Ultimate Advice in Purchasing a New Home

DO NOT BUY A NEW HOUSE. NEVER, EVER. Spread the word!!! The housebuilding industry is not deemed as being part of the construction industry as far as commercial and industrial constructors are concerned. I'm a Chartered Builder and a Consultant Project Manager and flatly refuse to work in the housebuilding industry. the NHBC GUARANTEE IS NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT IS WRITTEN ON!!! despite their protestations to the contrary.

the only real way of positively affecting the housebuilding industry is to adversely affect the demand for them.

I will happily advise anyone new home owner in Swindon for free.

good luck to you all

P.M
BScHONS MCIOB MAPM FFB

[Tex]

Mr Chartered Builder, I second that.
twenty years in the fast action packed throw em up quick building industry, i resigned from a contracts manager position and working purely on my own refurb projects!
I can not recommend anybody to buy a new house anymore! They are crap in the truest meaning of the word!
I was a contractor in the for many years, sometimes completing 20+ house's per week! the problems that these poor people were buying where being covered up at an alarming rate and many dangerous defeats were indeed covered over, and everybody involved keep quite!
That moving in date had to be met at all cost's!
The industry is laughable, and these developer's do laugh in people's face's, i've seen it!
I'm totaly sick of the industry and got out of the major side!
I know how these company's work and know there weakness's!
I can say one thing good, housing association properties are the best constructed on the market!

As an example, friends of my wife and I decided to buy a David Wilson home in north Swindon. They were to be the second owner (after only 18 months). I offered to survey it for them, but they refused the offer saying that as the home was virtually brand new it would be in perfect order!!!!! AN UTTER AND FATAL MISCONCEPTION!!!!!!!!!!!!

He did tell me that the front bay had some movement cracking and had been remedied. After one month of them living in it, they contracted gastro-enteritis. My friend contacted me about the header tank in the loft saying it looked a bit grubby and could this be the cause . so I popped round and found that the extract vents to the two bathrooms weren't connected to the outside vent but were dangling into the header tank (which had no lid on it). I took a further look at the house and amongst a myriad of snags internally I found that all the brickwork below DPC were bedded in sand (almost). i could scrape out the joints with my fingers. Also a structural beam inside the garage had created a huge vertical crack down the inner wall. Now I realsied why the front bay had collapsed.

he then told me that very morning he had received in the post his NHBC guarantee which he was relieved to receive considering wehat I had said. After reading the small print I pointed out to him the clause stating that NHBC would not indemnify the material and structural integrity of the house if the new owner had not engaged a Chartered Surveyor to undertake a full structural survey of the house prior to purchase. His guarantee was totally null and void. He told me that he was advised that as the house was so new he would not need to engage one.

He asked my advise as to what to do next. I told him to SELL IT QUICK!!!!!!!!!!

Remember buying a new house is not like buying a new car.

Finally, when i was a humble Building Engineer i witnessed foundations going in that were two metres shallower than what they should have been. The NHBC inspector came along said to the groundworkers to dig the footing three metres deep, and then he left without witnessing them digging to such a depth. The contractors dug one metre and filled it with concrete. To top it all they cut the footing unaccurately despite my setting out which would have nlead to some of the brickwork being built on the clay. I walked off the site the very same day and vowed never to worked in housing ever again. I even notified the NHBC and I KNOW FOR A FACT that nothing was done about it.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT A BUILDER IS NOT OBLIGED TO CONSTRUCT A NEW HOME TO ANY PRESCRIBED LEVEL OF WORKMANSHIP. IF THE PURCHASER DEEMS THE HOUSE FIT ENOUGH TO MOVE INTO THEN IT'S THEIR LOOK OUT. THAT IS A GENUINE COURT RULING, How do i know? I was the expert witness acting on behalf of the prospective purchaser in 1998 in Swindon. The prospective purchaser wanted to claim back their deposit and solicitors cost . They lost.

Caveat Emtor!!!!!!!

[cruicky]

[quote:4fc8a78b10="Chartered Builder"]DO NOT BUY A NEW HOUSE. NEVER, EVER. Spread the word!!! The housebuilding industry is not deemed as being part of the construction industry as far as commercial and industrial constructors are concerned. I'm a Chartered Builder and a Consultant Project Manager and flatly refuse to work in the housebuilding industry. the NHBC GUARANTEE IS NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT IS WRITTEN ON!!! despite their protestations to the contrary.

the only real way of positively affecting the housebuilding industry is to adversely affect the demand for them.

I will happily advise anyone new home owner in Swindon for free.

good luck to you all

P.M
BScHONS MCIOB MAPM FFB[/quote:4fc8a78b10]

Dear Sir,

If only I had read this one year ago! I paid my deposit for my house on 25th March 2004!

Well too late for m as I've just bought a house in priory vale, swindon!!!

If anyone can offer some now prob too late advice. please let me know!!! It's our first house and now getting more and more worrying.

thanks

Matt
matt @ bucksend . org . uk

[Tony]

You just need to make sure you are an informed purchaser. Take all the marketing blurb with a big pinch of salt, make sure you know your rights - if the house isn't finished and they are bullying you to move in tell your solicitor. Things like incomplete landscaping, missing footpaths and unfinished driveways and numerous minor snagging issues can give you grounds to delay completion or ask for a retainer. Get your solicitor to check the contract and make the effort to read it yourself.

It is becoming common for developers not to allow snagging till after completion, your solicitor should be able to negotiate for you to get access.

You have two years to notify the developer of snagging items, some try to make out that you have to submit lists within three days. This may be their procedure, but it is not the NHBC's. However, you have to spot damage to glazing, porcelain and worktops when you move in. They will ask you to sign a sheet, probably when you get the keys to say that they are undamaged. Make the time and effort to check this and if you don't have time to do it as you are directing removal men. then don't. Wait until it is convenient for you.

Hope this helps.

Tony

Thankyou very much Tony, the house is finished, we're just waiting to exchange etc... Is it worth going round before exchanging, so we can find some before?

Yes, if you can, so they have time to deal with the faults you find before you move in

[Nik]

Matt,

[quote:d811be3c51="matty_g"]Well too late for m as I've just bought a house in priory vale, swindon!!!

If anyone can offer some now prob too late advice. please let me know!!! It's our first house and now getting more and more worrying.[/quote:d811be3c51]

Either buy the snagging inspection sheet and do the snagging youself using that, or get a professional snagging inspection carried out, and use that as the basis of any complaints you might need to make to the building company.

I'm in the process of buying a new build at the moment, and I'm writing about the whole process, including having the snagging inspection carried out.

[tonyw]

Your advice, as a professional man, was to SELL IT !!!!! so lets pass on any problems to someone else, what a man of total integrity you are !!!! :woohoo: