Barratt homes...are they worth buying with?

terytel

I bought a Barratt new build executive 4 bed detached in May 2013. Quality is dire, 5 star builder? do me a favour, do not buy!!
The bay window was like a listing ship, doors cut with huge gaps on the bottom, super efficient warm house, NO!, had to pester them to get the tiny radiators changed as the house was not a warm house, Now my garden gets water logged whenever it rains and they refuse to sort it. NHBC waste of paper, they cannot do anything as it is more than 3 metres from house, warranty, what warranty?

chanz4

take them to court, they will fix before

debs8

I would not buy a Barratts house again. We have had problems with customer service. I expect snagging problems but we have had a lot and whenever we contact them they don't actually log things properly. I have sent e-mails chasing work to be done and I always have to keep phoning to chase things up all the time. There is one issue we have had which I know I have phoned and reported a couple of times but because they didn't log the call properly they say it was never reported and its now out of warranty.

I would say if you have complaints make sure you e-mail them first and then keep chasing. Its a pain, but I am frustrated that on my occasion i spoke to them on the phone and as they didn't record it. The Customer Service manager said he didn't believe me when I complained that I had reported it before warranty ran out

The Barratts maintenance staff have all been very helpful though.

dingo5000

I have moved into a barratt homes house recently i am with EE and wanted to take the internet with me so i told EE they did a check with the post code and said that we could do this. one week on and EE got back to us saying that they were not aloud to put a bt line in as barratts would not aloud this.
so we looked at the paper work and barratts have a company called seethelight we was shocked!! At this day an age you could not have a choice in witch internet company you wanted to have the price in witch seethelight was wanting was £45 plus £16 for line rental this was just for internet and phone line with EE we had EE tv package phone line fiber boardband and 20 gb extra on are phones we £35 for the lot we have now lost tv package fiber and 20gb on are phones it"s so bad as we do not want to be pushed into something we don't want to do so for the mean time we are paying for datea on are phones so we don't have to be pushed into this internet company its not right in this day an age this is the same if your buying a barretts home to as we asked them.

dgtazzman

I somehow doubt it would be legal for them to force your to use this Seethelight. It's a free market and I'm sure this must be breaking the law somewhere. Might be worth seeking some legal advice on the matter...

However, the price your quote is for their 300MB line, which is far more than you'd probably ever need, they also have a 50MB line, which is only 11 quid a month + line rental, which isn't too bad. Still doesn't make it legal for Barratt's to make you use them, though.

Do their contracts have a cool down period? Could have them put the line in and then cancel within this period, then at least the line would be in and you could try switching to another provider then.

Chocolate58

Barratt Homes - We are going through a nightmare time with Barratt Homes which started in 2008. Nobody cares, including the Chief Executive Officer who wants us to go down the legal route... If only we'd had a crystal ball. Don't touch them with a barge-pole!

Chanes

We looked at a new Barratt house it was lease hold and had a service charge! It looked well built but the estate felt cramped. We didn't buy it because we prefer a Freehold and a bit more space. I am still a fan of new builds though and would buy one if we move again as long as it was Freehold and with a bit of space around it.

Jon_B_2

dgtazzman wrote: »

I somehow doubt it would be legal for them to force your to use this Seethelight. It's a free market and I'm sure this must be breaking the law somewhere. Might be worth seeking some legal advice on the matter...

However, the price your quote is for their 300MB line, which is far more than you'd probably ever need, they also have a 50MB line, which is only 11 quid a month + line rental, which isn't too bad. Still doesn't make it legal for Barratt's to make you use them, though.

Do their contracts have a cool down period? Could have them put the line in and then cancel within this period, then at least the line would be in and you could try switching to another provider then.

It's perfectly legal. Quite common for developers to tie up with specific broadband providers. We live on an estate with seethelight.

It's extremely good value considering you get fibre to the house! Better than anything BT can provide. £28/month for 50mb.

Chocolate58

Avoid this company at all costs. We were told there was to be 17% social housing on this development and given the plans showing which houses these were. Barratts then sold off the houses they couldn't sell, to a housing association. We now have over 50% social housing on this development. This has caused the property prices to drop dramatically. Barratts also sold the freeholds to a company, without first offering us the opportunity ( I have been advised they have broken the law) or even telling us. It has been a complete nightmare. They deny everything, we have all the documentary evidence. The Chief Executive Officer doesn't care and has just told us to get our solicitor to contact their solicitors. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!

richard2511

Agree, avoid this company at all costs.

We currently have an independent panel looking into a complaint we have with Barratt Homes as they have not followed the consumer code for home builders when we reserved a property. the plot was then taken away from us because we could not meet their 28 day exchange deadline. We missed it because their solicitors did not provide paperwork on time.

We had to fight to get our deposit back for extras that we chose and are now fighting to get our legal fees back.