Negotiate New Build Extras with Persimmon after completing reservation form.

ncldaniel

Hello
Myself and my partner are in the process of hopefully purchasing our first home, with a  help to buy loan for 25% and us putting down a 5% deposit of the value of the house as a deposit. Last weekend we visited the developer and reserved a plot, and this is where I think we have made our first mistake. I initially asked the sales rep about flooring during the chat about reversing and she brushed it off saying we can talk about it at a later time, added some extras to sweeten the deal such as turf, upgraded kitchen units, upgraded tiles and a £5000 deposit gift, we were happy at the time and signed. 
I now realise flooring is not included, neither are integrated appliances, and we need these far more than the £5000 deposit gift or the other extras given at the time we signed the reservation form. We don't have the money to pay for flooring and appliances from them as it will total around 7k at least. We know we can get them ourselves but this is still going to cost at least 3 - 4k and our budget is incredibly tight with the other expenses we have to pay.
So my question is, we are due back in this weekend to discuss extras, do we stand a chance at this point of renegotiating the extras included, to include flooring and appliances, we would happily give up other extras in exchange, or will they generally flat out refuse as we did not reserve them? 
We only paid £100 to reserve the house, so would not have too much of an issue pulling out, and we are paying full price for the house, with a move in date scheduled for June, so I hope this puts us in a good position for negotiating but again I am not certain.
Could anyone offer any advice? Thanks  

Decepcionada19

Please take the time to read the reviews of Persimmon on Trustpilot. There are negative and positive reviews so you will get an overall view of this company. Also, read through the thread on this board, "Poor brickwork - do I have a case? (Persimmon)" started by Clarkey01 ( it's on Page 2 at the moment). Also recommend you watch the video link to YouTube. 

ncldaniel

Decepcionada19 said:

Please take the time to read the reviews of Persimmon on Trustpilot. There are negative and positive reviews so you will get an overall view of this company. Also, read through the thread on this board, "Poor brickwork - do I have a case? (Persimmon)" started by Clarkey01 ( it's on Page 2 at the moment). Also recommend you watch the video link to YouTube. 

Thank you for the reply, we have looked into it and based on their location in proximity to where we work, they are the only option other than renting. We know others who live on the site who have had minimal issues so are happy (as happy as can be anyway...) with them.

tom9980

If you absolutely must buy a new build please get someone to professionally snag the property.

ncldaniel

tom9980 said:

If you absolutely must buy a new build please get someone to professionally snag the property.

Thank you, we 100% will be doing this based on the horror stories others have told. 

[Deleted User]

I second the question to purchase from these builders. The reviews are horrific. You are already experiencing “issues” over extras already and describe less than open and frank discussions with the sales agent. It can only get worse. 

Viki2410

To be honest I think you will struggle now to negotiate, but it depends where they are with selling on the estate. We negotiated when we reserved and got quite a chunk thrown in as they wanted the sale. We did use our own flooring company though and had the whole house done for approx £1,500. It was cheaper, nicer and actually better quality than the Persimmon counterparts. I would definitely ask, but be prepared for a no.
 We bought Persimmon and have had some issues, but we paid for a professional snagger and had them resolve the major issues before we completed. We were able to do our walk round a week before we were due to complete, we brought our snagger with us then. We didn't warn them we were doing that so they could have turned us away but they didn't and just left us to it with the snagger there. We still have a couple of issues left outstanding but I would say we have been lucky in regards to what other people have been through with them as structurally we are sound and all the electrics etc are safe. Our main issue was with our garden (water logged, dead turf etc) and I escalated to the MD of our area and ended up having land drains put in, our own contractor to come and lay turf (that they paid for) and £500 back, so it can be done. 

bucksbloke

It won't hurt asking - ask them straightaway. They might let you completely change. They might let you swap the £5000 gifted deposit for the same amount of flooring and appliances. However, I think they will want to keep the costs of the extras the same as what they were before. 

The benefit of getting the house builder to do flooring and appliances is that they have a two year warranty. You won't get that with a regular tradesperson.