Dear Sir,
If I bought a new shirt and the buttons came off, I would take it back to the shop to get a full refund. If I bought a new car, I expect it to work perfectly. So why, in this day and age, is it acceptable to sell a brand new home with over 200 defects and then take months to rectify these defects? Builders seem to be able to get away with ‘murder’. They act like bullies and think they are above the law.
I have witnessed the plight of some of my clients and have also become a victim as well, as I recently purchased a new build at Treetops, Milton Keynes. The list of problems is endless.
The house has flooded twice, firstly with waste foul water and then a burst water pipe. The property has unstable and creaky stairs, a damaged kitchen worktop, faulty doors, damaged floorboards, faulty telephone sockets, a lack of heat insulation in the living room, and a lack of sound insulation on the adjoining walls with the property next door. A combustible wooden kitchen splashback has been fitted instead of a stainless steel one, thereby placing the home owner’s lives at risk as a wooden kitchen splashback is potentially a fire hazard.
There are over 90 snags in total, which, in my mind, is completely unacceptable.
Builders have to be chased on each occasion to rectify the problems. They take ages to fix some of the faults and even decline to fix the problems in some instances.
It is common knowledge that these builders put home buyers under severe pressure to complete the purchase by setting unrealistic deadlines with a promise of bogus or non-existent incentives. But the same builders tend not to like being put under pressure to complete repairs.
I believe this is wrong. Home buyers, like other consumers, deserve more protection. Unfortunately, the Sale of Goods Act does not apply to new home purchase, which is why it seems the builders can get away with their blunders. A home should be ‘fit and adequate for purpose’, otherwise the buyer should be entitled to compensation. The warranty put place by the National House Builders’ Council (NHBC) is not sufficient as the builders take the NHBC for granted.
A building site contractor confided in me that the builders specify where they must purchase their materials from. These are from inferior sources and dodgy companies who have promised backhanders to the builders. What a shame.
The builders have managed to get away with this for quite a long time and the Office of Fair Trading is currently reviewing the entire process.
I believe the builders would be diligent and responsive, if a retention scheme was in place and further assessment was carried on the property six months after completion before the final sum was released.
With this safeguard for the consumer in place, the clock would well and truly be ticking for the builders that are failing to do their jobs properly.
Regards,
Oscar Odaro
Principal consultant
Mortgageway
Regulation calls?
ear sir
Dear Sir,
I read with interest recently that the endowment mis-selling compensation company, Austin Hamilton Associates Limited, was wound up following an investigation by the Companies Investigation Branch of the Insolvency Service.
Allegedly it had induced clients to sign up for its services by offering a ‘no win, no fee’ arrangement. Its clients paid an advance fee of £299, which was stated to be refundable in the event that the compensation claim did not succeed.
The investigation found the company to be insolvent and to be retaining and using the compensation awards it had collected on behalf of a number of its clients as working capital. It had also failed to refund the advance fees paid by those clients whose compensation claims proved unsuccessful.
While this is a very regretable situation, in my opinion it was only a matter of time before this happened. I alerted the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to the risk of this very scenario years ago when I attended one of its regional roadshows. I was told quite emphatically by its representative on the day that the regulator will not be regulating the activities of such companies.
Surely now the FSA must see the error in not doing so?
It’s bad enough that these ‘ambulance chasing’ companies can take up to 25 per cent of the compensation award as part of their fee, let alone be allowed to treat customers so unfairly and get off with it scot-free. Isn’t it about time that the FSA started offering clients real protection by bringing such firms within a regulated environment?
Jim Gillespie
Director
Independent Financial Services
All quiet on the EU front?
Dear Sir,
Why have all the political parties gone quiet on Europe? Why have we not joined the euro as promised?
Britain has already dropped from fourth place to fifth in the top world economies and that trend will continue because, as a nation, we are too small to carry on trading in sterling in the hope that the euro collapses.
Remember how they would say the euro would bankrupt the EU, whereas in reality it has grown stronger and is almost equal now to the US dollar, which is itself in decline. The EU is now set to be 27 countries and still expending as will, of course, the currency within the zone.
Then there is all the hostility around the world mainly due to religious beliefs with a lot of hatred towards Britain. Therefore we need all of Europe on our side, rather than have other EU countries treating us as outsiders.
Europeans are not foreigners, we here have always been European. In fact why treat anyone as foreign? We are all conceived in the same way, and just because we might live on a different piece of land, divided by sea or, worse of all, a line drawn on a map, should we be considered as an alien? People do come in different sizes and colours, but so what?
Political leaders go to church claiming their God is the one who looks after them, not all of us, which is hardly generous or kind, indeed it’s damned selfish.
Charles Kennedy was the best opposition leader we had until recently. He was the first to agree that the subject of Europe was not on the last general election agenda because it might have proven a vote loser. I say British business was looking for leadership and we now don’t have it. That is why so many firms have gone abroad, or bust. British subjects are leaving the country as we are over-taxed.
The UK is the corner shop, struggling to stay open and putting up prices, or taxes, while Europe is the large supermarket, which has grown and taken a massive chunk of the trading market through competitiveness. If we were using the euro, we would benefit.
The euro would bring in investment, not stifle it. The pound has seen its best. We are not the British Empire any longer.
Richard Gran
Via e-mail
