Gavin Henderson had been commuting for almost a year from Newcastle – longing to move into his new house down south.

But when he and wife Susan arrived at their new £440,000 Taylor Wimpey home in Padworth two months ago they began to discover a catalogue of 160 alarming faults.

Early shocks when they arrived on October 13 included a gas pipe not capped off, electrical points without covers, a dishwasher not plumbed in, a fridge not delivered and the whole house needing cleaning before the furniture could be moved in.

Heating problems are common in many new build homes. Read this on the Montgomerie Park Residents’ Association Site and find the results of their poll:

“Anyone on the Persimmon estate (or any of the others) have an issue with the heating of their property? I have been having a bit of a debate with builder over undersized radiators.

They have sent me some literature from company who carried out the U-value calculations for property size and construction which basically tell you the radiators installed offer the correct output.”

Being from a technical background I’m aware of the whole energy conservation issue and why heating installations cannot now be routinely over sized. In saying that, am I not entitled to expect a comfortable level of heat in my home without the boiler having to run for the best part of the day with roomstat turned right up? Even at that I feel the house isn’t as warm as it could be.

Instead, it has been dogged by botched jobs and unfinished building work which has left them living in a dusty construction site.

Faults and repairs mean they are frequently without power and their garden is too dangerous to enter after being dug up twice because of drainage problems.

Read more about Bovis HomesVisitors to Bovis Homes’ website are reassured that when buying a new home ‘you want to be sure you can trust your builder’.

Rennie and Sheralee Bottali took the company at its word – only to find themselves living in a house of horrors for seven months.

The couple expected their new £700,000 three- storey detached house to be in perfect condition when they picked up the keys.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1040292/Couple-shame-Bovis-internet-list-dozens-faults-new-700-000-home.html#ixzz0acmtOEQs

A couple whose £700,000 newly-built home is still unfinished seven months after they moved in have become a surprise internet hit after setting up a website cataloguing their domestic woes. The couple, who have four daughters, claim they have been left living in a dusty construction site, frequently without power or appliances.

Entrepreneurs Rennie and Sheralee Bottali’s long-running wrangles with housebuilder Bovis Homes over the luxury three-storey property have attracted almost 100,000 hits since they set up the site March.

The couple say they resorted to creating the page – Bovis Homes

Families living on a flagship housing development say their lives are being made a misery by a catalogue of failings by building firms.

Last month, the Evening News revealed how homeowners on the Fellowes Plain estate on the former hospital site off Wessex Street were being blighted by 20ft-high silos placed within yards of their front doors.

But today families who have shelled out up to £500,000 for brand new, three-storey townhouses have spoken out after compiling a string of complaints against developers which they say have not been put right despite weeks of talks

“As soon as we collected the keys we noticed problems with the decor throughout the building. The dry lining was visible on every wall and ceiling. We also found that the kitchen had not been built to the specification we had been given, there was one kitchen unit less. As if that wasn’t enough, the front and back doors leaked, the glass on the patio door was badly scratched, electric sockets were dangerously within 300mm of the kitchen sink and every time we turned the extractor fan on it interfered with the television reception,” said Helen, a Bristol midwife.

A Basingstoke couple say their new home is turning out to be less than a dream.

Richard Jones and Natasha Lewis moved into a new two-bedroomed house built by Persimmon Homes, off Old Kempshott Lane, last December. Since then, they say many of their complaints about the property have been left unresolved.

The latest problem occurred last Tuesday night when a tile from the roof fell onto Mr Jones’ black Lexus IS200 car, denting the roof, scratching the windscreen and smashing the sunroof – scattering fragments inside and outside the car.

A leading housebuilder has launched an investigation into how one of its homes was turned into a deathtrap by damaged electrical wiring.

Darren Korol suffered 230-volt shocks when he touched the cooker in his new £220,000 Barratt Homes. flat in Crawley, West Sussex.

The 41-year-old print salesman’s children suffered jolts from the bathroom taps.

An electrician later discovered that the fitter who installed the stove had screwed through a live cable. The error raises fresh safety fears over household appliances. About 20 people a year are killed by electrocution in the home.

