Advice on buying a brand new home > House Builders

Ingram Homes - Norwich

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New build survivor:
Does anyone have any experience of buying an Ingram Homes new build in Norfolk?
We consider ourselves reasonably savvy house buyers, having moved and bought six times in last 20 plus years, one of which was a new build of which we had minimal problems.

We fell hook, line and sinker for the marketing brochure and website of this company, being a small family business with a 3-generation pedigree and fell in love with the showhome and overall quality of build appearance and fittings.

In addition the MD is very hands-on at the offer stage until sales completion.
We perhaps should have seen the warning signs early on, when dates for completion went from end of September/beginning of October to late November. But it is not unusual for a new build for dates to slip.
In retrospect, bearing in mind we first viewed early July, when it was built but not fitted out, we think we were strung along on dates. We were told "it looks like there is a lot to do, but there isn't really and will be completed in 6-8 weeks". The agent/builder knew we were near exchange and that we didn't want to be homeless for a long period.

We then ran into legal snags, with our solicitor refusing to exchange until a bond was paid for road adoption etc (Section 38?), that we had been advised in writing by MD had already been signed/done.
By this time we had completed on the sale of our previous property to avoid losing our buyer and living in a holiday let in the Norfolk Broads, which we took with the plan it was to be 1-2 weeks in unusually warm early October weather, and turned into 7 weeks as it became increasingly draughty and cold.

We were told the delay was due to trades letting them down, plus ordering items following our delayed exchange, and it was important to get things right, so we waited, getting slightly more anxious by the day with no postal address and mail being forwarded to family 2 hours away as we had no letterbox (not great with so many final bills etc. to deal with).

The MD offered to help pay our accommodation costs after we threatened to pull out due to the delays, which was welcome and we excitedly looked forward to moving in.
It's a small development of only 24 homes about 4 miles outside of Norwich and a very popular location for commuting etc. - couldn't wait. I have to say that this is a most attractive looking development and the layout and specification was just what we had been looking for. No work to do after 4 years renovating A 1920's bungalow - bliss!

The first major error we made was not having a snagging survey.
We were all set to do, but with the delays and our anxiety to get moved in, perhaps we lost our sense of judgement.

We were taken in by the assurance of the MD by email that there is a robust snagging process. A 3-stage process that involved a semi-retired guy who focuses on snagging when he is on site once a week, the MD himself snags and then de-snags to ensure any defects corrected and the site finishing foreman snags also. Sounded pretty watertight and we bought into that plus it would save us money wouldn't it after all the additional accommodation costs? Big mistake..........
Happy to continue with this if anyone interested in hearing how we got on......

New Home Expert:
Every visitor to the forum would be interested. Especially as this is a small housebuilder, one of the minnows the government wants to encourage and help.

Given this is a small company with a strict snagging regimes I would presume your house is 100% perfect and no defects?  Then again perhaps not!

I just hope you have an NHBC warranty as some of the small housebuilder struggle to get registered!

Good that your solicitor insisted on the Section 38 bond. Worrying that it want in place though! NHBC can provide it if the housebuilder is registered.

New build survivor:
Not quite 100% perfect I'm afraid.
Yes we have NHBC. That was one of the things that gave us confidence in buying, as we felt they must be an established and credible company.

I just want to say we are 5 weeks into living in the property. It's been a very stressful year with sale and purchase delays, therefore there has been a degree of emotion creeping in. However my objective is not to slate the developer but to provide objective feedback and advice for others considering going down the same path.

The overall impression of the property was fantastic. Architect designed and quality fittings e.g.
red cedar garage door, galvanised metal guttering. Internally, a Mackintosh kitchen with good quality appliances, lovely bathrooms and tiling. Also they use a farrow and ball colour on walls and woodwork, albeit with trade paint from Johnsons, rather than magnolia. We have a lovely big open plan kitchen diner and underfloor heating downstairs. So that is all the good stuff.

Where we have been let down is in the checking and finishing - The snagging.
The site managers are directly employed and they employ carpenters and a groundworker to our knowledge. All the rest they use sub- contractors for in the main. They all seem like good, competent people when you meet them, but there is a lack of oversight and basic checks.

