NHBC Guarantee - How do you try and instigate a claim?

[emicen]

Background:

The development my flat is in was completed mid-2005. My flat was bought new by the previous owner who had it reposessed and I bought it at auction (dont know if that has implacations on the validity of the guarantee or not).

Now the issue:

The windows fitted by the developer are useless. They are wood framed units that will flip over to allow you to clean them and they are not even remotely air tight. They use a rubber D-seal to seal the hinged frame to the wall mounted window frame. This seals at the bottom and top but on both sides the gap increases towards the centre of the panel at which point the seal is completely ineffective and you can feel the air coming past it from outside. It seems like the windows werent fitted properly.

The second part of the issue (apparent after I ran a double layer of tape round the frame to try and seal them shut for the time being) is that the double glazed panel isnt sealed properly in the wooden frame either, with air able to get through that gap too! So shoddy manufacture on the top.

Do I have any chance of getting the developer to sort this out? (Persimmon I believe it was)

My view would be the poor fitment of the frames causing the d-seal to be ineffective is the developer's fault, the double glazing unit not sealing in the wooden frame being the manufacturer's fault.

The original owner really should have picked this up during the snagging period but he clearly didnt (and didnt bother getting a fair number of other poor build quality issues rectified tbh). I get the feeling the developer will resort to telling me to shove it but since I had the heating on for 2hrs last night and within an hour of it going off you could see your breath in the lounge I reckon I really need to try something!

[D14 AYS]

Call the NHBC http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Information/NHBCInsuranceCov... the guarantee is on the property for 10 years, good luck.

[tuffer]

My experience with the NHBC was along the lines of, "paper the worth written on its not".

[spdpug98]

tuffer said:

My experience with the NHBC was along the lines of, "paper the worth written on its not".

I work in the building industry and have no confidence in the NHBC guarantee, unless it is a major structural issue then the likelihood of getting anything from them is minimal

When I was buying one of my previous houses the vendor was banging on to me that the house had the remainder of an NHBC guarantee, and how lucky I would be to have this is place!!! NOT

However, when I was responsible for housing estate a number of years ago I found issues with the internal walls on a number of the properties, which would have allowed water/dampness to enter the cavity and onto the insulation. I was very concerned about the possibility of interstitial condensation within the cavity and reported this to NHBC, I was very fortunate to get a NHBC surveyor who had a 'big thing' for interstitial condensation and supported my claim and we eventually got it through and had the remedial works carried out

[Spudler]

As the saying goes...you've got two hopes, Bob and No...and Bob's dead.
If its not severe structal problems they wont be interested.

[renmure]

tuffer said:

My experience with the NHBC was along the lines of, "paper the worth written on its not".

My very recent experience was the opposite.

I bought a new build / converted townhouse in central Aberdeen 3 yrs ago and in November noticed that the flooring seemed to sag at the wall in the hallway. A joiner took a look and shocked my by saying that it looked like the floor joists had dry rot. I got one of the Rot specialists firms to take a look and they agreed and estimated around £6k to remedy but said it might be more once they lifted the whole floor area and could properly assess the extent.

A call to NHBC had one of their local inspector/assessors around within the week who confirmed it was dry rot and agreed. A couple of emails back and forth to NHBC over the next few days brought confirmation that they would foot the initial bill and agreed that the full extent of any claim wouldn't be known till more flooring was lifted and joists assessed.

By the end of that week it was confirmed that almost 80% of the downstairs joists needed cut out/treated and the whole floor and the bottom part of some internal walls needed replaced. The work took 3 weeks, and including an allowance for alternative accomodation, cleaning, redecoration etc the final bill was circa £23k which was paid without any hassle.

I found the NHBC really easy to deal with, very cooperative and particularly helpful.

[Rags]

In my experience, as has been echoed on this thread, the NHBC have their guarantees on new builds but when action is required from them on developers, they are useless.

I had an issue with a crack in a wall, albeit minor, it had to be fixed and funded by the buildings insurance. What a joke.

[furtive]

Try phoning the developer directly. Barrats were excellent the two times I had to call them within my NHBC period (both times when the house was over 7 years old). Once to fix a leak in the roof and once to come and seal all the waste pipes properly to stop vermin from getting in. Both times they came within a couple of days no questions asked, fixed the problem and made good and repainted where they needed to. I was very surprised!

[5pen]

The NHBC will probably ask you to contact the developer in the first instance.

[Tony 1234]

Spudler said:

As the saying goes...you've got two hopes, Bob and No...and Bob's dead.
If its not severe structal problems they wont be interested.

+1

[CobolMan]

We used the NHBC a couple of years ago for a couple of things; the inspector who came round got the builders to correct the errors in less than a week. I guess it may be dependent on who you end up dealing with at NHBC.

[davidjpowell]

From memory there are different levels of cover, a higher cover for the first 2 years and then a lower, 'significant damamge' cover for the remaining 8 years. Can't remember the details, but the NHBC website may help you out.

[emicen]

Thanks everyone, going to contact the developer and see what they say (not expecting a positive response as other people in the building have been told to poke it on other issues).

Dependant on their response I'll talk to the NHBC.

The floor in the lounge is sagging by about 10mm from the skirting board along 1 wall as well so get the feeling this might be a long and interesting affair