Persimmon homes Nightmare! My Persimmon Home Ordeal - Read before you buy from Persimmon Homes!

My personal experience of buying a house from Persimmon Homes is the same as so many people on this new estate. Many of the houses seem to have been thrown together as quick as possible with a focus on getting the next house built. This is so that Persimmon Homes can bring in the money on the next sale. If you have moved in and paid your money then you are just a burden to Persimmon Homes from that point on.

The sales staff are really helpful, but once you sign up it all changes and you are left to the "customer care" department. Everytime I called customer care I was told that someone would get back to me, or the message would be passed on. Now 18 months on I am still trying to have my snags completed.

My experience after signing the contract was one of a complete disregard to customer satisfaction.

Persimmon Homes brought my "move in" day forward by six weeks from the date we were told verbally. In my opinion this was to coincide with Persimmon Homes year end targets. The bridging cost was awful.
When we moved in our home was not complete. There were no carpets in any rooms at all, just bare concrete downstairs and chipboard upstairs. Electric cables were hanging from the kitchen units, and you can see the state of the floor in the en-suite from the photo above (more photos in the gallery link above).

My snagging list was hardly touched by Persimmon Homes until this website went live. Maybe that is the way to progress?

Persimmon Homes have recently bought the sought after Charles Church name. I wonder whether customers paying a premium for a Charles Church home realise they may now be paying for a Persimmon homes standard of build?

Please dont forget to visit my guestbook, the link is further down the page.

This guestbook has only been added very recently and already has some really interesting comments. Feel free to add your own.

The photo (right) shows how my garage roof was originally "fixed" down. I called Persimmon customer care and was refused a site visit to inspect this roof - that was until I told him them I was going to email these photos to the NHBC. They arrived within hours.

As with most others on this site I have a large snagging list which is now approaching two years old and seems to grow faster than it is worked on. These snags are more to do with build quality than build materials. For example, my concrete floor downstairs looked like it had been laid by a two year old with a bent rolling pin. After weeks of complaining and getting nowhere I had my floor re-screeded, but only after this website went live.

The main problem however is that despite having two en-suites and a family bathroom and being told by Persimmon Homes that I have a mains pressure hot water system, if I run a cold tap whilst the shower is running I will scald the person in the shower. This is especially worrying as I have two small children. Complaints have been ignored over and over again. These properties are all 3 to 5 bedroomed detached family homes.

These ties should hold down the garage roof, but mine were not even attached!!!

A spirit level could have helped here!

I am constantly told by Persimmon Homes that I am the only one with a problem with the water pressure. The strange thing is that everyone else who complains about this is also told they are the only one! They do not want to fight a group, they would rather trample an individuals aspirations to own a quality home.

Persimmon Homes sent an "expert" from the company who installed all of the heating and water system in these houses to look at the problem. The company is Avonside Heating and Plumbing. He informed me that they were the biggest installer of heating in the UK and only work on new build properties. So consequently one of their biggest customers is Persimmon Homes. His report said there was no problem, but it confirmed my incoming pressure is 2bar - in my experience you should have 4-6bar. He never checked the shower problem and only confirmed the water pressure because I had a pressure guage set up already. He sat in my living room drinking coffee and complaining about Persimmon Homes being "too big for there boots" and that they think they are "untouchable".

It is worth pointing out that the manufacturers of my hot water system clearly state that "the hot water flow rate of the boilermate A-class is directly related to the adequacy of the cold water supply to the dwelling. This must be capable for providing for those services, which could be required to be supplied simultaneously......."

After this website was made Persimmon Homes have sent other experts to check this problem. It is now 18 months since I moved in and it is still the same.

Persimmon should be ashamed of the ordeals they put customers through, and now they have stopped building on all new sites due to a fall in profits of a quarter!

You can offer your opinion on this by clicking the "Snagging.org" link below and visiting the forums section.

I have now forwarded this site to WATCHDOG, and NHBC. If you have a similar problem or you can help me either with the problems or in promoting this site then please get in touch. Just click on this link below, thanks:

My Floor on move in day - Falling apart!

For more photos click on the Photo Gallery at the top of the page.

Updates:

1) Readers Digest article now published. Also the Readers Digest has a link to this website.

2) My snagging list is still not complete well over a year later. I am looking into posting a forum on this site as soon as possible.

3) Photo Gallery now added to this site.

4) Now I have found that building control will not grant a completion certificate for the whole site because 7 houses here do not comply with regulations on gradients of paths. What a farce!

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