Builder's Warranty

Threadhead

Not sure if this is the right place for this, so please feel free to move.

We bought a house and moved in March 06. Although we were the first residents in the house, we were the second owners. (Some guy bought a few houses on the estate, and held onto them for 18 months). There was a two year warranty with the house which began to run when it was sold to the first buyer.

We've had numerous problems, some of which have been sorted, but there are about 4 points outstanding. These are; en-suite shower leaking, banging pipes, ridge tile off (this happened just before Christmas, and no-one has been able to look at it due to high winds(??)), and taps fitted too close to the wall. The house builders have been out approximately 15 times to inspect or repair these four points, but to date, they havent sorted them.

What can I do? I'd like to get another builder in to sort things, and then send the bill to the house builders, but am worried I will end up paying myself.

So far everything has been dealt with by email and phone calls. Would a letter have more impact?

The contacts we are dealing with are nice people, but they cant get anything sorted.

lynzpower

the question id be asking is

The contacts we are dealing with are nice people, but they cant get anything sorted.

Whats the reason for this?

Id ring them and have a frank conversation, and say, look why havent you been able to get these jobs done? Can you tell me why?

the answer should tell you which way to proceed

bunking_off

Are the builders part of NHBC? If so, you could always invoke their resolution process. Otherwise, it might be worth spending the money on a survey as it gives extra leverage against them.

To be honest, I'd have said the ridge tile was a wear & tear issue and probably not be covered by the warranty - it's a household insurance job.

Although I sympathise with what lynzpower's saying, my experience is conversations of any type get you nowhere...put everything in writing and retain a copy of all communications.

prudryden

bunking_off wrote:

Are the builders part of NHBC? If so, you could always invoke their resolution process. Otherwise, it might be worth spending the money on a survey as it gives extra leverage against them.

To be honest, I'd have said the ridge tile was a wear & tear issue and probably not be covered by the warranty - it's a household insurance job.

Although I sympathise with what lynzpower's saying, my experience is conversations of any type get you nowhere...put everything in writing and retain a copy of all communications.

I'm sure Lynz was just saying start off that way and then determine, based on the response, how to play the game. Official letters at first go, tend to get everybody's back up and then nothing gets done.
Agree with you on the ridge tile. A good polish builder will put it back for relatively very little money.

bunking_off

You see, my experience is it depends on the builder. Dealing with Wilson Connolly, speaking to them helped but ultimately to get anything done you needed to document it. They were taken over by Taylor Woodrow/Bryant, and the policy they have is that unless something in writing it doesn't exist.

Also, if the worst does come to the worst and it ends up at NHBC, there's no evidence of phone calls so the builders can deny all.

You also need to keep in mind that the people answering the phones inherently don't tend to be the highest paid staff, and in my experience there's quite a high staff turnover (but not as high as site foremen!), so you might get something agreed in the best of faith only to find they've moved on the following week and you've no evidence.

In general in life I agree with the softly softly approach, but after a lot of experience in this area (see this thread) I've learned that if you're not assertive they will walk all over you. I'm not saying write an officious letter...just a polite one saying what would have been said over the phone.

prudryden

Thanks Bunk. Very well explained.