New Build and Extras

[MarieLondon123]

We recently put an offer in on a new build property with Charles Church who are also part or Persimmon, we are due to exchange in the next month, and hopefully complete in the summer once the property has been built!
We have a credit incentive included on some of the extras like Carpets. But this doesn't cover much, and we have to pay for everything from tiles to showers.
We have to go next week to order all our final bits for the property, is their still time to negotiate on extras? Even though our contract has been drawn up which includes the original incentive? Any help from anyone who has purchased a New Build who can give us their advice or experience ??

I assume there is, however on our mortgage valuation it states that if any incentive is offered by the developer then it needs to be declared. So I'd look into that before you go down that route, I'm not sure how much difference it would make but it may mean they'll have to re-look at your offer.

I just completed on a new build a month ago. Our incentives were 3/4 of stamp duty paid & free flooring. Our developer includes almost everything as standard, which is a much better way of doing it. Would have cost us another 15-20k if we had gone with CC or Taylor Wimpy. It didn't affect our mortgage at all. Many builders prefer to do deals on extras like flooring & stamp duty because the price paid remains artificially high on land registry.

As for your developer. They're not called Piss on them (Persimmon) for nothing. Please, Google Charles Church & Persimmon to find out what you are getting yourself into. Make a properly informed decision. There are many Facebook groups for disgruntled CC/P customers. They trade off the CC brand, which used to be good, but the results are terrible. I am on a new build development now which has 4 different developers building houses on it. CC, TW, Crest Nicholson & Fabrica. The CC ones are by far the ones complained about most & the work is shocking!

Agree with Moving, there have been some horror stories. Have a google, they've been on TV recently as well due to the complaints.

Persimmon have a dreadful reputation. Where I live we have alot of newbuilds going up persimmon are the worst company to go with I would never buy one of their homes.
We got a £10,000 voucher for incentives with Taylor Wimpey which paid for all of our carpets, upgrades on doors and handles, floor tiles, bathroom tiles, taps, upgraded kitchen. We have a large house think we only went a couple of hundred over the £10,000.
Have you asked any current home owners living there what the aftercare is like? And how bad their snags were?
I read this morning of a couple with persimmon who werent allowed to do a snag list before they moved in which is ridiculous! Its their policy apparently?
We were able to view our home before we moved in multiple times and most snags we picked up were rectified before we moved in.

Oh and we also had all our intergrated appliances included thats fridge freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and oven.
And showers were also included. In both ensuites although not in family bathroom.

We bought in 2017 from Bloor Homes. There was pretty much no sale incentive at all, but we made extensive use of the options list for kitchen upgrades, tiles, extra sockets and light fittings, and so on.

None of these were included in the sale contract - it was just a separate order form and invoice drawn up. We had to pay 50% up front and the rest was added to the final bill but did not feature in the sale contract so there was no stamp duty on it.

The big issue for us was that the property had reached the last build stage by which extra wiring/plumbing could be added, but before we had exchanged contracts so the 50% down was at our risk if we couldn't go through with the sale. Since our upgrades came to over £17k it was a big consideration.