Bought new build house

failte100

Hi

we bought a new build house and the walls are awful really lumpy plastering you can see webbing tape in places.

We complained during snagging and they spent 3 days trying to address it after the move and all the stress we had enough and left em to it.

They then put a railing up for free and sent us letter saying " goodwill full and final settlement"

weve been in 9 mnths and now we come to decorate the walls are a joke and we dont know what to do

Ms_Sophia

sorry to hear that... what company is a developer of this new build?

G_M

Your only options are to exhaust the builder's internal complaints process ("full and final settlement" sounds like that!) or get an independant expert to give you a report so you have evidence to go further via the courts, the builder's trade body etc.

failte100

Thanks for responding

We bought house from redrow - and had sooo many problems i got tired of fighting and now we cme to decorate and its like braile at night with lamps on. But i worry that coz we left it and they put railing up and the full and final settlement letter we are unable to do owt?
To be honest when we first moved in the site manager (its not a finished development) was horrid and rude and intimidting to me so i had to make a formal complaint - between that and the snagging coz carpets were fitted by 5 year old it was a real nightmare. Now 6 months on im unsure where we stand or what to or if i can face taking the might of redrow on again

sonastin

I think you might struggle if this is the same issue as one that was highlighted before they offered a full and final settlement - you shouldn't have accepted that offer if you wanted to continue to hold them responsible for the faults that they hadn't completely fixed.

If this is something new that has come to light since the full and final settlement and it is something that you couldn't have known about at that time (i.e. not just something you hadn't noticed but something that took time to appear) or it is a failure of one of the repairs carried out as part of the full and final settlement then you can go back and start another dispute with them...

failte100

HI
Yeah i see what you mean. The Thing is though that we never agreed anything. They just put railing up and then we got the letter saying full and final settlement.

Three radiators falling of now as fitted with wrong fixtures and other repairs they did failing so i have to contact them and just dont know what to do about the walls and wether i should start it all up again. Thing is they spent 3 days doing the so called making good and i had to keep 2 year old outa the way - easier said than done and i was so stressed by end of three days just wanted em gone. But walls a mess and i can see now we have a real long term problem on our hands but fighting big company like redrow is so hard

sonastin

If you were a business, the fact that you didn't respond at the time that you received the "full and final settlement" letter would be taken as an indication that you had accepted their offer as being in full and final settlement. As an individual, you're not necessarily expected to fully understand that sort of thing so you might still be able to make a case against them - civil law is much more sympathetic when joe public fights big business than when businesses fight each other. Readers who find themselves in a similar situation would do well to write back in response to a similar letter saying that you don't consider it to be a full and final settlement and reserve your rights to make claim if the problems haven't been fixed.

Back to the OP - how bad are the other "repairs" and faults? At the catastrophic end of the scale, you have the Defective Premises Act on your side which says the house must be fit for human habitation. But then the scale slides all the way down to it just being a cosmetic fault where the finish isn't as perfect as you would like but a million other people wouldn't even notice (my OH is this picky but I'm not necessarily saying you are!). Draw up a list of the things that are wrong at the moment and try to be objective about the standard of workmanship - how upset would you be about each thing if it was the only thing wrong rather than part of the big picture. Include everything in your letter of complaint to Redrow but remember the ones that aren't such a big problem for you - if you are prepared to concede somethings don't need fixing and will drop the claim on those, it can help in the negotiation as Redrow look like the big bully if you show you are willing to compromise but they won't.

I wouldn't mention anything to them of the full and final settlement letter yet. If they bring it up, that is when you should tell them that their offer wasn't adequate remedy for their defective workmanship. You accept the railings as an gesture of goodwill towards the inconvenience of having to have faults corrected but not full and final settlement of all claims. And lastly, make sure you reserve you right to claim if any more latent defects come to light so that you don't end up in this position again if it turns out they've f***ed something else up as well!

failte100

THANK YOU so much for response.

They concede in the letter that we had far more things rectified than they would expect and it wasnt acceptable

The big issue is i am only able to deal with head office not on site team as i complained about the site manager and had no witnesses so they did nowt and i was treated like a real pain in the !!!.

Therefore i now have to ring them up and address the radiators and cracked ceiling where the leak there poor workmanship caused was repaired and now has cracked. Knowing they think im a royal pain in the !!! and will be resistant.

Im tired of them and there half measures and hubby not bothered but redrows own painters told us we couldnt apply vinly silk paint n would have to buy a special expensive paint. That they had sacked plasterer after doing ours!!!

So decorating is harder and expensive and i think the awful walls in years to come could affect our selling as the finish all over the house is pathetic.

oh god arguin wiv redrow - dread it

sonastin

failte100 wrote: »

Therefore i now have to ring them up

Don't phone - write. You have time to think about what you want to say, make sure you've said everything and guarantee that they have a record of it all. If you phone, you might end up flustered, arguing, irrational, etc and even if you don't, their person at the other end might. And you might end up talking with the wrong person -if they can pass your letter up the chain to the right person, you don't get the chinese whispers effect diluting your message. And it is something that you can all refer to after they do the next round of repairs to make sure they have addressed all your problems.

failte100

hi

I think i will decorate the kitchen and see how walls look. I am sure they will look ridiculous but i think that way i can write and say that i have decorated over the repairs that they did as they did try and adress kitchen walls and that the finish is still unacceptable. I can then request they complete the other repairs such as the cracked ceiling, radiators dropping off, leaking ensuite, dropped doors, and take it from there. Then as you say if they refer to the full and final settlement i shall state i accepted the railings as good will for all the inconvenience - not that it relieved them of their continuing responsibility for the on going issues.

Is that right then ???????

sonastin

Sounds like a good plan - good luck