New build support chat thread?

[notheragain4]

There seems to be a few of us buying new builds at the moment. I thought it would be good to get a thread going where we can chat about the specific issues we deal with when buying a new build, like incentive negotiation, help to buy if using, exchange deadlines, long stop completion dates and snagging.

We are selling our house to a FTB and reserved a Barratt new build. Stressed out atm as we are 4 weeks passed our exchange deadline as buyer didn't instruct solicitors until his mortgage offer came through which took 7 weeks, we are waiting for his searches this week and praying it won't be long after that. We are getting keys to a rental today and house is built in November.

I will leave it there in case no one responds and I am talking to myself!

[Officebox]

I've just moved into my new build. Blinds are being done as I type.

My builder is not great with turfing, so I'm getting a landscaper in. Had a few quotes and a landscaper sets me back a few thousand pounds!! What's everyone else's experience with gardens?

[Maybenexttime08]

@Officebox - We are moving in without turf as we've been told it's best to get experts in rather than relying on the builders. I've budgeted a few thousand just in case so will watch this with interest :-)

[MyDucksArentInARow]

@Officebox congratulations!

We got turf included in our negotiations. I wanted something down so DDog doesn't drag the mud in during the first few days whilst we'd have been waiting for someone to come and turf the garden. Often it's better to not get the developer turf as it's not good quality and allows them to hide building waste under a thinner top soil. Always worth making sure your topsoil is deep enough (we'll be digging down in a few places to check!) so you made the right decision!

Landscaper quotes for my 8x11m current garden were £3.5k for a 22m^2 patio, raised beds and pergola, 2 young trees and better turf than the developer left. Most of the cost was the patio.

[Officebox]

@MyDucksArentInARow I was quoted £5k for a similar sized garden. Patio, top soil, turf, a feature in the middle, fairy lights, sleepers, trellis and they also collect all the wastage.

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it?! Can this be done DIY?

[MyDucksArentInARow]

@Officebox we ended up doing all except the patio and turf DIY. It takes a while to do and was more of a pain than any indoor DIY. We were going to do it all but we wanted a warranty on the patio in case the settling of the soil impacted the slope of the patio over the first year. Plus getting a patio right can be a pain.
Patio and turf were 2k in the end, and that was the cheapest mixed size sandstone we could find on a deal, I think we paid £18 per m^2. It's the style/quality of patio stone that causes the most difference between quotes.

[Officebox]

Slight rant but also asking for help or shared experiences!

New build home annoyance is that when I try to change my address it is not recognised anywhere!!! Anyone else find this too?

I've registered with the council and they've given me bins etc. However, the systems don't appear to have updated!

[notheragain4]

@Officebox have you spoken to the developer? We've been told it will be registered about a month before. We aren't moving for 3 weeks but it's still not been done, utilities and phone companies know it exists, but everywhere else like insurance and anything postal doesn't yet. Although some places can find the houses built a month or so ago on the postcode but other places don't know the postcode at all. I know it's going to be very frustrating!

[Poppiesandnettles]

I found most companies had the new address, a few who didn’t I could manually enter the address, to date have only had to call 2 Co’s to update our address.

The worst experience since moving and dealing with companies has been with The Cotswold Co. 2 transactions on consecutive days, 1st went through fine, 2nd got blocked by verified by visa as I’d ran 3 purchases with various companies quite quickly. Called bank who cleared the block there and then and I resubmitted the order to Cotswolds. Both orders accepted but they called on the following day they refuse to supply the goods on the 2nd order unless I provide a paper copy of the council tax bill and call them back on a landline number. I said how very odd, you are querying the second order but I’m about to receive goods from you, gave the order number, and the fucker stopped the delivery and demanded a CT bill for both. 🤬 I explained we had just moved, yet to receive new CT bill and BT not due til next week and they would not budge. Spoke to bank, they’d never heard anything like it. I cancelled both orders yet they still have my £2.5k so I’ve instigated a chargeback. Be careful when buying loads of stuff online, I was having to call the bank every 3rd transaction and it was very frustrating!!! But the silver lining was I found a local furniture store stocking wood furniture from UK suppliers only and have a lovely handmade dresser coming from a firm in Devon

Loving the new house though

[MyDucksArentInARow]

With addresses it depends on that company's contract with Royal Mail (or the 3rd party they use for that bit of a website). Royal Mail update their database of postcodes etc roughly every 6 weeks but most companies only get their version of that data every 6-12 months. We had problems with our current address for about a year - not looking forward to going through that again!

