Charles Church & Persimmon Homes

Ken-Johnson

Tabby2 wrote: »

There hasn't been much on any website recently in regards to problems with Charles Church and Persimmon, do I take it that their customer service and build standards have improved?

Not in Andover!

We reserved a Prestwick 2 House (to include carpets) at the asking price of £262,995

We liked the look of the show homes and thought the price would be indicative of a high quality home. Unfortunately it was just over-priced.

Our mortgage surveyor valued the house at just £249,000

We would have needed to pay cash to buy £14,000 worth of Negative Equity!!!

When we raised the issue with Charles Church they immediately reduced the price to £249,995 - they obviously agreed that the house was over-priced at £262,950 (but then they said they would not provide carpets, as previously promised).

We felt that we could no longer trust Charles Church so we withdrew from the purchase - even though we lost a lot of legal fees.

Make sure you don't commit financially until you have your survey.

Be careful and share with your friends.

ethank

Ken-Johnson wrote: »

Not in Andover!

We reserved a Prestwick 2 House (to include carpets) at the asking price of £262,995

We liked the look of the show homes and thought the price would be indicative of a high quality home. Unfortunately it was just over-priced.

Our mortgage surveyor valued the house at just £249,000

We would have needed to pay cash to buy £14,000 worth of Negative Equity!!!

When we raised the issue with Charles Church they immediately reduced the price to £249,995 - they obviously agreed that the house was over-priced at £262,950 (but then they said they would not provide carpets, as previously promised).

We felt that we could no longer trust Charles Church so we withdrew from the purchase - even though we lost a lot of legal fees.

Make sure you don't commit financially until you have your survey.

Be careful and share with your friends.

You can't really comment on the build quality like the OP asked. You have not even bought one!

Gwhiz

ethank wrote: »

You can't really comment on the build quality like the OP asked. You have not even bought one!

He's spamming a number of threads with his anti CC post.

Someone12

The build quality depends on certain things with persimmon and charles church. If your completion date falls near either june or december and they are behind then can expect problems. I've seen people refusing to move in during these times because of problems and things not beeing sorted in time.

The other major problem is the site management. Some of them do care about getting snags done in a orderly fashion but some just care about getting there bonuses each month.

With regards to the building all site are made the same but with these new timber frame houses i wouldn't go near them. Before you start putting the timber frame up you put a sole plate down first which is meant to be treated but have seen a few houses go up with just normal 4x2 as the sole plate. The inspectors don't catch on to this since the colour of the wood is near enough the same.

With regards to bricklayers most of them carry on even though it's to cold to lay bricks. As long as the inspectors don't see it most management don't care.

Candygirl1

This is an unbelievable tale about Charles Church. Unfortunately for me, it is true. I put down my deposit on a house some 2 months ago. Ordered all my extras, the house was already up but totally unfinished. We exchanged a few weeks ago and it now two weeks to move in. I went into the house last week to find that none of the extras had been put in. This means that damage had to be done to an almost finished interior to rectify this. Also a basin had been fitted above a window sill, so that the sill would be awash with water each time it was used. I was told this was standard. I don't think so!

Incredibly that was the least of my problems. The interior layout had been altered radically and the rooms were out of sync to the plan by nearly a metre!!! I know, its hard to believe, but its true. This was hotly denied until they could do so no longer and they admitted that the wrong staircase had been put in. It was shorter than it should be and this had altered the layout.

I was prepared to accept this apart from the master bedroom which had shrunk to a tiny single room with en-suite. I asked that they move a stud wall, which to be frank was the least they could do in the circumstances.Complaints to head office and two meeting later, they fully agreed with good will to move a stud wall to an agreed position. Fine, I thought. Thats great....but no. Horror of horrors, I went in today to find that they have ignored our agreement and put the wall in a different place!!! It looks ridiculous, and has ruined the 2nd bedroom. Can you believe it? And they refuse to move it. The site manager said his boss had told him to do it and his boss(who ever this is) said he couldn't move it. I don't believe a word of it!

What was the point in the meetings, and my being given the choice? The whole thing is shambolic. I have never in 35 years of buying and selling quite a few houses including 3 new builds come across such incompetence, and shoddy work. Several other houses on the site are sodden with damp and mould. I have again written to head office and have refused to complete unless they move the wall, but wont hear back until Monday I guess. It has been so stressful. There are still holes in the roof, smashed windows, no kitchen and a multitude of things to complete in 2 weeks.
I shall also have to ask my solicitor to see if I can withdraw due to breach of contract if they don't move the wall which is a simple job, perhaps 2 hours to take it down and put another stud wall up.

I will post again to let you know how I have gotten on. Fingers crossed!

MaDMaX**

Candygirl1 wrote: »

I will post again to let you know how I have gotten on. Fingers crossed!

did you get anywhere with your wall?


