Keepmoat - mis-selling, unrealistic deadlines and the NHBC

[xandersi]

I will not go into the full complaint as it is way too long, so I will try to give the brief details:

 

-Reserved a house from Keepmoat end of May 2013 - plan we were shown showed windows to the side of the property, 4 in total as well as at the front and back.

-We chose to go with their "EasyKey" scheme. The scheme means they market your property. Keepmoat delayed putting our house on the market by 3 weeks because of the incompetence of one of their staff

-Towards end of August we can see our plot - before then we could not get close enough to see as the road was blocked off, the house was missing 4 windows, this meant the bathroom was now internal!

-We complained - their response was to become aggressive and blame us for their mis-selling

-We eventually spoke to a manager higher up who offered to refund the kitchen upgrade we paid for (£550) and to install a solar tube in the bathroom

-Mid September the buyer for our house pulled out - Keepmoat gave us two days to find another buyer - we later found out that under the Consumer Code for Home Builders they can not do this but at the time we did not know so we accepted a really low offer on our house so we could keep the chain going

-About 6 weeks later we are told that we were never offered the solar tube, they were just looking into the possibility of doing it. They could not install one but we could have LED lights instead . We were not happy but we really wanted to move so carried on with the sale.

-Roll on 17th October - we were told that we had until the 25th to complete (the house hadn't even been signed off) then they extended it to the 31st. We could not complete because our buyer's solicitor could not complete by then (they needed another 3 weeks ironically). Even though Keepmoat had caused a 3 week delay under the EasyKey there was no flexibility, we had to the 31st to complete or they would re-market.

-Keepmoat sold the house to someone else even though they still had our reservation fee - again something they can not do under the Code for Home Builders

 

 

We created a website which included the recordings of the aggressive and patronising sales staff, emails and photos. Keepmoat agreed to pay our out of pocket expenses because they had not refunded us the reservation fee which they had to under the Consumer Code. However, they refused to acknowledged the rest of our complaint. They also threatened to take us to court if we did not take our site down and advised that their staff might contact the police.

 

We have asked Keepmoat for their version of events as they accused us of libel and what crime we have committed. We are still waiting for a response.

 

I have contacted the NHBC as Keepmoat completely ignored the Consumer Code of Home Builders. The NHBC have said because we didn't buy a house from Keepmoat we can not claim without paying to go through the adjudication process. The code covers the pre-sales service but it turns out only if you buy the house. I do not want to pay as Keepmoat have already offered to cover our costs so their seems little point.

 

I hoped there might be away to stop Keepmoat doing what they did to us to another customer. I hoped that the NHBC would might be able to help with that.

 

This thread is more of a warning to others rather than a request for help but do you think trading standards would be interested? I believe Trading Standards can enforce the property Mis-descriptions Act (which still applied at the time) and Consumer Protection Regulations 2008, but I'm feeling a little deflated. It seems that house builders can do what they like with no comeback.