New home due for completion this week..

FTBKent

Hi all,

Firs time posting on MSE and first time buyer of a new build home. I wont mention the developer at present but I have some concerns and worries I was hoping someone might be able to advise me on..

Myself and my fiancee have bought our first house in Kent from a well known housing developer. we exchanged contracts back in September and it was just a waiting game until the house is built.

My worries started last week when my solicitor contacts me saying that the developer has not given the correct amount of notice of completion to them (2 weeks) as they have not received sign off from the NHBC. The developer asked if we would sign a supplement agreeing to still complete this upcoming Friday (19th of December) if the house gets signed off. After being told that the risk to us was minimal and that the developer was sticking their necks out with this suggestion.

I was in the area on the weekend and I decided to stop off at the house and have a look, there were painters in the home at the time and they let me in to walk around and measure up for tables, flooring etc.. When walking around, I came across some shocking snags which I will not be happy with if they are still there this coming Friday.. An example
- Excessive use of silicon sealant to cover gaps between window frames, gaps between skirting and flooring and clumps of silicon in corners
- Panels of internal doors with holes where a shoe has gone through or its been banged with something.
- Paint over switches, thermostats and heavy over painting on the door frames.
- Stairs not joining up to the landing properly (1-2cm gaps between the stairs ending and landing beginning)
- One of the bedrooms is not square, if you look down the wall the wall goes off on a tangent, this results in the skirting boarding not lining up correctly and what looks like a cover up with builders cork to try and hide it..

Obviously with less than a week left until completion (The kitchen is still not complete). I cant exactly see this being ready by Friday, and quite frankly it makes me worry about the rest of the build quality of the things I cant see or know about

Can anybody advise me on what best to do? Obviously I want to tell the developer what I found, but I feel I should contact my solicitor with my concerns..

To me, I get a the feeling they are trying to rush the work in time before Christmas. Luckily I have my current flat until the end of Jan/mid Feb so i'm not without somewhere to live..

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!I have some photos of the snags I have which I can post if you want to see them..

Thanks

Chris

jbainbridge

1. Talk to your solicitor about your concerns.
2. Consider employing someone to do the snagging for you.

windriders

I’m assuming that the house developers end of year will be December? So they will want to get as many houses completed before or on Friday.

If you can delay it until the New Year, I definitely would try this. Developers will rush houses during December to get them finished for the year end and corners will be cut. I live on a new build estate and my neighbours had terrible problems when they completed in December. You also have to think that snags & issues won’t be fixed until the New Year when people are back on site which can be very frustrating.

Good luck and let us know how you get on

fishpond

Go on holiday until the new year.

jonathanrolande

Hi Chris,

I would let your solicitor know and advise the builder too to find out what they intend to do about this sorry state of affairs.

BJV

As above, talk to your solicitor and do not sign / move until you are happy. It is a lot easier to get people to do things before they have all your money than it is after.


You are in no rush so enjoy Christmas and do not sign!

FTBKent

Hi guys, thanks for your support and advice.

So Friday came and it turns out we had to complete otherwise we would be in breach of our contract..

We got to the house and needless to say, the snags I previously found were still there.. they tried to cover up the broken door but it was blatent that they had filled and painted over the hole. The site manager re-assured me that a new door has been ordered and will be replaced.

The biggest mistake of the whole build is that the kitchen worktops that we had paid for had been fitted to a neighbours kitchen and they had our work surface.. so the walk around didnt start well... we have to wait until the new year now for the granite supplier/fitter to come and change the work tops.. its not as simple as simple swapping them as they used specific templates to measure the units etc.. The developer did say that they would compensate us by providing us with a free upgrade (we chose a brand new washing machine, as did the other neighbours).

There are a few minor snags, and some really poor missed areas in painting, doors not shutting/locking properly (toilet doors), spot lights not clipped in the ceiling correctly and wardrobes missing rails. but i'm guessing this is all snagging and they will resolve these... i'm not sure how to categorise the snags if they are classed as minor or serious.

Can anyone advise what the best way to get the developer to sort these snags out is? I see other posts mentioning 6months - 1 year to get the things resolved.. If this is what they are going to try, I would like to nip it in the butt first thing in the new year..

Any recommendations/suggestions?

chanz4

they have your money, they will drag it out trust me barratts do for sure

Hoploz

Try and keep pestering them while they are still on-site completing other houses. If they leave it's much harder to get them back

MissBx

We bought a new build and moved in mid november, just keep on at the site manager to get jobs done. I know if we hadn't even before we moved in the jobs wouldn't have been done but because we did our snagging list that we had done before we moved in was completed before we moved in, we have noticed a few things appear since we moved in but all of those were sorted within a couple of days of informing the site manager.

FTBKent

Ive been onsite every day (luckily my job allows me to work from home) so I am pestering every time I see him.

He told me to stick post it notes on everything we dont like/think is a snag and he will send someone to come and do the work.. (Ive run out of post it notes already..)

Lets see what happens!