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Red Flag warning ! Beware builders with lots of unhappy buyers! 3-storey detached house NHBC Pride in the Job - Awards for Quality homes


House Builder

Including

taken over

Number

of Topics

(Threads)


Number

of replies

(Posts)

Number of

homes built per thread-post *

Total homes built in 2011/12

PERSIMMON

(Charles Church)

181

729

52-13

9360

TAYLOR WIMPEY

(Bryant)

49 (19)

252 (102)

208-40

10180

BARRATT

(David Wilson)

43 (25)

240 (158)

294-52

12637

STEWART MILNE

/

31

211

/

/

BERKELEY

/

29

32

122-111

3565

GLADEDALE

(Bett /Ben Bailey)

25

45

/

/

BELLWAY

/

10

28

523-186

5226

MILLER

/

9

59

181-28

1632

BOVIS

/

7

30

292-68

2045

CREST

/

6

29

253-52

1520

REDROW

/

6

20

409-123

2458

COUNTRYSIDE

/

5

18

112-31

559

LINDEN

(Galliford Try)

3

8

/

3039

BLOOR

/

2

10

/

/

Problems with new homes, snagging defects and quality issues


If you are considering buying a new home from one of the large national house builders it is essential to do your research.  There are several websites that enable new homebuyers to tell others their experiences; some buyers have even built their own websites to tell the world about their new home nightmare!


One of the oldest snagging forums is snagging.org.  Over the years, hundreds of new homebuyers have posted comments about their new home and their experiences with house builders – often as a red flag warning to others!


In the table below you can see how many threads and posts have been started for each of the main house builders up to 2012.


It can be seen that Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey have the highest number of topics and replies posted by the members of the snagging.org forum.  This is the record up to October 2012 since the forum was launched in 2004. It includes all topics with a builder mentioned in the title as well as those for each builder in the ‘Developers’ category.


Anyone considering buying a new home from any of these house builders would be well advised to also check out the latest posts on Britain’s number one snagging forum to check out the opinions and problems experienced by new homebuyers.

Smaller regional house builders

The smaller house builder may not have the degree of flexibility to offer financial discounts, but could be in a better position to offer you a personalised bespoke design service throughout the construction of your new home. However, once you have moved in, getting any faults rectified could prove troublesome with smaller house builders, especially when a development is fully completed. The smaller builder may not have a reputation to protect and therefore have less to lose should things go wrong. On the plus side, small builders do not have the production constraints of the nationals and as a result, generally take longer to complete the home, which often results in a much higher quality and attention to detail.


The very smallest builders, those building on single or double plots on a small infill site are very much a lottery. It is possible to buy a well-built, high specification new home from a 'one-man band' builder who cares personally and takes a great pride in each and every new home he builds. Equally, it is possible to buy a new home from a group of tradesmen who have banded together to finance the build and who are only interested in the financial return.


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Britain’s worst house  builders

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