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.
Does Sue work for persimmon?! Because that is the only reason I can think anyone would speak up in their defence! As Alexandra said when you have paid the best part of 200k for a house any issues encountered are annoying/irratating/heartbreaking, but with our house at least, it’s the amount of problems that seem to be occuring! And it appears up and down the country that persimmon have disgruntled customers, surely something needs to change in the way they handle the ‘aftercare’ portion of the contract we sign, because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the way they deal with people during the buying process! They can not do enough when you are purchasing, they trip over themselves to book appointments for this that and the other! In our case me and my boyfriend were buying our first home together, and moving out of parents houses. So quite daunting, as u can imagine. But like I say they couldn’t do enough, set us up with mortgage advisors, talked us through what types of insurances we would need and even have advice on bank accounts and direct debits!! But the issues started as soon as we had our induction. The site manager who walked us round quite happily told us it was his last day and he could not wait to leave the company (we should’ve taken the hint then!) he hadn’t a clue about water/heating systems or anything really so he let us jus poke around and ‘tell the sales office I’ve done it properly, want my last days wage’. Obviously we didn’t, but were informed there wasn’t enough time to organise another between then and moving in so we would have to ‘pick it up as we went along!’ handy that for first time buyers, which apparently persimmon pride themselves on helping get on the property ladder. So time went by we moved in and started to notice the build quality was well below par, really shoddy decorating, bare patches on most walls, gaps between skirting boards, nails sticking out. We duly recorded everything on our snagging list (which wasn’t actually included in our welcome pack, and as a result after contacting customer services we learnt had been recorded as completed and closed on their system!) snagging list sent off in may 2011 included above issues and other bits like our shed roof needed re-doing, outside water butt was not on a slab or anything so obviously tilted and leaking etc but our main concern was unearthed on day one. Our water system when the hot taps anywhere in the house were turned on, made a horrendous loud vibrating sound for 30secs-1min everytime! And as it was next to the joining wall next door complaints (friendly ones luckily) from them followed. Followed the proper channels, and I’ll end my rant with this, it’s just FINALLY been fixed after………..8months, two new cylinders, 3 of the big water storage things and 29 visits! That is persimmons customer service to a T, once u’ve paid and ur in its on to the next.
No I don’t work for Persimmons, but I have now moved into my new Persimmons home ( 31st december 2011 ) we have had a few minor problem but nothing that can’t be sorted out. And we are very very pleased with the house.
Well that’s jolly good for you then, this clearly isn’t a forum you need …………..yet! ;0)
Pleased to hear some ones happy with the Builders, you must be the only one Sue. From my experience the only ones that are happy are those that have signed confidentiality forms and walk around with their heads hung in shame, I’m a pensioner it’s absolutely disgraceful the way they treat customers, I have been here 2 years now and still have the same on-going problems
Valerie Turner
We are still waiting for minor things to be done, ie still waiting for the radiator to be fixed, haver major cracks across our ceiling in the lounge, and around the sides of walls in kitchen, these are the worst rooms. Popping nails, looks like the stairs are trying to come away from the walls, to name just a few of the problems in our so called new house.
Persimmon are an absolute joke! I wish i had never bought from these clowns. We bought a house from them in November 2011 and had endless snags that we have chased up over and over again. Some are still not fixed five months on. Our biggest problem is the front door. We have had to endure the whole of winter with a front door that is seeping in a draught around the complete door. It took three months for someone to come out and look and the guy said it was the worst fitting of a door he had ever seen, so much so that we have mould growing in the seals and the door fittings.
The cowboys came out and tried bodging it. No surprises that they didn’t fix it. Now we have a draughty front door with no mastic sealing on the inside and out, as they went one day and haven’t come back. We have phoned and phoned and phoned and they don’t answer. I am at the end of my tether with it all.
I don’t know what to do next apart from sticking a sign up in my window saying “Don’t buy from these clowns!”
Thank god!!! I thought I was alone!!
Back in October I find out my wife Debs is Pregnant and as we have been saving for a house and the house we live in is terrible and cheap (but it allowed us to save) we went to look for a new house.
We found a persimmon development around the corner from where we currently live that offer 20% off with option to pay that loan off or when you sell the house they get there 20% back AFTER 10 years.
We have 14k saved up to put as a deposit so it would give us a sensible mortgage every month which would be fixed for 5 years at £497 a month
As I say a sensible mortgage that’s doable.
