New Homes

[chickenstrip]

On my property hunt, I keep seeing places like this, which at first perusal, look quite attractive, at a price I can afford:

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/new-homes/details/36578779#WLCLzRSvjh5fJ7Ru.97

But I keep hearing horror stories about many such new builds. But surely they are covered by a warranty? Anyone here have any experience of buying such new builds - was it a good or bad experience? How do you ensure, if you do so, you get the former? Or should I just ignore all new build properties, full stop?
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[Lord Percy]

What kind of horror stories?

Is it possible to find out what things are mostly likely to go wrong with a new house, then find a way of checking those things for yourself?

Also, is the construction company reputable or do they have history of bad houses?

And, regarding a warranty. This is in the description in the link you provided:

[DrSnoosnoo]

Persimmon Homes.

I think I remember them being on Watchdog recently.

Oh, I do :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4VNJyVS7Z56pRTQm3j4bSYY/persimmon-house-builders

Pretty much they cut corners and were poor in some time keeping.

EDIT
Now I'm not saying this will be the same in all properties but the complaints seemed spread around the country.

Double EDIT
Don't think I'm trying to poopoo your new home ideas CS. You asked about some troubles and I'm just highlighting specifics of that certain company. I'm sure there are lots of good new houses and I'd have thunk the PH would have upped their game since being outed on the tele box.
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[chickenstrip]

The horror stories I hear of, admittedly often 2nd or even 3rd hand, and by no means confirmed by me, are generally ones of poor build quality, cracks appearing in walls, that kind of thing, and then repairs contractors being lazy/cheapskate/uncooperative when called in to do something about it.

A lot it seems are built like rabbit hutches with small rooms, but that wouldn't be a problem as it's only for me, not like I'll be raising a family. Cheers for the NHBC site.

Snoosnoo, those are the kinds of things I keep hearing with new builds generally, but a handful of reports of this kind of thing, when they build thousands of homes - should I take that too seriously? I mean, surely every builder has to address some issues that crop up now and again? What I do wonder is, did it take the Watchdog reports before Persimmon got off their arses and did anything, or are they prompt with remedial action when problems are brought to their attention? These are the kind of things that make me pause in looking at new builds. But there again, older houses can have problems of their own, and with those, you get no warranty.

So what I'm trying to gauge is, am I much more likely to experience problems with new build over older houses?

EDIT: You posted your edits while I was typing my response snoosnoo
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[Ste]

All new builds have got corners cut.

All new builds are pretty much identical.

There won't be nearly enough parking on the estate.

Your garden will be very low maintenance primarily due to being the size of a postage stamp.

Bedrooms? Maybe but some would be better described as being cupboards.

Build quality? Maybe.

My house was built by Persimmon and rather surprisingly it's not fallen down yet.

The most annoying thing about the house is that I didn't make a lower offer when I bought the place. They offered me less PX than I was expecting therefore I made them an offer which was even lower, I wasn't really expecting them to seriously consider it but they said yes immediately.

[DrSnoosnoo]

[chickenstrip]

[Ste]

People get very possessive about the piece of road directly outside their house and many have this idea that they're the only people allowed to park there.

Which can lead to vehicles being reported to the police and or the council as being abandoned.

Most new homes you'd be putting money down before seeing the property in person and as far as near identical show homes, the whole estate is identical!

Anyone can make cash offers to Persimmon.

This place was built in 2007 and I moved in February 2008.

[chickenstrip]

[Ste]

They don't have reason to be annoyed, it's a public road, it doesn't belong to them.

Nobody has any more or less right to park there than anyone else does.

In hindsight would I rather not have bought a new build? Errrrr, not specifically. There are reasons I would want to buy a new build again and there are reasons I wouldn't want to buy a new build again.

I'd say as long as you don't have unrealistic expectations then you shouldn't have any reason to be (too ) disappointed.

[natefz6]

My last place was a new build. Barratt Homes built it and for the most part it was OK. We did have an A4 page of snagging lists when we moved in after 3 months that was down to about half a page and 6 months after that it was down to a few things.

We lived there for 5 years and there were still somethings that they were trying to fix when we moved out. The biggest being that you could not cool the place down. It was great in the winter but in the summer you could not get it below 27C. This meant lots of sweaty nights and fans on 24x7. Get your problems highlighted early and really stick on their back to get them done. NHBC is just a load of bollocks imho, it will cover you if your house falls down but not much else. we tried to get a couple of things done through it (rotting window frames) and they had no interest whatsoever.

New builds are great as for the most part the walls are straight the decoration is in good order and you can move in and make it your own in a few months. My current place it seems every time I try to do something I find another 3 things that need fixing first i.e. strip the wall paper and the plaster falls off.

Would I buy new build again... yeah but as mentioned keep your expectations in check, make sure you report things quickly when they go wrong and then set a reminder to badger them every week/day until its fixed.
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[chickenstrip]

[Ste]

It's a road, anyone can park there. You own the house, you do not own the piece of road outside your house.

Nate mentions not being able to cool the house, I see that as being a feature which means you don't need to heat the house.

Seriously though, new builds are incredibly well insulated, with just a few computers running in winter you might need to have the back doors wide open, lots of windows open and the house will still be too hot. Having the loft hatch open helps to keep the house at a cool temperature if you find it too much like a sauna.

[grr666]

New build = ideal rental property.
Older brick built house = Ideal home.

