The Daily Mail has an article today about widespread problems with poor sound insulation in new build homes. What do you expect when there is no standards and homes simply have to adhere to a set of theoretical standards managed by a company called Robust Details Ltd (I think that must be an ironic name). Anyway, they are quoted in the article as saying that often when testing takes palce as a result of a complaint to the NHBC the homes meet standard the home owners are still not happy. Quite offensive really – they are basically saying that there poor souls are just whingeing.

Anyway, read it for yourself:

Home insulation has become big business, thanks to grants inspired by the Government’s carbon emission reduction target. But never mind heat insulation, Trevor and Elaine New want to know what has happened to the sound insulation in their flat in Pendlebury, Greater Manchester.

Their joy in picking up a flat at Bryant Homes’ development Joule Point for £110,000 at the bottom of the housing slump in October 2008 has been somewhat tempered by the regular pounding of footsteps upstairs.

‘I have no complaint against the neighbours, who are just going about their normal business, but I don’t think we should be able to hear them in our flat,’ says Trevor, 58, who works in the construction industry himself as a health-and-safety adviser.

Bryant Homes would not let us into the property until 10 days before completion “for health and safety” reasons! We were pressed to complete on December 21st and since then have been the owners of a property that is quite frankly NOT FIT TO RESIDE IN!! There is currently scaffolding to the whole front elevetion so that the !DODGY! brickwork can be rectified and there are workman requiring daily access to the house to attend to the endless remedial work required to bring the house up to scratch.

I have an 11yr old son who is unable to venture out of the house due to the continuos traffic af all manner of construction vehicles driving up and down our entrance and access road. There are piles of masonary on every corner, with collapsed metal fencing and many other damgerous obstacles! I am going to my local newspaer and t.v. news station with this story! My advice is DONT BUY A BRYANT NEW HOME AS YOU WILL BE LIED TO, DUPED AND END UP WITH A SUB STANDARD BUILDING!!!

WT

With our third child due in September, January was the ideal time to think about buying a new home. Despite not being offered full market value, trading in our old home under Bryant’s part exchange scheme would be the most stress free method of moving, or so we were told.

We reserved the house in February based upon a site plan and brochure because the property was at first fix stage for services and unsuitable for visitors. Completion day was to be the start of June four months away. Communication was good regarding the sale of our old home and we were told we’d be invited to view a typical Bryant home being built to see service routes, followed by a pre-occupation walk through of our new home for snags to be addressed and appliances and systems to be demonstrated, then of the almost ceremony like procedures on completion day.

None of these ever happened, apart from a quick whizz round 6 days before we moved in, the rep having no clue about how anything worked and even struggling to operate the door lock. After exchanging contracts in April all communication stopped. June arrived but Bryant wouldn’t commit to a completion date. They allowed me into the house for the first time to measure up for carpets, as their quote was ridiculous, but I was in for a shock. It still hadn’t reached second fix stage. There were no sanitary or kitchen units fitted, no light switches, sockets, doors or radiators. The garden, which was meant to be ready for turf, was in a state too. It was uneven, littered with debris, and the fencing was wonky with a crotch-high gap under the rear boundary.
After applying subtle pressure, completion day finally came on the last day in June but the surprises weren’t over. We were locked out that evening because of Bryant’s preference for doors that lock without keys. Although instructed to leave ours, there were no light bulbs and all the ceiling rose covers were down, exposing the wires. There was no hot water and we later found the hot water/heating control was operating back to front, and the garden hadn’t altered apart from the rear gap; this had been backfilled with clay and rubble with a thin board nailed across the fence posts attempting to retain it.
We gave Bryant a list of thirty odd snags immediately. Some were minor, such as unfinished tiling and brick pointing; some were not, such as a missing radiator, broken gas box, and toilets and extractor fans not working. Others were simply ridiculous, such as a cable strewn across the loft hatch, a flood from a cross-threaded waste pipe nut, reps unsure what switches were for, and an uneven kitchen floor that also hadn’t been swept prior to the lino fitting if the bent nail we removed was any indication (in fact all the floors are uneven but aren’t as noticeable in the carpeted areas). We expressed concern also with some of the dry lining being very uneven, later learning of the low spec finish that doesn’t include a plaster skim (basically we can never wallpaper or tile – to ever remove these would ruin the walls).
As new homes come with a 28-day maintenance contract, we didn’t worry, especially as Bryant are still on site.

Two months later, with the birth of our child imminent and nothing fixed other than a sticking door and the provision of light bulbs, we did worry. The snag list had grown to about fifty items, we’d submitted it to the site and Leeds head office, and even had a visit from the site and warranty managers. Despite emails, phone calls and my wife calling into the show home repeatedly, we never enjoyed the courtesy of a response. We felt stranded so we placed notices in our windows warning future buyers, and then threatened to contact the press.

The production manager called the next morning to go through the list yet again, and during the next fortnight 80% of our snags were fixed, but the list began to grow again. The hall flooded because a down pipe had been fitted in line with a roof vent. There were problems with the garage and front doors, bridging of the front damp proof course, and again badly fitted dry lining offering levels worse than our previous 102-year-old home. It took weeks of personal effort to prepare the garden for turf but as for the retaining problem, all Bryant did was heap soil behind the fence. What happens when this is removed for the intended footpath is obvious.

