It got off to a bad start when they held back the keys for 4 hours after receiving our funds at 1 o’clock. We didn’t receive keys till 5.30 having booked a van and given notice on our rented property at the time and booked holiday from work.
On moving in we had no water or heating for 3 days due to the boiler not being wired up – HOW DID IT PASS THE INSPECTION? Well, that wasn’t the end of it by far. We continued to find faulty radiators with loose brackets fitted and a large chunk missing out of the kitchen worktop, an extractor fan blowing out cavity wall insulation. The oven burning the sides of the cupboards and drawers. I had an electrician in to put new light fittings on the first floor. He turned off the electrics for that floor and thankfully checked it by flicking the landing switch to find that the electrics were wired up to the smoke detectors and it all had to be rewired again – HOW DID IT PASS THE INSPECTION?
Nails popping through ceilings, walls and skylights. Paintwork diabolical – too much paint in some cases none in others. I could see the metal corners on walls, no plaster, every door had a fault – didn’t close, large 3inch gaps underneath – I could get my whole hand under door in some cases. There was paint on inset lights in bathrooms and kitchens and paint on door handles. The property was filthy, I cleaned for 2 days. There were light fittings hanging from the ceiling in the bathroom the holes were too big for lights. The grouting for the tiles looked like my 3-year-old grandchild had done it. The pedestals were the wrong size for basins so they filled the gap with filler 3 inches thick. We had yellow sap running down doors and frames. The stainless steel hob was scratched badly. We had paid £145.00 for a mat by the front door to wipe our feet on to be placed level with the laminate floor as we have 2 dogs it should have been 1 metre square – it measured 17 inches we had to fight to get our money back as it wasn’t wide enough to wipe one foot on.
The carpets we had ordered were £1900 silver graded, they put down the bronze carpet £1500. It took 8 months to fight to prove they were not the carpets we had paid for.
The shower leaked and still does after 4 visits the feet were not touching the floor and the water was coming through the door. The front door weather strip is still broken hand is letting in water and the windows have been replaced in the patio doors four times and they are still faulty – the seal is broken and they steam up inside. We are still awaiting for the 5th attempt to get it right.
We had to have drains put in the back garden which kept flooding the kitchen. The light switches were upside down in the en-suite and in the bedroom some plugs can’t be used as we can’t get plugs in to them. We paid for a TV Arial in the loft with 2 points – only 1 works.
To top the lot we now have found out there is a moisture problem under the lounge floor, the kitchen floor and all of the downstairs. In fact our laminate flooring we paid an extortionate £1650 for is buckling. We had the floor drilled on 9/2/2007 and the construction manager said we have a problem. I don’t know what to do, I need to get some advise we are still waiting to hear we expect to be told they haven’t put the damp membrane in the raft base therefore the water is coming up through the polystyrene and through the concrete and is now affecting our laminate floor. We aren’t the only ones we think its all four houses built on the one raft base – God help us all.
On top of that our fences fell down to find that the posts were just pushed into the ground no concrete to hold them. We are by a river we are on a potential flood plane land with no damp proof membrane.
Well what next, Oh yes, I forgot all the front airbricks on all the properties on the development are under ground level most of us have had to dig them out so they are visible. What a mess customer services don’t want to know they keep fobbing us off with stupid answers its gone too far.
Time for action, time to get papers involved, TV and even court action. Someone has to take a stand against this company they use cowboys I found out that a friend of my son-in-law’s who is a asphalt roofer got a job laying bricks – he’s never laid a brick in his life before! They take anyone on. The site manager is rude and we were told by the sales women in the show home – oh you cant upset him he gets very funny. What a shame he has not done his job properly and its time the shit hit the fan.
Thank you, a very upset Persimmon Home owner wanting to get out of it.
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for a moment i thought you were writing about our house.
The quality is shocking and customer service a joke !!
I have moved into a persimmon house and haven’t a good word to say for the sales team and management. They have lied to me, been very rude and have offered no apology. It seems they ignore what they don’t want to settle, as they are a big firm with power and money. I would not recommend anyone to move into a persimmon home.
