Only found this forum this evening as I am looking to move again and perhaps go into another new build. So, I think it's fair to give some feedback of my 6 years in a Taylor Wimpey house I bought from new to help other who may be considering this option.
Area: Fife, Scotland.
House Type: Chalmers - 3 Bedroom detached with Garage and double driveway
I'll try to keep this short....
We did a part exchange with Taylor Wimpey in 2011 as quick way of guaranteeing a sale and moving within 6 months. So....
The Reservation
Can't complain too much, the saleswoman was really nice and gave us a slight discount and some freebies including a 'free' solicitor, free carpets etc.
The Part Exchange
We reserved the house for £99 after seeing a show home and thought for a 3 bedroom it had excellent storage space, spacious bedrooms etc. From there, Taylor Wimpey sent out their Rep to assess our flat for eligibility of the part exchange. Safe to say everything came back ok and as far as I was concerned, all I had to do was sign paperwork. However, we got papers through with terms that asked us to change double glazing, change all internal doors to safety approved glass and paint the eaves back and front of house!!
None of this was discussed at the time and they had the cheek to offer £8,000 below market value for my flat. We wanted to move so were happy to cut our losses, but contested the extra work that was never discussed. We fell into the trap of the 'free' solicitor which both I and Taylor Wimpey used, so I doubt my interests were really considered. Anyway, I refused to paint the eaves point blank, I did change one window and instead of replacing all doors with 'safety glass', I put a protective film over the panes. This door was newish anyway and B&Q still sold it!
So we had heated discussions and the part exchange rep accused me of lying saying she did discuss all these works but she didn't which really didn't put us in the right mindset of this transaction. So if you are in a part exchange with Taylor Wimpey, minute every discussion and send them a copy via email as a record.
The Purchase
After having got through the part exchange phase, it came to moving in day.
We had done all our sums and knew the exact amount that would be transacted to Taylor Wimpey via the 'free' solicitor. So we were sat outside the sales office in our van waiting for the nod to go in. At 2pm and still nothing even after several phone calls to the solicitor before. Thankfully the sales woman allowed us to start moving our stuff in so we weren't hanging about like homeless people.
Finally the solicitor responded saying we were £2,000 short! I felt like I had been stabbed in the chest at that point and tense with anger. We had done our sums over and over and how could we be £2,000 short? Eventually he said it was his fees.... at this point we told him to get his act together and by now he should have known Taylor Wimpey were paying our legal fees. He honestly never had a clue and these solicitors are meant to be clever and get paid a lot of money. Lesson learned from that.
Never use the 'free solicitor'.
Snagging
I think I could be here all night writing everything but I shall only pick a handful of snagging items.
I HAD LOTS!!!
Taylor Wimpey use sub contractors. If there is joinery work, plumbing etc, it may be a number of different people on the job each day, rather than the same guy that ensures it's a quality work from start to finish.
1. Blocked drain pipe in en-suite shower - After a couple of days living in the house we realised we were not getting sufficient drainage. We used drain blocker and anything else that may help dislodge accumulated dust/debris. However, on closer inspection I took the drain hole cover off and to my shock, copper drain pipe cuttings, nails and other crap had been stuffed down the drain hole. I was not impressed by this whatsoever and to be fair they sent someone over to clean the thing out. However they wrecked the vinyl in the en-suite which I had to chase and chase to get this replaced.
2. Uneven Kitchen Floor - We had vinyl covering the kitchen floor and it is still the same vinyl after original fix so it has lasted all these years of daily use and having a dog trapesing on it. The problem with the finish of the kitchen floor is it was rough as a badgers arse! I've went over smaller speed bumps! It was just not a smooth finish at all which I would expect a kitchen floor to be. The site manager try to fob me off saying it was 'within tolerances' etc and I asked him if he would accept this in his own house and the answer was of course no. So they did re-skim the kitchen floor and relay the vinyl. No problems since but was a fight to get this rectified.
3. Paint finish - The finish of white matt was awful. They clearly had only put one coat on in places and some parts were clearly done on a Friday afternoon. Got them to get the painter back in to finish the job.
4. Missing sockets and light rose - I looked at the building services drawings and several sockets and one light rose was missing in the house. Clearly someone on site wasn't doing quality checks and signing stuff off without checking it. Amateur in my view. These did get fixed eventually. Again the site manager accused me of making this up until I dragged him round and pointed.... 'OK, where is my double socket in the garage then?'
5. Leaving my house unlocked!!! - So I did have a lot more snagging issues but by far this was where the trust was lost entirely. We gave the housebuilder our key so they could get in and carry out snagging repairs. We asked them to call us beforehand so we could disable alarm before work. They did not do this, so whilst at work my phone and wife's phone was ringing due to the alarm repeatedly going off and not one call from Taylor Wimpey!!
Due to this, £50 was racked up on our phone bill. My father in-law got to the house and found no one was about but the KEY! OH YES THE KEY! was still in the front door! So he locked the house up and went away again. We waited for Taylor Wimpey to call us to say key was missing and house locked. They didn't do this. As far as they were concerned, it didn't matter. It wasn't until the Wednesday morning we brought this up with the sales woman. Not her fault, and we were reasonable with her. She did get us a £50 towards our phone bill and Taylor Wimpey built our back fence as compensation for the stress of it all plus the long list of snagging issues that were now getting ridiculous. From this point on, any snagging, we made sure we were in the house and made sure work got done properly. Often it was someone else fixing someone else's shoddy workmanship.
6 years later in 2017
Well after the initial year of snagging, we have been overall happy with the house. We have outgrown it and so time to move on, but whoever moves in will at least be comfortable knowing we've fixed the problems and made things better, including putting in drainage etc.
Would I buy another Taylor Wimpey house? No.
The reason being is that they cram houses into the smallest footprint possible and don't really think about how streets and roads function. Also, they don't actually think through the design of the house, ie socket and light switch position could be much better, As standard they do not provide built-in wardrobes. I think have written enough for now. I hope this helps any would be Taylor Wimpey buyers. Bearing in mind, this is my experience. Others will have a much better experience and others a lot worse! (The guy with the mine shaft under his driveway). Taylor Wimpey may be the choice for you however.
Ratings
Pre-sale 1/10
Sale 8/10
Post Sale 5/10
