The following comments are all for the attention of The Government and have been e-mailed to Inspector Home by owners of new homes throughout the UK. Inspector Home accepts no responsibility for the contents of these comments (although we probably do agree with them).

If you would like to add your comments to the list below please click here.

Comments for The Government:

"The current system provides little comfort to the consumer. The biggest purchase of your life and yet the builder has all of the rights."

"Consumers should not be ripped of by new house builders. £9k stamp duty should cover use for claims. Building Control and local planning officers should be accountable .The NHBC should be investigated for not acting on behalf of the buyer and protecting the shoddy builder. No wonder the UK building industry has such a poor reputation around the world. John - I won't vote for Labour this time."

"Why is it that a consumer has more rights when buying a used car than they do when purchasing a new home? Why is it acceptable for the builders to not specify a completion date when exchanging contracts?"

"Among many other faults, I discovered that my builder had installed an electric shower in a dangerous condition. After much investigation of my own I eventually contacted my MP who subsequently concluded that there was no statutory body responsible for the safety of electrical installations in the home. What is the government doing about this?"

"More legislation needs to be in place to protect buyers of new homes from cowboy builders and unskilled tradesmen working on building sites."

"These house builders and the contractors they use are destroying the reputation of British tradesmen. An independent regulator should be set up to monitor the quality of work and have powers to force builders to rectify problems, freeze the construction of all new homes until existing homes are built to a good standard and have the ability to fine or close companies. This should apply to any building construction work (not just new home builders). As it stands the NHBC does not (and cannot) do much to enforce quality within the building construction industry."

"The builder takes a large capital sum from you, and then believes he has done his bit, and has no regard whether you are pleased with your purchase or indeed if it is a safe and healthy place to live. The final straw for me was when I was almost electrocuted three days post moving in when water from the kitchen sink had nowhere to go except the electric plug, which blew the lights, and left me in total darkness (no streetlights) searching for the electric box. This was after four days of appliances not working, no wardrobes (clothes lying on floor) etc. "

"Bought brand new home in April 1998. Cracks started to appear during the summer. Builder contacted but did not want to know, "settlement cracks" I'm told. Cracks get worse so I contact NHBC. Told to inform builder in writing which I did but builder ignores my letter. NHBC informs me to record all defects and put them in writing to them as I have two years to do so. Plaster explodes off our bedroom wall during January 2000. Inform my Solicitor, Builder, NHBC and my mortgage company. I employ a surveyor to fit monitoring devices around the various cracks the home and NHBC compile a resolution report. The builder ignores this report so I instigate legal proceedings against the builder. A lot of meetings between various parties, engineers, surveyors, builders etc. decide that there is something wrong with the foundations of my home. It is then agreed that we would be put up in rented accommodation, all paid for by the parties involved, in March 2001 so that exploratory works to determine the fault and subsequent remedial works be undertaken. Two weeks after initial works the builder and piling contractor blame each other for the fault and simply walk off site and pull the plug on our funding. We have no other option but to keep going with legal action and today Monday 20th October 2003 we reach the High Court in Belfast with the Builder and Piling contractor still blaming each other. We have now been out of our home for 2 1/2 years, funding our temporary accommodation ourselves with two young children in tow. The result?? The court does not force them to buy the house back off us, the court does not force them to go back and repair the house, oh no, the court gives us a sum of money to fix the house ourselves based on what the Quantity Surveyors have agreed as to how much it would cost to repair the home. Not a lot. Compensation..... we were awarded £2,000.00 for our trouble, yes only two thousand pounds and we now have to find a builder to fix this ourselves. BUYING A NEW HOME, THIS IS A NIGHTMARE BEWARE!!!!!!!!!! "

"Over 1 year on we are still having to chase for "snags" to be rectified. The house was never finished to an acceptable standard and yet once we handed over our money, to get anything done requires constant chasing causing stress and anxiety. Why are new homes exempt from the sale of goods act when for most people their home is the singularly most expensive and important purchase they will ever make?"

"We need defined and realistic standards."

"COMPANIES GET AWAY WITH PROVIDING SUBSTANDARD SERVICE ONLY BECAUSE OF LOOPHOLES IN LEGISLATION, AND DESPITE SERVERAL COMPLAINTS THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE PEOPLE SUFFERING ARE THE ONES THEY CLAIM THEY WANT TO HELP AND PROTECT. IT APPEARS THAT THE GOVERNMENT ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN CASES WHERE THEY CAN BRING IN LEGISLATIONS THAT INCREASES TAX (USUALLY PAID BY THE PEOPLE THEY REFUSE TO HELP)."