This is some of our problems, not complete, but has included:
1. Groundworks/drainage not properly connected so there was backfilling when our new washing machine installed, causing an under sink leak.
2. The heating cylinder pressure not set correctly so sounded like a helicopter hovering overhead, our first night in the property. Also the emergency plumber number we were given didn't respond to our text until the next morning so we had no idea if it was a serious issue.
3. Extreme condensation under kitchen sink and copper pipes forming pools of water, subsequently been lagged.
4. Leak in cloakroom and ensuite basin units and identified u- bend not connected properly in cloakroom. MD and foreman tested all basins and sinks following this by filling and checking, but surely this is basic plumbing practice to test joints on installation?
5. Dining area roof is a sloping extension roof with 2 x Velux and twice had damp patches appearing on plasterboard ceiling as well as condensation runs of water down either side of veluxes down the ceiling and side walls.  We identified fine cracks in plasterboard before leaks and pointed out to MD and foreman when checking other leaks. Roof tiles and flashing stripped back twice and identified that there was a gap in insulation allowing condensation to form under flashing and run down internally through plasterboard ceiling. 2nd occasion identified hole in insulation made by electrician fixing wiring. Now seems to be resolved but needs redecoration.
6. The water softener provided, when we queried with plumber who installed, site foreman and MD, we were advised it just needed salt to operate. The user guide left was really an installation guide and never having had a softener asked a local specialist company to check out. It turned out it was not connected to a power supply as required, and the drainage was flowing out a pipe onto the patio outside, which apparently does not meet building regs and can cause corrosion of brickwork and foundations over time, as well as being an environmental issue.
7. The internal telephony wiring was not connected to the BT master socket and then when connected BT found 162,000 errors causing interference, so we had to have master socket moved at our expense, from the airing cupboard with no power source, to the living room so we could get our broadband to work. There was also some minor snagging with wiring covers and a phone socket not being live.
I'm not going to go into all the usual snagging items that we had, such as garage trim under coated but not top-coated. The loose toilet seat (that was picked up by MD on pre-inspection but not resolved) with a big blue ribbon around it. So someone knew it was loose but put a bow round it? The ensuite shower leak and so in.

What I will say, is that as soon as we raised these issues they responded very quickly to resolve for us, so that is a huge plus. The site foreman and Customer Service Manager have been very pleasant, apologetic and done their best for us in our opinion. They keep telling us they're embarrassed about all the issues, but it doesn't really help after the event. We think virtually no snagging took place, other than visual and there was a reliance that the trades had done their jobs properly.

The MD as well in the beginnning was responsive, but lacks the communication skills of his team, is very defensive and our repetitive issues and complaints have resulted in him sending very long stroppy emails, and now only dealing with us through his managers, when a friendly visit or phone call to resolve informally would have made a big difference. He stated he'd visited to discuss one issue, when in fact he came onto our property without introducing himself, made a sarcastic comment to my partner and left.

Our most recent dispute is regarding the driveway gates, which are sawn wood not finished, give you splinters, look rough, are not aligned properly with a 10mm gap, and now have one gate sitting proud of the other making them difficult to close. We were advised they would settle, but as we had requested in writing as part of our offer on the property that the gates be dressed timber and this was accepted by the agent, we are disappointed.

The latest is they have agreed to change, but will not do any remedial work if they need adjustment etc. in future as they don't recommend dressed timber. They also won't provide them to match garage in red cedar as expensive, even though we offered initially to pay difference as upgrade.
So that is a brief overview of our experience so far.

I would recommend anyone considering a similar purchase to thoroughly snag the property professionally, to avoid the stress and heartache we have had.
I'll report if there are any new developments.

Site carpenter:
It certainly is a big snagging list, considering you have waited so long to move in.
On the upside, it sounds like the builder is rectifying the mistakes and is apologetic, reading comments of others, the large builders don't seem to give a damn.
I know you had problems with the plumbing which sounds like it is down to the plumber not taking care, however be very grateful that your builder has used copper water pipes not plastic.
I was speaking to a plumber the other day, I asked him how long the plastic push fit joints will last on hot water pipes, he said he would be surprised if they lasted more than five years.

New build survivor:
Thanks for your reply.

Yes, we think the materials used are quality and that is a key reason for buying the property. Traditional brick and block construction and so on.
The message we got was "uncompromising quality" and they don't rush to complete. We did however pay a premium for this. Another "quality" Norfolk builder is on a development across the road from us and has a 3 bed semi on market for £70,000 less than our 3 bed. We have larger floor space and the design and quality is so much better, but £70,000 is a lot, and we would have had the NHBC cover and all the rest.

The latest situation, is the Friday before Christmas there was a lot of banging from the semi adjoining us, which is unsold at present. They were on the roof checking front velux for ensuite and we believe rear veluxes too.

I had a knock on door and site foreman wanted to check our rear veluxes again (which we thought issue addressed), and also check the front one for ensuite as he said when they dealt with issue they only went half way along on extension roof, where they filled in gap in insulation.
We asked if it was likely to leak over Christmas and he said no, so we asked to leave until New Year as needed to go out and banging would upset our dogs.

We then queried with Customer Service Manager when we were speaking about gate situation.
She followed up with an email saying the site manager had explained there was still work to do on lead flashing following initial repairs. Not our understanding and now been worrying over Christmas that initial work not completed properly.

We suspect there has been a problem found in house adjoined and they want to check all velux windows now. We do get an awful lot of condensation from them, such we have to have a dehumidifier running 2-3 hours per day.
Our neighbours don't have to same degree. Only a little condensation on velux, but they are all bungalows bar one. We know you do get condensation in new builds but this actually runs down walls.
If anyone can comment on likely cause of this appreciated.

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