I buy new builds for rental purposes. They are easy and cheap to fix even after quite catastrophic damage.
If necessary you could replace an entire wall in an afternoon if you had to. I echo the points about size.
I recently turned a 90's built 3 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom house before I let it. The smaller rooms were silly small.
Inadvertently I ended up making the place into one of the largest 2 bed places on the estate. The living areas
are sized often according to how many bedrooms the places have, so mine has a 3 bedroom sized kitchen,
bathroom and lounge but only two double bedrooms. However, luckily for me virtually nothing else on the
estate has a pair of evenly sized double bedrooms. Makes it an ideal layout to be a shared let as well, which
as a landlord gives me more tenanting options.

On the plus side new builds tend to be very well insulated, but I've heard many complain that they are
too warm to live in. Also I've found they often could be better ventilated than they are, if they are
very warm but not well vented then damp can occur.

The reason for the cracks appearing etc is that modern building methods have changed a lot. And not for
the better IMO. These days, they don't even plaster walls anymore, they dot and dab plasterboard direct to
block work or screw it to stud framework, smooth a bit of joint filler over the join and sand down. That's it.
But houses move, more than a lot of people might think, and whilst you can 'chuck houses up quickly' using
modern methods, durability is compromised as a result. That movement is usually revealed as
cracking in walls and ceilings, more often than not where two boards meet.

Personally I prefer a more solid house to live in, but old houses come with their own pitfalls too.
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[andyscooter]

only horror story I have heard is round here there is a load of new homes built on an old factory

mate bought one and when he came to sell it they had a survey done

turns out the house will be pretty much a wreck by the time a mortgage is paid off

luckily the bloke bought it outright so he never had a problem

the company bought it back off him for what he paid he moved into a older house with a garden aand room to get round a bed in each room
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[Ste]

Built on an old factory? Pffft, this place is built on a plague burial ground.

[arry]

[Ste]

Load bearing walls are made from paper mache.

[chickenstrip]

This point about new builds being difficult to keep cool in the summer is of relevance to me, and something I had not thought about. It's something that definitely goes in the minus column, but not a deciding factor on it's own. On the other hand, if that makes them cheaper/easier to keep warm in the winter, that's a plus. The fact that I'm looking to buy somewhere around Cumbria might mean the keeping cool bit won't be a problem, and the keeping warm bit will be more important!

On balance, I'm still veering away from new builds, but I guess it will depend partly on what's available in my region of choice when the time to buy comes, which hopefully will be soon, as we have an agreed sale on this property. Mind you, been there before
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[Ste]

Being cheaper to heat in winter out weighs the house getting hot in the summer.

[chickenstrip]

[Ste]

As my new build is actually 8 years old, I wonder how much more oven like new builds are now.

[grr666]

To add balance - Common issues with old builds.

Old wiring, and often lower rated than equivalent wiring would be to current regs. Often still using old bakelite
fuse boxes,and plug in rewireable fuses. Costly bringing up to modern spec and safety.

Old plumbing, Imperial sized copper pipe, lead and iron pipework. Always costly having any extensive plumbing work done
especially if you are paying someone else to put it right.
Clay UG pipework/drains can also a bit of a ballache.

Old knackered blown plaster - could be anywhere and everywhere.
Factor about £400+ per room to have fully replastered.

Mortar failure - Repointing is tedious and messy, potentially entire wallsmay need rebuilt.

Brick tie failure - The little wire rods holding inner and outer skins together and also apart. When these rust through
(often when cavity insulation is put in the walls) it's a painfully expensive and disruptive task to renew them.
The walls lose a lot of strength if left. Personally when building I would always spec stainless brick ties but few do.

Subsidence - the planting around houses is usually about the same age as the houses themselves.
Old houses are often found near BIG trees for that simple reason.
Big trees = big roots = foundation damage = subsidence = underpinning = HOW MUCH!?!

Roofs- At 50 years old most are usually due at the very least new felt and flashings and general repairs to guttering
and suchlike. Ranging up to joist replacement, new battens felt and tiles. Expect a bill of about 3-4k to replace/renew a roof.

and lastly my favourite.
I call it lucky dip. The art of discovering then undoing and renewing any possible combination of
bodged repair jobs by previous owners/tradespeople with no aptitude for such work. On every job I do
I find some of these. Ranging from ineffective repairs to the downright dangerous.

A recent example being plaster coving put up by the last owner in 1 metre lengths using no more nails
instead of cove adhesive. It looked shit from every possible angle. There were about 4 joints per wall
and each and every one was either pissed or about 10mm out and then clumsily filled with more no
more nails It's no hassle putting up 3m lengths if you use the right adhesive but Joe Schmo obviously
never knew that. I had to chisel that bastard old coving off in the end, the no more nails damaging
the plaster underneath and meaning a whole lot of making good had to be done before renewing it.
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[winz]

[JP7]

I've only ever bought new builds and I haven't had any major problems. I've had issues but they've been more irritating than a major issue.

There are always the "snagging" problems such as sinkage cracks in walls. There are a couple of wonky radiators in my current place, the extractor fan in the bathroom blew up after two weeks, and the mixer valve under the bath was fitted the wrong way round ensuring that when I had manflu and wanted a nice warm bath, I had a choice of cold... or colder water. That particular one prompted an irritated phone call to the builder's customer service line, and a plumber was out the next day to rectify it.

But that's what they're there for, I like the fact that I can report faults within two years and have them fixed free of charge.

I work a 60 hour week, and the last thing I want is to come home and find I have to spend my time off decorating, or ripping out kitchens. I like the convenience of a new build because I can just move in and live there.

I also like to play the game and get a deal, which is more fun with a house builder than a private seller. When I bought my current place, I got 5% off the price, they paid the stamp duty and legal fees. They laid the turf, and installed an 8x10 shed with light and power, and a footpath up to it. I also picked my kitchen, bathroom, door handles, tiles, flooring, paint colour, everything. I did quite well.