At Last A Genuine House Builder Code Of Practice

[New Home Expert]

It has taken the industry five years to come up with a cover all Code of Practice. This was created by the New Homes Quality Board in conjunction with industry stakeholders.

I am delighted to see many of the points I and others raised at the first APPG EBE Inquiry Into the Quality of New Homes such as the right to inspect (or hire a professional to inspect) a new home BEFORE legal completion and a clear complete banning of housebuilders forcing their preferred choice of solicitors on unwary homebuyers are in the new Code.

It remains to be seen how fairly and independently, the New Homes Ombudsman Service will deal with buyer's complaints when (not if!) plc housebuilder's continue to breach their own Code. It is to be hoped that it will be more effective at bring housebuilders to account than the complete waste of paper, sticking plaster, that was the Consumer Code for Home Builders, which has failed those very few new homebuyers that made complaints over the eleven years of its existence.

At least this time the Government (and myself) will be watching the New Homes Ombudsman decisions very closely!

All we now need to do is make sure every new homebuyer is made aware of this new Code.

[Matron]

I think we should be thanking you New Home Expert because you have really pushed for this. I will definitely be spreading the word.

[New Home Expert]

To be fair, I really pushed a statutory New Homes Ombudsman and was a bit disappointed to find the proposed voluntary New Homes Ombudsman would be using the new Code to adjudicate compliance or breaches of its requirements to decide complaints by new homebuyers. This in my opinion, is restrictive and it should have been for everything and anything new homes, in much the same way as the Financial Ombudsman Service works. 

That said, the Code of Practice (30 pages 8,752 words) is far stronger than the old (useless) Consumer Code for Home Builders (11 pages 3,034 words).  Just need to see how well it is implemented, enforced and the extent of awards when inevitably it is breached by plc housebuilders.