Welcome New Members

[Admin]

Hello all, and welcome to the first discussion forum relating to the purchase of your new home. This board has been set up by the residents, for the residents of the Barnaby Way, Haverhill Abbey New Homes Development. The board has been designed for residents to post their views on Abbey New Homes, to provide an open discussion board on any problems you have experienced with your purchase!

This could relate to the way your purchase was handled as sale stage, or could be used to discuss the problem with the finishing of your home. We want to hear it all, and make Abbey aware collectively our views on our new homes.

We want to try and keep this up to date with your problems, your solutions (if you've been lucky enough) or how Abbey have dealt with you as a customer.

We look forward to hearing from you, please remember to pass the address to your neighbours https://abbeyhomes.board-directory.net

Regards,

unhappy_resident
Forum Administrator

[sam]

If I could have got out of the sale without losing my deposit I would have done........................they really do not know what customer service is all about.

That said I do not have a problem with those in the office or on site, its the company as a whole I really am not impressed with. I have put a number of folk off buying though.

[Admin]

If I could have got out of the sale without losing my deposit I would have done........................they really do not know what customer service is all about.

That said I do not have a problem with those in the office or on site, its the company as a whole I really am not impressed with. I have put a number of folk off buying though.

Thanks for your post Sam , other neighbours i've spoken to are also of the same feeling. We've unfortunately been unable to get to much out of the site unfortunately, we normally have to liase with Head Office (if you can get through to somebody to speak to, I know where you're coming from!).

I look forward to hearing from others!

Regards, unhappy_resident, Admin.

[sam]

No worries, I just hope that more peeps join.

The thing that p***ed me off was that I bought a new home thinking that I could chose what I would like in my new home. everytime I asked about choices etc I kept getting once you've exchanged we can discuss them.

So how excited was I when we had finally completed and I had handed over my deposit, I rushed upto the office to be told...............no you can't have spots in the living room or kitchen, no you can't have coving, no you can't have that work surfice with those cupboards and you definately have to have the fitted carpet even though I wanted to put my own flooring in no you can't have tiles in the downstairs loo,....who puts carpet in a loo when you've got 4 men living in a house


I was seriously jacked off, they had my deposit and there was nothing I could do, unlike friends that have bought a bovis home on The Croft, their choice of exras was outstanding, to say I was jealous was an understatement.
Oh and to make matters worse we missed the exchange date and were fined £5000 or we couldn't go ahead with the sale.....................no guessing that I wish we had walked away.

Oh now I'm on a role................The snagging our last home was a new build and we had 6 months to do the snag list, not the rushed one with Abbey that was done before we got the keys and told that it was tough if we missed anything. It takes 6 months to live in a house and notice all the faults.

ooh I think I'm gonna have to have a glass of wine and calm down

[Admin]

Hi Sam!

Thanks for your message. It's amazing the attitude Abbey seem to take with their customers, sometimes I think they forget it's us lot that are providing them with the money and keeping them in business!

There are a number of things which I think they've tried fobbing you off with unfortunately, and their are a number of things you are entitled too. Unfortunately I don't have too much information regarding the purchase of your home, however £5k sounds a hell of a lot in terms of a penalty for not exchanging on time - one of our neighbours was expecting to exchange on a Monday for example, but was told that it wasn't ready and Abbey wouldn't exchange - I wonder what they would have said if they sent Abbey an invoice for £5k - I bet you they would have just ignored it. My advice to you would be to contact your solicitor to make sure what they did is legitimate. From our experience with the purchase of our new place, Abbey are very good at "forgetting" the rules, and further to that - the law! I don't believe however that £5000 is a reasonable amount under any circumstances, and If I were you I would dispute this right to the courts if it was necessary - what right do they think they have to charge somebody an amount like this - it's expensive enough buying a new home as it is but to wack on a fine like that - it's ridiculous.

Now in terms of snagging, we feel we can shed some light on this for you. Under the Premier Guarantee that comes with your house, the developer, "Abbey Homes", are obliged for the first two years, to rectify any problems in terms of snagging you may have. You mention they told you it was "tough" if you had missed anything - certainly not the case at all. We have been living here now for just over 2 months, and we are still going through snagging, even items that weren't originally brought up because we simply hadn't had the time to notice every single problem. To give you an idea, we have submitted to Abbey over 150 different problems with our particular apartment, and Abbey have a right to rectify these. You'll notice from some of our other posts just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we actually put across to Abbey, and we are intending to keep this updated as best we can.

Now, some of the excuses we have had in the past from Abbey - "We are not required to do it", "It's Abbeys Standard" - absolute rubbish. If the Managing Director had any idea of the type of problems people are actually experiencing, he may have some words to say on the matter.

Now to clarify what you should be doing, and what we have done in terms of snaggings is as follows. Make a list of everything you are not happy with, whether this be dents on the wall, rubbish paint work (especially around the ceiling to wall), cracked tiles, cupboard doors not mounted right, scratched fixtures and fittings (including door handles, locks etc), put it all in a letter. Explain to them you are not happy how they have handled your transaction and attach them the list of snagging. Now with this letter their are several people who we would recommend writing this to. Copy 1) Sales Office Copy 2) Bob - Site Manager, (can be passed via Sales Office) Copy 3) Gary Clarke @ Abbey Head Office, Copy 4) Ian Mortimer @ Abbey Head Office, Copy 5) PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL - Managing Director, Lorrie Fraquelli @ Abbey Head Office, Copy 6) Premier Guarantee (can be found in your paperwork for new home) Copy 7) Trading Standards (local office, we used Bury St Edmunds).