We entered the show room explained two things from the get go to the sales lady. My wife was pregnant and we wish to move into the property at the start of the next year at the latest to avoid the 1st time buyer stamp duty that would come back into effect at the end of March.
We were then told by this sales rep that these houses would be built for Feb/March the foundations were ready and all was ok for then.
We put down the deposit and on the reservation form it actually states feb/March written by the sales advisor.(not paying attention to the estimated completion date underneath the date space in small letters)
We exchange contracts and as we do I notice a completion date by June 2012 clause which I ask about.
I’m told by the solicitor that it’s a ‘safety net by the builders to protect themselves just in case of bad weather, acts of god etc’ BUT she has spoken to our sales advisor and had regular contact with them on a weekly basis and has been reassured that the houses will be made by Feb/March no later.
Stupidly, as we have never done this before, we sign it after checking with the solicitor and site rep who confirm the completion by Feb/March so we avoid stamp duty.
We notice the houses aren’t being built over November/December so we go to the site and get told by the site rep not to worry as they are swapping brick suppliers but the house will be in up in plenty of time for us to avoid stamp duty.
In jan we get a letter saying congratulations that we have exchanged contracts and that the house should be ready and made by the 6th of June 2012 and that two weeks after we can move in.
Understandably worried I get in contact with the site rep who says I’m not the only person who has called regarding this and she hasn’t heard anything back from her boss yet. I ask for her bosses number and call them directly.
Her boss states a letter was sent to me in November stating the houses should be read spring/summer time. We hadn’t received this letter and I ask for it to be resent, which she does. Then she states that it was in our contract. I explain we were told it was a safety net and the houses will be built by feb/march before the stamp duty effect takes hold.
We then get asked if we want to be released from our now signed legally binding contract as a sign of good faith. I explain that would not be good due to all the time we spent and the couple of thousand pounds we would still have to pay out in solicitor fees, holding fees and surveyor fees. Something she explained they would not refund us.
If we left then it would have cost us just shy of 3k for nothing. Hence why I stick around and try and get stuff done through solicitors before Stamp duty comes back.
I stated that I would like to contact my solicitor regarding what was going in and I wasn’t happy about this so could they pay for the stamp duty should we decide to stay with the house. She tells me she can’t authorise that and it has to go through our solicitors.
My solicitor starts making enquiries and getting no response back. This goes on for weeks. I get in contact with the sales rep and ask what’s going on. She says she doesn’t know and that she is leaving the company for another job. She also explains that our type of houses are selling for almost £7,000 more now in the area and it’s in the company’s best interest for me and Debs to leave so they can make a bigger mark up on the house.
I contact her boss again asking what’s going on and explain to her what I have been told. She tells me the same thing as before. She can’t authorise anything and it has to go through our solicitors. She then puts the phone down on me.
I contact out solicitors again. They still haven’t heard anything back from The builders and are continually trying to make contact.
By this time stamp duty has come back into effect.
Now my future Bulgarian next door neighbour starts calling me after the sale rep has given him my personal details!! I also suspect that what I do for a living has been explained to people who have wanted to move into the area as a selling point but I can not prove this. I have an inkling due to the fact that the sales rep told us what everyone did for a living and tried to sell the house to us on that basis as well. Also she has given my number to my future neighbour without my permission.
The future neighbour is worried about the fact that he was suppose to move in back in the beginning of April at the latest. He has also been told that by our old rep that the house was delayed due to them messing up the plans but the builders won’t admit it because they don’t want to be liable.
The sales rep leaves and a new guy called Jeff turns up to take over.
He has no idea what’s going on and keeps remarking how badly things have been handed over to him and that the site is a mess.
My solicitor is then taken to hospital. I get assigned a new one, he starts pestering the builders solicitors. Finally he gets a reply late last week explaining to him they were going to do nothing.
Debs and I discover that our good mortgage deal runs out in the very beginning of June. So if we haven’t moved in by then we will lose out good rate and have to try get another mortgage.
I call up one of the managing directors who says that ‘morally it’s a grey area and clearly not good BUT legally they are ok’ however he is sympathetic and will send me a letter of the out come to any decision.
Debs goes to the building site and She is told that Jeff is now leaving the company for a better job. She is also told the house will be looking as if it’s done by June, with us moving in towards the end of June.
After the baby is born….
Friday I get a letter explaining that they can not do anything like carpets or pay for stamp duty. Those costs have to be on us as the company has done everything it’s supposed to legally. Plus we are getting a shower so they have helped us out……
A shower. Something that generally speaking should be fitted as standard to every newly built home in this day and age.
