Barratt Homes - Queens Hills Norwich

[Kemp8094]

Good Evening,

I hope someone can help, please read my plight:

In March 2010 we bought a 3 bed 3 story house on the Queens Hills development in Norwich.

After buying the house we discovered that the land owner (cofton) of the development went bust in April 2009 and the land was now owned by the administrator (deloittes).

When we were buying the house we were told that a community center, arcade of shops, takeaways etc....... would be built in specific areas. As well as football pitches, children's play areas, and a maintained country park.

The estate however is turning into a shambles, deloittes will not spend any money and the roads are quite dangerous as they have not been adopted by the council either and have raised iron works and the paths are in a bad state. We now have a problem with travellers on our estate and they have bought around 15 horses that roam the country park and because the land is private the council are powerless to evict them.

The "country park" is not maintained in anyway and has loads of rubbish everywhere that has been left by the travellers that occupied before.

The situation is unacceptable and our house value is dropping because of it. If I had know that it would be like this I would have never bought the house in the first place. It is a nightmare.

Were barratts obliged to tell me about this? Do I have any chance of getting compensation for this as I would like to move out but because of the value lost in the house I am unable to sell.

Please help!

[Richard Webster]

When you buy a new property on an undeveloped estate you take a risk as to what is going to be built nearby. Nothing is guaranteed. Did you ask your solicitors whether all this that you were told about could be guaranteed to happen -or did you just assume it would?

Better really not to buy at all in such locations or pay significantly less because of the uncertainty and undeveloped state of the place.

I don't see how Barratts can be blamed for what has happened - but it may be worth trying to approach them about it.

[New Homes Expert]

Barratt have a duty, as all developers do, to provide all information relevant to your buying decision under the Property Misdescriptions Act 1992.

It is reasonable to assume that Barratt knew about the developer going bust and the likelihood of the remainder not being finished and they shoudl ahve told you.
Write to the CEO Mark Clare and express your disgust and say if they you are considering going very public about this!