Bryant Homes

...possibility. Not only were Bryant building new homes, but within the catchment area of my daughters school and our price range. We spent months agonising over whether this was the route for us, had meetings with the Building Society and the managing agents for Bryant Homes. They took us to see the show home, before furnishing so we could see the quality of the workmanship, we were hooked, or at least I was.

WHO ARE BRYANT HOMES?
...good contractors. During 2001, Bryant was bought out by the much larger Taylor Woodrow, who has fingers in all sorts of construction pies and opencast coal mining. They have subsequently become the residential building arm of Taylor Woodrow, giving them major financial backing, job losses, and a whole new portfolio of house designs.

THE PRODUCT AND THE ASKING PRICE
Our chosen home was a 4-bedroom detached property with 2 reception ... more

One of my lifetime dreams has been to own a new home, don’t ask me why, but the idea of downstairs cloakrooms, utility rooms and a property not previously occupied, seriously appealed to me. I spent years spanning from being an impoverished single mother and then student, visiting every new show-home in South-West Wales and dreaming. Then, three years ago, the dream of buying new became a serious possibility. Not only were Bryant building new homes, but within the catchment area of my daughters school and our price range. We spent months agonising over whether this was the route for us, had meetings with the Building Society and the managing agents for Bryant Homes. They took us to see the show home, before furnishing so we could see the quality of the workmanship, we were hooked, or at least I was.

WHO ARE BRYANT HOMES?
They used to be one of the biggest Independent UK house-builders, and widely regarded as ‘one of the best’ in the business, using quality components and good contractors. During 2001, Bryant was bought out by the much larger Taylor Woodrow, who has fingers in all sorts of construction pies and opencast coal mining. They have subsequently become the residential building arm of Taylor Woodrow, giving them major financial backing, job losses, and a whole new portfolio of house designs.

THE PRODUCT AND THE ASKING PRICE
Our chosen home was a 4-bedroom detached property with 2 reception rooms, integral garage, downstairs cloakroom, utility room and en-suite shower-room to the Master bedroom. The asking price was £145,000 and included no extras, other than a tasteful fireplace, because apparently, the location, combined with Bryant’s quality reputation would sell the properties for them, and they were right. Bryant however, are notorious for not giving anything away, unlike Barrett who offer a range of incentives such as paying stamp duty, paying deposits, or providng carpets throughout.

Bryant do give you the chance to select from a small range of designs for your bathroom and kitchen, although we were slightly too late in the build process for this, thankfully, the sales staff’s choice were good ones. We also got to pick our own tiling for the bathroom, kitchen, downstairs cloakroom and en-suite, and very nice they were too, even better for being included in the price. What we didn’t realise until just before moving in, is that no TV aerials are supplied for houses, (this is probably different for flats).

THE PROCESS
We put our house on the market a couple of weeks before deciding to buy new. At this point we recognised that if we wanted our ‘dream’ home, we had to move fast. We opted for a part-exchange and £5,000 cash-back on completion. I can’t speak for other construction companies, but Bryant will NOT give you the full market value of your property. To qualify for part-ex, you also have to be trading up at least 35% in value. We persuaded Bryant to allow us to give 5% rather than the regulatory 10% deposit. This may have been because we had a good relationship with the sales-staff, employed by the managing agent rather than Bryant, or because we were only the second buyer on-site, and the sales office hadn’t even opened.

On reserving your chosen plot, you complete certain documentation and pay a £250 non-refundable reservation fee, which is deducted from the price if you complete the sale. In common with most new home sales, we were given a specific date for contract exchange or we would lose the property. This was in early spring and our date for exchange of contracts was the 21st June. I should have learned something from this; my solicitor and building society said it would be tight, but that they would do their best. Their surveyor came to my house, they agreed a sale with a third-party and everything was ready for the 21st (on our part that is), but not theirs. We eventually exchanged contracts in the middle of July, which incidentally was 2 weeks past the original date of completion for the house. The hold up? When contracts are exchanged a completion date is agreed by all parties, and Bryant couldn’t give one.
When we started out, our solicitor advised us there would be a draw down date on the mortgage and that we had to complete by then or we could be in trouble. We laughed; of course it would be ready. Obviously, our solicitor had more experience in these matters than us, as we eventually agreed a completion date of 24th August, only 6 days before the final mortgage draw down date.

Things then went quiet. We looked at Bryant’s range of many extras, including asking for a price to lay Amtico flooring in the hallway and kitchen, although at over £2,000 we gave it a miss. The carpets (the same throughout) came in at a similar price, needless to say, Bryant’s extras are expensive and we opted to use a local business. Providing you have insurance, and exchange has taken place, you are entitled to allow contrators into your property for things such as carpet laying.

We did eventually settle for having tiles laid on our hall floor for a price of £540 and a tumble-dryer outlet for £100. We probably could have had both jobs done cheaper, but at least they were done for when we moved in, just…….

During the time we were waiting to move, we were invited to cheese and wine parties for the official opening of the show homes and basically treated like royalty. When we moved in, we appeared to become something of an encumbrance……

ONE SUNNY DAY IN LATE AUGUST
Moving day arrived, we had been taking photos of the house as it was built, and realised there were certain things not completed, now remember, this is also Bank Holiday weekend.

