Missing beam in our 5 bedroom persimmon kensington!!1

New Build Inspections

dubiousbuyer

New Member
Hey there!!

My last post was months back when we had issues with Persimmon down to problems with the purchase of our home, it being substantially smaller then the show home and plans we were shown and loads of other issues!!!

Now just when we thought all of that was behind us, we have another issue!! We have been advised (not by Persimmon but by our neighbour across the street who has the same style house) that the floor is sinking in the bathroom because Persimmon failed to insert a steel support beam between the Kitchen/dining area which supports the family bathroom and bedroom 5 in our home!!:eek:

Now after 2ish months of trying to get matters resolved Persimmon has agreed that they 'made a mistake' and somewhere due to lack of communications in their organisation the beam had been overlooked and forgotten!!.....They have agreed to do the works ofcourse to put right what they should have done in the first place, however this has been very stressful for the family, and is still a growing concern as we have to be rehoused for 5 days or so, (no commitment from Persimmon on the timescales) and the offer of compensation (that too after letters back and fro and including the regional cheif) is wait for it.........£2500.00. :(

We have no choice in getting the work done but we have worries!!, does this mean potentially our house value could be reduced? Do we not have a moral duty to inform any potential buyer should we wish to sell at anytime? .....What I also want to know (as do my two neighbours with the same problem) can they get away with only paying us such ridiculous figures in compensation when the mistake is of such a magnitude!! They say in their letter today in fact that by not allowing them to put the beam in quickly we are putting our families in danger and the house is a health and safety risk and at anytime things could get worse!!!

What choices do we have??...HELP!!

OH AND WOULD WE ADVISE ANYONE TO BUY A PERSIMMON HOME.......MOST CERTAINLY NOT AND IF YOU DO...... AND HAVE THE PROBLEMS WE DID...DONT SAY YOU WERENT WARNED!!

Dubiousbuyer:confused::mad:
 
"the house is a health and safety risk and at anytime things could get worse!!!"

I would agree with that.

Lets you know the severity of your issue.

Check your home insurance policy for legal protection.
 

Chuck Sidfrum

New Member
They may well tell you, the new consumer code, suggests they should pay no more than £250 in compensation. Even more shocking, they should pay no more than £15,000 to you to fix faults they will not or have not fixed in reasonable time, should you pursue the consumer code process.

Not sure £15,000 could have fixed any of the homes on our estate, and too many needed figures in the region of 5-15 times that amount, after a long exhaustive process. To think using the consumer code process, you could be out of pocket (based on our example) by well over £100k, have to manage the remedial works yourself, and after many years of stress be offered £250 compensation, which they then take out of the £15,000 maximum award. That's a joke!

Hasn't the OFT Market Review and house building industry made a right royal stitch up. The question is why?

It's a shame your peterborough way, as I would have like to visit and see for myself.

They 'appear' to admit problem and be willing to fix. My suggestion, is to get your own surveyor to come and have an initial view (it may help him if you have house and floor plans). Then plan on paying surveyor to check their intended fix (document) and suggest areas of concern (don't want your surveyor to necessarily tell them what to do or he/you might be assigning some design liability), then for your surveyor to check maybe once during first exposure, and once at end of works prior to covering up, then once when finished. But for 5 days remdial works you may get away with less visits.

If your comfortable it's an easy problem, and the builder will do a proper fix, then you may not need the surveyor. In my experience the surveyor is essential to get a proper fix!

I know home owners that have gone through far far worse than you described, and claim to have been offered far far less for the trouble . . . so suspect the offer is not too bad. Read up on construction law, loss of use, time and inconvenience etc, and a level of inconvenience is expected to honour the contract. If you felt the mistake was deliberately overlooked at construction stage that could be a different matter.
 
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