The Way, Beswick, Manchester

New Build Inspections

The Way Beswick

New Member
Hi anyone bought/buying or thinking of buying a new Lovell Property in Beswick? this is Lovells Falgship development in Manchester....

If so what's your experience been? long delays? poor quality workmanship? Never ending snagging list? Can't get your outstanding jobs finshed?

Let us know!!!!!
 

Tony

Administrator
I can't really help, but don't be fooled by:

Lovell's flagship development in Manchester

I bet it is their only one! It is just marketing speak.

Sorry I can't be more help

Tony
 
T

The Way Beswick

Guest
Hi Tony

thanks for your response,

actually the concept and design of the development are very impressive, that's why I bought into it, however the reality is far from cosmic. After starting consrtuction in October 2004, on a development of 500 homes, to date no more than 30 purchasers have moved in.

The endless problems that the developer has come up against during this time have been overwhelming to say the least, but guess who feels the brunt of all of that, yes, the purchaser.

Lovell took on a ambitious project, using modern building techniques etc. It's partners include: New East Manchester, Manchester City Council, 2 Social Landlords, and The Housing Corporation

To cut a long story a little shorter, we agreed that most snags could be done when we were around, however the major problems such as the new kitchen, rear elevation windows needing to be replaced, 4th front door, garden re-turfed, painting of hose, re-tiling of en-suite bathroom, new flexible door systme between bed 1 & 3 (because original wasn't flexible at all), bay window floor to be strengthend etc.....would be carried out during our holiday in April and everything would be complete!! :p

Guess what, on our return, about 30hour journey, we arrived home, excitied, that Lovell had kindly agreed to re-design the kitchen (great)! and all other outstanding jobs complete.......WRONG!!!:angry:

The house was filthy, plants, furniture etc not put back right, in desperate need for a shower, I headed to the en-suite to check it out, afterall it had been re-tiled, oh no!!!! I can't get into the shower, the door has dropped, the front door of the house, still lets light in at all angles, the bay window floor still moves, the painting had not been completed, the lawn, was laid on top of the old lawn, not even levlled off, and I could go on........

After speaking with Lovell Regional Director, who had personally inspected the house the night before, and previously gave his personal assurance that he would restore our faith in Lovell, the tune changed!!! In his opinion the house was in a perfect state and nothing more would be done, end of!!!!!

We recently received a letter from Lovell Operations manager, informaing us that Lovell would only be carrying out some of the snags highlighted in the e-mail to the Regional Director and no futher action would be taken to rectify the others, including most of my blinds, which had suffered some sort of damage. :dry:
After 5 months, we still have no street lighting, the roads are not finished and the secure parking does not exist as the gates are not operational and in fact, some still need to be installed.

I am now having to go through NHBC, which I'm not to confident about.

The ironic thing is, I was sold a quality home, which in many way this is, but been let down by the quality of workmanship, and lack of progress.

I can assure you that I am not the only one suffering the effects of this development, the stress and time factors alone wear you out!!!

Cheers

Gary
 
L

Lil Dee

Guest
I can relate to the above post in soooo many ways. I've managed to move into my 'new' but by no means perfectly formed house - it was only SIX MONTHS late, but hey, they got there in the end, right !? WRONG !!

The problems start from the front door, and go right through to the en-suite on the top floor of our house. For the most part it's small niggly things, like the sealant being applied in the bathroom, BEFORE the bathroom was cleaned, so the sealant goes from white to murky beige within two inches, and then stays this colour, all the way around our white bath, with a collection of dust a bits of plaster mixed in with it. Hmmmm.

Getting them back in to rectify these issues didn't initially seem to be a problem. Then I came home, for example, to find that the replacement sealant had only been done where you would immediatly see. Forget the bit that you don't see when you walk into the bathroom - that bit doesn't count apparently :huh:

But, my biggest concern is the amount, and size of the settlement cracks that are appearing. :eek:hmy: It's quite scary to look at them without wondering if they've done as bad a job with the main body of the house, which of course, we won't see, because it's all encased behind cracked plasterboard walls...

The last six months have been a dreadful time for us, with me feeling near to breaking point over silly little things (like dropping an egg on the kitchen floor) turning me into a blubbering wreck. How my O/H has lived with me, I will never figure! I thought that finally moving into our new 'home' would help with this, but the complete abject incompetance being shown by the 'snag team' that are supposed to rectifying the problems for us, is casuing me even more stress.

The 'You owe us more money' scenario on completion day just about says it all...they demanded additional monies from us before they'd release the keys. :sick: Once my solicitor and I had gone through the figures without the 'no more money, no completion' demand hanging over us, however, it turned out that they owed us three times the amount they had demanded on completion day!!

