New build home, what is covered under warranty and who fixes my faults.

 

So you have bought a new build flat or house and upon inspection you find faults.  Well first off, these things happen.   Don't think it's necessarily the way the house was built, it can also just be the house settling.

When you purchase a new build house you have a ten year warranty.  For the first two years this warranty your first point of contact is generally the builder, the developer. The remaining 8 years is NHBC.

 

Just before moving in and those first few weeks of moving in.

You will probably have an on site customer site manager who will guide you through your home.  This covers how appliances work, how devices work like heating controls.  It will also cover things like turning off water.   

During this time you will also take a wander around YOUR house and you should look for faults.  Look for decorations not being right or having gone wrong.  These things happen with settlement.  New builds by their name are built on new land, perhaps greenfield or previously brownfield sites. So when the property is built the property is going to sink a little that sinking works it's way up the property so cracks might appear.   Also think of the house being cold then warm, and the painting and plastering simply adjusting to that so cracks might appear.

Also think of the quality of workmanship, if you are not happy you have every right to complain and this can be done by way of a snagging list.   Your developer might provide you with one.  Their are documents online and their are people who also make a career out of it.   It's simple enough to make up your own snagging list.   You just need your name, address, development and plot number, then just simply add a line for each fault you find.  A good way of finding snags is just do a look around the whole property.  Then perhaps next visit take a friend if you don't have a trades person as a friend , just someone else with a fresh set of eyes to fill in your list.

Once your list is complete pass it to the developers rep for the site.  More often than not these problems will be dealt with.  

New build warranty

As said previously, you have a ten year warranty.   The ten year warranty is more to do with the actual building not the things inside.   Think about when you see cars with 7 year warranties.  7 year warranties but read the small print and it can be 100,000 miles or what comes first.  Or does a 7 year warranty cover tyres?  In terms of your ten year home warranty there will be things which will be excluded for ten years.

So what could be excluded?  Well you might not get a ten year warranty on your doors, your flooring or your boiler.  It's wise to ask your customer site rep what is included with in my warranty.