"You have a duty to protect the British public [please start doing so]"

"Protect the consumer. He wouldn't want to be treated like this.... "

"The NHBC, and I suspect that many if not most trade associations are a huge con designed to lull the house buying public into a sense of false security. The NHBC so-called standards are actually worthless; when we challenged the standards, we were made to accept workmanship that fell well short of them. In any other profession, can quite rightly be banned from continuing to work. Why are there no minimum qualifications for builders, and no formal registration scheme? We bought a new house, and our lives have been ruined."

"The snags were deliberately not repaired prior to moving in and money changing hands. This gave me no leverage with the builder ie I couldn't threaten to pull out of the deal."

"Our new home could have killed us, we were lucky, if builders know they can repeatedly get away with unsafe standards someone else might not be. If Mr Prescott would like to see the video of our property he is more than welcome."

"As the most expensive purchase, a consumer makes there needs to be more consumer protection, and duress on builders to rectify their faults without quibble and delay. One pays a premium for a new home, and receives nothing but hassle. Mr. Prescott as a member of the government who is proactively endorsing building of new homes, surely it is in your and your party's political interest to protect those whom you are encouraging to make their first purchase or move up the chain to a new home."

"My home is a new convertion from nursing home to 9 good quality flats. I have been plagued by damp since moving in. No-one wants to help me. I have black walls, curtains, carpets etc because of this. The environmental health department in my local council is not interested as it is a private property. The managing agent is useless despite a maintenance charge of £1,000.00 a year from each flat. All flats have experienced some problem. After 2 years they have found that the cavity is blocked but are trying to get me to pay. What do I do?"

I want what I have paid for, no more and no less. I feel that the problems which we have can be solved. The building industry should be forced to snag the building 100% before they are handed over and not leave the purchaser be put through the stress of constantly chasing the after sales to solve problems."

"New Home Buyers need greater protection in law to curb the abuse of power by large developers. Please visit the website www.wimpeyrawdeal.com"

"New homes should not be exempt from the Sale Of Goods Act."

"To raise the standards. Our home was passed by inspectors, but we have things outstanding that should have been picked up."

"The building industry use their N.H.B.C. membership for marketing but this is effectively self regulatory. For example Mr. Graham McCallum, Chief Executive of Wilson Connolly is also a Director of N.H.B.C. In reality the consumer has no real protection from commercially orientated builders. The only thing that would provide consumer protection would be a financial retainer pending satisfactory completion of building defects."

"Please Find some way of stopping these cowboy Builders loose on to the consumers because it has made our and probably plenty of others lives a living hell!"

"Give New Home owners more rights to a quality product thus encouraging more people to buy new."

"There is little point in passing new building regulations if they are not strictly enforced upon the volume builders. They know that the layman will not know whether there is enough insulation correctly installed in the house and are fully aware that the NHBC will not check. The local authority are prevented from checking and so they 'get away' with it. The service is little better than the itinerant drive pavers. The small builders are forced to comply by the local authority whereas the larger ones are on the NHBC scheme and their interests are different. My home was missing insulation, draughtproofing and after 22 months has yet to have the snagging list reduced from well over 200-items. The people who express satisfaction with their new home builders are more likely unaware of the faults that have been left for the future. These are slums in the making for 60-years from now. Legislation is required to make these builders more responsible and liable for their construction. The NHBC should be removed from the building control duty as they are incompetent (yes I do have proof to back the statement). I could write all night... about the managing director of Barratt who lied to me about having seen the insulation in my house, implying that I was wrong and only fitted it after we had suffered two freezing cold winters. All in our modern insulated home. Other parts of my luxury dwelling are already starting to fall down - class act. Legislation - it is only paper if it is not enforced. All the talk of reducing energy costs and fuel and the new house-building industry are going in the other direction. Modern construction practices where it is cheaper and suits to increase profits but not where it is fiddly and expensive; the result is that the modern construction leaks like a sieve. Do something now to stop the new housing being constructed in this fashion. We are all being conned by the housebuilders!"

