Happy with our Lindens home

[Andy-76]

I'm going against the grain here but we are happy with the new home we purchased through Linden homes South east, I would like to leave a review to help others as before we bought (15 months ago) we found very few reviews and a lot of anti-new home reviews and websites.
Despite a lot of negativity regarding new builds we took the leap and we are happy with our decision.

After viewing and negotiating a modest discount on the asking price we were viewing our new build on an almost weekly basis which the Lindens sales team and the site manager (jock)were always happy to accomadate with a day or twos notice, works progressed swiftly and it was great seeing the progress and having our many questions answered.

We visited the Linden Enhance studio in Caterham to choose carpet colours etc and at this stage you are given the chance to upgrade kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms with ceramic tiled floors, bespoke built in sliding wardrobes systems, quartz worktops, curtain poles the list gos on and on.
I forget if the appointment was 90 minutes or 120 minutes but either way it's not enough time to make so many choices and some sort of catalogue or website showing choice and prices would be really helpful at this stage as when we arrived we had no idea what was on offer.
Im not sure if It was a particularly busy time but we had to book the appointment 2-3 weeks in advance and never had time to re-visit Enhance as choices needed to be made, there is room for improvement with regards to Enhance but the quality of the upgrades on offer is very high, prices fair and the studio is impressive.

Anyway back to the house itself we moved in on the day agreed and there was a team of cleaners and the site foreman along with a couple of labourers doing there best to make the house perfect for us finishing just as we arrived with 2 removal lorrys.
We moved on site towards the end of development and while Lindens still had operatives onsite our first point of call regarding snagging was the sales team who would pass the message onto the site foreman who would visit to assess the work and then carry it out himself or arrange for a tradesman to call in within a day or two.
The initial snags were minor things like the silicone seal around the shower tray and paintwork a little shoddy here and there but I do have a keen eye I must admit.

After spending a very wet winter in our property we and our immediate neighbours realised we had a fairly major problem regarding the gardens and lack of drainage, we moved from our previous property appx 2 miles away so we were aware that our new home was built on heavy clay which is not best for drainage.
Darrell Turton the customer care manager visited and agreed there was a problem and went away to organise a solution with the technical and ground working departments.
The first attempt to resolve the issue was to drill a series of holes using a mini digger type machine and air pressure blasting seaweed pellets which would in time break down the clay proving drainage, I believe the process is called terra-lifting and for less severe drainage problems it could well work.
After a further visit or two it was agreed (without any arm twisting) that lindens would scalp the entire lawn, dig in a series of French drains, top soil level and relay new turf to our house and the neighbours, Im still impressed Linden homes carried this out as we're lucky enough to have a large garden I would estimate 300m2 of turf it would of cost a lot of money.
The levels in our garden are now perfect and I'm confident the drainage installed will tackle the winter ahead. The landscape company (Ashwells) deserve a mention as they really did a great job over the 8-9 days they were with us and our happiness was there top priority.

The house did suffer shrinkage the first winter I guess speeded along due to the central heating keeping our house at a tropical climate (my partner feels the cold), the bigger of the problems were gaps up the side of the stairs, gaps around the skirting boards, ceramic tiled floors grout cracking and a couple of doors required adjusting.
I think the shrinkage etc was worse than would normally be expected due to the house being built in a very wet 2014 winter.

Again the customer care manager (Darrell Turton) visited and agreed the
Issues would be rectified returning at a later date with a contractor to talk through the required snagging, a schedule of works and our expectations.
The tradesmen started on the date agreed and were very punctual, tidy and again the quality of the work carried out really was Very good.
What we appreciated was that the importance was quality of work, minimum disruption and keeping us happy through out.

Although we were not paying for the snagging work we were given great service and felt like a valued client through out.
We are very happy with our new home and from our personal experience and feedback from our neighbours buying a new home can be a great experience and when you consider everything's brand new and should require minimum future repairs/maintenance we consider we got good value for money.

Unhappy clients are always more likely to leave reviews to vent there anger or frustrations but I no for a fact there are many happy Linden home owners too busy enjoying there new home and life to leave reviews. Linden homes South east have showed huge commitment to customer care in our case and at any cost were determined to leave our home perfect and us happy.

You do need patience as Linden homes are a large company decisions are not made over night but if you are considering a Linden home I would recommend you take the plunge!