In fact, the only good thing I have to say about these guys is that they employ a reasonable standard of sales staff, who I have never failed to feel sorry for, having to take the constant complaints and everything else that goes with their role, never seem to do anything but smile as I walk through the door. Or maybe, it's because I'm one of the few that has realised there's no point shouting at them, as they're just doing their job. It's the boss I concentrated on. Still got me nowhere in the grand scheme of things.
 

mazza

New Member
Hi, I wont bore you with the details, but in my view after purchasing a Lovell house and living an absolute nightmare with it for the last 18 months, my advise would be to get a full structural survey done, and get a snagging inspection report done, if you can before you sign on the dotted line, and arrange to have a retention held back.

As in my experience

They never come back to do the work
Will argue and argue about doing the work
Create even more problems than you had originally
Turn your dream into a nightmare

Good Luck
 

Colin Jack

New Member
Lil Dee,

The sales staff don't give a sh*t. If you watch them long enough you will start to see the eyes rolling, hear the yeh yeh yeh attitude or even worse when your blood pressure is about to go through the roof they turn to their colleague and say 'So did you have a good holiday, where did you go, was the weather nice' or as Catherine Tate would say 'Am a bovered!'. As long as they are getting paid, they don't care. That goes for Customer Care as well.

Ooops my sides have split again.
 

mtmcgill

New Member
Thinking of buying at The Way Beswick

Hi,

Has anyone got any updates on the sales / after sales / workmanship / finance / purchase price etc etc etc... anything to help me decide on purchase or not!

Mark
 

AK47

New Member
Hi,

I'm looking at potentially buying a property at this development with the lovells shared equity scheme. Can anyone give any info the the workmanship / structural stabilty / neigbourhood / pricing etc ....or any advice that might help in my decision.
Many thanks,

Ak
 

billabang

New Member
Hi

I've just bought a property on this development and am due to complete very soon.

Overall I have to say I am pleased regardless of the disappointments I have had with the process.

The house is about 6 weeks behind the original schedule which isn't too much in the grand scheme of things however it's being misled with dates that has annoyed me the most.

I actually wanted to move in today but the building manager refused it as it was to the standards they expect yet. I said I didn't care, they can continue working whilst I'm in however they still wouldn't let me in.

The building manager has supposedly won Building Manager of the Year 2 years running (Whether that's for region or area or whatever, I don't know).

I've been in the property a few times and it really does seem spot on. There are only a few minor things wrong which are being fixed before I'm even allowed to move in. Of course I will still complete a full snagging list but they seem to have changed their attitude given what has been written on here before. I did mention this forum to the sales people when I first started looking there and it was supposedly due to a poor building manager before the current one.

So to wrap it up, I've been genuinely upset a few times by being misled on dates that I could move in to the property or when it would be finished however they aren't willing to simply take my money and run. Even when I offered it. They still wanted to make it "perfect" (note the quotation marks) before I move in.

All in all in a months time from now, I believe (or would like to believe) that I will be very happy with my purchase.
 

wee

New Member
Hi guys
I'm currently in the interest of buying a house under this developer.
off topic question really,
I want to know if you guys pay the full asking price or did you manage to get some discount?
Thanks for answering
 

MrLuck

New Member
Under no circumstances would I recommend anyone buys a house from Lovell. The standard of the finish is terrible, and the customer "service" is even worse.

I came on this forum prior to making my purchase in 2014, though I was at first worried by what I read I foolishly mentioned this to the sales team to gauge their response and was confidently assured that they used to have a different site manager and that the problems were behind them.

Don’t be fooled by this line as I was. Their work is nothing short of shoddy, on the home visit pre-purchase I pointed out numerous mistakes, mistakes which I was assured would be rectified before I moved in. The day then came for legal completion and nothing had been fixed, but as I now had nowhere to live and nowhere to house my all of my possessions I had no other option but to complete the purchase in good faith, assured by the sales staff that the issues would be fixed after I moved in. Once I moved in however I was told they would not be fixing the issues.

My experience since has been that they never return calls and that they duck an weave to avoid having to do anything at all, they already have my money now after all.

My neighbors on both sides have encountered much the same problems that I have, they too have said that they found the customer service to be rude and almost hostile. I like others before me am having to get the NHBC involved.

Its such a shame because it’s a nice plot of land with a south facing garden and a good sized building on it and two great neighbors either side but Lovell have done their level best to ruin it.
 
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NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
used to have a different site manager and that the problems were behind them

That old chestnut! They employed him in the first place and then let him run riot before finally doing something.
Lovell are responsible for this.
Another new housebuilder to avoid - at least they don't build that many each year!
 
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