Ben Bailey's Responce & Where to go now???

New Build Inspections

tigi

New Member
This is the letter that I sent to Ben Baileys Customer Service Team and the response that was given, I am apsolutely disgusted with their reply and wish to take this further were do I go now, im tempted to take this all the way to the papers if I have to I havent even been living here a year yet.

Please find attached the snagging list for ..... I expect this to be seen to as a matter for urgency especially as we have young children and the winter is now setting in. It seems ever since we moved into this property and its not even been lived in for a year yet we have had nothing but problems we didn’t expect this from a new build property and isn’t giving Ben Bailey a very good name.

Snagging List

· Gaps in front door, back door and Fire door between garage and kitchen.
· Front and Back door blow open
· Doorsteps varnish pealed both Front and Back
· Downstairs Light Socket for upstairs hall light buzzing
· Cloakroom toilet light switching itself on and off when at on position
· Light in kitchen between cloakroom and garage has too much flex making it impossible to open doors without catching it.
· Gap in sealant on kitchen work surface was supposed to be done just after move in.
· Various holes in plasterboard even though proper plasterboard fixings have been used; hollow curtain pole has pulled away from wall.
· Damage to Kitchen cupboards, ceiling in kitchen, kitchen tiles, bathroom tiles due to installation problem with bathroom sink seal.
· Door locks been installed upside down.
· Shower door not installed properly, thus causing issues when shutting it due to protective covers coming off.
· All boiler nuts had to be tightened by engineer due to dripping water coming from under boiler, this isn’t safe.
· Doesn’t appear to be any sealant under sink therefore water laying underneath
· Doors pealing

The following has had to be paid for by us in order to restore the house to new at a huge expense to us, which we didn’t expect to have to pay for a new build house. £100 for repair to the wall due to plasterboard not strong enough and no supporting beam been installed for use of a stair gate at the top of the stairs, this is for my children’s safety and these are supposed to be child friendly homes the non use of a stair gate is not a option for a 1 year old. I didn’t expect a push wall-to-wall stair gate to give way and put a hole in the wall, this could have been more serious had one of my children been near the gate. No force was used on the gate, so it wasn’t from negligence. When looked at by the site office, they confirmed that they would come and repair the hole in which they put a wooden plank in the hole but instead of securing it from beam to beam they merely attached it to the plaster and skimmed over the top, 24 hours later and I would like to stress no stair gate had been used, the block of wood fell through and created an even bigger hole now the size of a letter box, it was then the site office refused to do anything else about it, which meant we had a hole in our wall and had to get a external builder to come in and make it safe, to which it cost us £100 which we couldn’t afford at the time. The same thing has happened in the bathroom in which we used proper plaster board screws to secure a non heavy unit to make sure it didn’t topple over, has left us with 4 holes and crumbling plaster and again with the curtain pole. It seems that even using the correct fittings nothing can be put up anywhere in the house.
We have had to pay for all plaster materials to make good the problems that we have had, plus the fact that we have then had to paint to make the house look respectable.
The damage caused by the failure to correctly install the waste sink seal has caused extensive damaged to our own property, i.e tiles that we laid in the kitchen and bathroom have now lifted due to the amount of water that has been leaking over time since installation. It was confirmed by ROK what the cause of it was and that they confirmed it was a installation problem which I find had to believe passed the NHBC inspection and could have been a lot worse, as we were currently away on holiday and had just returned when we had noticed the water damaged in the kitchen all the way up to the lighting in the ceiling. We have also had to pay for a garage door seal to be put on the garage due to mice getting under the massive gap between the garage floor and the garage door; surely these should have been fitted with seals, if anything to stop draft. We expect that all damaged caused be paid for and we are reimbursed for the damaged caused to our property and compensation for the £100 builder call out and have had to incur and all snags fixed.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

This was there reply

Thank you for your recent email and your comments have been noted for future reference.



I have passed on your details to our site manager who will arrange to inspect the reported items as soon as possible.



