Couple Find 150 Faults in New Countryside Home in South Leicestershire

Georgina and Charles Barnes had waited three years for the day they collected the keys to their first home. Within days, an independent snagging inspection of the brand new house in south Leicestershire had found 150 defects, some of them potentially serious.

The couple told their story to BBC News in an article published on 26 September 2026, and it shows why we at Snagging.org keep urging buyers never to assume a new home is finished just because the keys have been handed over.

Georgina, 36, and Charles paid £299,995 for their home, built by Countryside, which is part of Vistry Group. In the weeks before moving day, Georgina told the BBC, social media kept showing her new build horror stories, so having the property professionally snagged was “non-negotiable”.

The inspection was carried out by New Home Quality Control, a snagging firm based in Swansea. It recorded 150 defects, including incorrectly installed fire barriers, signs of a previous leak, roofing defects and low water pressure. Inspectors described the installation of the gas meter cabinet and gas pipe as “exceptionally poor”, and more than a dozen further cosmetic and finishing defects were noted across the house.

The fire barriers worried the couple most. “We just wouldn’t have known,” Georgina told the BBC, explaining that in a fire this could have been “very detrimental”. Fire barriers, or cavity barriers, are hidden in the structure, and a buyer walking round a show-ready home would never see them. That is exactly where a thorough inspection with the right equipment earns its fee.

According to the BBC, the couple’s two-year warranty from the developer meant the issues were fixed. Georgina’s verdict was clear: “I would say for any new-build buyer, 100% no doubt, I recommend a snagger.”

What the developer said

Vistry, the group behind Countryside, told the BBC it supported “appropriately conducted independent inspections as an additional source of reassurance about build quality”. It said every home is checked by its own teams and independent inspections take place, and that its build team meets customers two to three weeks after they move in to discuss and agree any snagging work.

Vistry Homes, which covers the Bovis, Linden and Countryside brands, holds a five-star rating in the Home Builders Federation’s 2026 Star Ratings. In its March 2026 results, the group said it was on track to keep that rating for a seventh consecutive year. This case shows that a five-star builder rating, based on average customer satisfaction across thousands of homes, tells you nothing about the condition of the one house you are buying.

The snagger’s view from inside the industry

The BBC also spoke to John Cooper, co-founder of New Home Quality Control. He said he set up the firm with his former supervisor, Lee Challenger, after a site manager asked him in 2018 to hide something from a customer who was moving in the next day. “We’ve never inspected a house and found absolutely nothing wrong with it,” he said. The problems he sees most often are in brickwork, carpentry and roofing, along with missing or incorrectly fitted weep vents, the small openings that let moisture escape from cavity walls. He even described finding decorative “fake” weep vents on some developments.

The industry pushed back. The NHBC told the BBC that builders are responsible for meeting building regulations, and that homeowners must raise issues with their builder within two years and can turn to NHBC if they are not resolved. The Home Builders Federation told the BBC that new homes “are not made in a factory” and that the “vast majority” of snags are minor, giving a paint drip as a typical example in its March 2026 survey release. It also said it saw no evidence that quality was failing to keep pace with housebuilding. It warned that snagging inspectors are not regulated and advised buyers to choose one who is suitably qualified and accredited by a professional body such as RICS.

snags are the norm, not the exception

The Barnes family’s experience is extreme in scale but not in kind. The BBC cites written evidence the New Homes Ombudsman Service submitted to Parliament, quoting the HBF’s National New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey published in March 2025: 93.7% of new build buyers reported defects or snags to their builder after moving in, and over 26% found more than 15. The HBF’s March 2026 survey tells a similar story. While 93% of buyers said they would recommend their builder, the HomeOwners Alliance’s summary of the results notes that 93% reported problems and nearly a quarter reported 16 or more.

The Competition and Markets Authority found the same pattern in its 2024 housebuilding market study. It reported that 35% of respondents to the nine-month survey in 2021-22 reported 16 or more problems, and that buyers with more snags found them harder and slower to get resolved.

When things go wrong, more buyers are now escalating. The New Homes Ombudsman Service’s 2025/26 annual report, reported by Property Industry Eye and The Intermediary, shows formal complaints rose from 593 to 1,802 in a year, an increase of 204%. Some 82% of final decisions went in the homeowner’s favour. Property Industry Eye reports that the ombudsman awarded almost £215,000 in compensation, up 221% from around £67,000 the year before. Defect enquiries rose by 162% and snagging enquiries by 205%. The ombudsman found that the original defect is often not what drives a complaint. As Chief Ombudsman Nigel Cates put it, “relatively manageable problems can become lengthy disputes when developers are too slow to respond or put things right.”

Protection still depends on who built your home. The ombudsman scheme is voluntary, and Mr Cates has said that “the majority of new homes are now covered by the Ombudsman, but around a third remain outside the scheme.” The government accepted the CMA’s call for a single mandatory consumer code and a statutory New Homes Ombudsman in October 2024. According to the ombudsman’s evidence to Parliament, the procurement process set out a tender opening in February 2026 and “contract commencement scheduled for September 2026”. As of October 2026 we have seen no announcement that the statutory scheme has launched, and in September Mr Cates said he looked forward “to clarity on when that will happen”. In the meantime, Version 2 of the New Homes Quality Code applies to homes reserved from 2 March 2026. It gives buyers the right to carry out a pre-completion inspection themselves or appoint a qualified inspector, and it expects developers to fix defects that breach warranty technical standards before completion where possible, or within 30 days.

practical advice for new build buyers

The most important lesson from this story is timing. Get your home inspected as early as you can, ideally before legal completion if your developer allows a pre-completion inspection, and otherwise in the first days after you move in. Defects found before completion give you the most leverage, and defects found early in the warranty period are far easier to get fixed than those found months later.

Most new homes come with a ten-year structural warranty, most commonly NHBC’s Buildmark, but the first two years work differently from the rest. During this builder warranty period, the developer, not the warranty provider, is responsible for putting right defects that breach the warranty’s technical standards. NHBC advises homeowners to contact the builder as soon as they reasonably can, and always within the two-year period, and to keep a record of what was reported, to whom and when. Report snags in writing, with dated photos and a clear description of where each problem is, and keep copies of every email and letter.

If your developer does not respond, or you are not happy with its final decision, you can escalate. NHBC says that if you have notified the builder within the warranty period and are unhappy with its final decision, or have not had a response within 30 days, you can request NHBC’s free resolution service. Other warranty providers run similar dispute services. If your developer is registered with the New Homes Quality Board, you can also take an unresolved complaint to the New Homes Ombudsman Service, which can order repairs and compensation. Check which consumer code your builder belongs to before you reserve, as this decides where you can go for redress.

Finally, as the HBF itself advised, choose your inspector carefully. Look for genuine independence from the developer, relevant professional qualifications and accreditation, a clear written report with photographs, and the right equipment to look beyond surface finishes.

How Snagging.org can help

If you are about to complete on a new build, or have recently moved in, you do not have to face the process alone. Our New Build Snagging Checklist PDF takes you room by room through what to look for, and you can download a free sample first to see how it works. If you have already found problems and are not sure how to report or escalate them, our sponsor New Build Inspections offers snagging support consultations, with telephone support.

For complete peace of mind, New Build Inspections also carries out independent professional snagging inspections across the UK. Your snag list is issued within 48 hours. You can also join the Snagging.org community forum to ask questions, share your experience and learn from other new build owners who have been through the same process.

The Barnes family’s story ended well because they had their home inspected early and reported the defects within the warranty period. That is the habit we would encourage every new build buyer to adopt.