Barratt/David Wilson Home File

Morning all,

I am in a long running dispute with Barratt/David Wilson over the poor quality of my new home and their bodged attempts to put it right. I have the photos on a keepandshare page but can't post the link because I am a new member.

Something that has helped my case was a subject access request under the data protection act. If you make such a request then Barratt MUST (legally)send you all information they hold on you within 40 days. The request costs £10.

They sent me my entire home file which contained all sorts of useful information and internal emails. This includes letters saying things about specific items such as:

"We cannot tell him what is our normal practice etc or what tends to happen on site. We must tell him what the official regulations are and ensure that the installation is fully compliant"

I also know how much profit they made on my property and how much they spent putting it right and have received emails sent from Chris Burton (MD for the region) to Mark Clare (CEO) regarding my property.

I believe that this will significantly help my case for compensation. The letter I sent was as follows:

Data Protection Compliance Officer,
Barratt Developments PLC,
Barratt House,
Forest Hill Business Park,
Cartwright Way,
Leicestershire.
LE67 1UF

11th February 2012


Dear Sir or Madam,


My name is xx and I live at xx. This address is Plot 17 at your David Wilson Homes (xx) Development.


Please supply all information about me to which I am entitled under the Data Protection Act 1998. Where applicable, this should also include all information and correspondence relating to my property (address here).


I enclose a cheque for £10 made out to Barratt Developments to cover the costs of fulfilling this request.


If you require any further information from me, to comply with my request, then you may contact me at the above address, by email at xx@xx or by telephone on xxxx.


Yours Sincerely,

And then post it recorded delivery with a cheque for £10 enclosed.

I would be interested to know if anyone else goes down this route and if you have any success as a result. For me it was money well spent.

 

Photos

I've now updated my details to include my keepandshare page. Click on my name (plot17) and select view homepage. Anyone else had this much wrong with their house?

 

Barrat/David Wilson Home File

Proper website is on its way - domains are registered but I am giving Barratt a chance to live up to their responsibilities first.

Keepandshare account if just a way of sharing and storing files, although I have had over 270 visitors in 2 days without trying...

The purpose of my post is not to tell everyone about my photos, it is to let people know about using a subject access request to force Barratt to give information that they would not normally share. It also shows them that you are serious about getting the issues resolved and that you are not going to simply go away.

 

Just copy my letter, include your cheque for £10 and send it off. I also got the satisfaction of knowing that it cost them £27 to post my home file and that someone had to go through the entire 1000 or so pages crossing out 3rd party email addresses and the like. £10 well spent.

I had a visit on Saturday from our local Construction Director and Customer Services Executive and while they were here I asked them questions about some of the things I found in my home file. For example, there was an email saying that the Sales Person knew at second fix that the wiring for a burglar alarm had not been installed (DWH sold the house with the cheapest wireless system they could find that didn't really work). I showed the email to the two DWH people and asked if DWH thought that it was OK to sell a property knowing that it had not been built to specification. The answer I got from the Construction Director was "It's not ideal.".... lol. I asked them both if I now had the correct fence for my property installed. Construction Director said yes and Customer Services Executive said no... clown music anyone?

 

Be aware that they have 40 days to reply though...

 

I can confirm that Barratt Developments DO pay compensation. They have offered me financial compensation on several occasions and they have just increased it by 50%. Their original offer was conditional upon me signing a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement although they have not mentioned this in their latest offer. I have rejected the offer as I do not believe it to be fair. In fact, I do not believe it even covers the expenses we have occurred.

 

What sort of problems do you have with your house?

I've found constant emailing to work quite well. Typically, I'll email the customer services manager and then email him the next day to ask if he got my email. If I don't get a response then I forward the email to every single DW/Barratt email address I can find and ask if anyone else can help me. That tends to get a response.

In the past I've walked down to the site office and sat in there until someone turns up. I also phoned head office and asked to speak to Steven Boyes. I then got put through to a woman called Lynn Nernekli who I think holds some sort of senior customer services position. Things seemed to get a bit better after that. I've also put a large number of photos on a file sharing website and emailed them the link. Proper website is on its way depending on how they treat us over the next coupleof months. I can recommend 1and1 for web hosting and easy set-up.

 

I'm looking into the legality of publishing documents obtained through the Data Protection Request. Once I've figured this out I'll know the extent of what I can put online. That said, there's nothing stopping me from putting my photos in a more accessible place.