NHBC - the most expensive but useless warranty in the world?

Andehh

Just a quick rant & warning to those within 2 years of their NHBC for new build houses.

NHBC – Total Farce.

Had some work done (routing data cables form on side of house to the other) which involved making some holes in the Thermalite bricks. During the work it became apparent that where there should be cavity wall insulation, there was none. I was obviously surprised, and checked the Rockwool Guarantee the new house came with - and low and behold it 'was' installed. The walls should have been full of the stuff!

Turns out the house builder (Taylor Wimpey) had clearly had an 'off' day and didn't bother to install it. I can only assume all the other walls of the 4 bed detached property are equally empty.

Rockwool have told me it is a NHBC issue, as they warranty the house against defects & damage. Rockwool said it isn't the product that's failed, its the house builder that didn't bother installing it. Rockwool have agreed to look into it further to see if there is anything they can do.

Contacting the NHBC, they've said because the house is 5 years old it isn’t covered. This sort of issue is only covered within 2 years. Despite my protests that this would throw the EPC (energy performance certificate) off, make the house more expensive to run and is so blatantly a manufacturing corner cutting issue they arn't interested. Despite 2 guarantees and a new house I am having to finish building it at my cost.

I had my 7 year old, 98k miles, Skoda Octavia back from the garage last week due to a manufacturing defect causing the injectors to fail. Despite 4 years OUTSIDE of warranty Skoda paid the full £3100 bill to replace the 4 of them as it was their design at fault.

A £300k, 5 year old house built incorrectly ? Not covered…. appalling!

warmhands.coldheart

Had a very similar issue with my house..... Checking your cavity wall insulation isn't exactly something you can do easily so you'll only ever know if there is an issue if you are having some "work" done to the house. I agree completely, it is all a bit of a joke!!

DirectDebacle

Just because NHBC are not meeting your claim doesn't mean you don't have one. I would have thought that if Taylor Wimpey were building and selling houses to a particular specification then they would be resposible for any failiure to meet those specs.

When you know precisely how much of the insulation has not been installed get quotes for rectification. Contact Taylor Wimpey and ask what they are going to do about it.

You have 6 years to file a claim at the county court.

Furts

Another approach is who did the Building Control inspections? It is likely this was NHBC in the role of an Approved Inspector.

Your house fails to meet the Building Regulations of its day.

A separate part of the Buildmark Warranty was for failures of Building Control.Research this and be aware this may be processed through different people to the Claims Department.

Finally, if this approach, or DirectDebacle's advice, are not appropriate then there is the the legal approach of a Latent Defect.

The easiest option would be to get your home surveyed, pay for cavity wall insulation, then recover the costs through the small claims court by taking an action against Taylor Wimpey.

leveller2911

On the face of it an open and shut case. The house should have met Building regualtions of the time and if there was no cavity wall insulation the house would not have met Building regulations and should never have been signed off as completed........ Do not allow yourself to be fobbed off by NHBC.........

yangptangkipperbang

Andehh wrote: »

NHBC – Total Farce.

No !

NHBC - Chocolate tea pot.................... completely and utterly useless. As they are funded by the building trade, who are they going to support ?

mike_the_bike_2

Yes but you have to admit the NHBC logo does look rather nice and impressive on all the sales literature!

Me? I'm off to join the Guild of Master Craftsmen tomorrow!

anotherbaldrick

Their is one other possibility. The builders might have achieved the necessary "U" value of the walls by not incorporating insulation in the wall thickness but by using a thicker Thermalite insulating leaf to the wall. Our previous house had this; a 100mm brick external wall ,50mm uninsulated cavity and 150 Thermalite on the inner skin. Achieves the same "U" value but negates any moisture transfer through the filling
This was up to 5 years ago, different now .

Furts

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

Their is one other possibility. The builders might have achieved the necessary "U" value of the walls by not incorporating insulation in the wall thickness but by using a thicker Thermalite insulating leaf to the wall. Our previous house had this; a 100mm brick external wall ,50mm uninsulated cavity and 150 Thermalite on the inner skin. Achieves the same "U" value but negates any moisture transfer through the filling
This was up to 5 years ago, different now .

But OP says there is a Rockwool Guarantee on the property... but the Rockwool is missing.

No new home should have drilled and pumped cavity insulation - it is an almost certain con trick. The concept was conceived for existing homes where it is not possible to build in Celotex, or Kingspan, or increase the thickness of the inner leaf.

anotherbaldrick

Furts wrote: »

But OP says there is a Rockwool Guarantee on the property... but the Rockwool is missing.

No new home should have drilled and pumped cavity insulation - it is an almost certain con trick. The concept was conceived for existing homes where it is not possible to build in Celotex, or Kingspan, or increase the thickness of the inner leaf.

Ours was a new house and it was built 10 years ago as described in my post no wall fill insulation but conforming to Building reg requirements with correct "U" values..
To totally omit the insulation if required would need more than a bad day on behalf of a builder. the Rockwool is installed using bats of the material which is built into the wall as construction progresses , the builder would have had to have had a bad 5 weeks.

The anomaly in having insulation could well be due to the spec being changed but the owner being issued an earlier generic specification . The sort of things builders/developers do. Rockwool will have no direct input into the construction of the house, they sell a product (Insulation) and give a guarantee on it's performance when used as instructions . They would not know if their product went into a specific property or not.

Leif

If the house details state that insulation is present, and it isn't, then surely that is fraud, or misrepresentation, rather than a fault, and you can take legal action against the seller. Had the insulation failed, then that would have been a warranty issue. They charged you for something they did not supply. I'd take legal advice, maybe speak to the consumer advice people, they are quite good and free. I would have thought the 5 year gap would not matter, it is hard to check that insulation is present, and few people if any actually do check.