New Home Owners And Snagging Forum
Advice on buying a brand new home => House Builders => Harron Homes => Topic started by: MJJenkins11 on August 07, 2012, 01:57:58 pm
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We have purchased a new property using building firm, Harron Homes on a development in West Yorkshire.
Just wondering if anyone has had experiences with Harron Homes - more specifically with the after care (snagging etc). Thanks
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You won't do any worse than if you bought from one of the nationals in my opinion.
Their customer care appears to be focused heavily on pre occupation rather than fixing any snagging problems.
In fact most of what they actually state on their website is a requirement of the Consumer Code anyway.
They are a small house builder, which can work either way.
They may give you a very personal service and care passionately about what they do.
Or as they have no reputation to lose they could give poor or no after sales service at all.
Being "small builder" they may not pay the salaries to attract the best site managers which could explain why they have not won any NHBC quality awards in 2012.
They say on their website:-
"Harron Homes Customer Charter -
Your reassurance that we care"
"Our After Sales Service is here to assist you after your purchase
We're with you every step of the way"
As you have already committed to buy one of their new homes only time will tell.
I would suggest you have the finished home professionally snagged by an independent firm such as Brickkickers.
As with any house builder, don't believe everything they tell you and always complain in writing!
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Excellent information - thank you very much. We will look to hire professionals for snagging. Much appreciated.
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Harron Homes were featured on BBC 1 Rip Off Britain programme this week.
Have a look on BBC iPlayer.
You may also like to check out this too People review Harron Homes (http://forum.snagging.org/other-developers/483-harron-homes.html)
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Do you know the date this piece was aired (or have a link to it on bbc iplayer)?
There's loads on there!
So far, for information, Harron Homes have been excellent. We moved in at the weekend, the build quality looks good. The site manager is extremely helpful and continues to pop in and check on us. We have had water penetrate the patio doors and within one day, scaffolding had been erected and improvements are being carried out.
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I know there are. I couldn't find it either!
You could check out these reviews HARRON HOMES (http://forum.snagging.org/other-developers/483-harron-homes.html)
Water coming in already on the first day in a new home and scaffold going back up and you think this is excellent?
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We bought a house from Harron Homes in June 2006, the sales team were great, just a shame the after sales is not so great.
The road leading to our house was only just completed last year...6 years after moving in and the council still have not adopted it due to it already crumbling. Because the road has not be adoped Harron Homes still have the responsibility of streetlights and maintence of grassy areas. Residents are having to cut the grass at the sides of the road to keep the area looking nice, and all the street lights have gone out down our road...ingformed Harron end of Oct 2012 and to date Jan 13 they still are out!!
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This really does appear to be one of Britain's worst house builders!
Their Charter would appear to be worthless:
"Your reassurance that we care"
"Our After Sales Service is here to assist you after your purchase We're with you every step of the way"
To have to wait over six years and the highway has still to be adopted, because I suspect it is still not up to highway standards.
You should write to the Local Authority and insist that they take over the road and make a claim on the Bond Harron Homes have to put up under the Section 38 Agreement. You may even find that the council have taken a view that they will never adopt the road as it would be too much of a maintenance liability.
Regarding the street lights write a stern letter to Harron Homes and say that should there be any accident due to darkness caused by the lack of street lights, they would be liable under negligence law. Harron's compensation liability could potentially be millions.
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Good point re: the term "excellent" and "scaffolding going back up after one day".
Also, I was quick to judge. Since September, our house has given us one problem after another.
The list of defects is too long to mention.
The work they re-did on the patio doors is again showing signs of water penetration.
We have excessive movement and cracking all over the place. You can hear and feel the wind blowing through gaps in windows.
All things an untrained person like me missed, but after a settling in period, and other people visiting, more horrific issues have come to light.
We have been told by a dozen different landscape gardeners that they cannot carry out any garden work because they can't guarantee the quality due to the poor workmanship of the build, the drainage and the damp proof course.
