Misled purchasing a new build home. Help please!

PersianCatLady

I have just read your OP again.

You have internet, just not super fast internet, I consider you very lucky to have it at all.

Wassa123

Also as a new build owner ~13 years old, our broadband is "ok".

We get up to 38Mbs with an average of 25Mbs. The companies are happy to sell us faster speeds, but still with an average of 25Mbs.

Only now are they digging up the pavement putting new cables in causing a right mess!

teddysmum

My son had to wait for 4 years to get fibre on his new build site,but that's well ahead of us (about 3 miles away) as we have been promised it for years, yet are constantly put further back in the queue.


Our exchange has been enabled for a few years and now it seems that every area around our 40-50 year old estate has fibre, but we are still with ADSL or Virgin. Areas well served include all the council estates and main road residences on all sides but with provision stopping at the entrances to the estate, so time you've been waiting seems irrelevant.

Ozzuk

teddysmum wrote: »

My son had to wait for 4 years to get fibre on his new build site,but that's well ahead of us (about 3 miles away) as we have been promised it for years, yet are constantly put further back in the queue.


Our exchange has been enabled for a few years and now it seems that every area around our 40-50 year old estate has fibre, but we are still with ADSL or Virgin. Areas well served include all the council estates and main road residences on all sides but with provision stopping at the entrances to the estate, so time you've been waiting seems irrelevant.

Off topic but I seem to recall sky and virgin both saying the timetable was often down to the number of people enquiring/registering for fibre.

PersianCatLady

Wassa123 wrote: »

Also as a new build owner ~13 years old, our broadband is "ok".

We get up to 38Mbs with an average of 25Mbs. The companies are happy to sell us faster speeds, but still with an average of 25Mbs.

Only now are they digging up the pavement putting new cables in causing a right mess!

I am so jealous.

I think the most we have ever had is 5Mbps.

Murphybear

Wassa123 wrote: »

Park your car next to the sales office with a banner in the window saying they lied to the first round of purchasers and not to buy from them.

I'm sure that'll get them moving pretty sharpish!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I'm sure you would have lots of supporters

Murphybear

Wassa123 wrote: »

Also as a new build owner ~13 years old, our broadband is "ok".

We get up to 38Mbs with an average of 25Mbs. The companies are happy to sell us faster speeds, but still with an average of 25Mbs.

Only now are they digging up the pavement putting new cables in causing a right mess!

I'm sure a lot of people in here would consider that a lot more than OK;)

marlot

IllustriousMuz wrote: »

...I have since given them close to £2000 in reservation fees and extra fees for upgraded carpets, flooring etc. I have paid my mortgage arrangement fees and the fees for the searches etc. I was called last week to say that my move in date would be the 22nd and exchange was taking place this week...

What does your solicitor say?

Have you checked local 4G provision?

IllustriousMuz

Apologies for the late reply, I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon talking with a senior customer services manager at the development and then had to spend some time doing a little more research on what I was told. To address the points raised:

TBagpuss wrote: »

Do you have anything in writing either from you making it clear that fast broadband was of fundamental importance, or from them stating that it was available?

If not, then I suspect that your chances are slim-to-none, but you would need to take legal advice from someone with experience of Misrepresentation Act litigation to give you a better idea.

No nothing writing since they've been very careful to not put it down. When my wife and I first went to see the show home, I asked the rep what the broadband situation was like, explaining to her the importance of it for my work. The house is in a rural area and I know that some places out in the sticks suffer with their internet. To be clear, I didn't ask about Fibre at the time, just what the broadband situation was; I could easily get away with ADSL2+ at a decent speed. I believe this is a fair question to ask at the sales room. The sales rep told me there were no issues with connectivity at the development and no problems they were aware of. On the way out of the development there is a cabinet at another housing development that is around 10 years old and the cabinet at the end of their road has a big Openreach sticker on the front declaring Fibre is here! This cabinet is around 800 yards from the development.

I attempted to order Fibre because I had seen that poster. It was BT who informed me that the development wasn't enabled for Fibre and who proceeded to inform me that I would only get around 1.5Mbps broadband.