Then things took a turn for the ridiculous. Bryant tried to remedy the uneven kitchen floor, which was a 3 day upheaval, but botched it so laid the new lino without adhesive, promising to tile the floor to make it level. We chose the tiles the same day but it took 3 weeks for the tilers to arrive, and when they did, they said the floor was too uneven for tiles. Another day was spent with Bryant chipping out and patching in, the tilers rebooked for another day and us without a kitchen for the weekend. But come Monday morning the floor was as bad as ever and the tilers still refused to tile it!

Worse still, our newborn baby was affected by the dust so we obtained a doctor’s note. Bryant agreed no more work could safely be carried out until we move out, especially considering the dry lining to ceilings and walls that also require removing. They offered to move us out into a hotel or vacant part-exchanged home while they do the work. I objected because: this is a major upheaval 7 weeks before Xmas to fix things that should have been right 5 months ago; going on their past track record we have no confidence they will do the work correctly and in reasonable time; and this offer doesn’t include compensation. They then offered to send us on holiday for 2 weeks while they do the work. I refused because this is impossible due to work commitments and our eldest child being in school. So they offered to send us next summer instead and do the work then!

Instead we asked to be moved into a like-for-like property elsewhere on the development. As there are none this would mean a slight upgrade but Bryant refused, despite the fact it would mean a smaller unfinished garden. The answer was no. Currently they are moving us into a rental property for 4 weeks in January, and are going to break out and relay all ground floors and remove and reinstate the dry lining to 2 walls and 6 ceilings. For compensation I asked if they could redecorate while they were on. The answer was no!

Despite assurances otherwise, it is obvious the house was rushed at the last moment and badly inspected. As for customer service, there was none whatsoever until we took action that could have affected sales. In addition, Bryant refuses to offer any compensation whatsoever for 5 months of inconvenience, stress and unnecessary time off work to explain the same problems several times over.

Stress free?

Couple sue builders over dream home

A family living in their £350,000 dream home are suing the builders after an independent inspector found 176 defects.

Justin and Sarah Gardner say their Bryant Homes house in Headington has turned into a living nightmare because it is riddled with faults.

Nearly 18 months after the couple and their three young children moved into the Elton Close house it still has scores of defects.

The Gardners’ one-year-old daughter Emilia has already fallen on a loose kickboard — the skirting board attached to the bottom of kitchen units — and split her top lip with her teeth.

Last weekend an independent inspector found 176 faults during a visual inspection of the four-bedroom home.

The Gardners purchased the property off plan, but although the National House Builders’ Council says the house is fully covered by its Buildmark Warranty the couple will not receive its building control certificate until the major defects are rectified. Without the certificate the couple say they will find it impossible to sell and believe their insurance may be invalid.

Now the couple are suing Bryant Homes for breach of contract.

Mr Gardner, 33, a market research consultant, said: “There are literally hundreds of things wrong with this house and we want them put right. We are finding it very stressful because every weekend we prepare for our court case and it’s starting to have a big impact on our family life.”

The inspection revealed chipped radiators, holes in the front door, missing screws in door hinges and a fire escape window screwed shut.

The couple claim roof tiles have fallen off, and no cavity wall insulation was fitted, which they reckon has cost them an extra £100 in heating bills a month during the winter.

A spokesman for Bryant Homes’ parent company Taylor Woodrow, said: “We are communicating with Mr and Mrs Gardner through our solicitors and will ensure all areas of concern are addressed.”

The snagging inspector said: “Many purchasers of new homes do not realise how little consumer protection they have in the UK. New homes are exempt from the Sale of Goods Act 1994, which means you have more consumer rights purchasing a can of baked beans than you do a new home.

“Most new homes in the UK are sold with a 10-year warranty, however this is an insurance policy not consumer protection. The warranty providers — most commonly the NHBC — write the standards for the finish of a new home, but they don’t carry out inspections to all of these standards.

“This is left to the discretion of the developer, which is why so many new homes have defects in 99.9 per cent of our experience.”

Melissa Blamey, of the NHBC, said: “We understand that Mr and Mrs Gardner have issued court proceedings against the builder and as a result the building control certificate cannot be issued until this is resolved.”

Archive

We bought our new 4 bedroom detached from Bryant homes in October 2002.

There were several faults, including one window which was put in crooked and needed to be taken out and re-fitted.

However, our present dispute is about the landscaping in front of our house, a public footpath two flowerbeds and some grass.

The view from our house is so bad, with dead trees and plants and rampant weeds that ourselves and some neighbours spent two days weeding and adding some plants to one of the beds.

Bryant actually planted fewer plants than were shown on the spec and have consistently refused to attend to the areas.

They state that the area has been adopted by the local council – which the council have advised us is patently not true.

We have asked for a contribution from Bryant Homes for the cost of our time and the plants, which we are planning to give to charity, but they have dismissed us out of hand.

This is yet a further example of a big developer happy to take a lot of money from people for houses, but being ripped off by contractors who are failing to deliver to the required standard.

When Justin and Sarah Gardner and their three young children moved into their Bryant Homes house – 18 months ago – now, instead of a dream home, it has become a nightmare.

Since living in their newly built property in Oxfordshire they’ve encountered around 176 problems and defects.

From holes in the front door, a fire escape window screwed shut (this window also really badly fitted), roof tiles falling off, no cavity wall insulation, kitchen cupboards falling off wall, taps that wobble when touched, skirting boards so loose that one-year-old Emilia has already fallen on one and split her top lip…!