New Homes - No Consumer Protection

[martynh99]

When you buy a new home, you get a 2 year warranty provided by the builder. If you have a dispute with your builder, the NHBC can step in to arbitrate but they are paid for by the builders(about 10% of your house price goes to them). Houses can be handed over from the builders with hundreds of defects and getting them rectified can take months/years. You have more consumer rights buying a tin of beans from your supermarket.

 

Please sign the petition at :-

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ensure that new house purchasers get more consumer protection.

[rosiecotton]

This is true; normal consumer legislation does not apply to property contracts, or any goods supplied as part of a property contract.

 

I agree that it leaves a lot to be desired.

[Glenn UK]

FWIW

 

Im not sure that this is entirely true

 

The builder can purchase a warranty from the NHBC, but they do not have to.

 

the fact that only the zurich i belive offer similar warranties is part of the reason the NHBC are dominant in the housing market.

 

I am not sure that in effect the building has to provide a warrant by either the NHBC or the Zurich, I could ask a contact or two (I work with a large number of residential developers so would no doubt be able to find their take on it if its of any use).

 

its alsow worth noting that the NHBC are what is called an approved inspector and so they will in theory at least, approve the design of the home and the systems put into it eg draninage, water, eletrical circuits, heating etc, and then to also inspect the houses prior to occupation.

 

however, i am led to believe that their inspection role is not particualrly good and that in reality only a small proportion of houses are actually inspected.

 

Whereas local authoirty building controls will inspect a high proportion of buildings within their jurisdiciton duting the contraction phase.

 

Not all houses with NHBC warranties are dealt with them during the construction phase though.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[martynh99]

Ok, I don't know the full technicalities of if a builder has to provide an NHBC or Zurich warranty, I'm speaking from experience of purchasing from one of the big builders.

They are an NHBC site, the property had a professional snag inspection and they found in excess of 350 snags. The house had been inspected by NHBC supposedly who passed it, snags included DPC below ground level(all 12 houses on the estate are the same), roofs not sealed to the supporting brickwork, substandard plumbing(most of the 12 houses have had same problems including major leaks).

 

Having been in property 8 months, many of the major snags were still outstanding. It was only when I called up the Chief Exec at home during corrie one evening that anything started to happen !

 

The NHBC are there to arbitrate when there is a deadlock but they are funded by the builders.

 

The petition is to get an independant body to oversee the industry and put some pressure on the builders to get it right first time.

 

For most people a house purchase is the single biggest purchase they will ever make, if you bought a car with 350 defects would you accept it ?

[Glenn UK]

OK, I don't know the full technicalities of if a builder has to provide an NHBC or Zürich warranty, I'm speaking from experience of purchasing from one of the big builders.

They are an NHBC site, the property had a professional snag inspection and they found in excess of 350 snags. I am not surprised The house had been inspected by NHBC supposedly See my comments above again i wouldn't be surprised if they visited the day the last tile was put on the roof who passed it, snags included DPC below ground level(all 12 houses on the estate are the same), roofs not sealed to the supporting brickwork, substandard plumbing(most of the 12 houses have had same problems including major leaks).

 

Having been in property 8 months, many of the major snags were still outstanding. It was only when I called up the Chief Exec at home during corrie one evening that anything started to happen !

 

The NHBC are there to arbitrate when there is a deadlock but they are funded by the builders. I guess this is in effect true, but the NHBC are in fact a private company and any arbitration would only be in respect of their guarantees i believe.

 

The petition is to get an independent body to oversee the industry and put some pressure on the builders to get it right first time.

 

For most people a house purchase is the single biggest purchase they will ever make, if you bought a car with 350 defects would you accept it ?

 

I hope you don't think i was trying to defend in any way the NHBC/house purchasing situation in any way.

 

I bought my 1st house 20 odd years ago with an NHBC guarantee. i found out just how useless they were then.

 

since then i haven't bought a house on the basis it has a guarantee from the NHBC, the guarantee is only fit for wiping your a..... sorry nose on as far as i can tell.

 

just so you understand where I'm was coming from we are consultant engineers who provide advice to developers and this is how my involvement with the NHBC comes about.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[martynh99]

I hope you don't think i was trying to defend in any way the NHBC/house purchasing situation in any way.

 

I bought my 1st house 20 odd years ago with an NHBC guarantee. i found out just how useless they were then.

 

since then i haven't bought a house on the basis it has a guarantee from the NHBC, the guarantee is only fit for wiping your a..... sorry nose on as far as i can tell.

 

just so you understand where I'm was coming from we are consultant engineers who provide advice to developers and this is how my involvement with the NHBC comes about.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

 

Glenn, No I didn't think you were defending them at all, just wanted to clarify where I was coming from etc, none of my post was directed at you in any way

 

NHBC inspected and certified the property 2 days before we moved in.

 

NHBC will arbitrate if you can't reach an agreement with the builder in the first 2 years (which is when the builder is still responsible for faults). I found this out when dealing with the arrogant excuse of an MD who told me that if I didn't accept what they were telling me they would stop all works and get NHBC to arbitrate - thats when I rang the CE of the whole group up at home one evening.

[martynh99]

Response from Number 10 to the petition can be viewed here

newhome - epetition response