We are in a new detached 4 bedroomed Miller Home in Scotland. We've been in for nearly two years, and we bought off plan before it was finished.
We have had a few snags but they were mainly decorative, like scratched window panes, and poor paint work. The main snag we had was a leak from the upstairs bathroom sink in the first week, which came through to the kitchen ceiling, so that part of the kitchen ceiling had to be cut out, left to dry and replastered. The repair was a shoddy job. We eventually had the whole ceiling cladded in pvc with recessed lights anyway so it is entirely hidden now.
When I read about home with 400 snags etc, I am always inclined to believe that a lot of these are minor decorative things like nail pops as the house dries out, rubbish paintwork etc. I know there are some with major flaws and that is terrible, but don't buy a new build expecting that it's going to be perfect, especially as the house dries out over the first two years. You WILL get nail pops and cracks appearing as the house shifts. You are told not to decorate for two years while this happens (I did as I was too impatient).
In terms of covenants, we were told not to change the look of the house at the front, so no changing the front door, garage door, or planting bushes, erecting fences or hedges etc. This is to keep the estate looking 'nice' for prospective buyers. No parking works vans in your driveway.
In reality, people have already converted their garages, changed their front doors, ripped up their lawns to extend their driveways, planted hedges etc.
They don't enforce it, and I don't think they really care.
We were also told that the attic is not meant to support any true weight and not to use it to store anything other than Christmas decorations etc. However, some people on the estate have had theirs floored for further storage, BUT - this invalidates the NHBC warranty - if anything were to go wrong and the floor was to collapse they would not be covered.
The houses are extremely well spaced apart from each other, the roads are wide, the gardens are large. The rooms are spacious. The master bedroom has a superking bed in in and there is still five feet space on all sides of the bed at least. The kitchen and bathroom are very large. So not all new builds are cramped with tiny gardens, this is a myth that has sprung up that accompanies these stories of terrible new builds.
Miller have been okay with fixing snags although during covid obviously they have been unable to fix thing as fast as we would like.
I have been pretty pleased with the house. Yes we have had to fix a few things, but so does everyone who buys a house. Our estate has a Facebook page and there is no-one who has experienced what I would call major snags.
If you get a good site manager, it also makes a huge difference!
The roads are not 'adopted' by the council until the estate is finished too, so we don't get gritted in the winter and have to deal with that.
There is a yearly fee to a 'factor' who look after the communal green areas etc. Its about £10 a month and covers them cutting the grass etc .
Can't think of anything else, my advice would be to actually visit the houses, talk to the people on the estate, and not go by the horror stories you hear in the press.