I couldn't agree more with NHE's comments. Sadly all from bitter personal experience.
Taylor Wimpey refused access to our property on two occasions in the week before completion - to delay completion would have incurred a financial penalty.
Taylor Wimpey refused to put in a retention clause that allowed us to withhold monies if there were outstanding works or serious snagging issues at the point of sale.
My understanding is that it is illegal not to allow a contract to be negotiable by each party, yet Taylor Wimpey flatly refused to negotiate. If conveyancing involves anything more complicated than a few mouse clicks and paperwork, it's going to cost you, Taylor Wimpey know this. They also know that many buyers get caught up in the excitement of buying (often their first) house - they exploit the lack of experience and instill a false sense of security in respect of "don't worry we'll put any issues right". We are experienced home buyers, we did "our" homework, we played the nicey nicey with the sales team and we were epically shafted by Taylor Wimpey pure and simple.
They also refused to define "reasonable" or "minor outstanding works" as stated in their contract. Essentially this could mean that the kitchen could be half finished and they'd still require you to complete on sale - we have neighbours who were waiting for kitchen cupboard doors to be fitted nearly 3 months after moving in, not to mention all of the other ongoing issues on this site. The site manager is on long term sick, the assistant site manager has left and the whole development is in the hands of a very inexperienced 22 year old.....and for the record - this is still being marketed as an NHBC award winning site!
Unless their contracts have changed you will be under the same terms:
That is you are potentially signing to say that you are happy to buy a house from Taylor Wimpey even if there is more work to do - Taylor Wimpey's definition of habitable is completely different from the rest of the sane population - we had exposed cables, flickering lights and loud buzzing - yet the site manager said there was no reason we couldn't move in. Our subsequent independent electrical inspection advised us not to move in as it was unsuitable for use as a dwelling! This is the same site manager who said "quality is my top priority"
My advice to you remains the same - walk away now, buy an older house, where the bricks and mortar are of a better quality and pride has gone into it. Then you can invest in refurbishing it to what will a better standard, using appropriately skilled tradesman and with more control of the cost, time and quality of what you get. If you can't afford to do that, stay in rented until you can - you will be throwing your money away in the long run as Taylor Wimpey properties are built with cheap, low quality materials using even cheaper tradesmen!
We have now had 28 days of work on our property since we completed sale, we've taken 13 days off work to meet sub contractors (some not bothering to turn up, other times where Taylor Wimpey forgot to tell them about the appointment), the tiler last week reluctantly agreed that he needs two more days to put his employee's work right and blamed the surface of the plaster underneath, that was installed by another Taylor Wimpey sub contractor. We still have more work outstanding, have dealt with 13 different sub contractors and have spent over 200 hours sorting things out. Not once have Taylor Wimpey admitted liability or formally apologised - everything is done face to face or over the phone with no written commitment to put things right. We have written to the chief executive Peter Redfern SIX times (no response), met with the regional director (twice), and dealt with their PAs.
Taylor Wimpey is a shambles of a company, they are only interested in profit - once you hand them your money you can wave good bye to all the smiles and promises of after sales service! The site teams are powerless to force the subcontractors to carry out work, this is done regionally. As any "snags" are usually funded by the subcontractors themselves, there is a reluctance to come back and fix it. When they are fixing your house, they are not working on houses awaiting completion and are therefore at risk of missing their tight contractual timescales that Taylor Wimpey give them. So they are even more likely to rush the work. You can count their caring employees on one hand, and these are often powerless to get things done as quickly as they'd like.
What I find incredible is how open the subcontractors are about how poor Taylor Wimpey manage them. It is disgraceful.
This is their national business model, it is not site dependent nor is it down to the particular site manager - a really good site manager does not mean really good workmanship or good sub-contract management. It may help, but it won't guarantee your house has had any care or effort put into it! - Not withstanding the fact that our site manager was judged to be the industry's "gold" standard!
Walk away now while you still have your sanity intact...
