The Academy - Crest Nicholson

[Chronicle]

As a recent buyer at The Academy, Kilburn, London (Crest Nicholson Development) there are a number of residents who are throughly dissapointed with some structural issues, the finish for what was meant to be a luxury development, as well as the after sales service from Crest.

Anyone who is considering buying is advised otherwise.

[not2happy]

Hi- recently moved into a crest Nicholson house- few months ago
But have had no end of problems. With each day comes a new problem and we are really regretting buying what we thought was an executive property.

Ridiculous sound proofing-which we can hear all the noise from the upstairs en suite
Into the lounge- including when people use the toilet. (Not so nice when entertaining guests in the lounge)

The house is not eco friendly at all- far from it
The gas fire lets in such a huge draft that actually freezes the carpet
Simply not normal-unless you keep the heating turned on the whole time as well as the
Fire to blow the cold draught back up the chimney I was told!! Very energy efficient!

Unhelpful customer care who says they are not willing to do anything about it
Kitchen doors are bent
Ceilings and walls bumpy
Outside wall yellowy giving the look of an older house.

These are just a few of the problems.

not happy at all and really regret buying the house- I only hope we can re sell it soon and recover our money which might be better spent on buying a plot of land or an older house and developing it using good material
Double glazing is the cheapest quality-
All in all they've used the cheapest material possible and minimum requirements just to pass the law and increase their profits, but have not done any better in terms of sound proofing etc to make the client feel they have bought an executive property and that the money is well spent.

Radiators too small in the rooms and yes a warm house if you want to run up your bills
By having the heating on high constantly. Been only a couple of months since we moved and huge cracks on the stairwells and ceiling. What have we done!! We really question our lack of knowledge on the building trade to identify the problems before buying.

Crest Nicholson is not all it seems and I would advise anyone considering buying to think it through thoroughly. Most of the neighbours are unhappy about issues and have all recognised the cheap materials used. I can’t seem to get very far with it as all I seem to keep hearing is 'we are not willing to do anything about it.'
If they are willing to repaint or fix the doors properly etc then it’s always a weekday
so if you're working 9-5 mon - thurs you have to take an awful lot of time off.

What i can't understand is how did the inspection before we moved in go ahead and not pick up on any of the points that we, who are not even builders noticed
Or were they just turning a blind eye?
Anyone else suffering the same?
my list could go on and on....

[donna]

I know exactly how you feel. I bought an Executive Crest home in 2005 and to this day I am still fighting to get my snagging list done. So far we have spent over £30k on legal costs and I am now getting extremely fed up with their attitude.
As for your floor problem, we had the same and believe me it gets worse. I have recently had some of the floor taken up and had it inspected by a good (but very expensive) surveyor and surprise surprise the floor does not meet building regs.
I have mushrooms growing on the carpet in my airing cupboard and we too have the problem with it being a very cold house.

[SteveF]

Hi Not Too Happy & Donna

Initially i would like to sympathise with your particular situation Donna as i have read the outcome of your CN case numerous times with interest. I know that this is a comment made through hindsight and obviously will be of little comfort however if it helps anyone else who is currently or who may in the future experience the same problems with builders not satisfying their obligations under the NHBC Warranty then it will have done its job.

My advice is simply this....if the builder is not dealing with his defects either correctly or in a timely manner then rather than continually debating the issue with them involve the NHBC! My reason for saying this is quite straight forward.
The NHBC have a contractual obligation to step in and rectify defects where the builder "fails" to meet his obligations for what ever reason. The only way to get to the position of the NHBC stepping in is to have followed the NHBC resolution process to the letter. During this process the NHBC will advise the builder of what they are required to do in order to satisfy their obligations under the Warranty. This will include starting and completing the works within stipulated/agreed timescales. Now here is the difficult part...you can generally expect that the builder will fail to meet the start and completion deadlines that have been set, therefore it is important to keep on top of the NHBC with regards to pursuing the builder under the Resolution process. It takes time and dedication along with a tremendous amount of stress that of course comes for free! Once you are into the process of tightly managing the NHBC you will find just how little they know about their own processes and standards.....you have to be one step ahead at all times (not too difficult trust me) and very quickly get to a position of submitting a formal complaint via the route identified within your warranty documentation. This will mean that the complaint is considered by an "independent" team within the NHBC and this will get discussed with the Head of Department before a formal response is provided. What is really important to remember that you have a warranty which must be followed through by the NHBC even if this means that they take on the rectification of defects because they have been ineffective in their management of the builder. Should the NHBC fail to bring about a satisfactory completion of the issues and they do not do what it says on the warranty tin....then you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and the FSA......

