I am sorry to say this is not a new issue to Taylor Wimpey. There have been many buyers in the same position as you now are. This
post on the forum from 2013 is very similar to your own situation.
The problem is that under Part E, Robust Details exempt house builders from carrying out a sound test in any home built to the "Robust Details". All that is required is for the site manager to sign off a form to confirm that the home has been built exactly in accordance to each specific Robust Detail. In the real world, not every home will be checked and if found to be not complying, corrected.
The good news for you is the NHBC have proved that your home does not comply. Whether or not Taylor Wimpey do the work, it will be corrected at no cost to you.
You should ask for a copy of the surveyor's report. If Taylor Wimpey refuse, make a
Subject Access Request.Taylor Wimpey must outline what is being done, when it is being done and how long the work will take.
They will also need to outline what alternative accommodation will be provided for you and any other expenses they will cover, such as removals and storage, meals and laundry (if in a hotel) carpet replacement, etc. This
Taylor Wimpey buyer had been in "temporary" accommodation for more than six months!
Now for the big question....
compensation. Most house builders will claim that they don't pay compensation, but they all do! Geoff Peter at Wingrove Law specialises in getting justifiable compensation from house builders and breach of contract as you suggest. As might be expected, he is very busy!
My view is that your flat will not be the only property with sound insulation Part E non-compliance. I would think it highly likely that every flat on the development would also fail the sound test.
Imagine how much it would cost Taylor Wimpey to rectify every home if every buyer knew?
So my advice would be to suggest Taylor Wimpey pay you £10,000 in compensation (as well as the other expenses).
You may like to know that I have been campaigning for a
New Homes Ombudsman who would be able to rule on compensation for situations such as yours, if the builder didn't make an acceptable offer. Please contact your MP and ask that he support the recommendations in the soon to be published report from the
APPG Inquiry into the Quality of New Homes.Finally, it will annoy you to learn that in the firm's annual report at the beginning of the year, Taylor Wimpey CEO Peter Redfern said:
"During 2015, we achieved a customer satisfaction score of 86% (2014: 87%). We are disappointed that this has slipped. Whilst we operate in a cyclical market, we strongly believe that a customer centric approach is needed throughout the cycle. During 2015 we completed an in-depth review of every aspect and stage of our Customer Journey, to identify areas of improvement and to deliver a better homebuying experience for our customers.
Throughout the review, our focus has been on understanding our customers’ priorities to enable us to deliver at and ahead of expectations. We have also commenced the process of rolling out our new customer approach across the business with a focus on three main areas: our culture, management structure and process. This is to ensure that going forward we deliver the right product, supported by excellent customer service to all our customers at every stage of their journey with Taylor Wimpey.
As part of this new approach, we have developed a customer mindset focused on delivering proactive, positive and professional service, which we want to ingrain in our behaviour with customers. We have also developed and will be embedding four customer commitments in the business, focused on getting it right first time, communicating well, keeping promises and finding solutions.
In addition, during 2015, we have enhanced the capability and size of our customer service teams across the regional businesses, with the introduction of a number of key new roles. In 2015 we developed and started to implement a training programme to equip those employees interacting with our customers with the right skills to deliver a consistently great service.
We are pleased to see a positive trend in customer satisfaction in the monthly survey scores in the second half of 2015. Customer service will remain a key priority for Taylor Wimpey in 2016 and on an ongoing basis."
You might like to ask him what is going wrong and what he is
personally doing about it?