Tag Archives: quality

Interview For BBC Radio 4 “You and Yours” On New-Build Homes

Posted on 04/03/2016 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

Broadcast on Wednesday 2 March 12.15pm

Can we start by you telling our listeners a little about yourself?

I worked in construction management for 35 years. Having retired; I now provide help, advice and information for UK new homebuyers through my website brand-newhomes.co.uk. I have been campaigning for better quality new homes for over 10 years and I am currently lobbying Parliament for the introduction of a New Homes Ombudsman.

I’m really interested in the point you make about the rush for house builders to complete before the year-end. Are there certain times of year to avoid completing on a new build?

Yes. Avoid buying any new home that is due to be completed in May or June and November or December. This is the time when most of the plc house builders have their financial year-end or half-year either being best avoided at all costs, especially if the home is not plastered at least five weeks before the anticipated Legal Completion date.

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Posted in New Homes, Snagging and Quality

Tagged builder star rating, Consumer Code for Home Builders, customer care, new homes ombudsman, quality, snagging

Why a New Homes Ombudsman is now essential

Posted on 18/01/2016 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

The idea for a New Homes Ombudsman is not new. I have been campaigning for nearly two years, see this blog, my website forum, the “Unhappy New Home Buyers” Facebook Group and lobbying on Twitter. More recently I attended the APPG Inquiry into the “Quality of New Build Housing in England” and proposed the introduction of a fully independent New Homes Ombudsman as one of a series of measures that would force house builders to improve both quality of the homes they build and the service they give their customers after they discover the inevitable defects and problems.

My proposal for a New Homes Ombudsman was met with widespread acceptance at the APPG Inquiry (2^nd meeting) and during the question and answer session; Lord Richard Best said “I chair the property ombudsman which looks after estate agents and things like that and it works well, so at some stage I’d like to explore the Ombudsman concept as a way of trying to handle some of these disputes…..”

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Posted in New Homes

Tagged APPG Inquiry Into Quality of New Homes, Consumer Code for Home Builders, customer care, HBF, new home warranty, new homes ombudsman, NHBC, quality, snagging, standards

Quality compromised in rush to build new homes

Posted on 11/01/2016 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

At last! Peter Redfern admits quality is being compromised in the rush to build new homes

Taylor Wimpey CEO Peter Redfern has said that the Government’s target to build a million homes by 2020 is unachievable and quality will be compromised if the industry does try to meet it. Well if anyone should know about compromising the quality of new homes it’s Redfern! Taylor Wimpey has a terrible reputation for building poor quality homes and when their customers complain, an equally poor record and attitude to fixing these defects. This, despite the claims made on Taylor Wimpey’s website including: “The standard of home building in the UK has never been higher than it is today.” ” it’s like buying a brand new car and driving it out of the showroom” Only with a new car it is unlikely to have as many problems as a new Taylor Wimpey home!

Only last November, Taylor Wimpey were extensively featured on the Dispatches Documentary “Britain’s Nightmare New Homes.” In 2012 Taylor Wimpey were again panned on the BBC Watchdog programme.

The company’s unhappy buyers regularly lambast the builder on social media with the twitter feed #thinkwimpeythinktwice. On 5th December 2015, BBC South today recently featured the story of Evelyn Lallo who has been living in temporary home since June 2015, whilst Taylor Wimpey sorts out serious defects.

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Posted in New Homes, Snagging and Quality, Taylor Wimpey

Tagged customer care, house builders, pete redfern, planning, quality, standards, taylor wimpey

APPG Inquiry Into Quality Of New Homes

Posted on 05/01/2016 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

APPG Inquiry Second session: – What we suggested.

The majority of those that made submissions to this APPG inquiry into the “Quality of New Build Housing in England” were from either commercial organisations or institutions with a vested interest in or close affiliation to the house building industry. Their presentations would appear to be focused away from the actual problem – housebuilders’ poor workmanship standards and inadequate levels of customer care – with their emphasis on their own operations and/or sustainability and energy conservation. However, the committee were given presentations by what the APPG Secretariat (CIC) deemed “concerned citizens” four in the second session and one in the last session.

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Posted in New Homes, Snagging and Quality

Tagged APPG Inquiry Into Quality of New Homes, customer care, house builders, new homes, new homes ombudsman, NHBC, quality, snagging, standards

Housebuilding Prestigious “Bodgers” Awards 2015

Posted on 23/12/2015 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

Bodge the builder – can they fix it?

Well probably yes, but they will move heaven and earth to avoid doing so. It is at this time of year that I like to produce a light-hearted article, poking fun at the general house building industry. However the increasing poor quality of new homes and the lack of any discernible after sales service mean that most new home buyers have experiences that are as far from funny as you can get.

Nevertheless, this year I am proud to announce the inaugural winners of the “BODGERS” awards. These are the awards for the very worse in everything housebuilding that I have come across over the last twelve months.

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Posted in New Homes, Snagging and Quality

Tagged awards, customer care, house builders, quality, snagging, specification, standards, taylor wimpey

Attending The APPG Inquiry Into The Quality of New Build Housing in England

Posted on 02/12/2015 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

The All Party Parliamentary Group for “Excellence in the Built Environment” was formed in July 2010. The group is chaired by Oliver Colvile MP, with Nick Raynsford and the Earl of Lytton acting as vice-chairmen. The latest APPG Inquiry is looking at the Quality of New Build Housing in England and “examining the potential for improving every aspect of the product handed over to new home-owners.” (For details of the full committee see end of this article)

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Posted in New Homes, Snagging and Quality

Tagged APPG Inquiry Into Quality of New Homes, customer care, house builders, new homes ombudsman, NHBC, quality, snagging, specification, standards

Claiming Compensation From Housebuilders

Posted on 14/11/2015 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

All housebuilders pay compensation eventually if it is justified!