I refer to your request for compensation and confirm that it would not be our intention to pay out any form of compensation. Our contractual obligation to our customers is to ensure that any identified defects which are reported to us are rectified within normal working hours. I am satisfied that we have met this obligation to you as a valued customer since the legal completion date of 11th December 2009.



In conclusion we will inspect the reported issues below, however we will not be paying out any form of compensation as per company policy. I respectfully advise you to Page 4 Living in your new Gladedale Home booklet re: “Heavy items may damage your walls and will need additional support”



Regards

I have responded with the following

Many thanks for your reply, I would like to inform you that neither any of the items that were place on the wall were heavy items and were installed as per your guide, and that its a stand thing is it not to have a curtain pole in your house?? Are you suggesting that no house puts up curtain poles ?? I would also like to mention that your site office was notified of the problem and said that they would rectifiy only to make the problem worse and an external builder having to be called in, if they hadnt made the whole bigger then the job might not have been so expensive. I would also like to inform you that the water leak was due to an installation problem by your builders which has been confirmed by ROK and are quite happy to provide a report to that effect, therefore this was your installation problem which damaged our property i.e floor tiles and you need to pay for such damage due to your inadequate due care and attention on building the property. I would also like to point out since move in we have had dodgy electrics too which blew one night and caught alight, it seems that your builders seem to like taking no care over their build of their houses and I think this is quite disgusting.

I will be notifying NHBC and will take this further if required.


Anyone else think that this is a complete outrage for them to just turn a blind eye at these defects.
Thanks
Tigi
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
First of all compensation is not a right. All the big house builders have a no compensation policy. However, that doesnt mean it is never paid!

Your next course of action is to escalate your complaint s in writing to the senior management of Gladedale and copy everything to the NHBC. This keesp it nice and public. See How to complain about your new home

If you continue to have problems you should consider writing to a national newspaper and TV. BBC Watchdog and Homes from Hell.
 

APR1974

New Member
I realise this thread is a few years old but out of interest did you make any progress? We have had over 20 issues with our new build (bought sept 2012) have spent more than 80 hours waiting in for tradesmen (who gave turned up without the right equipment a few times I.e no ladders for an external roofing issue on our 3 storey house etc) we have had 2 of our 4 bedrooms inhabitable for a few months due to roofing issues blah blah blah.

We also recommended some friends but they won't pay the £4k referral fee as I dont have the original leaflet and even though our friends told the sales woman on their first and subsequent visits including paying the reservation fee they are renaging on the fee and saying I have no proof that we are entitled to the fee.

I am now dealing directly with the CEO of Avant homes (who own ben bailey) and so far reasonable compo for inconvenience is not forthcoming. I have spoke to trading standards who refer erred me to consumer advice who told me they can't help and I would needs legal advice. I have spoke to NHBC who say that as the work has been completed they can't help and I have emailed consumer code for house builders but as yet no reply as to if it is worth making a claim through them (they state on their terms that you can't claim for inconvenience as a whole so wanted to clarify the recommendation scheme as being part of my claim and would that warrant investing in their assistance)

I am getting ready to give in but am equally so angry that our dream of owning a new build has been a 12 month nightmare and all this from a company who boast of their customer service awards!!!!

Any help or advice would be gratefully received.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Hmmm, Ben Bailey used to be part of Gladedale homes. It would now appear Gladedale homes has changed its name to Avant Homes.
You can make a claim using the Consumer Code for Home Builders.
Firstly they have renegaded on an "agreement" to pay you a "referral fee" for recommending the builder. Presumably this is written down somewhere in a brochure or a leaflet.
Secondly, you can most certainly claim a maximum of £250 for "inconvenience" and also the cost of the application as well £120. It is worth doing this anyway as you will clearly win given the 80 hours you have taken off work and the roof leaks. If you lost pay as a result you may be able to claim for this too.
You will need to supply 'proof' that your friends were indeed recommended by you such as a signed witnessed statement from them.
The CCHB does tend to err on the builders side so be aware and give lots of evidence.
Check my website for more on the CCHB and how to make a claim.
 
Top