HELP .... Cracked foundations - Persimmon

[carolyn]

Bought our new build Persimmon home in June 2006.

Discovered the foundations had cracked in May 2008.

Persimmon employed independent Structural Engineer who confirmed foundatins had cracked due to the house being built on the wrong foundations. We should have been built on piled foundations due to the trees that had previously been in the ground prior to Persimmon purchasing the land. Structural Engineers recommended the house should be piled to 8-12 metres and the work should include the garage and conservatory which would take between 6-9 months.

Persimmon disagreed with the recommend and decided to omit piling the garage and insisted the work would only take 3 months. NHBC were contacted and weren't really interested as Persimmon had openly admitted liability as we were still in the two year build warranty. They did however write to Persimmon advising them that all works had to be carried out by Dec 2009.

We were concerned that the house wouldn't be fixed correctly and considered a buy out. Persimmon offered us a drive by valuation with a caviat that it would be a one time only offer and we would have to move out within 6 weeks. The offer was below what we had originally paid for the house, not including all of the improvements we had done including a 6K hot tub in the garden. Persimmon were being completely unreasonable; they were not prepared to fix our house as recommended and the buy out was leaving us financially worse off than when we initially bought it. We had bought our £275K in good faith and here we were with a house that wasn't fit for purpose.

Feeling completely let down by Persimmon and the lack of empathy or interest from NHBC we employed a Lawyer to ensure our house would be fixed correctly. 18 months later and we still are no further forward. Persimmon employed a loss adjustor and we have been trying to no avail to try and meet with them with our Lawyer. We have had an independent valuation of our house and that has shown that after all the stabilisation works are complete we are set to lose approx 50K blight. We want Persimmon to complete the stabilisation work and then we need to pursue our claim through our Lawyer to ensure we get the blight back and the increase in home insurance we will have to pay as a result of having stabilisation works carried out.

What a nightmare, can anybody please help and offer any advice.
I'm new to the site so hope I have posted this in the correct place.

[sazzy1]

Hi Carolyn,

I can honestly say we know exactly what you are going through, except our home is with Bryant homes (now Taylor Wimpey) and due to building developers planting a crab apple tree along the side of the house, it has caused subsidence, as you imagine we are distraught. There is also a querie with regards to the foundations.

The property is 5 years old so therefore still covered under the NHBC, who are dealing with the claim. However my concerns are that one minute they are suggesting it needs piling and could take 6 months and now they are saying "we dont need to pile, just underpin" which reduces the time to 2 months!. My concern is that now its going to become a "bodge job" lso the problems we face after with house insurance and trying to sell the property etc..
It has just all been so stressfull!!

So sorry to hear you are having the same experience!!

[nem39esis]

Contact your mortgage company, theyd have something to say about it, also consider contacting the NHBC again, they can be good, depends on who you speak with, write to head office i find normally gets the best results. If they have built the house incorrectly then they have a duty of care to put right the problem within reasonable space of time or buy the house back, they cant make you an offer, it should be at what you paid for it or market value, whichever is the greater. Sure your solicitors will sort it out, but iod get your lender on board as theyd be interested, after all if it collapses they have nothing too if they reposess for any reason.