New Build House, What Should We Expect Not To Be Finished On Completion?

mew

We get the keys to our new house on Thursday, the same day we actually get to see inside also. Even though it has taken the developer over 6 months to build a block of houses and is 2 weeks late, we expect that a lot of exterior work will not be completed and can only hope that inside hasn't been rushed.


What should we expect to be completed when we finalise (legal completion) on Thursday should everything inside be done, and what about the outside?


We went yesterday to look at our part of the estate and the road was not tarmacked, our parking spaces were not tarmacked, 'the rubble road' had a sharp piece of something sticking out of it. The kerb directly outside our house was poorly installed, one kerb was loose and dangerous. On our actual plot, the planting left something to be desired and the back garden was not turfed, even though we paid extra for it to be.


What really is going to annoy us is that we are going to get our first annual bill for maintenance of the estate when we move in .

PasturesNew

The whole of the house, inside and out, and garden should be finished. Your turfing should be complete if you've paid for that. Planting being to the standard you expected is a variable, depends on what you expected/what you got. If on your deeds, the parking should be tarmacced.

Outside/the street/pavement/kerbs is a different matter and so you can expect it to be no different to when you last saw it ... and it might stay like that for months.

Gordon_Hose

We moved into a new build in 2009 (we've since moved out), but everything was complete bar the roads being tarmacked. They will leave that until last if there are still houses being built and works vehicles need to use the roads. Where we were there were still empty shells for houses as we were one of the first in our block to move in. The roads were bad for months, until they'd finished the other dwellings.

scottishblondie

I would expect everything that is part of your property to be finished, including the turf laid in the garden. Communal areas such as roads, pavements, green space etc. I would not expect to be completed until the development is totally finished. The roads in my development were finished about 9 months after I moved in. The open green area in front of my house is still not finished, and I moved into my house in December of 2012. However, the roads that are open for use should be safe, so if there is something there that is posing a risk to vehicles I would point it out to them now!

littlesparkles

My drive was not tarmacked for ages after I moved it but it was useable. Pavements and roads not complete yet (moved in 18 months ago). Inside was completely done with some minor snagging issues. Garden was turfed.

To be honest this was all to be expected!

marlot

mew wrote: »

We get the keys to our new house on Thursday...

Many builders have their year end at the end of June, and there can be pressure on site managers to get everything done on time.

I would pay extra care during the snagging!

mew

Thanks for the above replies, after a (Thur-Sun) long weekend things went from bad to worse.

While the outside was a little better than expected, inside was a mess and only got worse.

Outside, the road is not finished and as people have mentioned, the road will not be finished until the next block is but our drive is tarmacked, the sharp object has been removed and they are already looking into the questionable planting (Ivy on canes?). Upon mentioning the dangerous kerbstone, it was immediately fixed.

The garden isn't turfed but I accept and appreciate their reasoning of they will do it for us once we are in the house and are able to look after it. The installed shed looks horridness, the are holes in it, the door doesn't shut correctly and it feels like you are going to fall through the floor when inside. The developer just says that's how it was when it arrived and was installed by a third party.

The biggest problem was inside the house. We were informed on completion day (Thursday) that the carpet fitters had not turned up and as such no carpets were installed. During home demo we toured the filthy and carpet less house and made mental notes of poor painting/finishing before making a comprehensive list with photos that evening.

When we returned on Saturday, the carpet fitter had been, and oh could you tell they have been. The house was even filthier than before, the heating was on even though we had been advised not to have it on and there was damage to every wall and skirting board in the house. To top it off they had put the wrong lino in the downstairs cloak, poorly fitted the kitchen and bathroom lino. We are still trying to find out if the carpet fitted throughout the house was in fact the correct carpet.

On Sunday the sales advisor visited and took a two aa4 pages of snags, one for the builders/painter and one for the carpet fitters.

Darola

Hi. Now you have been in a while how did it go? Was everything resolved and did you have much of a battle with the developers?

Thanks

csgohan4

who was the developer?