Haslam Homes

looby75

Not sure if this is the right place for this but It might serve as a warning for anyone thinking of buying a New house from Haslam Homes.

I am unfortunate enough to be living in a road adjacent to a new Haslam Homes building site. OMG it's hell on on earth round here at the moment.

For the last 8 months we've had to put up with;

* The noise of building works starting before 8am, 6 days a week.

* The dust from the mountains of earth in the middle of the building site. Which blows all over the adjacent houses causing windows/ woodwork and carpets to be constantly covered in muck. Roads and footpaths constantly covered with mud which also ends up all over the house.

* The obstruction to our roads cause by diggers/forklifts/trucks etc, delivering materials to the site. Always on the normal road rather than the site access route.

* Closed footpaths because of perimeter fencing has taken up all space on the path and totally churned up/destroyed footpaths which are unsafe for pedestrian use because they have been ripped to shreds by building site machines.

* Large, deep and potentially dangerous holes in the ground on footpaths (and some roads) left very inadequately covered or not cordoned off at all.

* Loose material spilled all over the roads, which is causing damage to the paint work of cars using those roads.

* Telephone cables regularly being cut, causing residents in 3 streets to be without a phone for at lest 72 hours at a time, or more in some cases. In the last 3 months we have had the phones cut off 5 times once for over a week!

* Electricity and water supplies frequently being turned off.

* High powered security lights and CCTV which are left on all night regardless of who's window they might shine through.

* Diggers reversing into parked cars or hitting them with the scoop bit, the latest one was an asda van trying to deliver some shopping to the street!

*Builders and contractors vans and cars blocking what few footpaths there are left intact with their vans forcing you to walk on the road which is also being used by very large building machines.

and just today I've just been informed by a delivery driver from the Home Shopping Delivery Network that he told me he tried to deliver to me yesterday but was turned away by the builders who where totally blocking the road with a digger. He waited for a good 10 mins and ended up getting out of his van to ask the builders to move, they refused and told him to come back in half an hour! Obviously not something a delivery driver can do.

He has now recommended to his bosses that they no longer deliver to this area until the building works are completely finished.

I don't have a car and there are only so many Christmas presents you can carry on a bus, so I buy a lot of stuff over the internet. MOST of the home shopping services I use use this company for deliveries.

I and many other people round here have tried complaining to Haslam Homes and have been laughed at, insulted and emails to the company have been ignored. We've even contacted the Considerate Constructors Scheme (who Haslam Homes are a member) and they have tried to contact Haslam Homes on my behalf, but even they get ignored!

Everyone in our Village is sick to the back teeth of this co, and we have at least another 2 years of building works.

I feel totally sorry for anyone who is moving into the new houses being built, they have NO idea what they are letting themselves in for.

dmg24

Have you spoken to your local council? Our builders are not allowed to start work before 8am, and have been fined for doing so before now (at a different site, ours are thankfully very good).

looby75

The council don't seem to be at all bothered, they work usually starts about 7.45 on a good day and 7.30 on a normal day :mad: When you complain haslam homes simply say it's not work it's just the builders getting machinery into place and contractors arriving to the site ready to start work at 8am. That's when they bother to reply at all.

dazco

I would have thought that there was always some disturbance when a big building project was taking place.

That is how your house got built.

looby75

some disturbance yes.....but this is way way beyond some disturbance. It's dangerous, it's a health hazard and a lot of it could easily be avoided with just a small amount of care and consideration from Haslam Homes.

They constantly and repeatedly break every code of conduct in the Considerate Constructors Scheme, a scheme which they are a founding member of. They know they are in the wrong which is why they are refusing to answer complaints or come of any of the community partnership meetings that the parish council hold each month, to explain their side of the problem.

There are so many things they could do to make it better but they don't think they have to, so they don't.

dazco

If it is dangerous you need to report then to your local authority.

Your post did not mention anything dangerous though.

Good luck and I hope you get them in line:beer:

looby75

Yes it it did!

* The dust from the mountains of earth in the middle of the building site. Which blows all over the adjacent houses causing windows/ woodwork and carpets to be constantly covered in muck. Roads and footpaths constantly covered with mud which also ends up all over the house.

* The obstruction to our roads cause by diggers/forklifts/trucks etc, delivering materials to the site. Always on the normal road rather than the site access route.

* Closed footpaths because of perimeter fencing has taken up all space on the path and totally churned up/destroyed footpaths which are unsafe for pedestrian use because they have been ripped to shreds by building site machines.

