Poor finish of new build house- what can I do?

[YorkshirePudPud]

I've recently exchanged on a new build house and last week went round to do 'snagging'. The property developers have said that they will rectify most issues but there are two things they are refusing to deal with and I'm wondering where I stand:

Firstly the sealant between the kitchen splash back tiles is really messy, looks as though it has been done by an amateur. The sealant is double the thickness in some places than others, it's really noticeable and makes the finish of the kitchen look really sloppy. The developers have shrugged their shoulders and have just said that it's "within the tolerance thresholds" set by Building Standards and won't be fixed. It looks really awful but they are insisting it's fine and don't want to fix it.

Secondly the window frame of one of the bedroom windows has loads of scratches along the bottom of the frame. Again it looks awful but the developers have said that it's also within the tolerance thresholds and "cannot be rectified". I can't understand how I'm paying for a brand new house and they are able to hand it over with items damaged or finished to a poor standard and we are just stuck with it; surely the point of paying a mark up for a new house is that everything is supposed to be in new/perfect condition?

I'm so fed up with them. We are paying a huge amount of money for this house and the developers have basically said tough luck, you are left with these things. Does anyone know if there's anything we can do?

Tweet photos naming and shaming them and keep pushing for them to put it right. It is in their best interests for you to love your house, not just for it to be within tolerance. Who is the developer?

I know it's disappointing and I had much of the same (including a shower that hadnt been plumbed in correctly and sloping floorboards!! Nothing was fixed.)

I have heard much much worse from newbuilds though.

If its a large company I would find out the CEO's or Area manager's email address and contact them.
We moved into our new build 3 years ago and problems like the ones you mention would have been rectified. We still have a couple of outstanding issues and have found that cc'ing the area manager in correspondence generally gets thing moving.

Thanks for the replies. It's not a big national company, just a small local family company so I am dealing directly with the directors.
Do any of you know of any standards/official guidelines I can point to that say that they should be sorting these things out?

withhold a small amount of money? I think you could do with seeing CAB or a solicitor.

Could you ask them where these "tolerance levels" are agreed? They sound cosmetic but significant.

I hope they fix the problems. It doesn't sound like it would cost them much to redo the sealant and get a 'plastic surgeon' in to heat the scratches out. (Equally, if they insist that these items won't be dealt with, hopefully it wouldn't be too big a hit for you.)

Ok, so I was in the same position as you but we were with Redrow & had 300 major significant flaws.

NHBC fobbed us off at every stage - no use.

We sought legal advice & were ironically told that we HAD to complete on the sale in order for us to pursue rectification. Massively frustrating as in my mind this would mean they would have my funds and then have no incentive to repair/make good.

In the end all of the purchasers got together with the local press/media & did a sit-down protest in the developes Head Office car park.

Got things sorted but it shouldn't have got to that.

I've had two newbuilds and these would have been rectified immediately once flagged. I even had a new door handle due to a scratch on it.

We bought a new build 5 years ago. They rectified EVERY snag on our list and some were very very minor.

I'd chase this all the way.