Anyone had any positive dealings with the above house builder , most reviews online are shocking.
Sadly most new builds have shocking reviews we have an Avant homes and a David Wilson development around the corner from us and they get slated as well, we went in to look at them and the standard of work was truly shocking, they can't get the labour like they used to so they just take on people who can't do the job properly and don't care!
Come on, new houses are absolute rubbish through and through. Built to maximise profit with zero concern for longevity.
I know the build quality isn’t what it used to be but surely the NHBC guarantee covers any shoddy workmanship?
I wouldn't buy a new home as shoddy is an understatement the quality is just awful and as mentioned above they are just out for a quick profit and they don't give a damn about doing a good job.Originally Posted by Steveh
From everything I've read, and there was a documentary a couple of years ago, the NHBC is a joke. More or less.
I wouldn't buy a new house.
I am involved with refurbishments and new builds as part of my business and the standard of work from many tradesmen now is very poor - its a constant struggle to maintain quality.
Perhaps if the traditional apprenticeship system had been maintained with less emphasis on university degrees for all (Media Studies or Advertising anyone?) and less denigration of vocational careers by the usual suspects then we would all be better off.
NHBC will cover most of the 'snagging' issues you'll have, but can't fix the annemic lack of adhesive on the dot and dab, the plastic roof tiles, the barely meeting building regs construction that does not levee itself will to future changes in layout.
If you want a ready to live I house that is warm and dry, but are not bothered about what is under the skin then it will be fine, just don't expect it to booty need major refurb in 20 years.
...........and then there`s the location in which most of these type of houses are built - characterless, sterile, inert, barren, wastelands devoid of any greenery or natural features.
Stacked back-to-back overlooking one another with laughably-sized `gardens` they must be hellish to exist in. I say `exist` because there`s no quality of life in an environment like that.
On top of that, there are the house builders that manage to avoid building to the already barely good enough national space standards because of a widely known and constantly exploited loophole. We are a nation of people that look at the homes our parents and grand parents live in and assume the new homes that we are buying will provide the same but will also happily settle for less. I’ve often relayed the experience of a friend of mine who moved into a brand new Barrett home in Bexhill and who was battling with them a year later about defects. My observation of the ‘beautifully designed contemporary home’ included the plastic surround to his front door, the fake chimney, the tiny rooms, the loft space filled with roof trusses and sufficient space to stack a couple of shoe boxes, the nail heads showing through the plasterboard where movement had caused them to pop out, the shoddy fitting around doors, windows and skirtings and the lawn that turned from freshly laid verdancy to dying, curling brown in the space of a couple of months.
I googled Linden Home reviews and wasn’t surprised by anything I read. I imagine googling any main housebuilder will provide similar tales. One hopes that this social-media age will prompt an uplift in efforts by the house builders.
We’ve had direct dealings with them.
So has our Barrister and Solicitor still ongoing 2 years later.
My step sister has a Linden home and has had nothing but bother. Their attempts to remedy the problems were a joke and it took several years of stress to get the house how it should have been on day 1.
She's looking to move....
Hence why there is now space in the market for companies like Premier Guarantee
What disappoints me most about new housing developments, apart from the quality/standards, is the space provided........or lack of it! Room sizes are usually too small, gardens are too small, garages are too small to fit a modern car in, there’s inadequate parking space provided and the access ‘roads’ don’t lend themselves to car parking either! What is being offered is a complete mess, a product that doesn’t meet the needs of the customer.......yet people still buy the damned things!
The car parking is a real problem; despite the high-minded ideals of discouraging the use of cars, in many cases the use of a car to get to and from work is the only realistic option. Most people live a few miles from their place of work, public transport either isn’t available or isn’t reliable, so everyone ends up needing a car. The majority of households now have two cars out of necessity, typically a household has two people working, so it’s no surprise that the stereotypical modern housing development is littered with cars. Problems then arise when visitors arrive, there’s nowhere for them to park, and disputes develop between neighbours.
None of this is rocket science; regulations need to change, garages should be a minimum of 19’ x 10’ to accomodate modern cars. The practice of converting a garage into an extra room should be discouraged, the garage is there for a reason. Access roads should be wider to provide more space for vehicles and to accomodate on- street parking without creating problems. Many 1970s developments meet this criteria, it’s the more modern ones that don’t.
Anyone looking to buy a new house is offered something with inadequate parking space, a garage that’s too small to use, and rooms that are ‘cosy’ to say the least. It’ll have a downstairs toilet and an en- suite bathroom, they all have thesedays, but that’s scant consolation for the lack of space. It’ll also be shoddily built and riddled with ‘snags’...........where’s the upside!
I’ve had two new-builds over the years but I definitely wouldn’t have another unless it was individually built to my specifications and I was overseeing the construction. I can’t think of another product where there’s such a chasm between what the customer really wants and what’s actually being provided.
Around 12/13 years ago I bought a brand new Linden home in Bristol. Overall I’d say the buying experience was fairly painless. I did have a lot of trouble with a set of badly adjusted French doors but there was never any trouble getting the maintenance man out.