• The kitchen floor wasn’t laid. The assistant site manager told the team to lay it without sealing the kitchen floor. In addition, part of the utility room floor had flooded the night before, and if had been laid without drying, the lino would have rotted.
• The painting wasn’t finished
• The lock on the en-suite door jammed with my partner in it
• The living room was wired wrongly and therefore we couldn’t fit any lights
• The dishwasher plumbing was the wrong way around
• None of the garden fencing or gates had been put up
• My front garden wasn’t turfed
• All the windows were locked and no keys were provided
• My downstairs front bay middle window wouldn’t close properly
• My TV and Telephone points were installed in the kitchen with no means of powering them
• The TV aerial points meant to be in the bedrooms 1 and 2 were not installed

A sharp letter was e-mailed to Bryant customer services over the weekend with threats of going to the local press if the issues weren’t addressed quickly, needless to say they were.

WHAT NEXT?
As with most new things, you expect to get a few teething problems. I can honestly say that with teething problems like this, god help it if anything serious happened.

About 8 months after moving in, our stairs showed serious signs of dropping. Initially we thought it was settlement, until a carpenter friend indicated there seemed to be no supports underneath them, cue another phone-call to Bryant. Their customer sales manager visited the house and tried to tell me that it was my responsibility to have them repaired at my cost. All I can say is if my father hadn’t been there I might have done something I seriously regretted. We paid £145K for this house, and while that might seem like chicken-feed to those living in London and the South-East, for this area then, it was nearly double the average house price and therefore a lot of money.

Besides the stairs we had

• Noisy bedroom floor in the bedroom and cracking in the ceiling below it
• The top stair lip bent and nearly snapped.
• My living room door frame started moving and had to be replaced, (it then had to be replaced again because they forgot to put the support lintels back in)
• My front door handles tarnished and had to be replaced twice.
• There were no ventilation outlets in the roof,
• My tumble-dryer piping (£100 extra) fell apart within 12 months,
• There was no cover on my electric box,
• My back door handle broke three times,
• My bay window leaked almost from day one on the left-hand side, they came to repair it, and guess what? The next time it rained the window leaked on both sides – this took some 18 months and 3 sets of scaffolding to resolve.
• The en-suite shaver point wasn’t connected to the electric,
• The extractor fan in the en-suite was wired wrongly,
• There was inadequate soundproofing between the two back bedrooms and the bathroom, and the back bedroom and the en-suite.
• Leaking toilet tank in the en-suite
• Leaking shower unit in the en-suite (see a pattern emerging here?)

On installing the improved soundproofing between the bedroom and our en-suite, they discovered the extractor fan from the utility room had no external outlet.

REMEMBER THOSE STAIRS?
Less than 12 months after they were ‘repaired’, they had to be done again, and guess what? The supports weren’t there.

HOW THEY DEALT WITH THINGS
To be fair, Bryant’s NEW customer service manager was sympathetic. What one has to remember, is that they do not employ their own staff. They use local contractors wherever they are, meaning they will have good and bad sites. On our site, they sacked no less than 8 managers, not to mention the assistant manager who tried to get my floor laid without the foundation sealant.

They were always courteous and got someone out as quickly as possible, although they didn’t always turn up, I wasted around 6 days in total over 18 months waiting for invisible workmen. One day, they even went to the wrong house and did work, and then couldn’t understand why I complained, it was only when they mentioned the baby I didn’t have they realised their mistake.

THE FINAL STRAW?
This was Easter weekend last year; it is funny how one issue can tip you over the edge. For me, it was returning home from work, and discovering that my beautiful fence, installed late, but, very effective was gone. To add insult to injury, they had inserted logs down the garden using concrete, WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, meaning that I couldn’t lay my turf. I was not a happy bunny and the correspondence that followed resulted in us being awarded £500 compensation and an extra years warranty, plus a two-year guarantee on all jobs carried out since we moved in.

For us, even though all the problems were finally resolved, the dream had turned sour and we sold and have moved to an 80-year old house. This, as well as needing a massive amount of work, cosmetic and structural, has caused us a living nightmare, because of the antics of the former owner. From arrest warrants and repossession orders to his family threatening to break in and ‘do’ my partner. Personally, I am beginning to think that house-buying and I mix a bit like ‘oil and water’.

SUMMARY
As house designers, Bryant are good, no doubt about that. Compared with many other builders such as George Wimpey, Redrow, Wilcon and Westbury, Bryant build homes you can actually live in, size wise. I saw one Westbury home recently where I don’t think my partner would have been able to access the toilet because the space was so small, and he’s only 6ft 1 and average size.

Almost all their houses are ‘pretty’ yet functional and so is the finishing. However, they use contractors not their own staff, and therefore when you visit their sites check for things like regular staff and safety measures on sites, look carefully at the show-home for flaws, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Their homes are not timber-framed, unlike some companies and remember also, that since we bought our house, they are now a much bigger and stronger company. I hope, this will enable them to put things right before they go wrong.

On points such as street lights and obtaining a postcode, they were efficient, with a little help from us on the latter.

Incidentally, if anyone thinks they can make a fast buck from buying houses down here, forget it, we made £50K in less than 3 years, and could have made another £40K in the three months after the sale was agreed. They are now selling for nearer the £300K mark with properties around here are now rising at a rate of around £850 a week. I seem to remember this happening back in the eighties in the South-East, it does not bode well.

WOULD I CONSIDER BUYING ANOTHER BRYANT?
Well yes, surprisingly I would. They provide a 2-year workmanship guarantee, and, as with all new homes, you also get ten years NHBC cover. Locally, we have had a Redrow house actually be a runner-up in ITV’s new houses from hell because they used incorrectly mixed mortar. We had nothing like that, and at least Bryant did get things right in the end, even if we went a bit around the houses to get there.

If you fancy buying a Bryant home visit: www.bryant.co.uk where you can use their interactive search facility to find their house of your dreams. BUT REMEMBER what to look for, and be happy before you sign on the dotted line.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED WITH CAUTION
 

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