[Maybenexttime08]

Makes me think maybe we should get as much delivered to our current house before we move and nobody can find us!

[notheragain4]

Any one know whether you have bins when you move in or if you need to order them from the council?

[Poppiesandnettles]

@notheragain4 We had to order ours, £116 Took 10 days to deliver.
Last new build we bought they were paid for and delivered next day, maybe ask sales team if you need to buy?

[notheragain4]

Oh gosh! I just called the developer and they said I needed to order with the council. I just did it online and it didn't ask for payment so fingers crossed!

[Maybenexttime08]

Just got the news that our build is delayed to end of November :-(. Is ours the only company that will only complete on the last Friday of every month??

[Maybenexttime08]

Thought this might be a good place to ask my question.

We reserved a new build back in July, and are meant to be moving in end of November.

Our newbuild solicitors are being useless and are not responding to any queries from our solicitor. Three weeks and counting and we haven't exchanged yet. Anybody had a similar issue?

I thought they were meant to be pressurising us to exchange, not the other way round!

Something to do with having to use two types of solicitors? I have obviously chased our local development rep but she doesn't seem to be able to do anything either :-(

[MyDucksArentInARow]

@Maybenexttime08 we're in exactly the same boat! Our buyer is waiting to exchange with us, and we're waiting on outstanding queries. It's been the same for 3 weeks. It's infuriating as the build should be finished by end of November for an early December move!

[Flittingaboutagain]

How is it going those of you on November deadlines?

You have given me so much food for thought as we try to handle the developer challenges here having paid a reservation fee. How much do you think is reasonable for management company fees and ground rent? Ground rent set for 25 years at £500 then to go up to £550. 999 year lease.

[Maybenexttime08]

We are having a bit of a nightmare with it, 9 days to go to completion and our solicitors still can't agree on things. We're meant to be completing next Friday but looking more unlikely by the hour. No idea why this last minute panic has had to happen, all very frustrating.

Can't help you with ground rent I'm afraid, but that doesn't sound too unreasonable I don't think?

[Catycity]

@Flittingaboutagain is yours a house or flat?

I thought that there was an issue with new build houses that were leasehold?

[notheragain41]

@Maybenexttime08 so sorry, I'm the original poster I've changed my username and it's not letting me go back to my original one. I didn't see your other posts back in September or earlier this month. So sorry to hear what a stressful time you are having, so have you not even exchanged yet? How unusual, is your developer one of the big National ones? So sorry no advice because it was the developer chasing us, we bought with Barratt and they only complete on Fridays (but not just the last Friday although this is the most common, we completed last Friday of the month but our neighbours came after).

[notheragain41]

@Flittingaboutagain sorry I have no experience as our new build doesn't have a management fee (nor our last one weirdly)

I would just tread very carefully, are you using the builder's recommended solicitors? If so I would be tempted to have someone else look at it too as I know there has been a problem with recommended solicitors "overlooking" management issues.

What happens after 25 years? It rises to £550?

I have to admit I really wouldn't be happy with £500 a year that seems very steep, when we nearly bought a second hand new build their management fee was about £150 a year.

[Flittingaboutagain]

Oh that sounds so stressful with 9 days to go. It's crazy how sometimes things amble along for months and the these panics come out of nowhere. I had it with my first house (also a new build)

It's a house. There are a number of open landscaped areas of green space so a management fee has to be paid to the company managing the freehold. There is also the ground rent to the freeholder.

When I bought my first new build many years ago it was about £250 ground rent a year and £10 a month service charges for the communal areas. So I about 15 years out of date on what is normal now.

[Maybenexttime08]

Sorry to open this thread back up, but really hoping someone can help. We're meant to be completing next Friday and it's looking unlikely. The developer has now threatened to take our incentives away if we don't. This is about £35,000. Anybody had this and it turned out okay?

[notheragain41]

@Maybenexttime08 have you exchanged? Where is the hold up? In our final week the developer (Barratt) threatened all sorts but it was all fine, they do it to set a fire under the slow ones.

If you've exchanged they can't remove incentives they're in the contracts, even if you haven't the paperwork would need re-doing as it's all legally binding so they can't just remove without causing a pain in the arse which I'm sure they will want to avoid.

[Maybenexttime08]

We haven't exchanged - expecting to do it simultaneously - wish we had! Too much stress! I'm hoping it's all just an idle threat as surely they wouldn't want to start from scratch all over again!