Our Taylor Wimpey Experience.

New Build Inspections

Hunty

New Member
Hello.

I've been a keen follower on these forums for about the past 10 months but have never posted. Myself and my partner reserved our plot on a TW estate around 12 months ago, and we have been in for just over 3 months now.

I think it's fair to say that people very rarely tell of good experiences, especially on a forum which essentially is about how to deal with issues with your new house, since it is called snagging. However I can happily say that we bloody love our house and the whole experience with TW, right from the beginning, has been excellent.

The sales process was great, the staff were always helpful and courteous, especially when we travelled to another site 50 miles away to view a show home they had there.

We used the financial advisors and solicitors that they use, and it was all very professional and the service from the solicitors was as expected.

We chose our carpets, tiles, kitchen etc, paid for a shower over the bath and extra tiling, and when we had our familiarisation visit to see the interior for the first time, everything was exactly how we had asked for it and the finishing was done to an excellent standard.

We moved in 5 days before Christmas so it was an end of year house, and I don't think it was rushed, the finishing and decorating was fab, the house was complete, nothing was missing or unfinished.

No problems during the 2 and a bit weeks over Christmas, except we noticed a small leak on a radiator but it never affected the heating or anything so had no need to call anybody out.

After the holiday period we had our first visit from the site team and we gave them our small list of minor snags that we had noticed. Give credit where it's due as within 4 hours of having the visit, we'd had several workmen come round and all the minor issues were sorted including a new radiator. There was only one outstanding issue that was being sorted 2 weeks later by somebody who was coming onto the site, which was to touch up a scratch inside a kitchen cupboard. The morning he was supposed to come I had just got home from a night shift and I called the site manager to see what time I could expect him round as I'd just got home. To his credit he called the chap who was doing the work and asked him to come round to our house and sort our scratch out so that i could get off to bed, and he was there within 5 mins and sorted it out.

We them had our 28 day visit where we highlighted a couple of other things that we had noticed. Shrinkage had caused the sealant round the bath to start coming away and we had some clunky floor boards in our back bedroom and a couple of other things. We had a TW maintenance workman come round yesterday who sorted out the remaining issues and to our satisfaction. We may get some things arise over time as the house carries on drying out etc but he said just give us a call and we will pop out to sort any issues you have.

To sum it up we have a lovely house, that's ten times better than we imagined and TW have been great from the beginning right up to now and have done what was expected of them. If we do have a problem in the future we can just give them a call and I know they won't be round in the click of a finger but we will get stuff sorted.

I'm glad that I've been able to right this about TW. I accept that not all experiences are as good as ours and things do go wrong, but when I started reading this forum 10 months ago I said to myself I hope that our experience is better and that I can post it on here and I'm happy to say that that's the case.

I would buy another new build in the future and I would buy from taylor wimpey again.

Happy house hunting.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
I just don't believe a word of this!
Especially the bit that you bought a new house from Taylor Wimpey having read the experience of others and even against the best advice, even made the mistake of using their "suggested" choice of solicitor.
Worse you bought a new home and moved in just before the end-of-year figures. Unless the house was a stock unit, this is never a good idea.

It's a bit like smoking and expecting it not to kill you!

You are either:
1) Extremely lucky and should do the lottery every week (although the odds for what you claim are about the same!)
2) You have a very low standards and haven't seen how bad your home is yet. Some defects can take several months to appear.
3) You are employed by Taylor Wimpey to write positive reviews on forums like this. It does happen.
 

Hunty

New Member
So I'm a lier and an undercover TW employee wasting time writing reviews of the company. Thanks for the insult, and a reply I pretty much expected, but I'm your average working class citizen who at the age of 25 was fortunate enough to be able to make the big step of buying my first home.

With regards to the time line which I did explain in my first paragraph, I found this forum a couple of months after we chose the plot and by this time we had already exchanged contracts..etc. I didn't ignore anybody's advice regarding solicitors or when not buy a house. It is just so turns out that their suggested solicitors, which were a small firm in our local town with a few offices in neighbouring towns, did exactly what was expected of them and provided a good quality service to us, which we have no complaints about.

Yes we moved in 5 days before Christmas, and it was the day that site team were going off site for Christmas. In fact I don't have low standards I would say I'm quite picky about quality, but with regards to the finish of the house I can't fault it really. We love it, and our families which include people working in trades such as tiling, windows, and family members who have paid a lot for professional decorators and such, also commented on the high standard of finish to the house.

