New build houses

Yep. I have to sign off customer care work on their time sheets. Some are alright as it gets them off site for a while, especially when the weather's bitter but I've had some huge rows with others for being incompetent.

The directors of the company are good at getting rid of lazy or useless staff as the money they make from the developers is ridiculous.


Money is ridiculous and disproportionate amongst the trades. We’ve got joiners on over £100k bricklayers in a 3 man squad each making over £70k it’s mental.
 


That bad? They've got a couple of developments going up in Gateshead (Saltwell and somewhere else), which I'd possibly have considered

We moved into one of Linden’s Gateshead estates in December. Apart from the move in date being pushed back a few months later than we were given because the house wasn’t finished (which I put more down to sales being over optimistic than the builders being slow), we love it. Had the usual snag list most new builds get but the bigger ones were fixed pretty swiftly, including a plumbing issue we had over the Christmas holidays. The site manager even gave us his personal phone number for over that period in case owt happened. We’re still waiting on some medium/minor snags to be fixed which would have been by now if coronavirus hadn’t happened, but that’s out of everyone’s control. Just hoping once it settles down they haven’t forgotten due to the time that’ll have passed since they were last allowed in.
 
Waste of time and money. You’re basically tasking someone to pick up on any tiny faults that you hadn’t noticed and didn’t give a toss about until they pointed it out. Newbuilds get independent inspections throughout the whole building process by independent bodies who issue a level of guarantee against future problems. I’ve personally seen many new customers who’ve purchased a newbuild and have keys handed over and are over the moon with the property. Have follow up visits called 7 and 28 day visit and asked to provide a snagging list of any defects or problems that they may have, then told zero problems love the house it’s perfect. Then they google snagging and one of these “Professional” snagging experts gets a job and comes up with a list of 200+ problems that the client didn’t have any issues with prior. Hair on a wall, tiny imperfections in a pain of glass, a door jar 2mm out, absolute wast of time and money if you didn’t notice before but now those things are on your mind and you now hate the house you’ve just paid all that money for.


For good reason. They are full of shite mostly untrained goons with ocd. Anybody can pick faults with anything. Why pay someone to pull your house to bits and point out imperfections you’ve not noticed or bothered you before?

Never bought a new build but going off this thread the number of people who have and had serious issues is higher than those who were happy.
 
Bellway are f***ing shit. Absolute cowboys.
I also got stung with a leasehold - it wasn't highlighted (and I'd totally missed it - being a knacker) spotted it just as we were about to exchange/complete; still went ahead with it.
I would give you 3 bits of advice.

1. Don’t buy a leasehold.
2. Don’t buy a leasehold.
3. Don’t buy a leasehold.

It’s interesting to note that the person who owns 2 billion quid of leaseholds is Lord Astor, the brother-in-law of David Cameron who was Prime Minister when the Lease new-build scam began.

Strange coincidence that. Save yourself a lifetime of misery trying to battle against the rich, privileged and corrupt to own your own home.
I got spanked buying the lease off the mgmt company, however it felt the right thing to do as it was was a relatively short lease and it would have caused issues when trying to sell it.
 
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Never bought a new build but going off this thread the number of people who have and had serious issues is higher than those who were happy.


It’s a house built outside in changing weather and conditions. It’s not a Ferrari built in a factory under spotlight and magnifying glass like some people like to compare it to. You have to expect there will be some shrinkage to skirting and and a run in the paint somewhere. The house is new and needs to settle. They may have some micro cracking in the plaster boards until they fully dry out. this is explained during the buying process and told that all issues will be fixed. Some people want everything done that day because it’s a new house and cost £300’000 and you wouldn’t get this if you spent it on a Ferrari. That’s my point. Especially those who get a “professional snagger”
 
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I also got stung with a leasehold - it wasn't highlighted (and I'd totally missed it - being a knacker) spotted it just as we were about to exchange/complete; still went ahead with it.

I got spanked buying the lease off the mgmt company, however it felt the right thing to do as it was was a relatively short lease and it would have caused issues when trying to sell it.
Same here mate. Had to take out a 10k loan to extend it in my last place before I could sell it on.
 
Avant have been excellent, good quality and no issues getting any snagging sorted. I am in my second one now.
I’d hope so for the price of them. Looked at the ones at Vigo they wanted 250k and the house didn’t have a garage. Sales woman said sometimes you have to make compromises. Not for a quarter of a million for a house in Vigo!
 
seen a big double extension last Saturday that had just been finished and its probs took money of the price of the house ffs.

When stuff is a mess like that its generally when people think they can get their own bricklayers /joiners etc from a mate of a cousin and nonsense like that.Ive only ever seen it end in disaster.
My brother has a groundwork’s form and he’s having to completely remove a concrete floor that was laid by a few lads, the floor is about 2 inches out end to end and comes above the bottom of the door when you try and open it. 😂
 
My brother has a groundwork’s form and he’s having to completely remove a concrete floor that was laid by a few lads, the floor is about 2 inches out end to end and comes above the bottom of the door when you try and open it. 😂
Not many people can concrete floors properly che.Part of the secret is the mix needs to be right.Oversanded with extra cement and it’s like Lurpak.
 

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