2nd hand house at new build price (David Wilson Homes)

Member Name: woman-scorned

Product:	David Wilson Homes
Date:	01/01/04 (3260 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bigger house, Right location

Disadvantages: Terrible build, Poor maintenence, Miserable Christmas

In Dec 2003, we purchased a 'luxury' David Wilson property in Northampton. Having lived in a new build Twigden home and been so happy, I decided to opt for a new build when buying with my partner. David Wilson are currently the only builder developing in the same area and given that they have 'won' awards for the quality of their build, they seemed to be ideal.

Our move was originally planned for end Oct but David Wilson were behind schedule and so postponed us until the end of Nov and then 5 days before we were due to move in, told us we would have to delay for a further week.

We thought this could be a good thing as the builders had told us it would allow them to get the snags we had identified at 'pre-occ' fixed. So what a surprise when we moved in and found that fundamental snags such as sealant around showers had not even been attempted. Fitted appliances and the house alarm didn’t work - fuses were missing and the alarm system had been so badly wired that the chap coming to give us a demonstration on the system the next day ended up spending over 2 hours trying to put it right. Plus the fitted carpet in the main bedroom was only half-fitted - its been fixed now - we have two mismatching shades of carpet joined at one end of the room!

When we did our pre-occ snag, I pointed out poor decoration to the site manager who poo-poo'ed my comments on the first few rooms we looked at - trying to belittle me and saying that the house could be redecorated by us straight away – is that what they think people want to do to a new house?. We've since gone round and checked the finish in every room and have now had it confirmed by the Contracts Manager that every room needs redecorating - celing, walls and skirting – and will take a team of professional painters to just touch up. Almost every wall has plaster dents or lumps on it that have just been painted over and the amount of paint on

door furniture is unbelievable. Plus all tiling needs re-doing - broken tiles, poor grouting and a finish that even a small child could have done better. 6 windows are badly scratched and need replacing, the kitchen units have short and some warped shelves so that they slide out when you try to take things off them, the gas fire in the lounge had to be refitted to stop it jumping up when you switched it on, the heating system gurgles loudly despite repeated bleeding of radiators and the back garden floods. So far we have found getting on for 100 snags. Since our last report to the builders just before Christmas, we have averaged 2 new ones per day.

We’ve already had the 6 month maintenance men round – and instead of planing a sticking internal door, one just gouged out the architrave and stuck the door back on and painted over the splintered gloss with matt paint – and the doors now stick as badly as before but now the bolts are mis-aligned too. Some other 6 month snag men told me they have to beg for the right materials to be able to fix faults including not being able to get the same paint for touch up work. And the repaint of one of the worst scratched window sills is terrible. So who can we trust to put things right?

What has really annoyed me is that our house should never have been signed off by the Borough Council as fit for habitation. It turns out that our internal garage door doesn’t meet Building Regulation requirements. We knew something was wrong because I can almost blow dry my hair with the draught coming through it. A colleague of the person who signed it off at the Council has told me to report him to his superiors.

Further, we had to continually ask for our dropped kerb to be extended to the full width of our drive – eventually after being told every day for two weeks that it would be done ‘tomorrow’, we were told it couldn’t be done because of Highway regu
latio
n i.e. we would need to drive over a raised kerb because a rumble strip needed to be set perpendicular to our drive!!!. I got Highways to meet us and the builders on site – they confirmed that the builders plans were at fault – and that they were falling foul of the Highways Act.

We’ve lost all faith in David Wilson and so have instructed Inspector Home to come and survey the house. As far as I’m concerned we have paid way over the odds for our supposed ‘new build’ house. The work that needs doing to it equates to us buying a second hand house with diy bodges.

I’ve already complained to David Wilson re this who told me to have a happy Christmas and forget all about it until the new year. Unfortunately we couldn’t do that – had to call out the emergency plumber as one of the radiators started leaking over the holiday. Even he couldn’t do a good job – as soon as he walked out the radiator started leaking again so someone else had to come out the next day!

All I can say is don’t buy David Wilson if you want to be pleased with your new home – if you’ve got money and time to throw away then its an experience but most people want to spend their spare cash and time on enjoyable things – David Wilson seem to have forgotten about these values while just concentrating on maximizing their lovely fat profits.

By the way, just put together a compilation of snags and its getting on for 200 - and this is before Inspector Home has a look round

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