Issues buying new build

stuart45

It's quite common nowadays for a double DPC when the lower DPC tray is at ground level because of wheelchair access.

claire16c

It doesn’t surprise me that your builder friend is new build adverse. I’ve spoken to plenty of plumbers, electricians etc who have all turned down work on them because morally they couldn’t do what was asked and weren’t prepared to have their name against the shoddy work. If you want to save yourself stress I’d stay well away. Get an older house and a proper survey done. The photo also doesn’t give much confidence there is clearly  an issue there. You’ve not even bought it and it’s creating worries. 

Postik

To be fair the green, damp looking bricks do seem to below the DPC, i.e. 2 bricks up.  The efflorescence looks pretty bad though and I think as someone else pointed out, that car port thingy (or whatever it is) doesn't seem to be helping as it's perhaps channeling water down the wall and also shading the wall from the sun

stevoh

So I had a surveyor around today. We didn’t even get to do the full survey in the end as he pointed out major flaws with the house straight away and basically took me to one side and said it’s a complete shambles don’t buy it and no need to pay him for further work.

As we were walking out the estate he was pointing out shoddy work manship across the place- brickwork re done in different styles/ colours etc.

The developer is David Wilson Homes “where quality lives” lol 

Postik

Sounds like you had a lucky escape.  Bonus that you didn't have to pay for the survey.  I'm the second owner of a David Wilson house which overall I am really happy with.  I had a survey done which only flagged up a couple of minor things.  However since moving in December last year I must have found 20 snags so far that weren't rectified by the original owners, and I seem to find a new one every week (although I do go looking for them!)

Fortunately in my case most of them are very minor.  One of the worst was leaking guttering and we discovered that one of the downpipes wasn't even connected up.  Someone had started to cut a hole in it, presumabely on a Friday afternoon, and then decided they couldn't be bothered to finish it and perhaps went down the pub instead.  My gutter repair man discovered this and finished cutting the required hole but I was £60 lighter at the end of it, but at least now the gutter has stopped leaking.

Like the vast majority of marketing, their "Where quality lives" is complete bull ****.

stevoh

Postik said:

Sounds like you had a lucky escape.  Bonus that you didn't have to pay for the survey.  I'm the second owner of a David Wilson house which overall I am really happy with.  I had a survey done which only flagged up a couple of minor things.  However since moving in December last year I must have found 20 snags so far that weren't rectified by the original owners, and I seem to find a new one every week (although I do go looking for them!)

Fortunately in my case most of them are very minor.  One of the worst was leaking guttering and we discovered that one of the downpipes wasn't even connected up.  Someone had started to cut a hole in it, presumabely on a Friday afternoon, and then decided they couldn't be bothered to finish it and perhaps went down the pub instead.  My gutter repair man discovered this and finished cutting the required hole but I was £60 lighter at the end of it, but at least now the gutter has stopped leaking.

Like the vast majority of marketing, their "Where quality lives" is complete bull ****.

Yeah apart from the major issues, they hadn’t even attempted to hide shoddy workmanship. They’d left masking tape around the outside of windows and just put sealant over it, with the tape sticking out, there were air filters that just weren’t aligned up, so completely useless, kitchen cupboards completely misfitting . 

The damp on the wall was caused by the balcony which was clearly a major design fault on design I assume they’re rolling out all over the country. Drain covers in the street weren’t even in alignment with the holes, paving was already starting to deteriorate. I feel sorry for the single lady next door. They’d bullied her in to accelerating her move date to hit their own deadlines and when she turned up her house was still a building site. When she asked the site manager for help he told her it was Friday and he was going home and not interested in having that conversation. The poor lady had just trusted them and hadn’t even done a snagging survey.

All in all, it’s disgusting that these people can get away with charging a premium price for such a shoddy product. I told the site manager that he should be ashamed of himself. 

ComicGeek

Not all new build sites are like that though. I work with some smaller local developers and their foremen are really experienced and go out of their way to help, still have personal pride in the finished result. It's amazing how wrong it goes when the site manager/foreman isn't good - managing all the trades and customers on a building site is like shepherding cats, it takes a lot of experience, knowledge, skill and patience!

Does make me worry about future quality though, as there are much fewer people coming through to replace the experienced site managers who are now retiring - that's as everything is becoming more complicated as well.

stevoh

ComicGeek said:

Not all new build sites are like that though. I work with some smaller local developers and their foremen are really experienced and go out of their way to help, still have personal pride in the finished result. It's amazing how wrong it goes when the site manager/foreman isn't good - managing all the trades and customers on a building site is like shepherding cats, it takes a lot of experience, knowledge, skill and patience!

Does make me worry about future quality though, as there are much fewer people coming through to replace the experienced site managers who are now retiring - that's as everything is becoming more complicated as 

Yeah I’m sure there are good local developers. 

I think it’s the state of regulations in this country too. We seem to have swallowed the Neo liberal BS that all regulation is bad. When someone buys a house they likely invest all of their wealth in it. This is the kind of thing that could destroy a families lives. It should be a given that if you buy a new build of a reputable organisation it should be well built and fit for purpose. The house I was looking at was priced at the premium end of the market in the area.

MultiFuelBurner

I do hope you will be reporting them to the relevant ombudsman.

stevoh

MultiFuelBurner said:

I do hope you will be reporting them to the relevant ombudsman.

How do you do that. To be honest I half can’t be bothered with the hassle but am half fuming as what they’ve done to the other owners either side, who are lovely decent people. 

I know the last person who dropped out of the sale had a survey done, but they refused to tell me if it flagged any issues. They obviously knew.