Lovell Homes

Prayera

Hello everyone :j

I am a first time buyer, looking to buy a new built. But I have a few questions, hoping you can share your opinions/experiences with me.

I am looking at Lovell Homes in the Greater Manchester area, as the location of their development is ideal. What has been your experience with Lovell houses? (I am particularly interested in the quality in the long run - after a few years; but short-term/moving in info is also very useful)

I am also looking at other developers, as safe options: Barratt Homes and Bellway - any thoughts on those?

Thanks in advance! :beer:

Mickygg

I bought from lovell several years ago down south. A truly terrible experience.
The house was littered with snags and some pretty serious such as sink in wrong place so you had to wash up under a cupboard.
Most of my neighbours experienced similar problems.
Other problems included nails though the ceiling, tiles falling off, wonky sink, nearly all door frames replaced, rads replaced as chipped. I could go on and on.
They took an age to fix some of the problems and I sold the house several years later with some still not sorted. For 2 years it was a constant battle to get things fixed. I wrote to the head of lovell with all my points at one point but that got me no where.
I will never ever even look at a Lovell house again.

Victor_the_Gink

Why do people buy new builds? Genuine question. General consensus on here is that the quality is poor, and you have to pay a premium/house goes down in value as soon as you walk in the door. Is it simply for the government bung?

Prayera

Victor_the_Gink wrote: »

Why do people buy new builds? Genuine question. General consensus on here is that the quality is poor, and you have to pay a premium/house goes down in value as soon as you walk in the door. Is it simply for the government bung?

I am looking at things like insulation, pipes, energy efficiency, boilers.

But to be honest, I am looking at well founded arguments pro and con. I am a novice, so would welcome the advice of more experienced folks

Cakeguts

If it is a 2 bed property I would suggest that you buy a traditional terraced house instead. A 2 bed terrace will be cheaper and won't drop in value like a new 2 bed house will.

lee111s

Victor_the_Gink wrote: »

Why do people buy new builds? Genuine question. General consensus on here is that the quality is poor, and you have to pay a premium/house goes down in value as soon as you walk in the door. Is it simply for the government bung?

That's like saying why do people buy new cars, or new clothes, appliances etc, the list goes on.


Some are considerably better than others, and every home was a new home at one point.

For me personally, it meant a detatched home in the area was want (not many 30's-80's houses are detatched). No real maintenance worries for at least 2 years with the guarantee, and really it should be a lot longer if the house is built to a good standard, which thus far it appears to be.

Then you have the fact that it's modern, the layout is designed for modern living with a large kitchen/diner. It's efficient (3 storey, 4 bed detatched costing £80-90 per month for gas AND electricity in Winter, and that's with me working from home).

Prayera

lee111s wrote: »

That's like saying why do people buy new cars, or new clothes, appliances etc, the list goes on.


Some are considerably better than others, and every home was a new home at one point.

For me personally, it meant a detatched home in the area was want (not many 30's-80's houses are detatched). No real maintenance worries for at least 2 years with the guarantee, and really it should be a lot longer if the house is built to a good standard, which thus far it appears to be.

Then you have the fact that it's modern, the layout is designed for modern living with a large kitchen/diner. It's efficient (3 storey, 4 bed detatched costing £80-90 per month for gas AND electricity in Winter, and that's with me working from home).

what developer did you use, if you don't mind me asking? and how long ago did you buy your house?

Chanes

I really like new build houses but would avoid any that were leasehold and I would then check if there were estate charges.

A freehold new build with no or small estate charges sounds good to me!

Mickygg

OP looks like all people want to do is discuss new builds rather than try and help answer your questions.

Hopefully someone else with some experience of particular house builders will comment. I'm intrigued if others have had such a bad experience experience with Lovell like I have.

robatwork

The problem is that some Lovell homes will be great and others awful.

No house builder sets out to build crappy houses, but the major ones
1) build down to a price not up to a quality
2) have lots of sub contractors and sub sub contractors.

I find that as you get more "subs" the quality goes down.

There's no way you're going to know this unless you can talk to people already moved in to houses built nearly at the same time as yours (unlikely) or get surveys done as it's built - impractical. Just because one built 6 months ago is OK doesn't mean one built today will be - may be 30 different builders working on it.

I learnt all this the hard way buying a house from one of the builders on your list. And I won't do it again no matter how well lagged the pipes are.

Prayera

what is quite suspicious is that I looked online for reviews on Lovell, and I cannot find absolutely anything! I find dozens of reviews on Barratt Homes or Belway or Redrow, for example. I looked on google searched different Twitter hashtags, forums - nothing! How is that possible? I am hoping this thread would get more attention, to at least have some reviews on them online - good or bad.

I'm all about the truth hehe