George Wimpey??? George Scrimpey! - the saga continues! (George Wimpey)

Name: Coxy1974

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Product:	George Wimpey
Date:	18/12/06 (1324 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Shoddy work, lying salespeople, mistrust all the way & bodge ups on previous faults!

I bought my new GW home in April 2005 and I wish I had never heard of them. My sister and I bought houses on the same development. We both had the same experience. The sales office were initially brilliant however, we had problems selling our old home - to cut a long story short I mentioned in her presence that I may consider a buy to let on my old home - 2 days later I received a phone call from their Mortgage Advisors to discuss my application for a buy to let mortgage (I had never mentioned this to the Mortgage Advisors) and can only assume that the sales person had 'tipped her off'. This kind of thing is surely morally wrong under FSA regulations!

Before I moved in I did my snagging list on the site visit - various faults were listed including the house being filthy. Moving day and until funds were transferred I was left sitting on my doorstep with possessions around me until someone took pity on me and brought me a cup of tea and a biscuit! I was eventually allowed the keys at 5.30pm - way after the banks shut and way after electronic funds transfer was surely completed! My solicitor went beserk - thank god I didn't use their legal representatives (they do offer incentives to do this - believe me there is no way you ever want to do it!)

The inside of the house was filthy and none of the work on the snagging list had been done - it was completely shoddy. I had a huge hole in the brickwork underneath the radiator in the master bedroom (I'm talking I paid nearlt 200k for this house!), the skirting boards were falling off the walls, the light under the stairs was a bare bulb sticking out of the wall at head height, my garage door had a huge dent in it and as for the plastering, the plasterer must have been on the piss - I could have got straighter walls! And to top it off my beautiful tiled kitchen floor had gouges in it. I was told by the site agent not to report these faults to the head office and this number was only for emergencies. This was a complete lie - her and the site manager wanted to keep these faults kind of 'swept under the carpet' I only discovered this upon complaining. I should have been ringing the help line and logging each and every fault for them to track to completion!!!!

My garden was supposed to have been landscaped and when I complained and said I wanted it to be done properley and not just some plants thrown onto the top of the soil the site manager threw his tape measure at me and stormed off in a sulk! This from the guy who was had me into his office for tea and biscuits on each site visit.

My sister has had various tales from them - especially when she discovered there was a piece of panelling missing from under her oven - the site manager told her it was for ventilation! Apparently her sitting room window was also supposed to bow to allow for settlement of the house and the door leading to the back garden wasn't supposed to shut properly as this was also for ventilation!

Sadly the saga doesn't end there - my next door neighbours ceiling caved in due to a slow leak from the shower in the ensuite, next door but one had a leak in her kitchen and ended up needing new kitchen units and another needed a new kitchen floor due to the wrong tiles being fitted. Another had to have the whole house replastered and painted (they had a new born baby at the time!) and another house constantly complained of a draft coming from under one of the inbuilt appliances. Eventually discovered it was packed with foam and this had slowly disintegrated to reveal a large hole in the wall!

I will never, ever as long as I live buy another GW house!

The saga continues - this morning I discovered that my guttering had never been screwed to the outside of the house on one side when Christmas lights were coming down, the plaster on the stairs is now 'bubbling' and thus crumbling away at a rate of knotts, the air vent in my bathroom is dispensing the steam, not outside the property as it should do, but directly into the cavity between the inner and outer part of the wall and causing damp and the main bathroom extractor fan (which has always been near the door which I thought odd but didn't question) doesn't work.

I've been in the house for nearly 2 years for gods sake surely these problems should not be occurring still.

I've reported them to George Wimpey this morning (didn't mess with the regional office) and went straight to the Head Office where they admitted that they are still trying to wade through faults on peoples homes from our site - some 80 or so homes!

Summary: Think very long and hard before you buy one of these houses!