I’m not sure how Linden compare against other builders but having looked round other new builds over the years and seeing some of the issues they can’t be much worse.
This, this just sums up all modern new build estates perfectly, plus lets not forget the price of the things...
When I last moved I went to look at the new build estates across from where I am now, three of the developers were building out the back of an industrial park, how can that be a nice place to live?
So I moved to the older part which had been built 20 years previously, where the estate was thought out, double garage, everyone has a driveway and you basically can look out and not see a car parked up on the road unless its a delivery...
The problem is developers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Greenbelts can't be easily moved so developments are going on scraps of land here and there. They have to fit hundreds of homes on small sites, and in some cases give a percentage away to Housing Associations. One solution would be to build higher, but planners don't want it. So the only option is to build small boxes. They're not perfect but they're better than the slums of the 20's, the Tenements or the 30's, or the terraces of the 40's, or the high rise blocks of the 60's and 70's.
Most towns and cities are looking for large sites to build on, but locals don't want that either. You don't have to drive far to find NIMBY's putting signs throughout their village opposing nearby developments.
Space is now a luxury, see how people are living in Asia to realise a how desirable a new build in the UK is.
Exactly Chris.
But there is a way out......win the lottery.
Or get the job of CEO at Persimmons. Starting salary? £ 47,000,000 a year. Yes that's right, £47,000,000.
Last edited by BrianT; 11th September 2018 at 11:41.
That's an awful lot of tish houses.
n2
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Well I bought a ticket the other day, but failing that my daughters will be going to the school which Jeff Fairburn attended, and Persimmon HQ is close by so maybe one of them will be CEO in the future.
I bought a Linden Home build in 2012 and am still living in it. Generally, it's been reasonably positive.
After leaving my parent's home, I've only lived in new builds - before this house I had a Persimmon built flat in Wiltshire. There are definitely things I'd rather weren't part of the package but, oh well, needs must.
Good bits:
- Fit and finish of the property is pretty decent and 6 years later it's fairing pretty well. The handful of estate agents I've had around to value the place (yay, divorce) cooed about it, although I don't know if they just tell everyone that to schmooze them.
- Soundproofing is pretty decent; I'm in a mid terrace with families either side and rarely hear any noise and they can't hear my hi-fi either.
- Obviously this'll vary from design to design, but rooms are a decent size and aren't compromised with overly intrusive rooflines.
- There are plenty electrical, TV and phone sockets in every room.
- Basic running costs are pretty decent thanks to modern windows, insulation, at least some LED lighting and a heat exchanger.
- when purchasing, I used the solicitors Linden pushed me towards (I think possibly I got some money towards fees as an incentive) and they were excellent, it's just a shame Linden's solicitors weren't (see below). I recommend https://www.ericrobinson.co.uk/ if you need a conveyancing solicitor.
- The handover snagging and subsequent rectification was very thorough and generally speaking things got fixed first time and without argument. However, I think the head of customer services left towards the end of the first year and their replacement was clueless to say the least. I don't know if they've since been replaced; one can hope.
- I part exchanged my flat for this house and Linden honoured a price they'd given me a few months previously when I was looking at another site on the same estate, which worked out to be a good thing.
Bad bits:
- Although the solicitors Linden recommended as part of the move were excellent, their own solicitors were disorganised, made mistakes and were unbelievably slow. During this time, Linden's sales people were warning that various incentives were predicated on completion by the end of a given month. I and my solicitors were ready, Linden's solicitors were not, repeatedly. Thankfully it was fairly easy to get the sales people to go away and lean on their company to get things moving and leave me alone.
- New builds pretty much always come with management companies, and those companies are generally - funnily enough - a subsidiary of the builder. And lo, such was the case for my build - Linden are a subsiduary of Galliford Try and the management company were too (they've since sold off the management to FirstPort, who are a separate problem). Although I've got a freehold, I still need to pay for the estate to be managed (mostly gardening).
- the rear garden is very small; this didn't bother me too much when I purchased it, but it does limit just how much stuff my girlfriend can grow and how much room there is to have a BBQ with a crowd of friends in summer (clue: you can't get a bunch of people out there). For folk with small kids that want to run around, or if you want to sell to someone with kids, then it's not good enough. This seems to be a pretty standard feature with new builds unfortunately. There is some more room to the front, but it's north facing so isn't great for much.
Things to watch for (this has been true for both Persimmon and Linden purchases):
- The covenants on the estate can be a bit odd with new builds, down to specifying types of fencing that needs to be used, colours of exterior paint, placement of satellite dishes and the like. Read carefully and argue the toss.
- Be careful about boundaries and argue things you don't agree with - the initial plans for my house had me responsible for a significant amount of fencing surrounding the estate, thanks, but no.
- Pay close attention to how the management fees are apportioned and how much they are now. Expect them to jump a bit after you move in.
- Be ridiculously detail orientated when it comes to snagging - check walls in different lights as well. The sooner you report things, the easier it is to get sorted, as the builder usually has a 1 year warranty with any subcontractors and they push back harder after that first year is up.