We all know the terrible weather that the uk experienced over December/January. The house was battered with high winds and constant heavy rain from the day we got the keys right through to when it finally passed, and it's still standing, nothing was ripped off, damaged, no leaks, no overflowing drains, and we have a garden that slopes slightly towards the house, but the drainage must be adequate enough as we had no standing water, puddles or such due to the heavy constant rain.

It wasn't a stock house, they started building it about 2 months after we reserved it and we had the enjoyment of watching all the different stages of it being constructed as we were only living 5 mins away from the site. 5 of us moved into homes on the same day including our neighbours and we all seem to be getting on with our lives in our new houses without major problems. I've spoken to people who live in our grove who moved in a month or so before us and they said that they had quite a few snags, mostly cosmetic but they said the one thing they can't fault is how the site mnagement dealt with snags and rectified them quickly, which seems to mirror the same experience we have had.

I could post pictures of my house and me in it to prove I'm not a TW employee, and how nice it is but I don't see why I should.
If you say it takes several month for things to show then fine, we have been in several months now but if in another several months something ghastly appears then ill eat my hat and say you were right. But it may just be that TW along with other builders are capable of constructing good, well finished properties even at the year end. No not it all cases as I've seen from posts on this site but what I wrote in my first post I stand by, lets face it why would I lie, I'm living in the damn house, I'm sitting in it now writing this.

People should do their research when buying a new house, even try and speak to people who are living on the site they are looking to purchase on, as I wouldn't mind if somebody approached me or even knocked on my door to ask.

But my home and my experience as with many others on our development proves that not all experiences are dire and that Taylor Wimpey are capable of producing a damn good house, where we hope to live for many years to come.

Anyway my fingers are aching now and I need a cuppa.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
But it may just be that TW along with other builders are capable of constructing good, well finished properties even at the year end.

Believe what you want to. I know what they all do - and it aint that!
 

Hunty

New Member
I came on here to share my experience with the general public who are looking to buy a new build.

The fact that the senior member who set Up the site has simply taken his time to belittle me and my comments, and slate everything I have said, is a sad thing and only reflects on you.

Like I said I'll eat my hat if in a few months something goes tits up, but with regards to your attitude when a member of the public post on your forum, giving a true account of his experience, even if you find it so hard to believe why would I waste my time lying surely I would be slating TW not praising them. I feel like you've treated me most disrespectfully and with utter contempt just because I've a actually had a good experience with TW which you find so hard to grasp.

I've given my account to the people who will read it and hopefully they will find it helpful in their search for a house. But I think my time here is done as so far all that has happened is me getting slated which is not what I expected from writing an honest description of a good experience on a forum. What a shame.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Yes I am a senior member on here. But I have not "set up" this forum and do not own, run or moderate it.

"A good experience" with Taylor Wimpey is about as likely as Elvis turning up at your house singing "Agadoo" playing a banjo!
I am sure those reading this thread will make up their own minds and believe who they want to believe.
 

Hunty

New Member
Ok then just a senior member.

We are all entitled to our on opinion, but what I have written is based on fact from our experience over the last 12 months. The fact that you are treating everything I have said with utter contempt and basically saying that I must be making it all up when you dont know me, my experiences or have never seen my property, is quite astonishing.

However for all the other visitors to this site who are after information, they are also free to make of it what they will but my account is genuine and I would be happy to answer any questions they have about my experience and the end result which is a house that we are extremely happy with, and yes it was built by Taylor wimpey, at the end of the year and we used their solicitors.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
If I inspected your Taylor Wimpey built I would in all probability find literally 100's of defects and snags.
These are just the things I would be able to see now, not all the others that are now covered up, floor joists for example.

Yes, we are both entitled to our opinions.

For anyone wanting to see a real Taylor Wimpey buyer's nightmares can click on these links:
Read this before buying a Taylor Wimpey new home, and watch their video here - shocking!
The day Taylor Wimpey ruined my life

And if you still want to buy Taylor Wimpey see what BBC Watchdog viewers said too!

