George Wimpey Homes > Reviews (12)

As with other people who are writing reviews about George Wimpey, it is my bad experience that is motivating me to write, but I am going to try and be as positive as I can.

After my ex destroyed my last house, it left me with a worry that I could move into someone else’s disaster zone, this is what made my mind up that I wanted to move into a brand spanking new home, where I wouldn't have to do anything.

It took almost 9 months to find a development that not only appealed to me, but also I could afford. Living in the southeast is not cheap, and new houses always carry a premium.

Once you have discovered a development, your first contact is through the Sales office, who are happy for you to wander through the wonderfully furnished show homes.

Show homes, are a great way for you to get a feel of a house, but they are also cleverly furnished to make rooms look bigger, and take your eye away from any defects. Notice how all the beds are not standard size. Notice the living rooms have no TV's, or the kitchens no microwaves, toasters etc on the worktops. All these things are there to deceive you into thinking they are more spacious than they are. Don’t get me wrong, legally there is nothing wrong with this, after all, all room sizes are clearly detailed on the house specifications you get with your glossy brochure.

I had already set my heart on which plot I wanted during my visit in October 2003, when trying to negotiate the price, I was informed that this could only be done when I had sold my property.

***Assisted Move scheme ***
I was buying the house through Wimpeys assisted move scheme. Basically they send 2 agents to your house to value it, then they decide the market price from these valuations and the house goes on the market with both estate agents, and Wimpey pay the agency fees.

The benefit of this is that not only do you have 2 agents trying to sell your house, but Wimpey makes up a large % of their business, so they can't afford to not push your house. I had a total of 10 viewings in 1 week, that perhaps I may not have had if I was selling myself.

The downside is that you only have 6 weeks to sell your house, if I didn't sell the house in 6 weeks, I would lose the plot I had reserved. This caused me many a sleepless night, I am a natural worrier anyway. I was lucky, we had virtually gutted our house over the past year, and redone everything, making it close to a show home (without the small furniture), my house sold after the first week for the full asking price.

Another benefit of the assisted move, is that if you receive a lower offer, Wimpey have a money pot, that they can help make up the difference for you. As this wasn't needed for mine, I thought great, I have more bargaining power with them for a reduction (After all I have now sold my house).

When I went into the sales office, to re-negotiate, I was told, there was nothing they could do, I had a good deal as it was, there was no more room for manoeuvre!! (how stupid of me, to believe they would keep their word!!!

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***Options / Upgrades ***
Wimpey have a very clever offer called options, when ever you buy a property they give you some more towards options (or upgrades!!!). This can range from £1,000 - £5,000 normally. What this entails is you sitting down trailing through catalogues choosing what to spend your money on, by the time you have finished you have spent 10 x your allocation, so the rest you have to pay for yourself!!

I got an allocation of £2,000 and my options came to £8,500, I know this sounds strange, but its a lot of money to have to spend on time of the purchase price.

The thing you have to remember, is that nobody is forcing you to buy these things, you could easily take the house as standard! but remember, your house does not come with carpets, turf or even coving!!!!!!!!

I think this is why they have to call them options and not upgrades, because having turf versus no turf is hardly an upgrade!

I also found that the options are very very expensive, and if you are a first time buyer, a lot of the items you are better buying yourself. The reason I say first time buyer is because if you are part of a chain, you will not have time, to have carpets fitted yourself etc, before having to move your furniture in.

I was lucky, my buyer was chain free and wanted a quick move, so I agreed to move out and rent for a few months, this allowed me to save money, by buying my own carpets, appliances etc before I moved in.

***Customer Service ***
From the moment of reservation, I had very little contact with the sales office, all of the contact was initiated by me, I was never shown formal plans of my property, (trust me the street lamp, 1 metre from my bedroom window was a great surprise!!!), nor exact measurements that my garden would be.

We asked to look at the house whilst it was being built at stages so we could see how things were being put together, we were constantly refused, being told everyone is too busy.

***Recommended Solicitors ***
Something else Wimpey are very good at, is offering you a cash back for using their recommended solicitors. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't, I felt that although I was the client, I was a very small client, in comparison to Wimpey who gave them so much business. They had a special team dedicated to Wimpey. This meant that they didn't "rock the boat".

Dont get me wrong, they didn't do anything ethically wrong! but for example, my house is being built on a brown field site, which has contaminated soil, I asked my solicitors to get confirmation in writing from Wimpey that the remedial works had been carried out. Wimpey refused to disclose anything, and my solicitors told me there was nothing I could do!

I am sure if I was using an independent solicitor Wimpey would not have got away with this.

***Completion ***
Wimpey aslo have an open-ended completion date, where they only have to give you 2 weeks notice. This can be a real pain, my date was moved 2 weeks prior to estimated completion, this effected my time off work, van hiring, notice period on a rental property, carpet delivery etc.

The 2-week date, results from when NHBC actually do a final inspection of your property and pass it!!! Basically the Council of Mortgage Lenders made this agreement that the Mortgage companies would not release funds to builders without a NHBC certificate, this is to ensure that all works have been carried out and the house is habitable etc.

My advice to anyone, is make a formal request that you wish to be present at the NHBC inspections, and that you want copies of the reports that the builders get. I have a copy of my reports now!! and I cant believe the amount of faults reported. The NHBC have even admitted the inspection should not have been done on my property as the house was not completed, but they still went ahead and done it, after all George Wimpey are a big company.

2 weeks prior to completion, Wimpey should contact you to have a "familiarisation visit", this is where you get to go into your property and check it to make sure its ok!!! and anything wrong can be fixed prior to completion. I had to contact them for my visit, as they didn't bother, this happened 4 days before completion.