We made a few visits to the site as the development (1st phase) went up and were shown plans outlining street furniture, types of soft landscaping etc and all was well. We ended our rental agreement as we didn’t need another six month lease and moved everything we owned into garages amongst friends and family. We then moved into my parent’s home for the last three months in anticipation of completion. A few weeks before exchange our solicitor called to say there was a big problem. Basically Wimpey had built the flats in the wrong place meaning that around 10% of the property was on unowned land. As such Wimpey could not offer full legal title on any of the homes.

Wimpey’s renowned legal department however had different ideas. We received a letter from Wimpey which quite honestly looked as though a child had written it. The number of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes in such an important letter was crazy and this from their legal manager! In essence they stated that there is no problem at all with the property as Wimpey have bought an indemnity policy to protect the owners against some difficulties. Some…not all…and Wimpey felt that was more than adequate.

Quite rightly we were advised that this was highly irregular. Wimpey indemnity policy or not many lenders would be unhappy with this situation as would future buyers with any sense. The policy would not cover us for this type of problem, amongst many others, potentially leaving us and the other affected buyers in an impossible position. Advice from Wimpey legal department?

‘If you make a statutory declaration that there is a title problem to future buyers this will only improve the situation.’ So, if we tell people there is a major issue with the land suddenly everything will be fine? A clearly unbiased view from Wimpey then! After much arguing and disbelief at the Wimpey attitude we had to walk away from the sale. In the meantime property prices had risen meaning it was harder to find something suitable and we’d wasted thousands on fees, surveys, checks etc.

Wimpey felt that they had nothing to do with this as quote ‘it was your choice to walk away from the sale.’ Not really a choice as such is it? The solicitor felt so bad for us that he actually discounted his price and it was nothing to do with him! In over 20 years of conveyancing he’d been offered various forms of title but not once had he been offered no title at all.

On top of these immense difficulties we also lost some of our property stored in garages which got too cold and damp as we’d never intended it to be stored in the colder months. Wimpey didn’t care at all, as far as they were concerned a dodgy indemnity policy was sufficient and we should have been grateful to them. That’s our story in a nutshell.

There is a happy ending however. Disgusted family and friends gathered together to help restore our wasted funds and we bought a great factory conversion apartment which is awesome compared to the damaged shell of a home Wimpey tried to force us into. Not once have they offered any form of apology or recognition of the money they cost us despite admitting in early letters that there had indeed been ‘a slight problem’ with the land. Please tell your friends, family and enemies about my site. No-one deserves to go through the hassle this company will happily put you through. Simply avoid them!

www.wimpeythefacts.co.uk (Archive)

Extract:

Hi, a sincere thanks for visiting the site and taking the time to look. This site could potentially save you thousands of pounds and a huge amount of heartache and worry. Isn’t the Internet great? Not that long ago consumers would get a terrible deal and have to keep it almost to themselves. Not any more! With the recent surges in consumers fed up with being abused by ‘caring companies’ this site has been launched to help report what really happens to buyers. This is a real David and Goliath story!

George Wimpey are the sole benefactors of this website…aren’t they lucky? After dealing with them and experiencing what can only be described as a shameful display of incompetance, mismanagement and to be fair…complete contempt for the customer I decided it was time to let you guys know all about it. The following is a true and fair account of the story and as George Wimpey still continue to maintain excellence in all of their dealings they won’t mind me praising them publicly. It’s only fair isn’t it?! Here you go…you’re the people with the money that keep these companies afloat. It’s your hard earned cash that is given to those at the top when they’re awarded huge bonuses.

It’s us they treat badly because there’s always another customer round the corner. Lets make them think shall we! Don’t be conned by the slick campaigns and ‘Customer Charters’. We all deserve more and one day if we stick together we’ll get it. Time to make your own mind up anyway…after all, it’s your money they want now as they’ve already wasted mine. Those executive saloons don’t come cheap you know…

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 companies that are ripping off consumers or giving out dodgy services.

You can email in confidence to complain@northonetv.com

Or alternatively call Matt on 0207 502 5812

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