New Home - wrong tiles etc

hopscotch85

Hi,

Sorry if this is covered in another thread, I'm new to the site and can't find an answer to my question anywhere.

My fiance and I bought a brand new Persimmon home earlier this year. Our completion date is the 30/8/13, so with that in mind, we had our first site visit yesterday, now that our scaffolding has come down.

Everything looked great, and we're really excited. We did notice a few things that aren't what we expected, however.

1. In the bathroom, they have tiled the whole back of the bath, and put in plumbing for an over bath shower. We definitely (we've checked our paperwork) didn't order an over shower bath and it's tiling, because we couldn't justify the extra cost they wanted.

2. The tiles are the wrong colour. We ordered white, and they've installed the same style in grey.

3. They light switch in the bedroom is in a different place to the plans - meaning it will be difficult to put in wardrobes.

We thought about it and we'd be really pleased to accidently get a shower and we quite like the tiles, so we could live with the light switch rather than draw their attention to mistakes. We are concerned though that they might make mistakes with the flooring, etc.

What would our rights be, if they wanted to charge us for a shower after we move in? What would happen if we raised the issues - would it delay our build while they rip out the tiling?

We're first time buyers and don't really know what our best course of action would be.

Thanks for your help!

makeyourdaddyproud

Sounds like your problems are too minor to warrant the upheaval of retiling and subsequent delay moving in.

I could not imagine not having a shower: do you really need to bathe every wash? IMO, a shower is priceless addition and it will be worth it when you come to sell your property.

I think your grey tiles will be liveable, it's a useful neutrality to have when matching with colours?

Is the position of the light switch really a problem? Can you not relocate your wardrobe to another part of the room?

anselld

hopscotch85 wrote: »

we didn't order an over shower bath

... I would hope not :rotfl:

but seriously, you have presumably exchanged contracts; they cannot charge extra if they have exceeded the contracted specification without any instruction from you.

hopscotch85

Thanks for your replies.

Of course I meant over bath shower!!!!

You're right, we feel that the mistakes they've made so far are, if anything, beneficial. We wanted a shower over the bath, but we've already got another shower in the house, so decided we couldn't justify the fee. We, as I already said, quite like the tiles, and for the sake of the light switch, would be happy to not tell them anything's wrong.

We're more concerned that they'll make further mistakes - are they using the wrong person's file to build our house? Or that if we don't point out the mistakes now, we'll get stuck with some sort of bill...

ging84

anselld wrote: »

... I would hope not :rotfl:

but seriously, you have presumably exchanged contracts; they cannot charge extra if they have exceeded the contracted specification without any instruction from you.

I don't believe this is correct, extras can be added/changed at any point, anything after exchange won't be part of the contract of the house sale, so they would not be able to insist on being paid for them before completion, but they can bill for them separately.

Of course if they were not ordered any bill could be disputed

martinsurrey

ging84 wrote: »

I don't believe this is correct, extras can be added/changed at any point, anything after exchange won't be part of the contract of the house sale, so they would not be able to insist on being paid for them before completion, but they can bill for them separately.

Of course if they were not ordered any bill could be disputed

no they cant, you can only bill for a contracted amount, its similar to somone putting a statue on your lawn without your agreement and billing you.

They could however take them out and stick to the signed contract, which will include a specification, which they wont want to do as its just more work.

I would just keep quiet and see how it goes, if they mess anything up that really matters complain then, it'llb e too late for them to do anything about the upsides you've got (as long as you've exchanged).

ca55ie

A colleague of mine was very unhappy when the builder used the wrong tiles, put 1 piece of the order tile in upside down and put the wrong light fittings in. She gave them the option of fix everything or we walk. She argued that there the compensation offered wasn't sufficient to cover the hassle and mess of having everything corrected after they moved in.

Guess what I'm trying to say is how much do these things it matter to you? Is it worth digging your heels in? They will want to compromise too.
If you are worried about the flooring why not have a chat with the sales advisor to gently remind her of your choices?

Fingers crossed all goes well - its still a really exciting time for you