If it smells like, sounds like, and looks like, the chances are it is!
 

marty316

New Member
Knowing what they all do didn't stop you drawing a salary for however long you did. Why didn't you resign on principle or start your own building firm to show them the error of their ways? Presumably you would have made a fortune with your superior build quality etc
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Knowing what they all do didn't stop you drawing a salary for however long you did. Why didn't you resign on principle or start your own building firm to show them the error of their ways? Presumably you would have made a fortune with your superior build quality etc

You have no idea!
I resigned "on principal" many times over a my long career as Site Manager/Project Manager/Contracts Manager.
I never wanted to "put my name" to any badly-built new homes.
It was bad enough that they were not worth the money they were being sold for, let alone being thrown up to meet targets and figures.

Yes I did start my own business and built a perfect house in 1991. Because of factors totally outside my control, the main one being an incompetent Chancellor, that raised interest rates from 8% to 15% and back to 12% in one day! unsurprisingly I had trouble selling it.
Unlike now, people could only buy, if they could pay the mortgage with interest rates of 7% - 10%. many had negative equity and repossessions flooded the market with cheap homes further reducing prices. There were no taxpayer funded subsidies like Help to Buy, in fact builders such as Barratt even funded their own version of shared equity.

The only money made was by lenders and all the other "parasites" that take a profit from the efforts of others, estate agents, solicitors, NHBC.
In the end I sold the house for what I could, resulting in my working for a whole year for nothing!
Worse still. the property was later let out and the tenant(s) trashed it!

So I can at least say that I did exactly what you suggested and have no "what ifs" or regrets.
At the end of the day, people need to eat and earn a living and anyone buying a new home I managed/built, would have got a good quality one, as I cared more about that than I did about any company I worked for.

I can remember when Taylor Woodrow was the biggest construction company in the world building homes under the Taywood Homes brand. People were rightly proud to work for them with the four men pulling a rope teamwork logo. Look at what they have now become after buying the dreadful Bryant Homes and merging with George Wimpey.
 
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marty316

New Member
It is a shame that your labours did not yield the reward that you felt it deserved. In fairness the builders are no different to many other industries. For example, there are many models of car that I would never consider buying as I am a materials engineer and can assure you that the specifications of materials used in the manufacture of many top marques these days are poor. Similar story for the windows, facia's etc of many house builders.

Unfortunately the modern world would not function without parasites such as lenders. I assume that your building project was funded by some means that involved you borrowing some money. I appreciate the comments and advice on the website as a source of information to be used along with other sources to allow an informed choice.

Out of interest, what would you say is an acceptable number of items on a snag list? Ideally it would be zero but this is the real world and when building a large item such as a house there are bound to be a few issues.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Out of interest, what would you say is an acceptable number of items on a snag list? Ideally it would be zero but this is the real world and when building a large item such as a house there are bound to be a few issues.

You are right the only "acceptable" number of snags is indeed zero.
What is acceptable will vary from buyer to buyer. Probably how house builders manage to claim "satisfaction" from people like the original poster!
It also depends on the seriousness of the snag.

100 decoration blemishes being better than one bad water leak for example.

As a rule of thumb a professional snagging inspector will find around 75 "snags" on a "per bedroom basis. Up to 300 snags for a 4 bedroom house.
Any more than this and the new home will be nothing but problems.
Any fewer and the snagging inspector is not very through or isn't any good!
 

crh

New Member
Where's your TW development then that is so perfect? No one moves into a new build house and has no problems. Judging by posting style your clearly a TW marketing employee
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Where's your TW development then that is so perfect? No one moves into a new build house and has no problems. Judging by posting style your clearly a TW marketing employee

My thoughts exactly and I apparently accused "Hunty" of being a liar!
 

new TW buyer

New Member
It's always interesting to hear reviews good and bad about TW seeing as I'm about to move into a new TW home myself. Like others on this thread I'm interested to know which site your home is from, particularly if it's managed from Bristol like my one is. If you don't want to say that site could you just name the county it's in.
 

Hunty

New Member
It's in warwickshire but I don't see why I need to tell everybody where I live especially when they think I'm a lier and fake anyway.

The fact that I've been accused of being a TW employee is ridiculous, I've been chastised on here by people who don't know me and reading some of the responses have made my blood boil, I can't believe how down right rude some people can be, even on an open forum.
Mind you it would help if people would read and understand information before commenting on it. I clearly stated in my posts that there were problems, although minor, and they were sorted out to our satisfaction, so crh I didn't say it had no problems.