After sales is a total joke.
In the 6 months we've been involved, they've gone through three totally incompetent site managers, one pretty good site manager who they moved to South Yorkshire, because that was struggling and one who is nice and promises everything, but yet to deliver a bloody thing!
Around 20 houses are now finished on this development in Queensbury and nearly everyone is complaining - anarchy pending!
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Well I did try to warn you!
You also said in an earlier post you were going to take my advice and have your home professionally snagged (http://www.brand-newhomes.co.uk/new-home-snagging-inspectors.htm)/inspected. Did you?
Most people move into their new home expecting a few minor problems that the site management fix in the first few weeks.
After that, when the euphoria of the new home wears off more serious problems come to light.
Problems that were fixed were just bodged and the site management looks to the buyer more as a nuisance than a customer!
That is why I always say no one should complete the New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey (http://www.brand-newhomes.co.uk/national-new-home-customer-satisfaction-surveys.htm) questionnaire until they have been living in their home for at least six months.
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Mjjenkins11,
I'm thinking of buying one of the houses on Burwood Heights development.
You have said that everyone is complaining, is anyone happy with their house on there? Would you really not recommend them?
What problems do you have? Have Harron Homes said they will rectify any problems? Thanks
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I think MJJenkins problems are well documented in this thread!
He has had nothing but trouble as have his neighbours.
You appear not to have read the posts!
"everyone is complaining - anarchy pending!"
If you really STILL cannot see the 'wood from the trees' I suggest you go to the site and knock on owner's doors and ask for yourself.
Would you still buy a home if three people were happy and 50 were complaining?
"Caveat Emptor"
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Thank you Philofacts for your comments.
However mjjenkins said the list was too long to mention!!!!!
I wanted to know if there were lots of minor problems that you should expect when buying a new build & how efficient they are dealing with the problems. I also wanted to know out of the 20 houses built, how many had problems, maybe he has only spoken to a few??
I will happily go down & knock on doors to find out how happy everyone is before we commit to anything.
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Cjs,
You should never expect or accept any defects in a new home, let alone lots of minor ones!
Whether a lot of minor defects, or two or three major defects is irrelevant.
Whilst it is true some defects may only become evident after a few days/weeks, the majority of faults buyers of new homes report to the house buider are obvious defects and/or bad quality all of which any good builder should ensure are rectified before anyone moves in.
Again the previous posts would indicate that Harron Homes are not especially good at attending to defects either.
I think "everyone is complaining - anarchy pending!" and "list of defects too long to mention" is a big warning to stay well clear!
I do not expect when you speak to buyers, that anyone will be overjoyed by their new home or Harron's customer after care.
How many NHBC Quality Awards have Harron Homes won in the last 10 years?
How many stars in the HBF star rating have they got?
Please have a good look around the main website before you buy any new home.
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Apologies. Haven't checked back on here for some time.
We have now lived in the property for 12 months and yes, we do still have some concerns.
We did not do a professional snagging which was a mistake, we should have and Philofacts is right. It's critical.
Some neighbours are still experiencing problems.
We still have no street lighting. On an evening, the entire cul-de-sac is in complete darkness (security concerns).
Our endless list of problems does now appear to have been rectified, but it has taken 12 months and some of the issues we have just done ourselves as we were getting nowhere with Harron Homes. For info CJs, our problems included broken window frames, cracked tiles, bad workmanship on sealants around showers and baths, gaps between windows and stone work, poor insulation, awful paintwork, doors not fitting into door frames correctly, door locks not working, water penetration as mentioned previously, a strange circular hole cut out of the stonework in the downstairs toilet yet no pipework to place in it, hence a big drafty hole in the toilet (now fixed). Gardens are terrible too, full of rubble and they just lay turf on top of it then wonder why it dies within a season. The general finish (plastering/decorating etc) is average at best. It was only when we started to decorate that we realised how slap-dash the finish was.
