We’re considering buying a new build house with part exchange and I wondered what people’s experiences were?

We’re buying off plan and it will be one of the first houses built. We’ve been to other sites by this developer and the standard is high. We’ve also seen a show home of the exact house we’re planning to buy so we’re not buying fully blind.

Has anyone got any experiences to share? What discounts or extras can be negotiated? Can we get better discounts by being one of the first to buy? Anyone have any experience of affordable housing on such developments – do they typically get let out, shared ownership?

Cheers

Bump up for the evening crowd.

Anyone?

Budget another £500-750 for a “professional snagger” and get their list of problems fixed before moving in. I wish I’d done this when buying new build.

Thanks Flaperon – that’s already on the list of costs.

There was a recent thread about this – and very few good experiences. I’m always happier to let someone else snag the house by living in it first!
Off plan and first built means a building site around you and no idea when that will end – well, once they sell all of them of course, but how fast?

I went to look at a job in a brand spanking new build Barratt house a few weeks ago. I realise there are supposedly “higher spec” builders than them, but the quality of finishing in this place was a bit of a shock to be honest. I haven’t worked in a brand new build in a while, and I thought things might have improved somewhat. How wrong I was. The girl who did the selling accompanied me and the new owner so I couldn’t say too much (not that I would have anyway…the buyer seemed delighted with it). Without looking closely, I spotted a dozen or so fairly major snags, let alone minor ones. I can’t believe they get away with it, but hey, people buy them.

I wouldn’t , yours might not be the same but all new builds I’ve seen = tiny windows & postage stamp sized gardens

I moved out of my “New build” (2008 Persimmon house – I was the second owner) a year ago into a c1900 cottage and I haven’t looked back for a second.

Most of the of the supposed advantages of having a new home actually turned out to be defects that would have just been too costly to put right. The insulation (both noise and thermal) was crap, the “system” hot water didn’t have enough pressure for upstairs showers, there was less usable space despitethe house originally being a 4 bedroom. Somehow every house on the development managed to have a mossy shady back garden,especially in the evenings.

I miss having a double garage – that’s about it.

Don’t assume the show home will be identical, our newbuild had 7 ft 6 inch ceilings upstairs, the show home was 8ft, nearly every identical house on our estate is different. There was a thread a while ago about the horrors of some affordable housing tenants on new build estates.

Expect issues, don’t under estimate the living on a building site either, we had it for 3 months, materials and mud everywhere, contractors parking on your drive, the builders still assuming they have unlimited access to your property. More than happy now 13 years on but it wasn’t a painless experience. Oh and don’t expect to move in on the date promised, we moved in 3 months late.

Brought a new build about three years ago did part exchange all went through no probs as for snags etc so long as you go into this eyes wide open and are quick to point them out and the time frame you expect them done in you should have no probs as for living on a site wasn’t painless but not a big prob plus my then two year loved all the diggers etc being around 😀

Just bear in mind if you’re at the start of the new builds you will have site traffic every day until the top end is finished.
However. Get to know the site manager, we’re nice chaps sometimes and it can pay huge dividends if you need a cheeky garden wall building or a few extra snags

Defo agree with wrightson best thing we ever did was crimbo card and crate of beers for the lads near to first Christmas worked wonders when you need a few bricks etc

I’ll second that, site manager is definitely your friend, got a lot of help from him. Estate agent in the sales office on the other hand…….

your house will look a lot different to the show home.. all the points raised above are valid the quality is shocking the piant thin the costs mount you wont be able to negotiate any discounts infact the extras add up and up fences lawns alarms shower pumps.

An older couple i know bought a new semi off plan.For the area it wasn’t cheap at 260k.
Superficially the quality looked excellent with decent quality fittings.
From day one it has been never ending problems both for them and all the other houses on the small estate.Not small stuff either.Complete floors having to be taken up,bathroom suites removed.Plumbing and electrics not connected.The 10 year guarantee meant nothing.
My friends couldn’t get the builder to do the remedial work so have paid out thousands themselves.
If i was buying a new build i would pay for regular stage inspections by an independant surveyor.

Interesting thread… been considering this.

One of the review sites was quite telling.

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews186190.html

1.1 out of 5 !

the 10 yr warranty isnt a 10yr warranty for starters.. the boiler will lapse after a year so will all the electrical goods, virtually everything exept literally the bricks and mortar carries 2 years.even the window frames have only 2 years..

plaster cracks /marks are considered normal as are paint defects inconsistancys poor workmanship and dont qualify..

to make a claim the work must cost at least 900 quid and only the homebuilder or warranty supplier can fix it or give permission for you to arrange repair after they have surveyed.

I’m a builder myself, there’s no excuse for the defects on a new-build; it’s a lack of good site management and a ‘build it and bugger off’ attitude to the Customer.

I hate the way house builders call defects ‘snagging’, to try to massage away the seriousness of the problem. Snagging should be things like easing doors, and touching up damaged paintwork, not rectifying patent defects like low water pressure in bathrooms.

It’s a pretty crap industry apart from the major contractors who build for repeat clients (who are expert). You don’t mess those guys around.

