New Build - Pay for upgrades or do them yourself?!

[woodentop123]

Hi Guys!

Myself and my partner are currently in the process of buying our first home which is a new build.

Do your recommend paying for additional extras such as carpet & flooring or sourcing this ourselves?

We're buying a new build but not with a big company like Taylor Wimpey etc. We asked about floor and the sales lady was really honest and said their prices were really high and we were best to use the carpet fitter down the road. So that's what we're doing, he'll go in a week before we complete and fit it all.

We've paid the developer to do our tiling in the bathrooms, and the turf as this isn't something we want to deal with. We wanted to upgrade the kitchen appliances but we can't so we'll do that ourselves.

It always used to be that the extras were free of VAT - I don't know if that's still the case?

You can normally negotiate that they include a certain amount of extras ‘free’.

We had tiling, turf and appliances done for convenience. Flooring was separate but we had our lawyer agree access two days before completion so we had flooring on the move in day.

I am buying a new build on a reasonable size development with several developers. From what I understand, it is the developers who offer the bare shell & things most would consider essentials as extras that are the ones people are having more issues with. The ones who offer the complete package where there is minimal choice are far less problematic & don't end up costing more once you add things up.

I'd say financially its cheaper to pay & get the work done independently if you go with one of the builders who charge for extras, but then if you do you run the risk of invalidating your warranty, so really they've got you every which way!

Depends how much bargaining power you have. I bought a london new build where people were queuing to put down non refundable deposits on launch day. Everything sold in 2 hours. Flooring in living room and bedrooms was an optional extra. I was putting my own wooden floors in and asked if they'd please leave the skirting boards off. They refused, claiming it would invalidate building controls . We had to crowbar all the skirtings off, lay the flooring then replace skirting, replacing bits. It all needed repainting. What a bloody faff.
(if we had paid the builder silly money to do the flooring they still wouldn't have done the flooring first - their plan was to use beading!!!)

Whereas my parents negotiated access for their tiler, a free built in barrista machine, an extra two windows in the garage, extra sockets in garage etc etc.

Top tip from my parents: grab the on site tiler and ask him if he'll cut out the middle man and contract direct with you. He was on site anyway and fitted it in after work each day for cash in hand.