From the category archives:

New Homes News

Trouble with your Building Job?

Our aim is to put the project back on track with the help of a leading building industry mediator free of charge. The series will address the common pit-falls that arise and promote good building practice. Are you an unhappy builder who just wants to get the job done or a desperate client locked in [...]

Blatant plug for resident blogger

I hope you have been enjoying novelist Craig Williamson’s account of buying a new Bloor home over at New Home Blogs. If you have, you may want to consider buying his new novel A Foreign Education and leaving him a review online.

Buying property: Old versus new? Those hidden costs

Whether you go for a period piece or a shiny newbuild, don’t forget the extras. Gwenda Brophy does the sums Until recently there were two separate camps of buyers – those who would only consider period properties with their “character” and original features, and those who favoured the easy-living low-maintenance of newbuild. Period properties were [...]

City Point buyer still waiting to move

A woman who bought a flat in a new £200 million city development has spoken of her nightmare move. Gemma Bernard splashed out £300,000 for a swanky apartment in Brighton’s City Point Development and was due to get the keys on September 14. But the day before she was due to move in she was [...]

Grand Designs want your building stories

We are putting together a guide to finding and working with builders, the definitive guide on how to tackle issues including: Drawing up contracts Staying on schedule Avoiding rip-offs Finishing on time If you’ve been involved in your own Grand Design-style building project and want to share your experiences with builders, good or bad, we [...]

Our dream home move is wrecked

But the excitement soon turned sour when they were hit with disaster after disaster in the house, priced at around £200,000. So far, they have clocked close to 100 serious faults and even had to delay their moving in date. Fed-up John said: “It looks at first glance like a dream house but it is [...]

Home builder blames knotweed for delays

The builder has accused the council of unreasonable behaviour over its decision to refuse a request to allow the 11 families to move into their recently-purchased houses in Kings Heath, Digby. Planners made the decision because Persimmon broke a legal agreement not to sell some of the remaining houses on the 670-home development before it [...]

Developer warned not to let families move in

Hardline councillors have told a developer to find alternative accommodation for families caught up in a planning row, rejecting a plea to allow them to move into their new Exeter homes. As the Echo revealed last week, 11 families have been prevented from moving into houses they bought in Kings Heath, Digby, until developers provide [...]

Number 10 addresses consumer protection issues

Catriona Bright the managing director of New Build Inspection, said: “We welcome the fact that the Government recognises there is a problem, especially as the housebuilding industry is spending a fortune on professional lobbyists and public relation campaigns claiming their house is in order.” In its response the Government stated that contracts for the sale [...]

Dream home disasters

Have you had a disaster with your dream home? We are keen to hear from people who have fallen out of love with their dream new home; perhaps it was because of a catalogue of small building problems, or maybe you’ve had significant structural problems. Have you decided enough is enough and want to move [...]

Call for buyers of new homes to be given better legal rights

IT IS probably the biggest purchase in anyone’s lifetime – yet buyers of newly built homes have fewer rights than someone buying a loaf of bread. Now the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) is calling on the government to include new-build houses in the Sale of Goods Act in order to give more protection to purchasers [...]

Too many Snags?

We plan to do a special report on the state of the UK new build market, and as such we are looking for people who have had issues when buying new property. You don’t necessarily have to appear on the show! We would love to hear your stories, in confidence, so we can highlight the [...]

Pace of housebuilding falls despite tougher targets for new homes

Official figures reveal that the housebuilding industry is on a build-rate to start about 172,000 homes this year.

Consumer council attacks new-build property rights

People have more rights when they buy a kettle than they do when they buy a new-build home, a consumer group claimed today. Many people buying new homes face delays in moving in, while others are left with problems such as faulty wiring, poorly fitted doors and leaking windows, the National Consumer Council (NCC) said. [...]

Dispatches investigates new build

Channel 4′s Dispatches news show will be focusing on the new targets to build three million homes by 2020- Monday 30/07/2007 8pm. Should we be concerned about private house builders playing such a huge role in what is the biggest house building initiative since the 70s? (Ed. YES) Andrew Gilligan will be investigating how developers [...]

Building up housing problems for the future

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched an investigation into the £20 billion industry amid claims that companies have been manipulating the planning process in a bid to inflate new house prices.

The Truth About Property

Have you bought a New Build home in the last five years? Have there been problems with your house? How easy has it been to rectify the faults and have you sought help from any regulatory bodies? Do you think the housebuilding industry is monitored and regulated effectively? If you are interested in taking part [...]

Countryside Properties Campaign Site

Here is our Countryside Properties (Archive) story – its probably the same as yours: we bought a house a long time ago, we trusted Countryside Properties, and after over 9 months (June 2007), we still have 34 unresolved problems. We’ve had over 80 in all. Extract: What kind of problems? Well, here’s a few: * [...]

Greedy builders cause ‘misery’

The clever marketing term conjurers up romantic images of open fires and country living but the reality couldn’t be more of a contrast, as it is used to describe a property built above two or three garages owned by someone else. {mos_sb_discuss:137}

Housing quality must improve

The OFT study investigating the £20bn house building industry aims to improve consumer satisfaction and increase the number of new homes. However, most of the press attention has focused on housing supply rather than the lack of consumer protection and decreasing customer satisfaction linked to poor quality standards.

 

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