We moved into our new build in April 2014, within 1 week of moving in we reported a number of defects, two of which are persistent and which our builder (Bett Homes Limited) claim they have fully investigated and are "closing the matter, and taking no further action".
Our house type is: Bett Homes "Kingsbury"
The two faults we're mostly annoyed about are:-
Heating: The radiators they've installed are tiny! The system was designed by Myson, and installed by a local contractor. The zoned heating thermostat is located in the master bedroom; located above the kitchen, south east facing - a naturally warm room.
We used the heating once or twice when we first moved in and had a brief cold snap and it was then we noticed the problems. The two bedrooms above the garage are freezing (on the drawing these are bed 3 and 4) - to be expected, they're above the garage, but the radiators are small and according to the builder double convectors were installed to make up for the garage beneath (but the rooms are still barely over 18 degrees when the heating is on full blast).
The bigger surprise is bed 2; located above the living room. The radiator in here is tiny (in fact, it is the same size as that which is located in our downstairs WC). This room has a large, double height window. It is west facing, but in winter, shadowed by trees. There is a noticeable temperate change in this room as soon as you walk over the threshold. We've used a digital thermometer to measure the temperature of the rooms regularly. We're usually home by 5pm (sometimes earlier), I immediately raise the temperature of the thermostats (usually both downstairs and upstairs to between 20-21 degrees. Frequently the results, after the heating having been on/off continuously for 5 hours, are:
Before heating (set to 19 degrees):
Master: 19 degrees
Bed 2: 17.1 degrees
Bed 3 17.6 degrees
Bed 4: 17.3 degrees
After heating (set to 21 degrees):
Master: 21.1 degrees
Bed 2: 18.2 degrees
Bed 3: 19.4 degrees
Bed 4: 19.9 degrees
Each of these temperatures was measured with the same digital thermometer, and this was left in each of the rooms for 10 minutes to acclimatise.
For us, bed 2 represents a real problem - it's very cold (so much so my parents in law, who live in a home with storage heaters, commented how cold it was on their stay with us over Christmas). Bett Homes' Customer Liaison Manager claimed bed 2, should be much warmer due to being over a heated living space - to which I agree. The small radiator gets extremely hot but the size of it is clearly not enough to warm the room properly.
The installed radiator is as per the manufacturers drawings; this has been checked by site. They also got Myson to visit our home to check (he also carried out some balancing work), and further checked that the double height window was factored into their calculations - all of which, apparently, came back as correct.
For it to be so cold, there must be an issue - especially as it is colder than two rooms above an unheated garage. Putting the thermostat (which we've recently had to do with the cold weather) on upwards of 22-23 degrees makes the master bedroom unbearably hot: Bett's solution to this was to open the window and turn the heating up to get the other rooms warm (and I'll throw £5 notes out of there whilst I do so!).
I feel only something like thermal imaging would identify the issue here; which I'm not prepared nor feel I should have to pay for in a 9 month old house.
The second problem we have is the master ensuite. The shower tray is a low profile (about 5mm depth to catch the water) and the shower head is a 'hotel style' rainfall one with a very high output flow. If you turn the shower on more than 10-15% of its actual capacity the tray immediately overflows. The site manager showed us on the demo how to clean the trap (which is done every two days to prevent any hair/soap scum build up) so we've done this regularly. Bett's plumber visited on one occasion armed with a plunger and immediately said he knew the fault was not going to be cleanliness of the plug/trap - naturally his plunging efforts were unrewarded and he informed us he'd spoken to his boss about the real problem! The depth of the tray. Bett say it was installed to their designs , I don't doubt that - our argument is what they've specified is not fit for purpose which is evident as I'm unable to use the shower to wash hair, etc. as it immediately overflows.
They're refusing to deal with the problems and are now stating that I should contact Premier Guarantee at a cost of £100 per defect raised. I feel as though I fighting a losing battle; Bett Homes would never admit they're at fault, and why would Premier also do the same when Bett Homes are paying for the policy - why bite the hand that feeds you, eh!? We are deeply frustrated at these ongoing issues, we accept that the house has been built to the designs - that is not the argument, clear logic suggests that what has been designed is not sufficient in real life to ensure a comfortable temperature is maintained efficiently or that showers can cope with the flow of water. Meeting 'drawings' and 'building regulations' is a get out of jail card for Bett Homes, when common-sense clearly shows there is a fault. I've even offered for someone to stay in our house and experience the issues first hand.
I cannot begin to explain how angry we feel, especially having paid over £280,000 for something that we feel so disappointed with and regret purchasing more and more. I have spoken with neighbours with integral garages, they too feel that they are cold and draughty, and a number of them are also having the issue with the ensuite shower tray regardless of house type on the development. The Customer Liaison Manager has confirmed to others that "a lot of people are having problems with the trays" but she refuses to acknowledge a fault with ours.
We've spent upwards of £300 trying to better insulate the garage, and the rooms above the garage (higher tog underlay which we'll be installing shortly, etc), but do not know what we can do regarding the shower tray and colder bed 2.
The process has been terrible trying to get Bett to fix anything - very, very long wait times unless you can do whenever they suggest. The stress we've had and continue to have through trying to resolve these issues is really beginning to get the family down. We had a very stressful buying process with them, as well as build delays, and now we're still fighting to get things corrected.
I genuinely don't know where we can go from here. Can anyone provide any advice?
