Advice Greatly appreciated on recent NEW BUILD

[Jamie]

Hi there.

I was wondering whether you could give me a little advice. My wife my 21 month old daughter and myself have paid just shy of £250'00 for a four bedroom detached house from Morris Homes. From reading your site forums it sound like the same old story as a lot of your subscribers. Kept away from the property for the period of the build, only allowed to inspect on my insistance and threat to pull out (bear in mind they already had £16'000 of our money in the form of a deposit). I took a builder and decorator with us to inspect and they took the place apart. We gave a snagging list 10 pages long and insisted their legal department provide our solicitor with a document stating that the work would be done in total in three weeks. Since the original list was made we've found untold things wrong with the house including brickwork with 20mm joints some (like the snagging pictures on this site) completely out of plumb and the general finish inside is totally unacceptable.

We've just registered with the NHBC and are awaiting our details to be processed on their system before we can go ahead with the claim/inspection. We were wondering if you could provide us with information on how to take these people to court if things don't work out as we, like many other people in this position feel like our pockets have been picked. We feel that we've been involved in a confidence scam and when we make our issues know with the developer that's as far as it goes. They brush our problems under the carpet as such. Who can we go to, to bypass the developers and get our 'dream'! home into a state we can be proud of instead of being embarrassed about it as we are at the minute.

Your advice would be invaluable to us even if it is only to point us in the general direction of the starting line in such matters.

Many Thanks in advance
Mr & Mrs J Baggaley & Sophie (21 months)

[Tony]

Hi Jamie,

I wouldn't think about court until you have gone through the NHBC resolution service. If that doesn't work out and the claim is less than £5000 you can go down the small claim route. However, if it is more than this you will have to instruct a solicitor and expect to pay a lot of money in fees, say £50,000, and for the whole process to take a few years.

Although I know people who have had their mortgage paid off going down this route, you have to take into account the stress this will cause to you and your family over a significant period of time. The builders tend to settle out of court usually at the last minute, assuming you have a legitimate claim.

I hope this helps


Tony

[Jamie]

Thanks for the advice. I don't think I can be under any more stress than i'm under already to be honest, it's like our lives are on hold.

To be honest we simply haven't got the kind of money you mentioned as far as taking the developer through full court proceedings (we spent it all on the house!! the irony). As i've never experienced anything like this before, who would be the best person to approach if the NHBC don't/won't try to resolve the situation for us? Our conveyancy solicitors' secretary has suggested they'd have to hand us over to someone else if we want to take it through the courts.

We are going to pursue the avenue of NHBC resolution but as it's the first time I ever had to go through anything like this I'm a little sceptical about the help and support they will give as they actually gave a certificate to the house in the first place although if it was inspected it must have been with the inspectors eyes closed! (is this justified sceptisism in your opinion?).

As i said previously, we did post a snagging list to their main offices and their site office and kept a copy for ourselves but we just keeping finding more things as we look harder.

What would you do in my situation Tony?

Regards
Jamie

[Warwick]

I would bring it to your attention of your member of parliament and local councillor.

[Tony]

You are right to be sceptical about the NHBC, they are the builder's insurance company not yours! However, do give them a chance and assess the situation after their inspection.

Keep us posted

Cheers,

Tony

[Tony]

Warwick wrote:

I would bring it to your attention of your member of parliament and local councillor.

This thread has
[ur=http://www.snagging.org/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,83/func,view/catid,120/id,791.html]other options[/url]

It is a shame you can't buy insurance to cover legal costs to take developers to court or a no-win no-fee solicitor who would take it on.

If there were ten of you with similar problems you could take joint action and split the cost

Tony

[Tony]

There is some useful advice on funding options here.