The most important consideration at this stage is do not give up!
You are reading this because a house builder has failed in some respect to adhere to reasonable consumer requirements and standards and may have even broken Consumer Protection Regulations. As a result you may have suffered materially, financially or emotionally.
Before submitting your claim, it would be beneficial to obtain copies of all the information your house builder has in their 'Plot File' that relates to both you and your home. You have a legal right to this information under the Data Protection Act 1998. In order to receive all this information you need to make a formal Subject Access Request to the house builder. It is quite easy using the template letter here.
You need to be aware there are several ways that you can slip up and you must make sure you follow all the "rules" as outlined. Any mistake may result in your case being ruled against because you may have failed in one way or another during the Dispute Resolution process..
Before submitting a claim, it is useful to read the historic case summaries as these will show you why some buyers did not win their case against the home builder and why part of their claim was rejected:
Case Summaries to December 2013
Case Summaries to December 2014
Case Summaries to December 2015
Case Summaries to December 2016
Case Summaries to December 2017
Case Summaries to December 2018
Case Summaries to December 2019
Case Summaries to December 2020
Case Summaries to December 2021
You will be required to sign the Application Form to confirm that you understand the Consumer Code for Home Builders' Adjudication Scheme (CCHBAS) and that you have tried to settle the using the house builder's own complaints procedure.
You cannot use the CCHBAS Scheme if you have previously referred this dispute to the Courts or another redress scheme.
Home buyer's checklist before submitting the Application Form:
Information and Checklist before claiming compensation using the Adjudication Scheme. It is worth reading this Code guidance to understand how the adjudication process works and how the awards can be reduced if your evidence is weak. The page explains the type of things the adjudicator will take into account when assessing any financial remedy and the evidence a home buyer may need to provide.
It should be noted, that, complaints with other warranty providers can only be made using a different and separately operated Code – the Consumer Code for New Homes (CCNH). It has higher awards (£50,000 and maximum awards for emotional distress and/or claims for inconvenience of £1,000) but is unfortunately, not available for new homebuyers with NHBC, LABC or Premier Guarantee warranties.
What you can claim
Up to the maximum of £15,000 what you claim should be to cover the cost of addressing the matters you are complaining about and your reasonably incurred expenses. You will need to provide evidence [see (10)] to support and justify all the amounts claimed. Once you have made a claim you cannot change any amounts at a later date. You can try to claim compensation, but you must be able to provide evidence to substantiate any amounts claimed. Both parties must pay the costs of preparing their own cases and cannot take legal action to recover these costs.
If you are successful the adjudicator can award any amount up to the total figure you claim. Experience of cases so far would indicate that you are better off listing each amount separately and then totalling. In 2016, the average amount awarded in the 57 successful cases was only 15% of the amount claimed.
You will have six weeks to accept the adjudicator's decision. Once you accept the award decision, in writing, the housebuilder must pay the award in full, within 20 working days of the adjudicator’s notification.
If you do not accept it, the decision will not be binding on either party. You cannot accept the decision after the six-week deadline. Decisions are not open to review, discussion or appeal. If you do not accept the decision you can then instigate legal proceedings against the house builder. The Consumer Code states "If a Home Buyer refuses to accept the award, any subsequent legal action is likely to take account of the adjudication decision". Yet disclosure of the decision and findings would surely breach the confidentiality requirement!
Details of the Adjudication Scheme proceedings must be kept confidential by all parties and cannot be disclosed to anyone not directly involved in them. The only exceptions are professional and legal advisors for the purposes of enforcing the decision or as required by law. However this would also infer that the house builder should not make reference to your claim or the Adjudicator's decision, if you choose to reject it and go to court.
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