Persimmon Homes!! - Please Read, need advice.

Leej024

Hello,

This is my first time posting on here but really need a bit of help to see where we stand with whats happened and what my rights are.

I have reserved a house with Persimmon homes almost a month ago. We have paid a £500 reservation fee for the house and agreed a purchase price of £212,995 for a 3 story town house using the help to buy sheme with my Girlfriend (we are first time buyers). First of all, when we went to reserve the house we negotiation a couple of free extras on the price (getting hard flooring in wet rooms instead of carpet). We were then told that we HAVE to use their solicitors and mortgage advisors to get these special offers. I wasn't too happy about this but decided to go ahead anyway because as long as they were a reputable company I dont mind too much. But still, this is the first moment I was a little unhappy with how they force you to use their contacts - I feel that because they are obviously paying Persimmon commission they are more than likely going to see Persimmon as the 'customer' if anything was to go wrong, and everything would be in 'their' interest rather than ours.

Anyway, moving on. We had their mortgage advisor come and see us a couple of days later and actually went quite smoothly. We then provided them with all information necessary for mortgage application. Almost 3 weeks later we hadn't heard anything so thought we'd phone up. Turns out they had cocked up, they said they had forgot to file the mortgage application so we were then 4-5 days out from our 28 day exchange date and they are only just filing our mortgage application.

The problems then really started yesterday (Friday). When we signed the house the spec was that the house comes with an unvented hot water system that we were very happy about as it provides a lot of pressure and reliable heating system (so I'm told). I was then called yesterday to say that the house is now not going to have an unvented system and instead they are going to give us a combi boiler. I am really not happy about this, my dad is a heating engineer and he said we definately do not want a combi boiler in a 4 bed 3 story house. He said the water pressure is not as good, amongst many other benefits of unvented systems. Aside from this, he said the cost difference of a combi boiler is a LOT cheaper - therefore surely we should be given something in return. I had a huge fallout with then yesterday saying that it's like buying a car with a 2.5 litre engine and replacing it with a 2 litre, but not reducing the price or giving anything in return. I don't think this is fair after we have reserved the house and agreed a price for the house and spec that we agreed. What are my rights? Can they do this? I really don't see how its fair to change this after we've agreed a spec and signed a reservation!! How can they just say we're changing it and not give you any money back or anything in return?

When I mention complaining to a director of Persimmon the contact I have really seems unhappy with me doing this and wants me to route all complaints through her and she will then file it to who it needs to go to. I see this as them masking something and trying to get my complaint 'lost' in the system. What are my options?

Thanks a lot in advance, and sorry for the long post but I thought I'd give as much detail as possible.

Thanks again.

Lee

anselld

There is nothing wrong with a combi for a 4bed house these days. In the past they were not designed with adequate capacity, but modern ones are available with higher capacities. (provided they install an adequate one).

Both are mains pressure so no difference there.

Combi more efficient since no tank losses.

Combi less maintenance since no pressure tank to maintain.

Plus you will probably have extra cupboard space where the tank would otherwise have been.

Personally, given the choice I would prefer a Combi.

Leej024

Thanks for your comment, appreciate it

Any other advice/opinions anybody?

Oli.s

I live in a 4 year old, 3 story, 4 bed house, 3 bathrooms. 2 radiators in the lounge, bedrooms, dining room, kitchen. 1 in all the others.

All hot water and central heating runs off a combi with no problems at all.

Leej024

Also, do you know what capacity I should expect? And what does that capacity give me? I've requested information about the boiler to see what they've given us

kingstreet

Newbuild brokers and solicitors do not pay the builder for the business. The builder uses them to get the job done quickly and efficiently (usually).

I work for a newbuild broker and we have never once put the builder's interests ahead of our client's.