2007

Stephen Nancarrow and Professor James Sommerville of Inspector Home have been chosen to assist the Office of Fair Trading with their investigation in to the new homes industry.

Inspector Home will be working closely with the OFT to ensure that positive changes are made to the industry ensuring that quality standards and customer satisfaction increase.

Professor James Sommerville and Stephen Nancarrow have met with ministers from the French Government to discuss housing defects and suggest areas for improvement.

2006

Stephen Nancarrow appeared on Tonight with Trevor McDonald to appeal for a homeowner in the North East of England who was living in a caravan on his driveway because his home had been built so poorly.

The second Research project between Inspector Home and Glasgow Caledonian University was published highlighting the volumes of defects in new homes and was the subject of discussion at the RICS conference in London and the COBRA conference in Sydney.

Stephen Nancarrow was invited to the House of Lords to discuss new home defects at a Select Committee.

July 2005 - Update

Vanessa Ambler recently spoke to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and has been advised that whilst new homes are exempt from the Sale of Goods Act they may be subject to the Goods and Services Act 1982 and anyone considering legal action should investigate this course of action. Inspector Home would love to hear from anyone who has looked into this.

March 2004 - Petition to the House of Commons submitted

On March 11th Vanessa Ambler and Stephen Nancarrow visited Marion Roe MP at the House of Commons to submit a petition signed by thousands campaigning for increased consumer protection for new home owners.

The petition of Inspector Home Ltd declared:

that buyers of new build homes do not benefit from adequate consumer protection

that they should be entitled to have a third party representative check their home for quality prior to completion (legally speaking if a developer does not want to let us on site they do not have to as they own the land. This is very rare but could happen and it needs to change.)

that they should be able to delay completion should the home not conform to standard (you will have signed a contract that will prevent you from doing this, but if you don't sign the contract you can't buy the house)

that if defects are not rectified, they should have a legal right to withhold a retention until the works are completed (your contract will also stop you from doing this)

that the standards acceptable for new homes are set at present by insurance companies and that there are no legal requirements to adhere to these standards (this is why new homes have so many defects.)

that the government should intervene to set legal standards for new build homes (we are hoping to discuss this one with The Right Honourable Keith Hill very soon)

that the inspections carried out by new home warranty providers are for their own risk assessment purposes only and that it should be made clear to buyers that the warranties issued by these bodies are insurance policies and carry no legal consumer protection (since our petition we are pleased to see that the NHBC have changed the text on their web site)

that the paperwork arising from checks by the local authority and warranty providers should be made available to the buyer (most clients can not get hold of these for love nor money)

that there should be an independent regulator of the quality of new homes and a national league table of developers (we are compiling a league table at the moment ourselves)

that if new build homes have serious defects which affect the value or use of the home, the developer should be legally required to repurchase the home at full market value or pay compensation (we have negotiated buy backs for several clients but there is no obligation for developers to do this. They usually agree because they know that we will not rest until they have done so.)

The Barker Review

Shortly after our petition was handed in to the House of Commons we were pleased to see that Kate Barker reflected our opinions in her Review of Housing Supply.

Recommendation 32 called for the HBF to develop a strategy to increase the proportion of house buyers who would recommend their house builder from 46% to at least 75% by 2007. Over the same period customer satisfaction levels should increase to 85%.

The House Builders Federation were also given the task of developing a code of conduct by the end of 2004 for new house sales which should require fair contracts complying with the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

Well, 2004 has been and gone and we have not been informed of any new code of conduct as yet. We have contacted the HBF and are expecting to meet with them in the very near future to discuss our suggestions for the industry.

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

Stephen Nancarrow and Vanessa Ambler visited the ODPM last year and met with Paul Everall, Head of the Buildings Division and John Thompson from the Building Regulations Division. They seemed unaware of the extent of the problems with new homes and were very interested to hear about the issues we raised with them.

Late in 2004 we were contacted by Whitehall regarding some figures we released about snagging defects in Scotland that had come to the attention of the ODPM. As a result of this we were informed that the ODPM were very interested in our statistics and we are expecting to meet with them in the very near future to discuss our concerns. We are currently awaiting a response from the Right Honorable Keith Hill MP Minister for Housing.

Snagging Research Study with Glasgow Caledonian University

Inspector Home are undertaking a research study with Glasgow Caledonian University that will be published in Spring 2005. The study will produce several published papers on the condition of new homes in the UK and will be the most accurate and thorough data of its kind in the UK.

The data has been supplied by Inspector Home and will be analysed by Professor Sommerville and his team at the School of the Built and Natural environment - several hundred hours of work have already been invested in to the study.

We are expecting the results to be treated with the utmost importance by the new homes industry, the HBF and the UK Government and the information will support our campaign for the remainder of 2005.

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