Hi Mary, oh lord I could not agree more, I bought my house in October 2011 so not that long ago, and its appalling really appalling, customer service is (excuse my language) crap, couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery or anything, we have had no answers to any of our problems and I am still waiting on a radiator end which was picked up when I got the keys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! let alone all the other problems I have had with the place
A very disgusted Persimmons owner
I’m so saddened to read these articles. It’s appalling. When you think what houses cost to buy and the huge mark up they charge it’s unacceptable. I against my better judgment have just moved into a 4 year old Charles Church property in Milton Keynes. I say my better judgment as it was my husband who was desperate to move in. The design is great and that’s what swayed him. I hate the garden. Our walls are 145cm in part with most of our neighbours over 6ft gawping in. But that’s our problem and when the covenant is off next year I’ll be having those walls raised to 180 all the way round with extra trellis on top. However, the house is very aesthetically appealing but OMG the build is a joke! 4 years old and gable end roof tiles are shearing clean off. Am waiting out on NHBC to make a decision but I suspect we’ll have to pay up for this shit quality construction. I know it’s shit because I have lived in over 25 houses in my life time and nothing is as rubbish as this! Hasten to add this is the first ‘new’ house I’ve lived in. We live on a slope which is somewhat worrying as enormous diagonal cracks are appearing. A friend who’s a surveyor is coming to have a look. I think the previous occupants were very light footed people with no kids. This is a 4 bed family home with a family now in it and it’s crumbling away! Showers leaking – not due to lack of sillicone but because the trays haven’t been put in right in the first place and the water’s leaking down the back and on to the ceiling below. Oh and don’t forget the nails coming through the ceiling – we’re too late for snagging but this is one investment which was well overpriced. I wished I’d notice when we viewed twice but by that stage I was just brow beaten by the whole process. My advice to anyone is don’t touch these Persimmon/Westbury/Charles Church houses with a barge pole. I wish we hadn’t as I’ll be stuck in it for at least 5 years now. It’s tack!!!!!!!
Like others I thought you were describing my house in Wiltshire.
They don’t care. The quality of workmanship and materials is done on the cheap and the customer service is the worst I’ve ever encountered.
The sooner someone makes it public how bad they are the better!
Thanks for ruining our lives Persimmon.
How are you people ever goning to sell your homes on again, people will never buy them if you keep moaning about them. There must be some people out there who are happy with there new persimmon home you just never hear from them.
Dear Sue – it’s a good question you pose. It’s easy to answer we just spend loads of our hard earned cash putting everything right. The roof tiles are done (NHBC didn’t want to know although did acknowledge the wrong fittings had been used) and we’ve got £2.5k to find for the three bathrooms. Cracks will be filled and all maintenance done to a high standard by real craftspeople. Someone taking it on will be very fortunate indeed. Didn’t expect that we’d have to be doing this to such a new house – if these things had been done right in the first place we wouldn’t be moaning. I imagine there are happy people out there – lucky them! Wondering if maybe you work for Persimmon?
Just come across this site. I bought my persimmon home in 2007, my ensuite shower has leaked on/off since purchased despite having several plumbers in to look at the problem, I fear that I will have to have a complete new installation. I have had boiler issues that I was told would have been down to poor installation. Settlements cracks that were a lot worse than anticipated, electrical faults… The list is endless! A new build is by no means the easier option in this case, cowboy builders spring to mind!!!
We have spoken to quite a few people around the estate that we have moved onto, which is a new one with building still going on, and they have all had and are still experiencing, problems. The couple with a four bedroom detached home has water coming in through both sets of french doors, as the doors have split, she now has damp and it is also going under her lounge carpet, Persimmons have been back once, and tried to glue the doors, to have them split even worse the very next day!!!!!!!!!!! So it is not a case of just moaning, as Sue so eloquently put it. We have every right to moan when we have spent £200,000 on a new property, and the property, it seems to us, is falling apart at the seams. It is heartbreaking.