This is a good opportunity to make sure they have carried out all the NHBC faults too (I still have some of the faults not fixed in my house 3 months after I am in it!).

***Day of completion ***
On the day of completion, the house had still not been finished, and I actually had no choice but to complete, so I completed under protest in writing from my solicitors.

The top layer of tarmac on my drive was not done
The roof on garage was damaged
The front garden had not been done
The railings on the front steps had not been done
The amtico flooring throughout the downstairs was wrong
Loft light missing
Garage door not painted
Leaky guttering
Garage and house full of rubbish
Kitchen sink fitted faulty
Front of house covered in tape still, and paint etc

These are just some of the concerns; I was clearly told that I should just report snags!!

A snag is a word used by the builders for items found faulty or poor workmanship!! , How can totally missing be a snag.

If your completion date falls before December 31st or March 31st, you need to take extra care, the builders are under huge pressure for financial completions, and your house will be completed with a lot less concern, the attitude is, oh we can always do it later, once they are in!!

***After completion ***
In the brochure, Wimpey pride themselves on their after sales customer service, well I can tell you for a fact, that you do not receive your courtesy call the day after completion, nor the 2 weeks after completion, nor the 6 weeks after completion, in fact the only time I saw anyone from Wimpey was when I was screaming at them to get something major fixed.

Don't get me wrong I don’t usually go round screaming at people, but when you find your garage door broken, and you cant secure it, and it has your valuables in it, you call a 24 hour emergency number, and then wait in for someone to turn up to secure it. And Wimpey act like they are doing you a favour.

This happened on Easter Saturday, I then had to take the Tuesday off, to go round the sales office (as they were not answering the phone), to demand someone sorted it now!!! This was a little embarrassing for them, because they were in the middle of selling a house to some nice new people!!

It might only sound like a small problem, but the same weekend, on Easter Sunday, we ended up with blocked drains, no toilets, showers etc, once again on the phone to the emergency number, I was told dynorod would be with me in 2 hours (the time quoted by wimpey in their after sales brochure). In all, through constant calls etc, it was 28 hours before anyone turned up!!

To make matters worse, the problem was that a drain was blocked by concrete and cement, and had never ever had any sewerage pass over it, ever!!! this meant we had the neighbours s**t building up in our garden for the past 3 weeks!! This should have been a NHBC failure; the house should never have been passed!! The NHBC response!! Sorry we never carried out a drain inspection!!

I have also had a leaking shower, which had gone through to my hall, doors that wont open and a million other faults, which so happen to mirror imaged in the house next to me. Nice to see at least the workmanship is consistent!

So far to date, I have taken over 10 days off work, to get work done on my house, which in my opinion should never have been faulty in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I don’t think Wimpey are any worse than any of the other builders, I think every new house built will have 100's of faults, the difference is, how you deal with the faults, and how the house builder responds, that is what can make the total difference.

***Some tips for those considering buying a new build ***
1) firstly, don’t expect to buy a brand new house, and it to be fault free, it wont!

2) Use an independent solicitor, not the builders recommended solicitor

3) Make sure you get everything in writing, if when reserving they promise to negotiate the price later, make sure they confirm it in writing

4) Make sure you make an appointment to sit down and review all drawings, including where sewerage is running, where drains will be allocated on your plot, where street lights will be etc.

5) Get copies of all the NHBC inspection reports as soon as the inspections are carried out, or even better be present at the inspections. Make sure your solicitor follows up the inspection failures (NHBC don’t!!, so its in your interest to follow them up)

6) Don’t get carried away with options / extra’s, make sure you compare prices, most things can be brought cheaper on the internet eg the handles used by Wimpey on their doors, are £18 for each upgrade to a chrome set, I can buy them on the internet for £11 a set! (I have 21 sets in my house, a saving of £147) plus I can sell the brass ones on a boot sale. I saved £1,000 on my integrated appliances by buying them through the internet.

7) Inspect the house on the day of completion before giving your solicitor permission to complete, make sure you are happy before giving your money to them.

8) Once you have moved in, and discover snags, put them in writing, DO NOT do anything verbally, should there be any come back you have written proof. This helps when making a claim against your NHBC insurance.

9) Contact Inspector Homes to carry out a snagging inspection for you prior to you completing, this costs money (approx £350 for a 3 bedroom house), but not only are they experts in identifying new builders faults, they also follow up all the faults for you, taking a lot of stress away from you (trust me a small price to pay), in the end they can save you thousands. Inspector Homes are the company you see on Watchdog taking all the big house builders to hell and back.

10) My final piece of advice is, try to remember it’s your home, and try to enjoy it, even if it’s not perfect!

Once thing, dont feel bad about complaining, speak to your new neighbours, you will find you are not the only one, and sometimes, by talking to each other, you know what other faults to look for

Would I buy another new home, the answer is yes, the difference is next time, I am little bit more realistic, and lot more wiser!

Do I think George Wimpey are that bad, my answer, no worse than any other builder, but they need to improve their customer care, they seem to forget once they have our money that we are still customers!! Most people’s dissatisfaction could be avoided, if they actually handled the problems better in the first place!

After all, your home is probably the most expensive investment you will ever make, and the thing you spend most time in.

(Now everyone knows why I haven't wrote any reviews on Ciao for the past 3 months, I have been too busy and stressed getting my snags fixed!!!)

Thanx for reading
Minxie

Useful links

www.georgewimpey.co.uk
www.inspectorhomes.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog(some reports on house builders)