Elissa and Johnnie believe quality control during the build was lacking and more “stringent legislation” is needed so builders know “they can’t build more rubbish homes”.
Elissa says a senior Stonebridge employee told her they were under “pressure” to increase output and sometimes that compromised quality.
We asked Stonebridge Homes about this, along with all the points of criticism raised above, but the company did not provide specific answers.
It told the that customer service was one of its top priorities as well as access to “clear, transparent processes for raising concerns and seeking independent resolution where required”.
One of the biggest issues for homebuyers, says ombudsman Cates, is not the defects they find, but the way they feel treated by developers when they complain.
“For most people, this is the biggest purchase they’ll ever make. So, when something goes wrong, they need the developer to be on it straight away, take them seriously, really value them, understand them and put it right,” he tells us.
New homes are inspected several times during construction by either local council building inspectors or a registered building control approver, to make sure they meet legal, national building regulations. Most developers also use insurance providers, who carry out their own checks and offer 10-year warranties.
The government has set itself a target of building 1.5 million homes in England by 2029. As housebuilding speeds up, the industry could be “setting itself up for a huge fail”, says John Cooper, director of snagging company New Home Quality Control.
His inspectors frequently find breaches of building regulations, he tells us, including insulation, brickwork and carpentry problems. “We see some horrors,” he says, adding that current checks on new homes before handover are insufficient.
A panel of experts recently told MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee that parts of the building industry are like the “wild west” and there needs to be a more robust, uniform system.
Cates, who sat on the panel, told MPs that residents not covered by NHOS faced a “patchwork of [building] codes” not designed to help homeowners.
He tells the there is “a big difference between having a code, and standards very specifically tailored to modern home sales, and the issues coming with that”.
“It’s critical for the whole industry… that everyone has the same protections, access to an ombudsman service and an impartial investigation,” he adds.
The body representing big developers, the Home Builders Federation, says it supports a statutory ombudsman, so all new-build buyers are covered, but wants the government to reduce what it describes as the “regulatory burden”, including extra taxes and policy costs, which have rendered many potential sites, and businesses, “no longer viable”.
For Jess and her partner Darryl, NHOS could not help as it does not cover shared-ownership homes. The couple found black mould in their house 10 days after moving in.
The mother of three from Somerset told Your Voice they put all their savings into the home. “We feel like we’re living in a nightmare”.