- New builds can be fun when it comes to getting utilities set up properly - even 6 years on I had a minor faff before I could swap electricity suppliers because the meter was at "Plot 40, whatever estate", not "22 Acacia Avenue".
My folks moved into a Linden home in Winchester a good many years ago, before it all started going downhill. Probably talking 12yrs ago now.
The quality (and relative price) between theirs and mine is clear, with their winning hands down. Mine is a 25yo Bryant, and even back then the single garage only fits a Z4 with about 2” either side of the garage opening.
Theirs manages a large SUV with plenty of space all around. However they only then have an allocated bay for visitors, this is what causes issues as every visitor seems to park like an arse. Went to fit new lights for them yesterday & couldn’t park in their space as neighbours’ visitors both parked with wheels on the white lines, restricting my ability to park a mini in there. Stupidity at its best.
Looked at a few lovely new builds in recent years. Works wonderfully life style wise for what we want, but parking was awful so didn’t. Revisited recently and it’s like living in a car park - stressful driving through as cars all double parked on both sides of the roads leaving only single width of direction.
Utter madness
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QED.
This is not a model it`s a real housing estate near me (OK, it`s had a bit of bokeh but you get the gist)
Dreadful....
To be fair to the developers I think there are government guidelines about density that the LAs will pretty much take as law when granting planning permission. This drives the small rooms, garages and gardens.
Absolutely you want the good old days then hope for a lottery win but as said open your eyes and look at the big picture this from a NIMBY we are trying to get a quart into a pint pot.
I work on and build new houses, I wouldn’t buy one if I could get 30% reduction, go find a property that you can develop yourself and get a good architect and builder, as said they are awfully built! Not so much the guys putting them up but every single item we build with is somehow stripped back to maximise profits for the developers! Don’t do it!
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QED.
This is not a model it`s a real housing estate near me (OK, it`s had a bit of bokeh but you get the gist)
Dreadful....
Agreed awful but this is so great? we have. a huge problem in this country as i said trying to get a quart into a pint pot.
How poor people live.QED.
This is not a model it`s a real housing estate near me (OK, it`s had a bit of bokeh but you get the gist)
Dreadful....
Bloody awful cardboard type places.
I've been in a few and wouldn't give you tuppence for them. Squatty little rooms, no garden to speak of, overlooked - just horrible lego type estates.
I'll stick with my 1938 build.
Cheers,
Neil.
Not all
I try to buy 1930s built houses to develop. Solid build, decent plot size etc. Currently working on a detached 1930s 50ft wide x 120ft rear garden...pleasure to bring new life into these old houses. Can’t see someone doing that with new builds in the future...that’s if they last 50+ years
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That will sell for? and quite agree having lived in 1930s spec builds which were part of the great London suburbs but that was then and this is now.I try to buy 1930s built houses to develop. Solid build, decent plot size etc. Currently working on a detached 1930s 50ft wide x 120ft rear garden...pleasure to bring new life into these old houses. Can’t see someone doing that with new builds in the future...that’s if they last 50+ years
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Considering south east of the country, A1 spec when finished....£500k.
Very reasonable IMO.
Cheers,
Neil.
Advertising is a weird one to pick one given most degrees in that area are taken by professional post-grads. The number of UGs doing advertising is tiny. As for media, the creative industries generates more value to the economy than manufacturing.
If there is oversupply it's actually in some of the STEM areas which is churning out vast amounts of people with biological science related degrees with no real career paths.
Last edited by Alansmithee; 14th September 2018 at 17:18.
Why do they have to fit hundreds of homes on small sites?
I'm pretty sure it's just all about squeezing every last penny of profit out of every millimetre available as well as spending as little as possible on materials and labor to achieve a product that just crosses the "acceptable" line. The persimmon wages and bonuses in the press recently would suggest it's working.
2 new developments went up near us lately and one in particular looks like a toy village. I actually couldn't believe the number of houses they were planning on building there. To me it looked big enough for maybe 6 or 9 at most. They managed 39.
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Absolutely do this if you can. I'm in construction, have done new build housing in the past and follow a few builders forums in the internet. Some of the stuff you see is scary or laughable and they are a running joke with time served tradesmen. I wouldn't buy one.
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Nice space, when finished.Not all
Yep still loooking at windows and sanitary ware, it’s the wife’s folly
There is a profit motive of course, but its as much a result of planning policy nationally and locally combined with population growth and changing living habits. Local authorities are given development targets for numbers of new home units they must accommodate, green belts and development limits outside of urban areas mean the focus is on packing brownfield and infill plots with a high density of units, and the market does not really want flats. Combine that lot and what drops out is the sort of developments for the masses that most of us wouldn’t want to touch with a barge pole.
That said, the designs of modern volume resi developments are value engineered to within an inch of their life and the high densities certainly help maximise margins; the house-bashers, as we call them in the trade, are laughing all the way to the bank.
This, Central Govt. hand out development targets every year for housing developments.
Constant battle with local communities and local councils who are driven from the government.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
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