I contact my solicitor and explained everything. He is now looking into it.
So I have done everything I can do bar cut my loses and lose the money already invested and I’ve spoken to my solicitor who is trying, but it looks bad. Hence the rant.
I also spoke to my mortgage advisor today to help get our mortgage deal extended and discovered that our sales rep (as I said before, now gone) by all intents and purposes knew from the very start that the house would be finished in June……despite explaining EVERYTHING ABOUT MY WIFE’S PREGNANCY, TRYING TO AVOID STAMP DUTY, THE LOT : (
A newly starting family lied to
I live In a mid terrace perssimons house and me and all my neighbours say perssimons houses are horrible build quality and the work looks like something my 2 year old would have done, loose plug/light sockets and basically all fixtures and fittings where probably only screwed on with probably half a turn of a screw driver, pluming was really bad had to redo pipes in kitchen and downstairs toilet, they where all cross threaded and leaking, the usual nail pops poor plastering, the worst thing was when the locks failed on the doors and we where stuck in the house tell someone came to get us out, very poor quality homes and even there outside contractors who came to do repairs comment on how badley a cheaply made they are.
Sorry to hear of all your problems but if it’s any consolation I too purchased a brand new home with all the same problems you have, iv’e been in my house 2 years and have still got all the same problems even though there c/care team have put their DIY skills!! to practice on several occasions, as you say a 2 year old could do better all KEEPMOAT builders are good at is fobbing you off, and running around with tubes of mastic,cork,and so on, I have a Solicitor on my case now and looks like I’m going to court for the first time in my life I’m a pensioner but I will go on exposing these builders for as long as it takes,THEY SHOULD BE NAMED AND SHAMED, I have photos if you would like to see them,down loaded some on flickr & twitter other sites too.
Valerie so sorry to hear the extent of persimmons complete lack of respect for u, really hope all goes your way, please keep us updated. Sadly for us as newbies of owning property it has not been how we wanted to start our lives together, and that is all down to persimmon homes, we have felt abandoned and unduly stressed. We were the first people to move onto our development and having watched (and put up with ‘inconsiderate’, the only polite word I can think of, builders using our drive, blocking our front door, splashing concrete on our walls and windows) the only thing I have thought while watching the place take shape and family’s move in, is I wonder how many issues they’ll being having in the next few years with their house. You see as some of the first we watched our house be built, like many buyers we popped up on wknds and showed family, it took 6 months from start to move in for our three house terrace, in the last 3 months I have seen the last 7 houses go up and people b moved in! And I have, as I expected, watched these poor people stomp past my house to return moments later with a sheepish looking sales rep from th office or if they’ve been really lucky managed to track down the site manager! Definately wouldn’t buy a new build again, we have made the best of a bad experience, sadly i know others haven’t been able to.
Hi all, I’m sitting reading every ones problems with their new homes and feel so sorry for you all, after all it should have been an exciting and happy experience,as a pensioner I saved and worked hard all my life like most people do, I decided to down size and bought my new house thinking I would be lovely and warm in winter,”NO SUCH LUCK” we had one of the worst winters in history, I was freezing due to drafts,rain coming in,mould up the walls, this was down to the house drying out,not enough drainage,leaks for 9 months SO CALLED BUILDERS kept telling me it was condensation My reply was I have been around a long time now I do know condensation from leaks and that I have never had so many problems with doors 2 new front doors and 2 new patio doors AND STILL NO GOOD,3 kitchen taps 3 indoor stopcocks,pipes to boiler changed twice a kitchen unit replaced as the first one got ruined with the “LEAKS NOT CONDENSATION!!! my god I could go on for ever It’s 2 years now & 84 visits from customer care doing DIY JOBS on a new house. I’m extremely angry with what’s going on and that’s why I will carry on fighting for my rights the Government should help us, but I doubt they will, because they want more affordable houses built, The way I see it is THEY CAN HARDLY SAY THEIR AFFORDABLE!!!! we should get together and stand up to these “dare I say it B…….finished ranting for the time being keep in touch. valerie turner
Does everybody think that Persimmon houses are very cold when the heating is off? I expected the new house to be much warmer than my old house but obviously it is not a case. I expected that a new house’s walls will be filled with a cavity wall insulation but obviously they are not. The temperature inside the house and outside is nearly the same when the heating is off.