* Large, deep and potentially dangerous holes in the ground on footpaths (and some roads) left very inadequately covered or not cordoned off at all.

* Loose material spilled all over the roads, which is causing damage to the paint work of cars using those roads.

* Telephone cables regularly being cut, causing residents in 3 streets to be without a phone for at lest 72 hours at a time, or more in some cases. In the last 3 months we have had the phones cut off 5 times once for over a week!

* Electricity and water supplies frequently being turned off.

* High powered security lights and CCTV which are left on all night regardless of who's window they might shine through.

* Diggers reversing into parked cars or hitting them with the scoop bit, the latest one was an asda van trying to deliver some shopping to the street!

*Builders and contractors vans and cars blocking what few footpaths there are left intact with their vans forcing you to walk on the road which is also being used by very large building machines.

3 ft deep holes in the footpath left totally uncovered for 10 days, streetlights which have been turned off for weeks at a time round those holes. Having to dodge large diggers and forklifts just to walk down the street, no footpaths to walk on so you have to take your risks on the road while those building site machines are heading towards you. They are constantly reversing into parked and sometimes moving cars, what chance would I or my children have if they reversed into us.

My sister has asthma, she can't visit me in my home at the moment because the levels of dust give her an asthma attack within minutes of being here. We've been breathing that same dust in 24/7 for 8 months. With in minutes of having the windows cleaned the dust is thick enough to write your name on them again.

How is any of that not dangerous?

Bossyboots

We had a block of flats built behind out office and suffered many of these problems. The only access by road to the site was down a side road which has our office car park at the bottom. We were constantly made late for work because they obstructed the road and the car park. The noise and mess was unbearable at times for those working out the back of the surrounding buildings. The builders would also just park in our private car park.

We found the council and police very helpful. They gave a warning about the noise (which wasn't all just building noise, it was revving vehicles, loud music and offensive language), served a notice on them for health and safety breaches and were regular visitors to the site. The police warned them about the rules on parking and obstruction so that although they didn't always leave the way clear, they would move when asked. They became more accomodating the day I parked my car in the centre of the road and told them I would be back in five hours!

As for using our car park, finding themselves locked in and everyone refusing to let them out, soon put a stop to that.

Many of the problems we had, would have been accepted and overlooked had they been courteous and responded to our requests not to disrupt everyone else's lives while they built the flats. Had they responded in a reasonable way to this, there would have been give and take but they had to learn the hard way that other businesses were not going to be inconvenienced by them.

You need to keep on at the council to come and sort it out. It is their responsibility.

astonsmummy

What about environmental health?
and thelocal papaer, your local MP,

looby75

Everytime I or any of my neighbours have contacted the council we have been told it's being "looked into" "investigated" "passed on to (whoever)" yet things just keep getting worse and worse. No one seems to want to take responsibility and help us.

We have a village website and some of the incidents that have been posted on the message board there are totally hair raising. One person had their brand new £16,000 car scraped all along one side by some site machinery, witnessed by the cars owner, his neighbour and other workmen on the site, yet Haslam Homes are refusing to accept responsibility and have told the owner to claim off his insurance!

The first houses are ready to be moved into now, and I really don't think the people who have bought them have got the foggiest idea of what they are letting themselves in for.

One resident who has suffered damage to his property lives directly opposite the sales office and show home, he is so sick of the noise, mess, inconvenience and damage he's seriously considering making a big banner to put up on his fence warning potential buyers of what problems they are likely to face. He's just checking the legalities of it first.

looby75

astonsmummy wrote:

What about environmental health?
and thelocal papaer, your local MP,

I, and some other residents have written to the local papers, even watchdog! (not sure if it's their kind of thing but worth a try) and obviously I've now posted here and our local councillor is trying to arrange a mass meeting with our MP. The thing is all this takes time and all that time Haslam Homes are making our lives a misery, damaging more property and causing havoc.

There is an elderly couple that live across the road from me, the elderly man has problems walking and is waiting for a hip replacement op. 2 weeks ago Haslam homes dug up the footpath outside their house totally blocking there own garden path, so to get out of their house they have to walk over their grass which isn't very even. Because of this the gentleman hasn't been able to leave his house because it's too painful for him and to great a risk he might fall. Since they dug the footpath up 2 weeks ago they have only worked in the hole for 1 day, the rest of the time it hasn't been touched or filled back in, and they refuse to say when it will be or why it's been left untouched for so long.

It's things like this that are making everyone so mad at Haslam.