Buying a new flat from Barratt Homes (Kent - Eastern Counties) (Barratt Homes)

Member Name: tallpete33

Product:	Barratt Homes
Date:	19/10/09 (215 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice quality, good location great customer service

Disadvantages: Room sizes

IN THE BEGINNING

Following the death of my dad at last Christmas, my mum decided it was time to come back to the UK after about 18 years in Cyprus. Her decision was also influenced by the much higher cost of living over there (following the conversion to the euro) and the increasingly hot summers. I was therefore the man on the ground in the UK looking for a property for her. She specified a ground floor flat (she's getting on a bit) within walking distance to town.

After a couple of weeks fruitless searching, the Halifax Estate Agency pointed me in the direction of the Barratt development at Priory Gate, Dartford, the previous site of the old hospital. Having owned a Barratt house myself from new for 10 years I was quite happy to have a look and did so that day.

FIRST VIEWING

The man on site showed me around and I was very impressed with what I saw. Mainly I liked the spacious hallway, fitted kitchen with integrated appliances and the fact that it had it's own front door and small garden. The bedroom is "cosy" but the lounge is a reasonable size. A quick phone call to Cyprus later and we put in an offer of £137 500 against the £139 995 asking price. As this was the last ground floor flat left and in an excellent location (7 minutes walk from the town centre), we didn't want to risk losing it with a silly offer and it was accepted the following day. I paid the initial deposit with a £500 cheque.

THE BUYING PROCESS

This was relatively straightforward as my mum was a cash buyer though the to-ing and fro-ing of documents overseas did slow things up a bit. We used the solicitor Barratt's recommended in Rayleigh, Essex for convenience sake although we were quite at liberty to use one of our choice obviously. No visit to their office was necessary thankfully, which saved my mum a trip. We did not have a full survey done as it is a new build on established land and with an NHBC guarantee I felt it was a risk worth taking.

I dealt with the easy queries via e-mail and phone and found Barratts and Paul Robinson solicitors to be helpful and polite. I left my mum to fill out the multitude of paperwork! We paid a deposit of 10% of the purchase price soon afterwards.

We did have a problem when it came to completing the purchase though as Barclays UK would not transfer the funds over the telephone with my mum. We were effectively in breach of contract, which could have been costly had they pursued it. However, after several worried phone calls with Barratts and the solicitor, they agreed to defer the completion date and accept a personal cheque. As we tried every avenue to avert the situation, they were very understanding and we incurred no penalty. Top marks to them for their co-operation though.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Just before completion, Barratts organized a "tour" of the flat with the sales representative and on-site customer service manager. Everything in the flat was clearly explained and the minor faults we discovered noted (missing cooker bulb, hole in kitchen cupboard). We were shown how to work the heating, cooker and the locations of the meters etc. It was very comprehensive and useful.

After completion we (me and my daughter - mum still in Cyprus!) met them again at the flat and were given the keys, a bottle of bubbly and all the paperwork in two neat folders. The meters were read and we were pleased to note that the minor faults had been remedied as promised. As well as all the help numbers, we were given the option of a Barratt handyman free for a day (within a month of completion). He turned up as booked the following week, was very friendly and put together some furniture and put up all the blinds I'd bought in half the time I would have so got a nice tip for his efforts. Since then I have had three courtesy calls checking everything is ok

THE FLAT ITSELF

It is set in a small two storey block of fifteen one bedroom apartments. The upper flats have a separate entrance with entry phone, some have balconies. There is a community garden area with seat and landscaping. The dumpster bins are nicely hidden away behind wooden gates and there is one numbered parking space per flat plus spaces for visitors. Nobody has parked in "my" space yet !

As mentioned, it has it own (very sturdy) front door with a 5 lever lock and chain. The hallway is nice and wide, easy enough for a wheelchair. There is landscaping out the front and sides.

The bedroom is a bit small (dimensions to follow) but has a nice size window, plenty of electrical sockets as well as a TV and phone point. All the windows are lockable UPVC and of excellent quality. The flat has nice quality beige carpets throughout.

The bathroom is "family size" IMO with an excellent power shower (I've tried it) and glass shower door fitted over the bath. The fittings are chrome and of excellent quality. The toilet has dual eco flush buttons for 1's and 2's ! There is also a full height white heated towel rail. This would have looked a bit snazzier in chrome also but it's a minor quibble.

The kitchen is off the lounge, not a great size but fitted out well also with dark worktops and white doors. The fridge freezer is full height and integrated, ditto the washer drier. The electric oven is stainless steel, ditto the gas hob, splashback and hood which goes outside. The sink is also stainless steel with waste bowl and decent quality mixer tap. Very nice, all in all. There is an impressive bank of switches for the appliances, all nicely labelled and a carbon monoxide detector.

The living room is a reasonable size and has a patio door to the garden and full height windows (which open at the top) for extra light. There is a phone point, standard TV Ariel socket as well as a Sky+ SCART, which I'm interested to see how it works. It also has the control panel for the gas central heating and a mains smoke alarm.

It has a nice little south facing garden with turf and some paving leading to the rear gate. The walls are well built, same as the fencing on top and a nice sturdy gate with padlockable hasp. No outside tap but these are not difficult or expensive to fix. Could be a nice little haven once my mum has decided what to do with it.

SUMMARY

Overall, I am very impressed with the flat though my mum has yet to see it (fingers crossed) ! She'll be here in late October and move in as soon as her furniture arrives. Barratt's build quality and customer service has much improved since I bought my house in 1999 and they couldn't do enough for us.

I shall update the review with dimensions (I have them somewhere) and how my mum finds living in her new home as time goes on but I've been round there quite a lot checking up and installing things and haven't found any problems at all, and I've got a pretty good eye for detail :o)

Thanks for reading

Summary: Very impressed so far