I have no need to visit this forum again, especially given the attitudes of some people. In fact I would not have wasted my time in the first place if I had know this was the kind of reaction I was going to get.

Over and out.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
I think you mean "liar"
You say you won't be coming back then you do the opposite!
Posting another moan about people on this forum, who do not believe a word you are saying!
Say what you will, but don't get upset when people don't believe it.

For others, it doesn't matter where the site is or which region it is in, the service and quality (or lack of!) are likely to be much of a muchness.
You can do worse, but you can also do a lot better than buying a Taylor Wimpey new home too.
 

Bear Scotland

New Member
I think you mean "liar"
You say you won't be coming back then you do the opposite!
Posting another moan about people on this forum, who do not believe a word you are saying!
Say what you will, but don't get upset when people don't believe it.

For others, it doesn't matter where the site is or which region it is in, the service and quality (or lack of!) are likely to be much of a muchness.
You can do worse, but you can also do a lot better than buying a Taylor Wimpey new home too.

First up, congratulations on your new home Hunty. I am in the same boat as you and posted a good review of TW some months back, again based on my own experiences. I've been in my TW home for 6 months and love it! I too was met with negative comments in return.

Ignore the self proclaimed "new homes expert" - his negativity is tiresome.

NME - your petty correction of spelling, your negativity, arrogance and self righteousness show you to be a risible, pathetic individual. Hunty has posted his experiences, there was no need for you to comment at all. No question was asked, Hunty merely took the opportunity to share an experience as per the request in one of your many dull, negative threads. It comes across that you just want others to wallow in the same negativity that clearly beseeches your existence. Misery loves company and all!

Whether you believe Hunty or not, is irrelevant. There are plenty of bad reviews out there that people can make their minds up for themselves without you shooting down any slight ray of positivity, for your own agenda. You ask people to share their experiences, but actually you only want bad experiences. The way of the world is that people generally only write about things when they're bad, so it's refreshing to get some balance to the argument.

In future, perhaps a hearty congratulations, followed by a "in my limited experience, you're the exception to the rule" would have sufficed. Yes, I did say limited because regardless of your time in the industry you won't have covered the length and breadth of the country, and the wide variety of builders etc. I've worked for 18 years in financial services, but I couldn't comment on practices of all IFAs around the country, nor would I presume to know that every branch of Mercers, say, work in the same way. It comes down to individuals and sites, each have their strengths and weaknesses. To tar everything with same brush is ridiculous, although perhaps this is based on your standards when you were in industry.

So for future reference y'all, if you have a positive perspective on life, your not welcome here!

I look forward to the belittling of this post in due course, I'm sure it will make that petty mind of yours feel all the more important so you can request further payments/donations for all the marvellous advice you dispense so willingly and frequently.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Trolls to the left of me trolls to the right!
How you can say what you have about me when you have no knowledge of who I have worked for and where, just shows you up for what you are.
I should not have to justify myself to the likes of you!

Every year three or four people such as yourself make derogatory posts about me personally - some are even quite abusive.
No doubt you can now join the minority club of "NHE bashers"

I really do suspect the house builders are either coercing buyers into having a go or have staff who are posting.
Was it a coincidence that "post reply" comes just 24 hours after I tweeted about Taylor Wimpey's CEO Peter Redfern and a buyer who has had [so far] 8 months of remedial work in his shoddy defect-ridden Taylor Wimpey new home on Twitter.

I do acknowledge that somewhere in the country each year a few new homes are built with care and to a high standard.
Who knows, some may even be built by Taylor Wimpey or Persimmon.
But it will be by chance, not because of any managerial dictate to put building "quality" ahead of building "quantity" at speed and high profit.

For every person who post in the vain you have done, 100's of others are grateful for my advice and help.
And yes, some [a small few] of the people I help are kind enough to make a small donation to show their appreciation!
Please note that I do not request donations unless I am personally asked for repeated specific advice and even then, it is not a requirement to make a donation..
 

somersetgirl

New Member
No doubt you can now join the minority club of "NHE bashers"

I didn't realise there is an actual club, where do I sign up?

Also NHE love how someone else was to blame when your perfect house didn't make money! Not your bad business plan or anything!

Lastly, people who have 'resigned on principle' from lots of jobs tend to have jumped before they were pushed!

Lets see if you can keep your promise this time and refuse to reply to my post?!
 
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