Barratt homes Buyer beware

[brian]

Sorry, dhep, as before - you send your customer service requirements to the customer service department.

The idea of sending these to the chairman, director, and area manager is ridiculous. Seriously.

Ensure you send a letter to the customer service dept for your area, then await a reply, and work on that.

[skilly]

We moved into our new Barratt house on the Ashdale estate in Kilmarnock on 29/01/07 and 16 months later we are still waiting on some items on the Pre-Move Inspection being sorted. A summary of some of our problems to date are:

1. Light switches incorrectly wired.
2. Sockets on the ring main incorrectly wired and we ended up with 2 radial circuits as opposed to a ring!!!
3. Poorly sealed shower tray which was repaired but has (in the last 3 hours) been found to be leaking again and has damaged our livingroom ceiling.
4. Broken cover on the incoming electrical supply.
5. Hundreds upon hundreds of nail pops on the plasterboard walls and ceilings.
6. Poor taped joints on the plasterboard resulting in most of the joints being clearly visible.
7. A joiner who came in to do repairs was shocked to discover that the plasterboards had been fitted with nails instead of screws and said that the standard throughout the site very poor and he was having to patch up most of the houses.
8. Exposed steel lintels above windows not painted or covered.
9. Poor fitting loft hatch.
10. Electrical cables run across the middle of the loft hatch.
11. Window facing damaged and falling off.
12. A joist has been installed too low and has left a large lump on our living room ceiling.
13. Holes in the wall under the stairs.
14. Every floor upstairs is creaking. They have had several attempts at repairing this but can't stop it re-occuring.
15. The landing floor has sunk and is uneven which means it is unsafe to put the ladders up to go into the loft.
16. Loose bannister.
17. The newel caps on the bannister were left with razor sharp edges and corners which resulted in several painful slashes to myself and the kids.
18. The back garden has NO drainage and is a swamp for several days after a heavy shower. We have had several dates for work to commence but they turn out to be empty promises.
19. A brick was missing from the garage which resulted in mice getting in.....but I got the little ********!

That is about it...apart from things like touching up the paintwork etc. Although to be fair they have done a few repairs quickly...replaced a damaged door, rewired the faulty light switch, replaced a faulty window.

The site sales agent is a waste of space and she wasn't happy when I refused to give her top marks in the first after sales survey.....They got absolutely slated in the second one. Now she doesn't want to know about any of the problems. The Site construction manager keeps saying yes to everything and does nothing. I have spoken to 2 of his bosses (who seem to change every 4-5 months) and they are pretty much the same. Where do I go from here??

Well last night we made an up to date list of the issues which are still outstanding (18 issues -- mostly minor, several major to us) and written a covering letter which will be handed to the sales agent and construction manager tomorrow. It will also be faxed and posted by recorded delivery to their West Scotland office. It gives them 7 days to reply in writing with a timescale of when the issues will be addressed. If they fail to do this then I will be meeting my solicitor to take it further. I am determined not to let them win. If need be I will speak to my neighbours who ALL have outstanding issues ranging from nail pops to fire doors which don't close, and see about taking Barratts to court to fix all our faults.

Summary: Don't buy Barratt and if you do then get all promises in writing.

[brian]

skilly, don't write to the sales mananger - they do sales, and the site manager supervises building work.

Send the letter to the Barratts customer care offices - details on their website.

[skilly]

Well it looks like the letter has worked.

This week I have had an inspection carried out and several small tasks have been addressed.


I've also had a long conversation with the site manager about things and it looks like we are on the road to getting things sorted.

[Bon Bon]

It sounds a bit like the problem I am having with my car, similar sort of scenario but getting angry with the wrong people isn't going to help. People have hung up on me and I had major issues with the company but when I spoke to consumer direct they aided me on resolving my issues. They spoke on my behalf to the garage and although the issue has been running for over a month now, we have been offered a straight swap for a car of equal value and out of goodwill they are offering us a brand new car of equal value despite our car depreciating over £5000 in 5 months.

The moral of the story is not just complaining down the right channels, which I did, you should be actively exploiting your consumer rights and speaking with Citizen Advice and the likes of Consumer Direct regarding the issue, and if your case is big enough they will even act on your behalf.

Another thing worth mentioning is you should be taking photos of any damage, leakages and get a property survey done detailing the condition of the property. By having the evidence there you will find the channels you may not have already explored will understand better your situation and they will be more effective in dealing with any issues arising.

[paulkay]

Anyone had any luck with this