Want to share your bad experience of dealing with Persimmon Homes?

[Lee161]

In March this year I entered into a part exchange scheme offered by Persimmon Homes. They agree to buy my property and use it as my deposit for one of their new home.I entered into the part-exchange scheme in good faith, based on my understanding that Persimmon Homes would honour its agreement, in return I agreed to:

-use their solicitor for the purchase and sale, paid them £400

• agreed to let the estate agent arranged by Persimmon Homes to market my property and accept viewings
• Arrange for the Energy performance certificate, gas and electric safety certificate to be provided to Persimmon Homes, the total cost of providing the certificates was £375 including remedial work required by Persimmon Homes.

In addition, I made the following payments to Persimmon Homes: £500 reservation fees £644 deposit for the upgrade of the new property

I have kept my part of the agreement, in the hope that once the new house is ready, Persimmon Homes would also honour their agreement to complete the transaction.me to believe that everything was in order. In fact, Persimmon Homes had found a buyer for my current property. Two weeks before completion, Persimmon Homes told me they would no longer proceed with the part exchange deal due to the issue of the unadopted road in my current estate, this came to me as a shock.

Persimmon Homes offers absolutely no apologies for the trouble and financial commitment I have already put into this deal. Also I cannot accept the reason for Persimmon Home's withdrawal from the part exchange deal for the following reasons:

a) I had already informed Persimmon Homes in writing two months before, that the so called unadopted road was in fact run by the council. If that was an issue, Persimmon Homes should have stopped the deal then, this would save my putting my money into the deal
b) the buyer of my current property has a daughter living across the road from me, if the unadopted road is an issue, it would also be an issue to her.
c) Many properties have been bought and sold in my estate in the last few years, and in fact 2 properties have been sold in February and March this year, this proves that the unadopted road highlighted by Persimmon had not been an issue to the potential buyers of properties in Foxen croft

I feel disgusted at how Persimmon Home have treated me, just two weeks before completion they pull out of the part exchange deal and left me high and dry, after I have made substantial finacial commitment to the deal. The £400 payment to the solicitor and £375 for the certificate are simply money wasted, money that I have spent for nothing. Persimmon Homes does not treat their customers fairly, they have no regards for the financial commitment made by their customers.

Also, Persimmon Homes broke up the agreement. It is an injustice that Persimmon Homes is allowed to pull out of the deal and keep the £500 reservation fee and £644 for the upgrade of the new home I paid to Persimmon. I don't see why I should suffered financially through no fault of my own, but as a result of the decision made by Persimmon Homes to walk away from the deal. I don't see why I had paid £644 for the upgrade of their new house that I will not be living in!!

I have made a complaint against Persimmon Homes and asked them to offer me an apology and refund the money I had paid to them. To date I have heard absolutely nothing. Given their bad reputation and lack of regards for their customers, I don't expect to receive my money back from them. Never again I want to deal with Persimmon Homes, lesson learned. I have lost £2000 and I felt I have been mugged by them. My advice to anyone who is considering to deal with Persimmon Homes is that 'do not deal with them, they will rob you'

If the buyer has a daughter across the road, can't you just sell directly to them? Don't understand what Persimmon is doing in all this. Maybe they can sell the house you're buying for more money to someone else?

The buyer must have changed their mind and do not want to proceed, and using the 'unadopted road' as an excuse. Persimmon Homes got cold feet and abandoned the deal, they think the same issue will happen next time another buyer comes along.
The legal framework on property buying and selling in England sucks, buyer does not need to pay anything upfront and can walk away minutes before completion, whereas the seller incurs legal cost and other associated cost in selling.
This has turned out to be a waste of time and money and gave me so much stress that I can do without, I am not moving now for the next few years, got my fingers burnt. I don't trust house builders anymore and have no hope of recovering the money I paid to Persimmon Homes

But surely Persimmon have backed out of your part ex agreement rather than the whole sale? You can't have been two weeks from completion - from exchange maybe? In which case this happens in lots of normal sales as well.

I'd pursue a refund for the upgrades though.

I suggest you shame them on social media. Post this on Persimmon Homes' twitter account, and Facebook page. My friend had exactly the same problem with Persimmon a couple of years ago, Persimmon cancelled their part-exchange agreement the day before exchange of contracts saying that they couldn't get a buyer for the part-ex property, despite having said for weeks that all was progressing well. My friend had also paid for upgrades and Persimmon refused initially to refund their money. However, the threat of legal action on their twitter account resulted in Persimmon agreeing to refund their money. Definitely worth a try.

I think they have done you a favour OP, have a look at this site
www.facebook.com/groups/DoNotBuyPersimmon/

Get some legal advice! Keeping your deposit and money for upgrades does not seem right. Have you checked the small print on the contract? I'd have a solicitor look it all over for you.
Persimmon are notoriously awful. You've probably had a lucky escape but unfortunately a very expensive one.

Have a number of friends who live on a persimmon estate. Everyone of them had loads of issues and they are so badly built. Think you dodged a built.

Thanks Poorcook, that is a very good idea, I have signed up to Twitter and sent several tweets already to Persimmon demanding my money back. Having said that I don't think they care to respond, essentially they have no morals, driven by greed and put profit first.

Thanks notagain2018. The small print does say the deposit for the upgrade is non refundable if the deal does not complete. When they offered to purchase my existing house and I accepted the offer, I did it in good faith trusting Persimmon would honour the agreement and go through with it, and they did tell me that they would buy my house regardless they find a buyer or not. Lesson learned, not to trust an unscrupulous company like Persimmon again

I heard there have been some issues with the quality of their building work, honestly did not realise how bad they were. They really don't give a monkey about their reputation and what their customer think. It is absolutely shocking.
The Government should really do something about regulating companies like this to stop them ripping off buyers. Like other industries such as financial services, there should be an Ombudsman for us to refer our complaints to, and the Ombudsman has to have the power to fine companies like Persimmon for failing their customers.

Hi @Lee161 I’m just wondering if you got anything back from this as I’m going through the same situation at the moment,very frustrating.

Hi David, I had managed in the end to get a refund of the deposit from Persimmon but I really would not want to deal with them again. Now looking back, the reason for them pulling out was an excuse, the next door neighbour sold his house (I live in a semi) earlier this year, and new neighbour had already moved in, this shows the sinking manhole in the road does not impact any sales.
Best of luck with your house purchase, I hope it works out for you.

its interesting (!!!) that another poster is complaining about similar treatment from Bloor Homes which suggests this is ongoing (con) problem with selling own home though them

I've heard of others with similar...another emerging con by the sound of it