2 year warranty on new build

delmar39

The small family builder in our local village who built our house have decided to hang up their boots and are shutting down the business (not selling on). They will close as of May 2011 at which point we will still have another 10 months on our two year warranty. They may well be in touch with us about this, but where do we stand? Should they honour this? Without dudes to come around and do the work we're stuffed! Any comments or advice greatly appreciated and I can then follow any leads.

Richard_Webster

Have you got NHBC cover? Most new builds have this as mortgage lenders will not lend unless it is there or there is some equivalent cover.

If there is NHBC cover then they will pay for work if builder doesn't do it.

myhouse_2

10 year warranty is pretty standard with new homes. It takes years for many issues to show up. 2-year warranties are for buying vacuum cleaners, not houses. As previous commenter mentioned, hopefully you have NHBC cover or some equivalent.

olias

I might be wrong, but I think the OP is referring to the fact that the first two years of an NHBC warranty are the responsibility of the builder to rectify defects, after that the remaining eight years the NHBC will cover any problems. It would appear therefore that the OP is questioning who will rectify any defects for the remainder of the two years (10 months), if the building firm technically does not exist anymore.

To the OP, I would assume that whether the builder has shut up shop or not, he would still be liable under the NHBC for these remaining ten months and if his firm is no longer trading he would have to pay a sub contractor to rectify any problems.

Olias

delmar39

olias wrote: »

I might be wrong, but I think the OP is referring to the fact that the first two years of an NHBC warranty are the responsibility of the builder to rectify defects, after that the remaining eight years the NHBC will cover any problems. It would appear therefore that the OP is questioning who will rectify any defects for the remainder of the two years (10 months), if the building firm technically does not exist anymore.

To the OP, I would assume that whether the builder has shut up shop or not, he would still be liable under the NHBC for these remaining ten months and if his firm is no longer trading he would have to pay a sub contractor to rectify any problems.

Olias

Thanks for this and yeah you're correct - I was talking about the our builder's responsibilities for the first 2 years (not vacuum cleaner warranties!). I guess the builder will seek advice on this and contact us in due course re the remaining 10 months when they won't be trading. As I understand it they are building 3 final town houses so they'll need to put something in place for those too.

G_M

olias wrote: »

To the OP, I would assume that whether the builder has shut up shop or not, he would still be liable under the NHBC for these remaining ten months and if his firm is no longer trading he would have to pay a sub contractor to rectify any problems.

Olias

Is this a limited company? If so, once it has 'shut up shop' it will no longer exist so could not be made "to pay a sub contractor to rectify any problems." Since it doesn't exist there will be no funds/assets with which to pay, nor any employees to organise such a payment.

If it is a sole trader/partnership, it is possible the obligations would remain with the individual owner(s) even after their retirement.

I'm no expert but would have thought the NHBC terms would cover this eventuality and the NHBC would kick in early if the builder goes bankrupt/ceases trading etc - but you'd need to read the NHBC small print.

edit: as I thought, a very quick search of the NHBC site shows:
"If the builder fails to put right the problems, NHBC will usually offer a Resolution Service, which aims to resolve disputes between you and the builder. Under the Resolution Service, we can also help arrange the work needed to put things right if the builder fails to do so. If the builder is insolvent, then we insure his obligations. "

delmar39

G_M wrote: »

Is this a limited company? If so, once it has 'shut up shop' it will no longer exist so could not be made "to pay a sub contractor to rectify any problems." Since it doesn't exist there will be no funds/assets with which to pay, nor any employees to organise such a payment.

If it is a sole trader/partnership, it is possible the obligations would remain with the individual owner(s) even after their retirement.

I'm no expert but would have thought the NHBC terms would cover this eventuality and the NHBC would kick in early if the builder goes bankrupt/ceases trading etc - but you'd need to read the NHBC small print.

edit: as I thought, a very quick search of the NHBC site shows:
"If the builder fails to put right the problems, NHBC will usually offer a Resolution Service, which aims to resolve disputes between you and the builder. Under the Resolution Service, we can also help arrange the work needed to put things right if the builder fails to do so. If the builder is insolvent, then we insure his obligations. "

Thanks for this GM. Very useful indeed.