Buying a new build house

lauzt1987

Hi there. We are thinking about buying a new build Barratt home and I just wanted to ask if anyone has done this and what comes as standard, as I am finding it difficult to find out this information online. It would be great if you could share your experiences (although I am aware that this may vary from development to development.)

Thanks!

northerneng

I am planning on buying with Persimmon and on speaking with the sales person on site it appears that every development will be different (the sales rep will choose items/finishes to reflect the development/area/popular products/personal preference/cost/etc).
The best option is to go to / call the sales office and speak with the team there, they will be able to tell you exactly.

titchy_sam

I have recently bought a new house from Morris Homes and we were fairly fortunate in what was included as standard. It varies from developer to developer, and from site to site. The only real way of knowing is to ask your sales person, but they're unlikely to be upfront. When we asked ours, she cleverly pointed out all the things that were included as standard and never actually highlighted what counted as 'upgrades'. So it wasn't until we actually moved in that we realised how many things weren't included.

I would also heavily suggest doing some background checks on reviews of various developers. I have heard horror stories about Persimmon and would be fairly guarded about investing my money in their houses. A couple of friends have recently bought with Persimmon and the quality of the finish on the houses it quite disappointing. There tends to be an excessive amount of 'settling' which leads to cracks, plaster board pins coming out and warping door frames. And they seem really reluctant to fix them too, suggesting to one of my friends that they 'hold on as long as they can because they'll only come in once to touch things up'. So she now has a brand new house with all these faults and her developer is being incredibly tight about correcting them.

1uk3y

When i bought my Morris Homes house I made sure I looked in some of the homes that were under construction. This was down to the helpfulness of the sales advisor really, she wanted us to see first hand what the different housetypes looked like but It also gave me an opportunity to look at the workmanship. I come from a family of tradespeople so I do know what to look out for.
I also did this at a Barratt site and was shocked at the finish of the houses!! The showhomes are always fully dressed, maintained with cracks filled, fitted wardrobes and top kitchens and walls often wallpapered so its very difficult to judge from a show home. I looked in some empty homes with no flooring and it wasn't nice - poorly painted walls, lots of cracks, misaligned skirtings, gaps in windows etc.
As for Morris Homes - we had some issues but they fixed them quickly. 6 months on we are just suffering with shrinkage!!

LogisticsGuy

Haggle haggle haggle!


My first purchase was a new build, try to get them to throw in as much as possible - "upgraded" kitchen, shower etc...wonders what being a little bit persuasive can do, although I felt like a winner I doubt their margin was much affected.


It'd be worth checking if there's any sort of conditional repair within the first 'x' amount of months / years of being there. I purchased with Ben Bailey and they repaired (basically) anything FOC for the first 2 years - from as little as a toilet seat problem, to a front door seal issue.

HPowell

Hi there, I was also looking to buy a new home but one of my friend suggested me to get a brand new custom build home in the form of granny flats. The good news is that you only need about $10,000 – $15,000 deposit compared to around $100,000 for a deposit on a used home.

randomgirl22

I had a Barratt home (new build) before my current Morris one - the Barratt one was so much better than this one. Even though the Morris comes with more things 'as standard' than the Barratt one did, the quality of the Morris one and the number of problems means that the Morris one is not worth it at all. Barratt were so much better than what we are currently having to put up with:


DO NOT BUY A MORRIS HOME EVER!

We spent all of our savings on a new-build Morris home and it is one of our biggest regrets ever! The build quality is appalling, the customer service (once you've handed your money over) is non-existent and trying to get repairs/fixes/snags done is impossible.

I'm kicking myself because I read all of the reviews on here about how poor they are and I thought: "It won't happen to us." How wrong was I?! I really wish that I had listened to the reviews and taken my money elsewhere.

DO NOT BUY A MORRIS HOME EVER!

We moved in over 4 months ago to an uncompleted house (we were moving our belongings in as builders were still doing stuff). For the whole time, we've had an incomplete garage, back door that doesn't open, a terrible health-hazard garden, a downstairs loo that wasn't plumbed in resulting in a leak everywhere (that they left us with for 4 months despite me letting them know straight away), a drive that is so poor it has damaged our car twice and our neighbours' car too (the neighbours' car was so badly damaged they had to GET A COMPLETELY NEW CAR AS IT WAS CHEAPER THAN THE REPAIRS), the kitchen is still unfinished even now. I could go on and on and on...

DO NOT BUY A MORRIS HOME EVER!

They sent someone to fix the kitchen this week, he wasn't given the right parts so he just left - we still have a kitchen that isn't finished.
So many times we have been told that they are coming to fix stuff and they don't turn up. Head office and the on-site team ignore my phone calls - I rang from my phone and gave my name and all of the people that I needed to speak to were 'out of the office', I rang from my friend's phone using her name (a minute later) and the people were available right away! How surprising (!)

DO NOT BUY A MORRIS HOME EVER!

We've had to have a total of 10 days off work between us (basically all of my husband's holiday) and things are still unfinished. It is such a waste of our time - we haven't been able to go away on holiday or anything due to all of this.

DO NOT BUY A MORRIS HOME EVER!

Furthermore, the on-site team told Head Office that we didn't have a snag list as the house was fine - this was a massive lie as we had submitted a 3 page snag list but the on-site team were lying through their teeth about this. Luckily, I had a signed and dated copy so I am currently disputing this with them.

DO NOT BUY A MORRIS HOME EVER!

They are awful, awful builders and the customer service is the worst I have ever experienced EVER! (I had a Barratt new build before this and it was a million times better).

Please, please listen to these reviews - I so, so, so, so wish that I had because if I had I would not be in the position that I am now.

DO NOT BUY A MORRIS HOME EVER!!!!!!!