"There is a plethora of legislation on Health and Safety at Work - including Stress! What about the stress induced because no legislation exists to guarantee standards from PLC companies building homes?"

"You are bullied into signing the missives, but once you have, these companies couldn't care less about you. You are sell your existing property with an understanding you will have a new home shortly - only to discover that the builders can't be bothered - they make you wait another 3 months or more before finishing your home. They are messing with people's lives and they have NO RIGHT TO DO SO!!!"

"Standard of workmanship on the house is abysmal and shows no pride in the job."

"We should not be forced into completing on a new property when it's not finished-we would never buy a new car with no doors or no engine-why should we move into a new building site."

"It seems that builders are only concerned with your opinions before you purchase their house, after they have your money they seem to turn a deaf ear to sorting out your repairs. I feel that there should be a scale outlining the % compensation builder should have to pay in relation to the severity of the snags and time it takes to remedy them. We purchased a house on Scotland threatened with a penalty and loosing the property if we did not completed on the date agreed. However 7 months on we are still awaiting completion of initial snagging - we have very little weight in getting these corrected - this is not right!"

"THE LAW NEEDS TO PROTECT NEW HOUSE BUYERS YOU HAVE MORE RIGHTS BUYING A BAR OF CHOCOLATE."

"It's about time that the government stopped ALL builders , big and small, from ripping off their customers by introducing new buyer protection laws."

"Once the builders have your money they are not interested in fixing the faults. I had to phone the company twice a day for months before they came out. Some of the faults were major and some minor but we were still treated as if we were "scum of the Earth". I have been complaining about my driveway which is not "fit for purpose" for 18 months now. The company have sent letters stating that there is nothing wrong with it. If you surveyed everyone who has bought a new house in the past 3 years, I would expect over 70% would be unhappy and claim the house builders were all cowboys."

"We need builders onsite who can actually build correctly."

"Our new house was far from complete when we had to pay for it and 6 months after purchase we have had workmen back to our property on 30 to 40 different days to finish off the job and repair the bad workmanship on nearly 200 items from our snag list. We are still waiting for several items to be sorted out including the re-harling of our garage and the installation of vents and ducting in our roof. We naively assumed that the builder would deliver us a complete house on legal completion, like every other retailer that we have experienced in our lives, however, we have learnt the hard way that the building industry is exempt from such obligations. WHY?"

"WITH REGARDS TO BUYING OUR NEW HOME WE WERE ADVISED BUY THE SITE MANAGER OF THE COMPANY THAT HOUSEBUILDING IS NOT AN EXECT SCIENCE AND THAT SNAGS WERE INEVITABLE. IF THIS IS THE CASE WHY DO WE NOT HAVE LEGISLATION IN PLACE TO ALLOW HOUSE BUYERS TO RETAIN A CERTAIN VALUE OF THEIR HOME UNTIL SUCH TIMES AS SNAGS HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AND RECTIFIED. EVERYTHING FAVOURS THE HOUSE BUILDER WITH NO RIGHTS GIVEN TO THE HOUSE BUYER AT ALL. WITH HOMES COSTING SO MUCH THESE DAYS AND COMPANIES REPORTING RECORD PROFITS, WHY IS THERE NO GOVERMENT BODY REGULATING THE TRADE?"

"After 1 year later our property was finally ready to move into. You can imagine, we where both over the moon, until we veiwed the property, the dimensions where over 2 ft too short in the lounge and the main bedroom. We were furious. We weren't the only people that where furious, there where others. But after a long battle with FairView, they bullied all the purchasers to sign for the property, accepting that all is OK, otherwise we were all in threat of losing our property and deposit. It's unreal, how first time buyers or any buyers can get bullied into purchasing a property. The response we received from FairVeiw was appalling. They had nothing to say, apart from delaying their response, until it was too late, and we had to sign the completion of the property. My husband and I have gone through a long ordeal, and it has also put a lot of pressure on our relationship. (My husband and I both seeing a Shrink)."

"There are a substantial number of people who purchase new build properties. House purchase is one of the major purchases and expenses the vast majority of people make how come there isn't the protective legislation to deal with rogue house builders like for example there is with endowment policies and shortly mortgages with the FSA! How come financial advisers can loose their license to trade for poor advice but builders can gat away with no punitive action from the government."

"Wake up and smell the coffee."

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