Barratt Homes

samandmillie

Has anyone ever bought a Barratt new build home?

How did you find the finish/customer service etc?

Thanks

totalguitar

Just been to a Barrett show house this afternoon. Have been told by several people that the build quailty and finishing is very poor but i mentioned this to the sales person who said they had never heard of any problem. I expexct she was blinkered. The show houses did look nice but there where some examples of poor finishing even in the showhouses.

shakemeup

We bought a brand new Barratt home about 10 years ago and the finish was poor, we had quite a few problems with it and had to keep getting them back. We have recently bought a Westbury home and it is fantastic, the finish is the same as the showhome.

AllatSea_3

samandmillie wrote:

Has anyone ever bought a Barratt new build home?

How did you find the finish/customer service etc?

Thanks

Haven't bought one, but did rent one (from new) for a few years. Built in 2001. Finish was not really what I would have expected for the price. The walls were extremely thin compared to those in my parent's house, the ceilings were only about 8 foot high or so (I couldn't stretch my hands above my head, being over 6 feet tall), there were marks on the kitchen floor which I couldn't shift, the windows did not close properly and required repeated attention (I had to keep jury-rigging bits of string to keep them shut in order to secure the property). The front door lock also had to be fixed as it jammed in the unlocked position - luckily they were still building the next phase so I was able to nip over and ask a friendly builder for help.

However, the carpets were well fitted, the painting was adequate, the electric sockets worked (although because the walls were so thin it was a little scary plugging anything in as the noise echoed and the wall could bow in if you were a bit too tough). The shower was fantastic, and the tiling was fine, although the carpet in the bathroom lifted within a month.

All in all, not brilliant, but certainly habitable.

sportbeth

My brother and sister in law have a barratt home and moved in about 4 years ago. They did a lot of snagging before they moved in (Every new home buyers tip apparently), but the first winter their lounge roof leaked and they had to have it re-done. Other than that no other complaints that I knew of.

On looking around, we've seen that they tend to do nicer looking kitchens and bathrooms than other developers but I would say to check the finish on it all

lju

I've posted on another thread but would advise anybody thinking of a Barratt home to think again. We had nearly 150 snags in ours, most of which Barratt refused to fix, from Windows that wouldn't close, to the central heating not working and the garden flooding. Most of the houses on the estate were as bad - Never ever again!

Hunnymonster

When my parents moved into their "Barratt Premier" bungalow in 1987, it was originally destined to be a showhome on the development (so they were assured by the site agent that it had been finished to the highest standards) - those high standards included:

Bathroom tiling in a chevron pattern - well almost.... one column wasn't and it drove my old man around the twist until he retiled.

The (magnolia - urgh!!!!) painting was apparently done by someone wearing (or possibly using in lieu of a brush) a red mohair jumper, because every square inch of the lounge walls had red mohairs in it. Unless it was some hideously expensive paint with added mohair

The landscaping consisted of some ropey green stuff that purported to be grass - although I was doing A-level biology at the time and my quadrat survey on it revealed about 70 diverse plants per square metre

The central heating proved to be underpowered for the house - it was adequate most of the time - apart from the depths of winter, and as replaced when it died. One other odd thing was the fact that the hot cylinder had an immersion heater in it, wired up to a switch etc. but no power applied - it also transpired to be a 10 or 12 inch immersion rod in a 15" sleeve.....

It also had the apparently standard Barratt windows that were always open - even when closed and locked lol - easily possible to slip out a sheet of paper through the closed window....

The kitchen worktop was 2 inches higher at one end than the other - quite an achievement in a kitchen that's less than 10 ft long.... One tile in the tiling in the kitchen was rotated 90 degrees to what it should have been.... again fixed by re-tiling. The fitted cooker was totally useless - charitably it was worth about £30, and took about 3 weeks for the oven to get up to temperature. When it was removed (after 18 months), the bloke over the road took it for spares for his and he threw his out within 2 years.

Of course there were the normal bulges and bows in the walls, and the rooms not being square.... oh and the front door had been fitted back to front - it had sculpted panels on the inside and flat panels on the outside - but the hall was so dark that it only became obvious when the door was removed to replace it..... the door also let in (by virtue of it's !!!!!!-first installation) water when the wind was in the right/wrong direction.

When we moved in May last year, it wasn't into a Barratt house, but to one built by a small-scale builder (it's taken them 10 years to build the development from start to finish) and the only snag we had was one window catching and a leak on the shower cubicle that frankly would have been impossible to spot without using the shower for any length of time.

The programmer on the boiler blew after a couple of months, but that was a random failure rather than anything more sinister.

Lemoncurd

I wasn't impressed by the finish and many snags with my Barratt property... however it was significantly cheaper than the new builds going up by other developers in the same estate at the time. I just saw it as the "budget" option.

bella123

I lived in a barratt house for 6 years (renting) and the finish was poor,just bought a bellway house and there have been no problems.

save-a-lot

Hi

I live in a 2001 build Barratt home and we had lots of snags, poorly fitting windows, patio doors not opening correctly. Leaking bath and tap fittings that soaked the ceiling of the kitchen. Able to see plasterboard edges underneath the plaster skim, bits of emulsioning not properly covering the walls. The whole experience was a bad one.

Telephone customer service is obstructive and getting people back to sort out snags was a nightmare.

Phil

malima

samandmillie wrote:

Has anyone ever bought a Barratt new build home?

How did you find the finish/customer service etc?

Thanks

Give you a good tip ......DO NOT BUY A BARRATT HOME!!.Am currently living in one....never again!!!!!!