My partner and I went to a Charles Church development today in trowbridge Wiltshire


we are looking to purchase a coach house, have to say I felt very at ease looking around, the development looked so well spaced out, the sales guy henry seemed really knowledgeable and there was no pressure,


we then went to a david Wilson homes development and although the show house we seem seemd really nice, I don't like being spoon fed, with we are good at this and that, and you wont get better!!, all just made me feel uncomfortable added to the fact affordable housing was being developed all over the place, don't get me wrong every body needs a place to live! but I have had some experience of this in the past, and glad I moved when I did,


anyway the point to my post is, i'm very grateful to all the input here as im sure OP is, has it put me off CC homes, not really, will I still buy from them, maybe, I feel enlightened by this thread and other info,


but its like anything in life, theres always good and bad in everything, you just need to find a happy medium, and hope it was the right decision

Georgesmum79

Candygirl1 wrote: »

This is an unbelievable tale about Charles Church. Unfortunately for me, it is true. I put down my deposit on a house some 2 months ago. Ordered all my extras, the house was already up but totally unfinished. We exchanged a few weeks ago and it now two weeks to move in. I went into the house last week to find that none of the extras had been put in. This means that damage had to be done to an almost finished interior to rectify this. Also a basin had been fitted above a window sill, so that the sill would be awash with water each time it was used. I was told this was standard. I don't think so!

Incredibly that was the least of my problems. The interior layout had been altered radically and the rooms were out of sync to the plan by nearly a metre!!! I know, its hard to believe, but its true. This was hotly denied until they could do so no longer and they admitted that the wrong staircase had been put in. It was shorter than it should be and this had altered the layout.

I was prepared to accept this apart from the master bedroom which had shrunk to a tiny single room with en-suite. I asked that they move a stud wall, which to be frank was the least they could do in the circumstances.Complaints to head office and two meeting later, they fully agreed with good will to move a stud wall to an agreed position. Fine, I thought. Thats great....but no. Horror of horrors, I went in today to find that they have ignored our agreement and put the wall in a different place!!! It looks ridiculous, and has ruined the 2nd bedroom. Can you believe it? And they refuse to move it. The site manager said his boss had told him to do it and his boss(who ever this is) said he couldn't move it. I don't believe a word of it!

What was the point in the meetings, and my being given the choice? The whole thing is shambolic. I have never in 35 years of buying and selling quite a few houses including 3 new builds come across such incompetence, and shoddy work. Several other houses on the site are sodden with damp and mould. I have again written to head office and have refused to complete unless they move the wall, but wont hear back until Monday I guess. It has been so stressful. There are still holes in the roof, smashed windows, no kitchen and a multitude of things to complete in 2 weeks.
I shall also have to ask my solicitor to see if I can withdraw due to breach of contract if they don't move the wall which is a simple job, perhaps 2 hours to take it down and put another stud wall up.

I will post again to let you know how I have gotten on. Fingers crossed!

If you are buying with a mortgage the bank won't release the funds until they have valued the property: some only do one inspection, and others also do a final inspection when the house is almost ready. The survey will not be satisfactory unless the house is built to the plans provided: thus, with internal walls in the wrong place the house won't pass the inspection and you won't get the mortgage funds. I find it very unlikely that the house is built so far off the plans as the company knows very well that you wouldn't be able to complete. I'm sorry but this sounds a bit too much to be true: the company want their money, so why would they willingly and knowingly build a house they know for certain you wouldn't be able to complete on? Yes, they could take you to court, but this would take months and cost them thousands, when all they want is their money.

Georgesmum79

Viz76 wrote: »

I had trouble with the Customer service i have dealt with 3 as they keep on leaving Contact Director in Charge, Charles Church Southern Customer service. go to the top as they don't know what happening in their business.

I'm also in the South and have found their customer care pretty good, on the whole. Any snags have been fixed quickly. The house hasn't luckily had anything major wrong, but the cosmetic finish was quite poor. They have fixed everything and attended quickly to all of the cosmetic issues, I just wish that the site manager would have bothered to check before we moved in. Our absolute favourite was the bathroom lock fitted on the outside!:D

Squ1rr3l

I've found Charles Church South to be quite incompetent so far. We reserve last week and were told it would complete jan/feb and that we'd be able to pick all our extras. Got a call on Wednesday saying it's actually completing in September and that the kitchen is already done. Then on Saturday we are told the kitchen and the bathroom are already chosen so we can't have any integrated units, chose tiles, or have extras in the bathroom like a shower and towel rails.

I'm absolutely devastated as they must have known on Saturday that it was so ahead of schedule. I wouldn't have reserved if I'd known all I'd get to choose is flooring and a cupboard! Asking the solicitor how much it's going to cost us to pull out of this purchase. Absolutely gutted, serves me right for getting my heart set on a new build with my dream kitchen.

marlot

Squ1rr3l wrote: »

I've found Charles Church South to be quite incompetent so far...

I wouldn't buy from someone who fails to get 5 stars in the annual survey http://www.hbf.co.uk/policy-activities/customer-satisfaction-survey/2014-results/

Personally, I don't think 5 stars is that hard to reach.

In your specific case if you still want to go ahead, I'd be asking to look around the property and see if its as far ahead as they say - bringing build completion forward 4 months like that implies that its almost finished.