Sunday 28 February 2010

Charles Church - the problems with our new home remain

Still we are waiting for Charles Church to address our customer complaints. Charles Church is a trading company of the Persimmon Group plc (which also trades as Persimmon Homes).

Plumbing, electrical, flooring issues are still outstanding. Investigations and remedial works are still delayed. Despite numerous excuses from Charles Church, blaming numerous people other than themselves, we are left to conclude the reason for failing to meet their obligations and repair the faults, is simply down to money.

Friday 19 February 2010

Will They Ever Fix the Problems on Our Estate in an Open and Professional Manner

Years after building an estate with defects the builder has still not shown us a genuine intent to professionaly investigate and fix the faults in our new home. From the simple issues to the complicated (those which might take 3-4 months of access to the property, although in the past such estimates could run to a year whilst residents moved out).

The builder has got themselves in a bit of a muddle, making home owners wait (since 2008) for the out come of an investigation into one home, and then trying to role out a different method to those effected on the estate to what was done in that home. But then (and this is even harder to fathom) agreeing to do something different with the owner of that original home, different to what they first trialed, which is different to what they are trying to roll out to other homes. Meaning they have 3 different methods. It would probably be quite easy for you to guess if the method they are trying to roll out to the other homes is the cheaper, more expensive, or mid-priced method - but rather than guess, we can document the differences and let you see what's actually behind what appear to us to be rather vague and somewhat misleading claims.

Saturday 6 February 2010

Persimmon Homes - couple say their new home is turning out to be less than a dream

Persimmon Homes development in Basingstoke has caused complaint in Hampshire - check out ThisIsHampshire.net for details of this home owners' Persimmon Homes Customer Complaints.

Andrew Golawski, managing director of Persimmon Homes South East, said: "Our customer services manager has arranged to meet the customer at their property to discuss the recent incident." He added: "We take reported problems seriously and have a dedicated customer care team in place to help rectify any defects that are our responsibility."

Lucky couple I say, we are still waiting to meet the Customers Services Manager since 2008 - even a returned phone call (as promised) would be a good start. In our experience the dedicated customer care team is more about trying to delay or not rectify defects that are their responsibility.

Friday 5 February 2010

Persimmon Homes Customer Complaints - why only fix one home?

Interesting article regarding plumbing or water for Westbury and Persimmon homes and Contaminated Water. A fault which we have raised concerns about with our home because the cold water drinking tap gives out hot water.

Two things about the article that sound all too familiar to us, are firstly having to run the kitchen drinking water tap for one litre before drinking (much more in our case), and secondly the idea of the builder only fixing one home on the estate and expecting other affected residents to fix their own contaminated water problems (which could be as much as £10,000).

Persimmon Homes surely realise this is not good enough. Persimmon Homes should we feel take serious snagging faults more seriously. We should be entitled to know that our drinking water is safe to drink, rather than Persimmon ignoring the problems in our new home.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Consumer Code For Home Builders

Too little, too late is my view on the progress made by the NHBC and MD Insurance Services Ltd.

With the exisitng NHBC Buildmark Warranty problems (such as arbitration) it's worrying that an independent body was not involved with the protection of consumer rights for new homes. One has more rights buying a new toaster than buying a new home in the UK.

For those still trying to get Persimmon Group plc (includes Persimmon Homes, and Charles Church) to honour exisitng builders obligations for faults reported within the first two years, then this article may not give hope for a timely resolution.

Congratulations Miller Homes - New Customer Charter

Miller Homes has a Customer Charter available for download on their website. If only all builders had such a document and honoured it. Congratulations Miller Homes, this commitment to customers is reason to celebrate, and prompted me to immediately go and see what New Houses Miller Homes had for sale on their website.

Residents at Luxury Housing Developments Built by Charles Church Were Threatening Legal Action

Charles Church mentioned in another article (prior to purchase by Persimmon Group plc, that also trade as Persimmon Homes). Whilst this article dates back to the late 1990's, I'm not sure if the situation is better yet - certainly our experience feels much worse than that described.

Customer complaints, faults and snags, defects and damage - we still feel we are going round in circles trying to get the builder to meet their obligations to repair faults in the first two years, only we're now almost two years on from those first two years.

Home owners listed problems, some of which were similar to ours, only we are still fighting this in 2010. Our home was built when Persimmon Group plc had already purchased Charles Church, and after Persimmon had opportunity (and describe as much in newspaper articles) to introduce Persimmon Management approach into Charles Church. Not sure it has made any difference to us.

Delays and Denials Continue, Thank-You Persimmon Group plc

Still we are waiting for investigations and remedial works. The reasons given for delays keep changing (after each is explored for any validity) and the latest one contradicts all the others - makes me wonder if they even check against the false claims they previously made before presenting new ones to us.

I think they are getting tougher and tougher however, as they realise the collective cumulation of mistakes, false claims, management errors and a general lack of professional leadership paints an extraordinariliy bad picture of their behaviour and actions.

Open and Transparent would be a start. Should we just give in and pay for the works to be done privately? The builder seems determined for that to be the out come of our complaining.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

The Delays Continue, Persimmon Group plc, Still Not Fixing Faults, Customer Services Not Helping

Despite our numerous customer complaints concerning faults and snagging items in our new home, we await the important repairs which might finally enable us to sell this home and put the nightmare behind us. But as a open and transparent investigation has not even happened, it doubtful in our minds that a solution can be found and implemented within 5-7 years of purchasing the house.

Monday 1 February 2010

Complaints Flood in as Persimmon Pipes Burst - newspaper article, Hawick News

Couples dreams of spending Christmas in a new home from Persimmon Homes, read more here. Like many stories that we read, we can relate to the experiences that new home owners discuss with Persimmon Group plc.

One new home owner thought of a BIG way to get the message across, about feelings towards the developer, this is another, seperate story, on a Persimmon experience, and a protest bus.

Lastly, some of the complaints for another Persimmon Experience, at Elvetham Heath, naming some of the builders people. You may find some of the names listed here familiar to your, we did.