I know this sounds a little extreme, but unfortunately with Abbey this is the only way you are likely to get it resolved. Make sure in all your letters that at the bottom you have a CC section, and write each of the above names/departments on their. It's amazing how quickly responses begin to get issued from within Abbey when Premier are involved, as well as Trading Standards. Just to clarify, YOU HAVE 2 YEARS for snagging to take place. Now to follow these up, we suggest that you also leave daily messages with the Sales Office (01440 707770) either in office hours, or by leaving a message on answerphone. Further to this, also contact the Site office, on a daily basis. It's unfortunate that it has to come to this, however it is the most successful way of resolving your issues. Don't accept "it'll be done soon", you are entitled to find out a date to when each problem highlighted is going to be resolved.

I would be interested at some point to try and arrange a meeting with as many residents as we can, to try and gather our opinions in and discuss other issues. I would encourage any residents that are reading this to please post your comments and experiences, as collectively Abbey have a duty, if not only from a customer service point of view to rectify everyones problems.

For anybody reading, please pass this site to your neighbours, let them know about it!

Sam, if you require any assistance in terms of speaking with Abbey, or would like any help with your snagging list, please feel free to get in touch, Abbey have well and truley gone the wrong way about dealing with our issues, and we want to make sure Abbey are well aware that the residents are not happy and will not go about these issues quietly.

I hope the above information helps, as I said if you require any help please let us know.

Good Luck! Keep us all updated!

unhappy_resident, Admin.

[poobear51.wanadoo.co.uk]

I have just been reading the comments made by Sam back on August 20th. I agree that we thought we would be able to choose our kitchen cupboards, tiles etc but we were also told that they had already been picked. At this stage of asking, our house had only been built up to the first floor-there was not even a roof on at this time! This was just a bit annoying and disappointing!

Can I also ask if anyone else has had problems with their taps in the bathrooms, en-suites etc.
Several of our taps are very hard to turn off, when wet, and they keep unscrewing. You then have to waste a lot of water whilst you find a towel to dry your hand to turn it off. Extremely annoying!

All that said though, I must say that all our snagging problems were dealt with very quickly and everything has been put right so far.

One last thing - I would like to know what our annual charge of £225 (or however much it was) is being spent on. As far as I can see, all that is being done is the grass is being cut. There is no park to maintain or anything else that I can see.

Well I must go now, hope to hear from anyone else that might share some of my views.

[Admin]

Hello Poobear51,

Thank you for your recent post and welcome to the board. You are not the only one who has endured disappointment throughout your purchase. And your also not the only one with these problems regarding the taps! We have had exactly the same problem with our taps, these are hot/cold bathroom sink, hot/cold bath, hot/cold ensuite sink. We find we have problems with turning on/off the hot water tap on the bath itself, it's very tight and also is very hard to turn off with wet hands. In terms of the taps on the sinks, we too have the same problem, I believe the design is the same throughout. We have been advised by Abbey that it is the design of the tap, with that we asked them to come around with a wrench to tighten the "nut" part going around the tap, up. This worked for a little while, but since are becoming loose again. Call the office here and ask them to send somebody round to tighten them up, however we are still trying to have our bath tap resolved.

In terms of the £225 amount, we too share your frustrations, their are no communal areas really to maintain currently, let alone a kids play area to maintain!! You will often notice too with the grass cutting that it's certainly not very tidy and they seem to cut areas where they feel like it. It's definately worth getting on to Crabtree, and requesting they send you a full breakdown of costs. You are also entitled to see original quotations from the sub contractors they use, this is worth seeing to find out exactly what Crabtree are paying for.

I'm glad you've posted, please feel free to continue to air your thoughts and questions, and remember to pass this site on to other residents!

Good luck, Admin

I have just been reading the comments made by Sam back on August 20th. I agree that we thought we would be able to choose our kitchen cupboards, tiles etc but we were also told that they had already been picked. At this stage of asking, our house had only been built up to the first floor-there was not even a roof on at this time! This was just a bit annoying and disappointing!

Can I also ask if anyone else has had problems with their taps in the bathrooms, en-suites etc.
Several of our taps are very hard to turn off, when wet, and they keep unscrewing. You then have to waste a lot of water whilst you find a towel to dry your hand to turn it off. Extremely annoying!

All that said though, I must say that all our snagging problems were dealt with very quickly and everything has been put right so far.

One last thing - I would like to know what our annual charge of £225 (or however much it was) is being spent on. As far as I can see, all that is being done is the grass is being cut. There is no park to maintain or anything else that I can see.

Well I must go now, hope to hear from anyone else that might share some of my views.

[poobear51.wanadoo.co.uk]

Thankyou very much for replying to my comments I wrote the other day. I will certainly consider contacting the people you mentioned. It's nice to hear that other people are also having the same problems as us.
Thankyou again.

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