We have now been in our Jones Home (Emerson Group) for just under 2 years. Over the last couple of months we have noticed that there is creak/crack in the flooring upstairs, when walking on it. We knew this was to be expected, with it being a new build home.
One of our back bedrooms we use as a junk bedroom, from moving in. We have now tidied this up and decorated it, and this is where it came to our attention that the noise from the flooring in this room was the worst.
It then came to our attention that some of our neighbours have had the same issue and they have either reported this to Jones Homes or the remedial work that is required to fix this, has already been completed.
I have reported this to Jones Homes and they have now come out twice to look at it. During the last visit, it was recommended that significant work is required to fix this issue. To do this, they will have to take down the ceilings downstairs, so that they can access the joists of the house, in order to fix it.
To do this, we will need to move out of the house for approximately 10 days. This has come as a bit of a shock.
Since the visit, we have put some questions forward for Jones, as obviously moving out of your home for an extended period of time (except for holidays of course), is a big thing, and the logistics of it are not always as simple as you think. Luckily we do not have kids to consider, however, we do have 2 dogs.
The questions we asked Jones Homes was the following:-
1. How long would the work take, and will we have any access to our home during this time?
2. It is likely we will have to pay for alternate accommodation, what are the terms of their assistance in the cost of this? (if there are any). One thing I was asked, do we have any holidays booked. Well we do in October; however we have plans in place for somebody to come stay at our house to look after the dogs, as we do not want to put them in kennels. Unfortunately, the person that is staying does not have the accommodation to take the dogs on at their house, so October fix isn't an option. If we have to go away again i.e. somewhere in the country, then as most people, we have not budgeted for an additional holiday.
3. We have recently completed some decorating in our living room, and one of the walls we have decorated has wallpaper. The cost of this wallpaper was £75 per roll and it took approximately 4 to 5 rolls due to the pattern repeat. This is likely to be damaged during any works that take place. We want to know, if we will be compensated for this. If so we want to use our decorator who originally put the paper up, due the job that he did?.
4. My TV and Soundbar are mounted to the wall. During the visit, they said that these will need to be taken down and they would prefer that we do it. This TV was mounted by a local company, which cost me £110, as they feed the cables through the wall, to under my stairs. I think it is only fair that if I have to do this, then I get the same company back in, to de-mount the TV and Soundbar and subsequently get them back to re mount them, once the work has taken place. Is this fair?
5. What happens to our furniture during the works? Small items can simply be put up stairs, however, couches and bigger items this isn’t as simple.
6. Do we have snagging rights once the work, once it has been completed
7. Is there any compensation for the inconvenience of this issue? This a huge upheaval to have to leave your home for 2 weeks, and is it unfair for us to say that we should be compensated above the cost of alternate accommodation?. This work is due to no fault of our own, it is obviously something to do with either poor workmanship/materials, to say that other people on the estate have encountered the same issue. We of course, still have to pay our standard bills, whilst we are not in residence, which again is due to no fault of our own. Is it unfair to seek some of sort of compensation for this.
Does any of the above seem unfair, and is there anything else that we should be seeking clarity from them on, in regard to this?.