House Builders are the arse end of the industry, one notch up from unqualified local builder cowboys. (Given there are some gems who work in this area, who are excellent and get work by recommendation)

The building industry is booming at the moment, unqualified staff are being sucked in. If you’re buying a new house at the moment I’d be very wary, it’s probably being built by amateurs who are learning on the job – your home.

I bought a new house off plans – feels like it was thrown up.

1 – Check all doors hung properly.
2 – paint it yourself, builders painter will throw the stuff on everywhere.
3 – seal the concrete floors straight away
4 – get extra TV points installed
5 – Show home will have 80% sized furniture to make it look a lot bigger
6 – Check the heating system (I know it’s summer), check it again 3 weeks later for pressure drop as I bet it’ll be leaking.
7 – Check the chimney works properly
8 – Check the other plumbing, have you got proper valves for shutting the water off or cheapo twist things that’ll snap
9 – Check the garden with a metal pole, see if you have rubble (don’t buy end of row/road house).
10 – check garden for reeds, indicates an unusable swamp (oh check where external drains go to, too)
11 – homebuild guarantee is worthless unless the house falls down and even then…
12 – Check the external plumbing stuff, a waste pipe not connected to the wall correctly is a pita to fix afterwards.

I can’t remember anything else off the top of my head, everything is fixed now, just getting to the re-decorate/forth bridge scenario.

so, are there any positives to buying a new house?

Didn’t sound like it from the last thread on the subject:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/buying-a-new-house-from-bovis-homes-what-extras-should-i-ask-to-be-thrown-in

Many tales of woe.

Is there a legal right to ‘reject’ the house? Surely just get a surveyor or your own builder in for a day before moving your stuff in? We bought a new flat many years ago and the HSBC thing worked for us on some faulty window frames – as long as you point it out in the first two years.

I’ve found as many ‘hidden issues’ in the current 2nd hand house than I did in the new flat.

Until last month I worked with new build homes almost every day from open site to completion and absolutely definitely would not go near one. Aside from the estates not being very nice places the houses are built at minimum cost to the developer and are not high quality, regardless of how good the site manager is.

Site managers for some developers are essentially at the mercy of their head offices who organise most things for them, it looks like a horrible job. I accidentally almost ended up being one and am very glad I dodged that bullet.

Also if you are one of the first you will have to put up with unfinished roads, mud (despite them having road sweepers around every day) and the risk of what happened in the recession- developments being abandoned halfway through and you being left in what looks like a warzone for 3 or 4 years until they come back.

I was in a shell for a house around easter and asked the labourer if it was social housing because it was all so small and dark and apparently it was a £220,000 home.

There are some advantages, however- when things go wrong you may well not have to pay for it and there is always someone on hand to sort it out for you. The site managers are generally very helpful.

As a building inspector, I would have to say, I probably wouldn’t buy a new house from a large volume house builder.

Actually, as core says- a lot of small builders do good stuff. But the Barratts/Persimmons of this world are to be avoided.

Thanks everyone.

We’re hopefully dealing with a small/medium builder and we’ve looked around show homes and completed plots.

Getting a pro snagger in is one of the costs we’ve built in.

What extras have people typically got thrown in when buying new?

We’ve just been nominated for the local authority awards again for a development of 5 houses we did.
Just started another 9. As I said we’re not all bad 😉

What area you in wrightyson?

but all new builds I’ve seen = tiny windows

This, is it to save money or meet building regs on heat loss?

Derbyshire. Currently converting a Victorian school into 4 with the school house back to a house then up to 5 new builds on site depending on final planning.

So what age does a house have to be for it not to be suspect? Anything new or nearly new is out, so 10 year old? 20? 30? Is there a threshold to do with building regs or inspection regimes, or do you just assume time and subsequent refurbishment has solved the problems?

Looking at the review link posted ^^ there’s a whole load of reviews of housebuilders and every one was one star…

This isn’t going to help house prices really – everyone says bring prices down by building more, but with such an appalling reputation, no-one’s going to buy one of these new builds and will look at established houses only – and you still have massive competition for a few desirable houses…

However. Get to know the site manager, we’re nice chaps sometimes and it can pay huge dividends if you need a cheeky garden wall building or a few extra snags

and also the joiners and brickies always handy to know.Cups of tea and a few cakes help.

As for new build went to one she wanted pine staircase they put in white, ripped it out,replastered wall and plaster on new pine staircase, so rip it out again new staircase put in pine, carpets laid staircase painted, fluff fom carpet on staircase and still not a pine one, staircase ripped out again and new carpets, manhole in front drive not secured and moved , i almost fell down it, toilet built next to kitchen, in fact in kitchen.

House 2 loft hatch above bed in main bedroom and another top of stairs,laminate flooring deeply scratched, guttering running away from down spout.

House 3,Flush toilet with hot water and when filling boiler cuts in,

House 4,communal block of flats, huge aeriel strapped to chimney, high winds brought stack through roof and 2 floors of flats.

So what age does a house have to be for it not to be suspect?

mines 160. still finding ‘features’…