Barratt homes...are they worth buying with?

m_curiousity

Hiya,

Barratt homes are in the process of building loads of new homes local to me and I'm interested in buying one. Trouble is, I'm a bit unsure about buying a brand new home in general, as I've heard that you can be more likely to make a loss upon reselling as the house usually depreciates in value once you've moved in. Does anyone know anything about resell values of new homes? Its a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom semi detached with garage 15 minutes drive from Brighton if this helps. Asking price is £267k.

Also have looked online about Barratts and have seen tonnes of bad stuff about them, mostly that once they've got your money they dont care and are impossible to get to fix the problems that invariably occur in the new house that they are required to fix as part of the contract. Or if they do repair it it is really shoddy work. Trouble is, most reviews online are going to be bad as people are more likely to write if they are angry about something, so should I not take these reviews too much to heart?

My final concern is that I've heard new homes can be not very good quality builds, and use poor materials which results in tonnes of problems such as leaky toilets, plaster collapsing etc. I am intending to view the property, but I really wouldnt know bad quality if I saw it, as long as it looks nice and shiny I'd be impressed, (which is the whole point of show homes right??). Is there anyway I can get this looked at independantly before making an offer, or would this kind of thing be included in the building survey?

Ta for any help, sorry for the long winded post!!

Jonbvn

If you do decide to purchase a NB home make sure you get it professionally snagged before completion. In the current financial climate, I would avoid offering on incomplete NB properties.

The asking price of £267k is just above the 3% stamp duty limit. I would suggest offering 250k.

cazmac_123

Thats a great price!! we live in a new 2 bedroom house in surrey. We are happy with our house but there have been a couple of things that have come up since we moved in 3 years ago (built by Linden homes) -

The walls are quite thin and the windows let in a lot of cold. Our french windows have dropped slightly which we patch up with a bit of cardboard!! we have had to get the kitchen work top replaced due to water leaking down the joins and rotting the wood under it. the kitchen cupboards are also rotting away near the sink as they are cheap and not sealed properly. I would say it would be worth making sure that they havent just used cheap material in the kitchen as they have in all the houses where i am. We all seem to have the same problem (rotting cupboards and work tops!!) We have aircon upstairs but blows hot air in the summer and cold in the winter (great!!!) apparently theres nothing they can do about that so we turned it off!!

All in all we are please with our nice fresh shiny house and in time we will get a new kitchen and sort the french window out. but we are happy to make do at present. im sure little things can equally come up with an older house maybe not the same problems though.

delmar39

All house builders have good and bad reputations. We bought a Dave Wilson Home and the finish wasn't great, but we've had no major problems. You should be covered for 2 years by the builder i.e. any work required they will do free of charge within the first two years and your NHBC certificate will cover you for 10 years for major problems. We're currently buying a house from a local builder who's finish is excellent. As long as you get your snag list done properly you should be ok. Barratt have been around for a while and like most big firms will employ in bulk and will push the various trades to get completed. All in all you shouldn't be left with any major problems regardless of who you buy from, but if there are problems down the line you will be covered for them.

ILW

They are great if you want a wooden framed building with cardboard partitions. I cannot see many of them being saleable in 50 years when the frame starts to warp or rot.

xmaslolly76

We almost got bitten with a barrats house we are going back a good few years now but they were doinga first time buyer package and you had to use their solicitors for conveyancing. It all came back clear but one day we went to have a look round and asked about a little plot of land between ours and the house next door and asked who it belonged to the sales person pulled out the plans and low and behold there was a wacking great mineshaft right under the front of the house needless to say we pulled out. I've no doubt it was capped properly but if they tried to hide it what else had they hidden from us ? If you do go for a house with them get your own solicitor to do the searches and ask to see the plans.

brit1234

Barratts are known for small size, poor quality and being very overvalued, personally i would stay well clear.

Doing a demolition course a few years ago the joke was how much explosive for a normal house and how much less you would need because its made by Barratts.

Better off getting a 70s and before shell and redoing electrics and finishes if you want a good home

property.advert

I wouldn't buy but if you do, get them to agree to your retaining 5% to 10% of the price to cover repairs should their snagging list never get completed, say within 3 months. Your lawyer will have to be on the ball with this as it will have to give you the right to use that money to make repairs. It has to be in your favour. Most builders will not like this but you can come down in % terms to say £10,000 and my experience is that they will go for this unless demand is huge.

New homes are problematic and often have small rooms and poor finishings. Make sure it has gas above all else.

david29dpo

Barrett pay there contractors peanuts (been there) And what do you get if you pay peanuts?

Jue_xx

As I understand it, Barratts developments tend to be leasehold. We looked at a new development 8 years ago - half the estate was built by Alfred McAlpines, and the other half by Barratts. We went to both sales offices and found the McAlpines houses were sold freehold and Barratts were leasehold. We purchased on the McAlpines side.

We are now in the process of selling, and received and accepted an offer within three months. There has been one for sale on the Barratts side for over a year (it went on the market nearly a year before ours) - on at the same price bracket as ours, and everyone who viewed ours viewed the other one too. They all said they wouldn't consider the Barratts one because it is leasehold. In fact, once I'd learned this I started to make a point of mentioning it when viewers came round!

The Barratts one is still for sale. We're moving (fingers crossed) next week!

I don't know if this is true of ALL Barratts developments though. Someone else on this forum will know if it is.

Jue_xx

cazmac_123 wrote: »

Thats a great price!! we live in a new 2 bedroom house in surrey. We are happy with our house but there have been a couple of things that have come up since we moved in 3 years ago (built by Linden homes) -

The walls are quite thin and the windows let in a lot of cold. Our french windows have dropped slightly which we patch up with a bit of cardboard!! we have had to get the kitchen work top replaced due to water leaking down the joins and rotting the wood under it. the kitchen cupboards are also rotting away near the sink as they are cheap and not sealed properly. I would say it would be worth making sure that they havent just used cheap material in the kitchen as they have in all the houses where i am. We all seem to have the same problem (rotting cupboards and work tops!!) We have aircon upstairs but blows hot air in the summer and cold in the winter (great!!!) apparently theres nothing they can do about that so we turned it off!!

All in all we are please with our nice fresh shiny house and in time we will get a new kitchen and sort the french window out. but we are happy to make do at present. im sure little things can equally come up with an older house maybe not the same problems though.

Have you complained to Linden Homes about the kitchen and french door? If the house is only 3 years old, are they covered by the NHBC guarantee?