 

[Selbyjay]

I too want to give praise to Linden based on my recent experience of buying a property from them. People are so quick to complain that it's only fair that I add my pleasent experiences too.

My partner & I have bought on a Linden Homes North development in North Yorkshire and we love it! It's still early days (we moved in 4 days ago!) but Linden have been really good so far. We bought a "stock plot" so were able to get a sizable discount off asking price as well as some welcome freebies such as turf, carpets & full asking price in part exchange of our old house. We completed in less than 4 weeks and it's been a breeze.

I did read the reviews on this site before we made the decision but all things considered, we went with it. We did use the recommended solicitor, but he was also recommended by a colleague of mine and a seperate colleague of my partner's so i felt confident using his services. He was very good too.

The house had been finished for a few months before we saw it so no issues over boundary lines and the sales team on site have been really good answering my queries. Everything has been by email so it's all documented should there be any queries later down the line. The meetings with the sale exec on site were helpful & informative and the lady answered all of our questions. I felt that they were very forthcoming, no hard sell and didnt get the impression that they were hiding anything.

No issues on moving day other than a big biro stain on the landing carpet which i will be telling them to sort when they come for the snagging list next week. I wasnt happy that they were cutting tiles on my new carpets without dust sheets a few days before we moved in but there's no damage visible. I still insisted that it was documented nonetheless in case of issues in the future. The few niggles that we picked up during the demo of the house were sorted by moving day.

The house feels very well built, with good quality fixtures and fittings and attention to detail. The house has been designed well and the rooms are very usable. There's not one space in the house that feels like an afterthought or not well planned. We've been given all of the NHBC, warranty certificates, EPC report and instruction books for all of the appliances and central heating. The showers are amazing and no loss of pressure when both run at the same time. I'm yet to test with the washer & diswasher going too!!

Some friends of ours bought a Linden home a year ago and they remain happy with it and the service from Linden. So, whilst it is early days for us, we've been thrilled so far and would certainly recommend them.

 

[DonKiddick86]

Have lived in two new Linden homes in North Yorkshire to date, the first was a rented house in Bedale on 'The Nurseries' site (2 bed Dalton housetype). This site started out as a Shepherd Homes site until Linden purchased their housebuilding business. We were extremely happy with this site. There were teething problems but nothing that was a real problem. The house design was inherited from Shepherd homes and was a strong feature, and in my opinion, Linden's new house designs aren't as good.

If I was to pick fault, I would say that:
Some of the door internal door latches could have been fitted much neater
The upstairs store cupboard door wasn't a great fit
One or two window sills weren't finished well in terms of paint coverage

I didn't raise any points with Linden as it wasn't my house, and probably would have anyway really. Our landlord did say that Linden had agreed to turf the rear garden but didn't, but if it were me I would have got that in writing - as should he.

We went on to purchase a 3 bed Hampton house design on Linden's Marne Grange. This site was also a Shepherd Homes site that was not started but had planning, and so the Hampton is also a Shepherd Homes house design. Great layout and design with storage and 3 double bedrooms, rather than pokey box rooms. Decent-sized integral garage at 9 x 17ft. We bought this house during the later stages, so we were able to get much better idea about the quality of fit and finish, and the size of the drive/plot. I would never ever buy off plan, even though I once considered doing so - I wanted to see what the actual house and estate look like, and more importantly, I wanted to look at the finish. I come from a family of (great) builders and so I know what looks right.

In my experience, estates can have a totally different look and feel once they are built, when compared with their image on the site plan. Some plots which I thought that I would really like, I have hated once driving back at a later date. You might find that the drive is on a slope for example. Our current estate has a spacious feel with a wide road and longer front gardens - much more spacious than our previous Linden site in Bedale.

We are really happy with our house, and are glad that we bought it. No real issues to speak of here, the painting could be better in places, but it is by no means unsightly or splattered over the walls. This will obviously vary immensely from one site to another. Linden Homes do seem to have much more of a standardised spec than other builders. Taylor Wimpey noticeably cheapen the spec of their houses in less-desirable areas. A Fairfax home on our site is circa £260k, yet in the desirable village of Morton-on-Swale, they are priced at circa £380. Yet aside from the Kitchen carcasses, the rest of the house is the same, such as taps, bathroom suite, taps, doors, door handles.

New-builds in this area and also showing increases in value when placed on the market, with pre-owned houses selling for often 10k or more above their initial purchase prices, even though other new-builds are still being sold.