year, but in the end couldn’t do this simply because of the bank holiday. Solicitors apparantly, take every Mon and Tues whenever a bank holiday monday occurs. We wait with baited breath….in the mean time have bought a big king size bed for our new spare bedroom, a bargain on ebay. It is currently taking up all the limited space in our current dining room.

That’s something of a first. John Lewsley, their Home Care Manager, called me back at 16.45 after I spoke to them earlier today.

Unfortunately, I was on a conference call at the time and couldn’t take his call. But the message he left said that he’d try again tomorrow.

After a week or so of being a TV-less house (because new build houses don’t come equipped with aerials) the peace has been shattered after I had a TV aerial fitted over the weekend. I used “Euro Digital TV” (no website, but check www.yell.co.uk for them). Good guys. They got the work done, which included fitting the digital aerial, 3 extra points, and wiring up the pre-existing points. All with a guarantee that the equipment will provide a strong digital signal. Which certainly seems to be the case; even channel 5 comes up clear as a bell, to say nothing of picking up duplicate channels from transmitters that are notionally too far away.

However, the poor quality of some of Crest’s work has manifested itself yet again…

One of the pre-existing aerial points, wired and fitted by Crest Nicholson, doesn’t work. At all. Which means there’s a fault in the cable somewhere. I’ll be interested to see how they fix this without having to dig it out of the wall.

So I gave them a call at 14.55 today. This was also a good opportunity to chase up the other snags I’d reported to them a week ago, as they hadn’t had the courtesy to follow up.

This time I spoke to Sue in Customer Care, and explained that I’d called a week previously, and had had nothing back from Crest Nicholson. Then I explained that the TV point in the master bedroom does not work.

She said this will be passed to John Lewsley, the Home Care Manager, but she couldn’t tell me when I would hear from him. I left landline and mobile phone numbers to reach me, so there’s no excuse for them not getting back to me.

I’ve been in the house for a week now, which is enough time for the first of the post-move snags to show up…

First, there’s the driveway. The weather’s been a bit warm recently, with temperatures in the 26-27C range. Unfortunately, this is enough to slightly melt the material they’ve used on the driveway. As a result if you then drive off it it gets a little churned up, damaging the surface.

No photos of that yet, but I do have a photo of the handle on the dishwasher door. Somewhat ironically this handle had already been snagged and fixed (after several attempts) by Crest. That snag was that the screw on the right side of the handle was loose.

This one, however… well, let the picture speak for itself.

Yes, that’s right. The left hand side of the handle has detached from the door. Either the screw is too short or the handle’s faulty. What’s worse is that Crest knew about this. But instead of trying to fix it by, say, replacing the handle, their contractors just tried to glue the handle back on. You can see the remnants of the glue on the door.

This only manifested itself a few days ago, after the dishwasher door had been opened and closed a few times. A couple of other door handles in the kitchen have the same problem — a little light use and they work loose. Looks like this might be a design flaw in some Symphony Group kitchens.

Staying in the kitchen, some of the lights don’t work. I’d known that some of the ceiling bulbs had gone on the previous inspection. I told Crest that I didn’t care about them fitting the bulbs, but that they should just leave me some spares. But now some of the under unit lights don’t work — I don’t know whether or not the bulbs have gone, or whether it’s a wiring issue.

I called and spoke to Crest about these earlier today (around 9.30am) and spoke to Janet in Customer Services. She tells me that she’ll pass these to Site Services, as apparently Customer Services don’t deal with things until three weeks after the handover. She promised me that Site Services will be in touch soon.

Well hello again…we are just freshly returned from our holiday in windswept, rainy Norfolk. Don’t you just love the English summers.
But hey…who cares, we’re moving house soon and any day now will be luxuriating in our fabulous modern new build……or will we?…..

Our solicitor was on holiday the week before we left for ours, so nothing much happened that week. Then we were off for two weeks and left everything in the hands of the locum solicitor with instructions to negotiate dates for completing the necessary snagging work pre exchange. I had a gravelly rumbling sensation in the pit of my stomach before we left, and had put it down to eating too many fresh figs (which I love) – but no, on my return I find it was actually my insightful intuition telling me that all was not well.

On our return we found the locum solicitor had made an excellent job of alienating the builders for no reason whatsoever.

His letter to us explained…’the property you thought you were buying has not been built…’ Huuhhh? How come we have walked around it on various occasions?

His letter to the builders solicitors included such inflamatory remarks as ‘…you are either mistaken or making an unreasonable request’ (concerning a perfectly reasonable query about our identitiy checks due to money laundering regulations).

Basically, he has succeeded in annoying everyone and made no progress whatsoever, in agreeing any action to be taken to remedy the defects that were identified by our snagging report.

Our ‘real’ solicitor is now back in control, and appears to be making more progress thankfully. We now have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon to sign our paperwork prior to exchange. We then aim to go round the property again with our snagging list in our hands to see what progress, if any, they have made.

Well after having long periods with nothing much happening, things are now starting to move very quickly. Once we had requested our snagging report from New Build Inspections (NBI), by using the easy to fill in application form online, we were delighted to receive a most expert and extremely prompt service from this company. They arranged everything in supersonic time, were incredibly helpful and did exactly what they promised…..

….getting the report to us within hours by email. Have a look at their website at www.newbuildinspections.com for their full serivce and prices. Our report has highlighted over 200 issues, which range from absolutely vital to mildly desirable and everything inbetween. I dread to think how many of these we would have missed had it not been for their expert knowledge. Worth every penny. The report is now being e-mailed to the builders for their response, and I have sent a copy to our solicitors for their advice. NBI suggested we negotiate with the builders to agree on completion dates for the work to be done before exchange of contracts. We will be working on this with our solicitor from now on.

Well is looks like Esprit Homes have a conscience after all – they have done us a deal which involves us buying the showhome a little under its market value – so we have swallowed our pride and are going for it. Bearing in mind we are also getting the carpets and curtains, and the back garden has been landscaped already, it is now a good deal for us and we are happy to proceed. New Build Homes are in the process of arranging the snagging survey, and I await with baited breath the outcome of that.