Woods Meadow Lowestoft - Build Delays

[Suffolkseaside]

Hoping for some advice from anyone who has purchased a house at Woods Meadow in Lowestoft.
Our plot has sat idle for weeks over the summer, we exchanged at the beginning of June and since that date Persimmon decided to stop work on our plot. While monitoring the build we have seen other houses released for sale after our plot progress nicely, they are even concentrating build resource on houses that are not even sold while we appear to have chosen a plot that is being built at a snail's pace. Foundations were down in late March/April and we still have no roof when we checked on progress today. When we reserved we were told the site was ahead of schedule and we were originally given 30th Sept as expected completion date. This date changed to 31st Oct on the day we exchanged after we had already agreed a long stop move date with our buyers. We were OK to wait until mid-late October but now we are being told it is unlikely to be ready before our mortgage offer expires mid Nov.

We chased all summer to try and find out why there was such a lack of progress on our house, still don't know why but stupidly thought they work logically and would concentrate on completing houses already sold/exchanged over houses still for sale.

So my question, is anyone else having issues with their build being delayed on this site and if you are what excuses are you being given?

Before anyone adds any comments like 'don't buy a Persimmon house' it's too late we have already exchanged and as this is our 4th Persimmon new build we know there are snaggs but I have to say on past experience the build quality is OK in and around Lowestoft and any problems had in the past were sorted quickly.

If anyone else has had their build delayed like this we would appreciate any advice you may have. We have chased via our solicitor and we chase Persimmon Head Office weekly so not sure what else we can do to speed the build up?

 

[newbuildinspections]

Persimmon slow build progress

Hoping for some advice from anyone who has purchased a house at Woods Meadow in Lowestoft.
Our plot has sat idle for weeks over the summer, we exchanged at the beginning of June and since that date Persimmon decided to stop work on our plot. While monitoring the build we have seen other houses released for sale after our plot progress nicely, they are even concentrating build resource on houses that are not even sold while we appear to have chosen a plot that is being built at a snail's pace. Foundations were down in late March/April and we still have no roof when we checked on progress today. When we reserved we were told the site was ahead of schedule and we were originally given 30th Sept as expected completion date. This date changed to 31st Oct on the day we exchanged after we had already agreed a long stop move date with our buyers. We were OK to wait until mid-late October but now we are being told it is unlikely to be ready before our mortgage offer expires mid Nov.

We chased all summer to try and find out why there was such a lack of progress on our house, still don't know why but stupidly thought they work logically and would concentrate on completing houses already sold/exchanged over houses still for sale.

So my question, is anyone else having issues with their build being delayed on this site and if you are what excuses are you being given?

Before anyone adds any comments like 'don't buy a Persimmon house' it's too late we have already exchanged and as this is our 4th Persimmon new build we know there are snaggs but I have to say on past experience the build quality is OK in and around Lowestoft and any problems had in the past were sorted quickly.

If anyone else has had their build delayed like this we would appreciate any advice you may have. We have chased via our solicitor and we chase Persimmon Head Office weekly so not sure what else we can do to speed the build up?

I assume that you spoken higher up the food chain with regional managing director asking why your property is being delayed

I have to say its more likley to be a build reason rather than a sales reason ...they want to get sales in the bag normally

Legally unless a stop date was built into your contract you have little redress with builders open ended contracts

If the new appg is adopted ...builders contracts could become fairer for home buyers

 

[uyq06fku]

Hi, we are also waiting on a house to be built on this same development, we exchanged contracts shortly after you. Must admit there were times in the summer when we would pop down to have a look at progress and feel a little disappointed but things seem to be ramping up at the moment.

We were told by solicitors to take the end date with a pinch of salt, but end December was implied likely back in June/July.

How have things progressed since your last post? I feel it will be a good insight to what we should expect ourselves!

 

[Suffolkseaside]

Hi, we are also waiting on a house to be built on this same development, we exchanged contracts shortly after you. Must admit there were times in the summer when we would pop down to have a look at progress and feel a little disappointed but things seem to be ramping up at the moment.

We were told by solicitors to take the end date with a pinch of salt, but end December was implied likely back in June/July.

How have things progressed since your last post? I feel it will be a good insight to what we should expect ourselves!

Hi, thanks for your reply.

We are due to have another look at our plot this weekend, we went a couple of weeks ago and it was nice to actually see some progress after all these weeks. We have been told they are hoping ours is ready end of Nov, we are hoping it's ready before then as it's not nice being homeless! I just wish they were honest up front, they don't seem to understand the impact these delays have on people's lives and through all the reservation process we were told they were on schedule (well actually ahead of schedule) so from being told originally end of September we really didn't think we would be looking at end of Nov! It's obvious now the end of year rush has started on site, perhaps if they planned better during the summer months there wouldn't be this massive rush for end of December!

 

[Story homes hater]

Hoping for some advice from anyone who has purchased a house at Woods Meadow in Lowestoft.
Our plot has sat idle for weeks over the summer, we exchanged at the beginning of June and since that date Persimmon decided to stop work on our plot. While monitoring the build we have seen other houses released for sale after our plot progress nicely, they are even concentrating build resource on houses that are not even sold while we appear to have chosen a plot that is being built at a snail's pace. Foundations were down in late March/April and we still have no roof when we checked on progress today. When we reserved we were told the site was ahead of schedule and we were originally given 30th Sept as expected completion date. This date changed to 31st Oct on the day we exchanged after we had already agreed a long stop move date with our buyers. We were OK to wait until mid-late October but now we are being told it is unlikely to be ready before our mortgage offer expires mid Nov.

We chased all summer to try and find out why there was such a lack of progress on our house, still don't know why but stupidly thought they work logically and would concentrate on completing houses already sold/exchanged over houses still for sale.

So my question, is anyone else having issues with their build being delayed on this site and if you are what excuses are you being given?

Before anyone adds any comments like 'don't buy a Persimmon house' it's too late we have already exchanged and as this is our 4th Persimmon new build we know there are snaggs but I have to say on past experience the build quality is OK in and around Lowestoft and any problems had in the past were sorted quickly.

If anyone else has had their build delayed like this we would appreciate any advice you may have. We have chased via our solicitor and we chase Persimmon Head Office weekly so not sure what else we can do to speed the build up?

Hi Emily

First thing to do (this is for every body who has any problems with Builders and/or the NHBC) ask them for SAR (this is a request for all information held by them on you and your house, they cant refuse you as it is your right) When requesting please do not forget to ask for ALL information that has Any and Every reference to you and your building.

From this information you will be able to gather what has been going on behind the scenes, and from that you should be able (as I have against Story Homes and the NHBC) start a case or a conversation with then on a More Informed Basis, then, should you have taken out a home insurance before purchasing, contact the insurance company as they may cover legal expenses, if not take the NHBC reports and the communications from the builder to a No Win No Fee solicitor who specialises in building disputes. Also (I had no luck) you could try the Ombudsman (takes ages and are useless) which was a waste of time for me, but you never know you may be luckier than me. Or you could try the Citizen Advice of course, after you have the SAR information so the Citizens Advice people have something to go on.

Hope this helps

Neil (FIBC FIC retired)