Delayed completion by Persimmon

[lisasumpter]

We reserved a property on the Waterside estate in East Morton - West
Yorkshire in July 2006. At the time of reservation we were told an
expected completion date of Dec 2006 and this was confirmed in
writing.

This soon became clear that there was no chance of this date being
achieved as no building was beginning, however I was still threatened
in early Dec to exchange contracts otherwise Persimmon would pull out.
Interestingly enough I had been chasing Persimmon via my Solicitor
since Sept to respond to a question on the garden to allow us to
exchange, they choose to ignore that question and never responded.

Since then I have had no formal communication from Persimmion
regarding a delay in the build ( good job I live locally and can see
that its not being built on time!). I have just had the off phone call
from the Sales Advisor with messages about the time they are looking to
be off the site, this was Feb, April, June, Sept . I have now been told
by the 4th site Manager that he was heading for a date of 1st Oct but
is behind so this is also unlikely.

Our lives have been in limbo for the past year, we havent been able to
book holidays or make plans etc as we are no nearer to knowing when
this property will be complete. We have been in rented accomodation
since Sept 2006 and our furniture in storage and in addition to this we
have now lost over 1 year on a 5 year fixed rate mortgage which was
taken out in Sept 2006, it will cost us to change the rate (£600) and
also as rates have gone up it is not beneficial for us to do that so we
now have a 4 year rate instead of a 5 year.

I have been contacting Persimmon Head Office since April 2007 asking
for some formal correspondence and an offer of acceptable compensation.
We have been offered £500, this does not even cover the cost of
changing the rate or the interest that persimmon have made on our
deposit. This was offered on an email. I am now waiting for the
4th month for formal correspondence from the MD.

Any ideas what my options are or do you know any similar stories ?

[Tony]

Hi Lisa,

This sounds like a complete nightmare and unfortunately there is not much you can do, but you can let the Office of Fair Trading know about your story and hopefully they will change things for the better. Personally, I would like to see all contracts have a habitation date state and a reasonable amount of liquidated damamges (compensation stated in the contract)if the date is missed. It is not much to ask.

OFT Study

Six months is ridiculous and we could probably get this in the press if you are interested in going down that route.

Tony

[lisasumpter]

Hi

Thanks for your response.

I have given Wayne Gradwell (apparently the Managing Director?) until Tuesday 17th July to respond in writing to me with an offer of compensation and a legal completion date. My Solicitor has also written to them today.

If I do not hear back (which I doubt I will) I am very interested in taking this to the press or anyone to be honest as by the time it completes we will have waited 15 Months with no correspondence.

Thanks

[ukgirl07]

we are having a similar problem. In the contract it does say that we are to be notified of any delays in completion. therefore if we have not had any communication surely persimmon have breeched the contract. Any we would have recourse that way.

[The Complainers]

If anyone would like to speak with me about your experiences - good or bad - please contact me on 020 7502 5766 or at complain@northonetv.com

[frannic]

Hi

I know you posted this article a while ago but I am experiencing similar problems at the moment and just wondered how things turned out. I wrote a letter to Esther McHugh on Thursday and am waiting a response.

Thanks

[MissusD]

hi! again i'm having similar problems with a persimmon homes site in West Yorkshire, i'm not saying yet! but if this situation continues everyone will know the site! We sold our house and have been renting since November to secure the sale of our house. We reserved and were told the house would be ready in february/march. Well in january we were still told the same timescales yet we didn't even have a second floor on the new house! customer service is poor to none existant. we only know the status of the house as we visit it weekly. i have had to ask for the build schedule and my heart sank when it changed to May and thats still not guaranteed. in 3 weeks it changed from February to May being told March, 7 days before being moved to May! we too are living in limbo. they hurry you into exchanging, so you get discounts. you loose all your rights and then you've got no comeback when the house is delayed. but the worst is, as we were hurried into exchanging, our mortgage offer is due to expire. we were offered another deal at the time with 1 years promise but was more expensive so why should we have taken it out. anyway, our mortgage offer is due to expire and if we haven't completed on the house in time we will incur fees of £999. Persimmon are adamant on giving 14 days notice after NHBC guarantee and so we may run as little as 1 day over this. Furthermore, we will have to apply for a new mortgage - incurring more fees - and WE will be in breach of contract for not having a valid mortgage! and with credit as it is the payments will be more than the previous mortgage. The sales office don't want to know us since we exchanged and no-one seems to be bothered. this should be an exciting and adventurouse time but it is not. there was no show home for our house so we have no idea what we're spending £189,995 on! its all a bit scary!