It may be the case that you need to employ the services of a Professional Consultant to assist with technical matters and in certain circumstances the NHBC will agree to pay the cost associated with this advice but you must gain their agreement in advance otherwise the costs may be non recoverable as in the case with Donna and CN.

Some of us have heard that the NHBC is likened to a "toothless tiger" or are as much use as a "chocolate fire guard"....well in my experience the only way to "make" them follow through on their obligations as Warranty Provider is to give them no way out. It is either the case that they address the problem with the builder's not carrying out their responsibilities or risk being severely criticised for not doing so by the FO or FSA.....and yes sometimes it needs to be pushed this far.

If i can help let me know.

SteveF

[donna]

Hi Steve F,

In 2007 NHBC visited my house with the house builder and were not actually that interested. His comment was we only deal with structual problems! After a 3 hour fight he did say that they had to put certain things right, yes Crest came along and did some of them but 4 years on I am still fighting to get the majority done.

Now when I read through all the NHBC guidelines, it did state that when there was a defect noted then the building had 28 days to correct this. So after 2 years I contact them again, to be told that I had to go back and speak with the Customer Services manager at Crest.

So i wrote to the Managing Director of Crest Nicholson, he basically said it was not his job to get into a dispute about a home that is what he had a customer services team for.............

Donna

[SteveF]

Hi Donna

If you would like any assistance with taking the NHBC to task over this then please let me know.

SteveF

[donna]

Hi Steve,

Any help would be much appreciated, heard from Crest yesterday funnily enough and they are starting to re-tile my bathrooms on 31st May. The funny thing is they thought i would let them get away with just tiling over the top of the existing tiles......... they must think I was born yesterday.

As for the problem with the first floor, they have gone a bit quiet over this. Think they have realised its a huge job that is going to give them so much grief. Basically they have got to take the whole first floor up, which prob means us moving out and putting our furniture into storage. They came and offered me a pathetic amount of money to go away but I am not desperate for there silly money I just want my house right.

Thanks Steve
Donna

[not2happy]

Hi Donna and Steve

Donna its been a while since i last checked this site- i been feeling fad up of the whole progress..what progress

well let me tell you, since i last wrote nothing happened for months, complaints fell on def ears, and i was given excuse after excuse till out of desperation i phoned the NHBC.
I must say who were very efficient and immediately sent out experts to check systems etc
many faults were found-oh forgot to mention the customer service manager walked out after 5 minutes in the presence of the NHBC officer- he is very rude and childish, and we went through the problems alone with the officer.
He was very efficient and we were really pleased that finally someone was listening!

They certainly got the ball rolling and before you knew it Crest were listening and we were treated as people. we were given another customer service manager who was really helpful and listened and noted our complaints

the minor works were scheduled in and were being done, but heating probs still remain as no one wants to admit fault.
still waiting to hear on outcome and everyone says different things- the builders dispute the decision of the energy care report and the NHBC
are writing to them to us and the energy care experts. its still on going.
but we are now in our 9th month here and i am hopeful we can finally get some correct heating sorted out before the next winter approaches. I am going to ask for compensation for the stress and hardship we endured whilst they refused to acknowledge the problem, and if they were a decent company they would offer it without us asking as well as paying the utility fees during the times their heating was not working properly.
wishful thinking!!! i think they just want to wash their hands of it.
it has been a miserable few months, many neighbours are suffering the same and we often wonder if we'd made a good decison in buying a new house?
if we didn't get the NHBC involved we'd be so fad up of compaining we'd probably give up by now which is what msot people do.
Donna we too had mushrooms in the boiler cupboard...
if you and steve want to email me would be good... to discuss further

all the best with yours..

not2happy YET!!!!

[not2happy]

We have regretted buying our property- will sell at the earliest opportunity
better to buy older homes or land and build to your high specs.


thoroughly disappointed in the cheap materials they use
the lack of concern for the home owner
bad customer service and constant excuses not to put things right

however did it win the queens award? maybe the queen should stay in crest home for a week before giving the award!! a far cry from Buckingham Palace!!

[SteveF]

Hi not2happy

I will pm you my e-mail address.

SteveF