Customer service has improved, but still some way to go to meet our expectations.
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What a dreadful experience and a warning to others.
From what you say it would appear evidence of a house builder that doesn't care about either quality or service.
Over a year without street lights tells you everything you need to know about Harron in my opinion.
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A couple of people on a forum complain about issues with their Harron home and all of a sudden "This really does appear to be one of Britain's worst house builders!"
I'm in the process of buying a Harron home (it's currently about 6 feet tall) and have done a hell of a lot of research. Try searching for reviews on Harron homes and you'll hardly find anything. In fact on the whole of the internet I think I've found two threads on the subject. Whilst they are only a small builder, if they were as bad as you make out, there would be a hell of a lot more people complaining.
On the other hand, try searching for reviews on Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Ben Bailey etc. etc. People have created websites complaining about them.
All these builders employ the same trades and unfortunately some are either careless or just not very good. You'll never find a builder with 100% customer satisfaction. The trick is to take a considered view.
I have spoken to several couples who have bought Harron homes on my development and all are very happy. Yes there has been the usual snagging problems but nothing critical.
Luckily I'm level headed but some folk will read your negative, "mountain-out-of-a-molehill judgements" and be put off.
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Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
I agree Harron are a small local house builder which would explain why there are fewer complaints about them online than say Persimmon who build 10,000 new homes a year.
With respect, you really don't know what you are talking about.
All house builders don't necessarily use the same trades to build the homes!
An estate without street lights for over 12 months.
A buyer that STILL has problems after 12 months.
Six years for the estate roads to be adopted.
"everyone is complaining - anarchy pending!"
Only time will tell whether or not you get a good quality new home and Harron give you decent after sales customer service.
If you read what MJJenkins originally said, he was as positive as you appear to be before he moved in and tried to get faults and defects corrected over the last 12 months and still has outstanding issues.
At the end of the day, people can only make judgements and base their decision to buy or not on the infomation provided by other new home buyers.
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I have undertaken recently 3 snagging inspections on Harron Homes in Yorkshire , two on the Pudsey site , and one on a site near Halifax
I would be happy to answer any questions and give thoughts on my findings.
Just drop me a line here or a PM
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It is good that Harron buyers are at the very least getting their new Harron Homes properly and professionally independently inspected, hopefully before they move in.
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They wont let you snag to the point where they say you can have a tour instead in which you're shown how the house works and any apparent issues are logged however no dedicated snagging time is allowed. Snagging is left until after you've moved in at which point your in with everyone else fighting for things to be done.
They even make you sign a fit for purpose document knowing that there are outstanding issues on the house before they let you move in.
I moved in on Dec 14th, roughly 6 weeks ago and we haven't had a working boiler, windows don't fit properly, tiling in all bathrooms is disgraceful the list goes on and on.
Oh our hot and cold water pipes were setup back to front - hot toilet flushes for the first week no hot water in taps.
We love the house though... and are sure it will be amazing.... once its finished
Thanks
Mark Rushworth
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Ask yourself why wont Harron Homes let you snag and properly inspect your home before you move in.
Even worse, they expect you top sign it off as being "fit for purpose"
Alarm bells were ringing, red lights are flashing and sirens are wailing!
Advice for for everyone else who still intends to buy a Harron Home despite reading this thread:-
Whatever you do please get the home professionally and independently snagged and inspected by a snagging inspector before you move in.
If Harron Homes say they wont "allow this" then instruct your solicitor NOT to legally complete until they do.
Harron Homes will want their money eventually!
You "love the house" even though you have already discovered just how badly it has been built.
"the list goes one" I expect it does! All because they wouldn't properly check your home and more importantly, let you appoint a professional to do it before you move in.
The fact is, it was not even checked! Hot water toilet flushes and cold water in hot taps - that's when the boiler is actually working of course!
Quite why you still bought a Harron new home after reading the original post is a complete mystery to me.