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Charles Church

8 replies

ChampagneTastes · 28/03/2015 21:29

Considering buying a new build with these guys using part exchange deal. Has anyone else bought one of theirs? Any problems? And did people get what they considered to be a reasonable deal on their part exchange?

OP posts:
Drivingnovice · 28/03/2015 21:49

Yes we did. We got a good deal. They gave us a good price for our old house and i believe sold it for less.
The house is nice but the finish isn't brilliant tbh.

The window catches aren't the best, several of them broke so check these as they will only replace them if less than two years old.
The toilets are some fancy Italian (I think) brand and normal, run of the mill, toilet seats don't fit. They break very easily and cost £60+ to replace unless you write to the manufacturer and they will replace them
Be careful of kitchen appliances not being wired correctly. Our dishwasher wasn't earthed properly.
Oh and some of our light fittings were bayonet but with three prongs rather than the usual two. Where the hell do you buy light bulbs from that fit that type of fitting...?!!!

Hope that helps and good luck with the move

ChampagneTastes · 28/03/2015 22:14

Thanks, that's really useful. And kind of what I expected. Were they helpful when you mentioned the faults?

OP posts:
MincePieDiet · 11/04/2015 21:58

I lived in one of their houses around 20 years ago the finish was average. The house was lovely. The airing cupboard cylinder leaked after 2 years but that could just have been bad luck.

shabbycaddy · 11/04/2015 22:28

Many years ago when they were actually Charles church owned they were renowned for being good, however the owned by persimmon now and are essentially a persimmon home in quality and customer care so be careful

PiggyBeekman · 11/04/2015 23:10

Part exed last year. The sales process was very quick, no hassle, everything went through fine. Got a fair deal on our house, no problem on that front.

We bought a 4 bed detached. Really like the layout, big bedrooms and bathroom, not loads of storage. However we had the same thing with the toilet seats - look really fancy but are utterly, utterly shit. 3 toilets and every seat has broken. They're not the sort you can easily buy at B&Q or wherever and the fixing is near impossible.

The extractor hood was wonky, the patio door lock didn't work and we had to get emergency repairs out on a Friday night. The front door spyhole was in back to front! The floors were uneven. The bedroom doors wouldn't shut to properly, which was really annoying for us as the dog could get in when we didn't want him to. The security chain on the front door had a chain which didn't match the catch. And so on. We kept ringing the after sales service but had to chase and chase before things started getting sorted. Still not finished nearly a year in.

That said, we would have struggled to sell our house in the area we were in at the price we wanted and we love our new street, each house is slightly different than the one next door so it doesn't look too 'boxy'. Despite the snags I am glad we moved and would much rather be on the phone to them and have it their problem, than be patching up an old house and throwing good money after bad. The snags were annoying but nothing that meant it was unhabitable - no dodgy electrics or plumbing. On balance I would say go for it but check every finish with a fine toothed comb!

18yearsoftrying · 12/04/2015 17:46

I'm close friends with someone that paid £2.2m recently for one (brand new) & it was in such bad condition they ended up buying just one solo Persimmon share in order to attend a shareholders AGM to have their grievances heard & acknowledged.

frank6 · 14/04/2018 22:25

Have you bought the property in Grange built by Charles Church. We are still interested on the development? Do you have any information about the quality of the development? Thank you.

Sensus · 16/04/2018 07:27

What @Shabbycaddy said.

They used to be regarded as a 'quality' housebuilder (at least to BMW sort of standards, if not Mercedes or Rolls Royce).

They're now just a division of Persimmon, and Persimmon's design and build quality has been increasingly 'lowest common denominator', stack' em high, sell 'em cheap, in recent years.. they've got to be, to maintain the volumes now demanded by such a large business. They've got too big for their own good, unfortunately.

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