I have discovered a residents action group who been complaining to the developer about their broadband for 2 years. They are lucky to get 1Mbps and they constantly drop their connections. The gentleman running the group has spent a considerable amount of time to get the bottom of the issue and apparently the reason for the poor speeds is down to the contention on the cabinet. It is woefully inadequate to meet the needs of nearly 240 properties on the development and that the developer could have had a better cabinet installed but opted for a cheaper option. The exchange was actually fibre ready when the development started so other than trying to save a few quid we can't understand why the cabinet is so poor.

In terms of misrepresentation, I would argue that it would fall to the balance of probability. Would it be unreasonable to believe that a software developer, who primarily works from home, would not check what the developments connectivity situation was? Bear in mind that the developers have clearly known for at ltwo years the issues that current residents are having? Hopefully I'll not have to get this as far as court but I will go down that route if the developers continue playing hardball.

davidmcn wrote: »

Surely it would be cheaper and more productive for you all to chip in then, rather than pursue probably fruitless legal action against the developer?

People are happy to chip in, however if the residents do it, the update will fall under the purview of the Openreach Community Fibre Program. That's a partially funded program and as such we'd go to the back of the queue for the upgrade. It'd be at best 12 months before work started. However, Openreach have also advised the residents group that since the land still technically belongs to the developer there'd be issues on that front too;It only comes under public ownership once the development is complete meaning that should there be any delays to the development the installation of the cabinet would be delayed. Openreach have stated that if the developer were to engage them directly they could arrange the upgrade in a matter of months. The residents have even offered to pay the developer the costs of the upgrade for them to arrange and they still flat refuse to do it.

AdrianC wrote: »

So you checked with Openreach, and were told there was no fibre. The house salesmuppet said "Pah, what do they know?", on the back of which you went ahead anyway, then you were surprised when Openreach - the only people who can tell you authoritatively - said "We told you so"?

Newbuilds quite often don't have full infrastructure from day 1, especially when other parts of the site are still under development.

So what's the 4G score? You did check that yourself, right?

It's actually not uncommon for new builds to not register on the checker despite having FTTC enabled. I've been looking at another new build house that registers as not having fibre but that's actually down to the house not having a phone line in! I've learned this the hard way. If you run the checker, it asks for the house number. If you're not yet moved in, pick a house on the same road that has had a resident, (and a phone line), for a while and you'll get an accurate reading.

4G up there is good but I need a public IP - I use VPN access for a lot of my work, especially if I'm working for a governmental department or body, and a public IP is essential. All 4G home broadband solutions use a carrier grade NAT and a private IP which means VPN is out of the question. I could use it for streaming movies etc but my real concern is work. I have spoken to Vodafone and I could get a 4G Public IP sim but for the GB allowance I'd need I'm looking at £240 + vat per month. And I'd have to buy a 4G Sim router that would cost around £200

hazyjo wrote: »

If they're still selling houses on site, get someone to go in and feign interest - ask about the fibre broadband and get it in writing. Might help...

I'm fortunate in that a friend of mine has also expressed interest in the development after we showed him it. He's on the waiting list to get a reservation on a house yet to be built. He's in a similar kind of role to me and he's going to ask about it for us to see if we can get them to commit. However, after the last few days we've spent moaning about it they might suspect something fishy.

PersianCatLady wrote: »

I have just read your OP again.
You have internet, just not super fast internet, I consider you very lucky to have it at all.

A big issue is contention on the cabinet. It's over-subscribed. It's why the current residents have been complaining for years. They plan to build 200+ houses and install a cabinet that can't handle it. If the cabinet was capable of meeting the demand we could get ADSL2+ no problem. I'd be happy at that.

Wassa123 wrote: »

We get up to 38Mbs with an average of 25Mbs. The companies are happy to sell us faster speeds, but still with an average of 25Mbs.!

I'd be over the moon at that. I'd be able to work. 1.5Mbps just won't cut it. Especially if it's flakey and keeps dropping out too!.

marlot wrote: »

What does your solicitor say?

Another lesson learned. The conveyancing solicitor is one recommended by the developer! They couldn't care less. In fact, when we contacted them Monday they simply said that they we should just pull out and take a loss!! So yeah, never take the developers recommended conveyancing service!

teddysmum

PersianCatLady wrote: »

I am so jealous.

I think the most we have ever had is 5Mbps.

Same here,but we used to get 6 with Sky (No fibre, yet).


However, you are probably not comparing like with like (you have ADSL and the poster has fibre). We could go faster with Virgin, but they are relatively expensive.