When they say, “We don’t pay compensation” they’re lying – they all do!

Is compensation justified? Well the answer is a resounding yes for many new homebuyers that have experienced the inevitable issues with their new home. This often requiring buyers to take time off work, or use paid leave to be at home to give builder’s sub contractors access to fix fully preventable defects with their new home. The general law also compensates new build homebuyers for distress and inconvenience related to defects in their homes.

When new homebuyers bring up the subject of compensation, I can guarantee the initial response from the housebuilder, be it the sales staff, site manager or the housebuilder’s customer care department will be: “it is not our company policy to pay compensation under any circumstances”.

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Posted in New Homes, Snagging and Quality

Tagged customer care, house builders, quality, snagging, solicitors, standards

Summary Of Proposals To Ensure Better Quality New Homes.

Posted on 30/10/2015 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

Well it was about time something was done regarding the dire quality of new homes built in the UK and the total indifference shown by the housebuilders to even begin address the thousands of defective new homes handed over to their misty-eyed customers every year. Something they have all been aware of for many years. This APPG Inquiry is a start.

Whether this latest inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment actually forces through the changes so badly required remains to be seen. At the outset, it is only an inquiry and we have had many previously including The Barker Review of Housing Supply in 2004 and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ‘Home Building Consumer Survey’ of 2007. Yet as any UK new homebuyer will tell you, the quality of new homes has not improved. In the 2015 results of the HBF New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey, some 93% of respondents had problems with their new home. Indeed the industry has done such a good job of normalising defective new homes that all of those surveyed actually expected to have some problems after they moved in.

The inquiry will look at the quality of UK new home building and the potential for improving every aspect of the product handed over to new home-owners.

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Posted in New Homes, Snagging and Quality

Tagged customer care, end of year figures, help to buy, house builders, new homes, new homes ombudsman, NHBC, quality, snagging, standards

New National Space Standards For New Homes Not Compulsory

Posted on 08/10/2015 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

Thanks to successful lobbying by the HBF, it is a case of Carry On Regardless as housebuilders dodge yet another bullet, this time it is building larger ‘fit for purpose’ new homes.

As with most things that effect housebuilders, the new National Space Standards for new homes have been watered-down to such an extent that it is doubtful that any of the major housebuilders will ever be required (or forced) to design new homes that adhere to the new space standards. Not that this matters as the space standards have been set so low, that the size of the average new homes currently being built all but comply anyway!

The average family home shrinks two square metres in ten years.

Britain’s incredible shrinking new homes

Britain’s tiny ‘rabbit-hutch’ new homes are bad for your health

Unlike other aspects of the Housing Standards Review, the space standard has not been incorporated into the Building Regulations. Establishing compliance and any enforcement action will rest with the local planning authority.

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Posted in New Homes

Tagged HBF, house builders, planning, quality, specification, standards

Government scraps zero carbon requirement for new homes.

Posted on 27/07/2015 by New Home Expert | Comments Off

You may have missed it among all the headline-grabbing talk of increasing the minimum wage and yet more cuts to welfare, but as part of George Osborne’s summer budget announcements, this Conservative government also abolished the requirement for all new homes to be ‘zero carbon’ from April 2016.

Whilst it is reported that some housebuilders had already started work to meet the challenge, the major plc housebuilders would have probably known all along that the election of a Conservative government would at the very least, have enabled some ‘wiggle-room’ to water down or delay the requirements – if not the full scale capitulation reversal of the zero carbon policy that Osborne announced.

This pointless reversal – an appalling act of policy vandalism, will undoubtedly raise energy bills and carbon emissions well into the next century, sending out totally wrong message for the Paris climate talks. The Conservative government has cynically chosen put both house builders’ and energy providers’ profit making ahead of its deep moral responsibility to act to mitigate any possible impact on our climate in the future.

The zero-carbon commitment begun in 2006 and supported through successive governments has now been re interpreted as unnecessary ‘red tape’, allegedly holding back new house building projects, productivity and even the general UK economy.

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Posted in New Homes

Tagged house builders, new homes, planning, quality, standards

Tag Archives: quality

Interview For BBC Radio 4 “You and Yours” On New-Build Homes

Can we start by you telling our listeners a little about yourself?

I’m really interested in the point you make about the rush for house builders to complete before the year-end. Are there certain times of year to avoid completing on a new build?

Why a New Homes Ombudsman is now essential

Quality compromised in rush to build new homes

APPG Inquiry Into Quality Of New Homes

Housebuilding Prestigious “Bodgers” Awards 2015

Bodge the builder – can they fix it?

Attending The APPG Inquiry Into The Quality of New Build Housing in England

Claiming Compensation From Housebuilders

Summary Of Proposals To Ensure Better Quality New Homes.

New National Space Standards For New Homes Not Compulsory

Government scraps zero carbon requirement for new homes.

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Tag Archives: quality

Can we start by you telling our listeners a little about yourself?

I’m really interested in the point you make about the rush for house builders to complete before the year-end. Are there certain times of year to avoid completing on a new build?

Bodge the builder – can they fix it?

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