Owning your own home

I'd ask @Soul. Pretty sure they've bought 2 new builds

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/60649075/?search_identifier=ebd44b22b1e96153ea09088d8ff22eb9

Do I fancy a massive project…

I'd haggle for two years. Worth paying for a snagging survey, ideally before completion, to get a view on anything that isn't up to spec and getting it fixed before you move in.

Assume this is a brand new house?

If so, you've got NHBC coverage on major things for 10 years (structural etc). The main thing I would be asking is what constitutes a snag - get a list of areas or items that are included and those that are not. Then I would check what falls into a grey area of not in snagging and not NHBC and see if you're happy with that.

I would also check what timings are attached. I.e, do they just come back at the end of the year and fix everything or will someone pop round every time you notice something?

4,200 sqft certainly is massive. I presume the development returns for two houses / six flats / 10 bed HMO mean that this will sell for way above £900k and way above what is economic for a single owner occupier.

Yeah - it’s prime ‘Walthamstow village’ I’m guessing 50% above asking

That's a really good question, is there such thing as a indemnity that would cover that? I guess it is all about finding a balance between feeling reassured that the renewal of the house has been properly done and not being too picky to the point of them telling us to do one

Good luck trying to get them back is all I will say, my pal bought a new build and they have basically bodyswerved the snagging citing every excuse under the sun!

That is what we are expecting... maybe not even worth the price of writing into contract at all

bodyswerved

Not much change from £2 mm after stamp and renovation then? Attractive on an £/sqft basis for sure but I'm not sure it's what I'd spend that kind of money on.

No, just flipped by a local developer

His new build was 600k heres a small list, scratch on every window from day dot, doors that dont lock, poor quality finishing and thats just a small selection.

Someone turned up 3 months ago to fix the windows with one window that was the wrong size, absolute fuckin jokers. Soon as they have the money they dont give a fuck!

Covid obvs being the main excuse as I said theres a list.

Having sold at a price agreed in April 2021 (only 2.4% more than the price I paid five years earlier), and still not bought somewhere new, this scares me:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60213084

I am not very good at this game.

For once I think that London is lagging rather than leading the national average. If you look at Nationwide's data they say that London was "only" up about 4.25% year-on-year in December 2021, rather than the bonkers 11%+ national figure

Yeah all the Tarquins moving to the sticks bc they can perma WFH

At least I'd say

My place was flipped by a developer (bit of a weird one, it's a Jewish charity that has a massive {£100m+} property portfolio which it uses to raise funds). They refused to give us any warranty.

Before moving in I went round the house and tested everything I could (plug sockets, lights, appliances, taps, heating, windows, bath, shower, toilet, etc) . Basically finding the issues that would normally have been found by someone living there.

That gave rise to a few minor things that they fixed before we moved in. After we moved in, main things were some damp, boiler not working, a few leaking bits of plumbing, doors not closing after things settled, plaster cracking, bouncy floors leading to tiles shifting (I suspect that this will soon cause the tiles to crack).

Realistically, I'm not sure if a warranty would cover many of them. Lots of gradual issues that aren't definitively a problem or are only cosmetic.

The only one that is a real hassle is the damp. Some bits I've twigged the issue and fixed but others are going to take quite a while to work out how to resolve.

Good point, I will make sure to go around and text everything room by room. Thanks @aggi

This is what I ended up with. I used a socket tester for testing the sockets. Obviously also make sure you get the relevant certificates for the work done

In a new build there should be an installation certificate near the consumer unit that specifies the tested values for zs and confirms ir tests, sockets in a new build should have been tested as part of the installation process to ensure they are phase correct etc.

That does apply to any new installation not just new builds.

It might look a bit like this :-

1 Attachment

@aggi Brilliant!! Just out of curiosity how did you test the washing machine and dishwasher?
@Airhead truly useful, will make sure we get this too!

P.S: I love this forum!

I turned them on for a short cycle to make sure they did something. By this point the estate agent was just willing to give me the keys to the place so I wasn't in any rush.

Were you very close to completion?

It actually ended up being about 4 months before completion due to various complications (mainly my buyer pulling out). Was probably a month or so before the first planned completion.

Our 28 year old PowerMax boiler is on its last legs and we need a new one.

Because of requirements for a new flue + scaffolding etc, a gas boiler is coming out at least £6,000+.

For that reason and a desire to not replace with another fossil fuel system, I want to replace with an electric combi boiler.

Any advice on this? It’s for a 2-bed / 2-Bath flat that normally has 1-2 people living it with Central Heating.