Whilst being aware of the current trend in the reporting and media coverage of major cases where new build home owners feel aggrieved at the issues they have had to overcome the NBRA felt it was important to conduct our own survey and view the real time results.
In order to have a comparison to work with we used the Home Building Federations (HBF) questions as home owners are asked to complete this survey following moving in to their new property and which we understand the National House Building Council (NHBC) collate and use to improve their warranty policies. We are not keen on the surveys being handed out to new build owners and reply’s sought within such a short period of time as we feel this doesn’t reflect their true experiences as it could be said that after having moved into a home that the owners are still within a ‘Honeymoon Period’ and have yet to experience any major issues or notice abnormalities, being unresolved snagging or defects or quality issues.
The NBRA appreciate that this research whilst small scale it does offer a comparison to the story being told by other results and we feel it is important to have an appreciation of consumers who have experienced the whole process and those who have had a poor experience for a product which is undoubtedly the largest purchase that many people make in their lives. We would recommend that consumers are revisited and asked to complete a second survey at the end of the Developers liability period and results kept on each Developer to not only improve customer service but the New Homes Ombudsman to monitor quality issues and consumer feeling. In the interest of transparency, we shared our results with the HBF and NHBC.
We hope you enjoy our report and we are always happy to discuss this further if you are able in the first instance to email the NBRA via team@newbuildrights.com
Susan Poulton
Director
New Build Rights Alliance (NBRA) Ltd – July 2020