I was a Clerk of Works with a trade background, of course. The top directors are financially raking it in. They get away with it because they can. There is less protection buying a house than there is buying a pair of shoes. The law has to change. Houses are not fit for the purpose for which they were sold.

How the site managers can hand over this property to residents is beyond me...

I’m a tiler on new build sites with 15 years experience. New builds are generally very poorly built, with the cheapest materials used. Most site agents and solely concerned about timescale and not quality. Although this one does seem particularly bad! Wouldn’t buy a new build, but would advise anyone that does, to employ a professional snagging company.👍🏻

I have been building houses for 30 yrs and I hang my head at what these Development company's think they can get away with! REMEMBER What you can see Is only 50% think about all the other Bodges and short cuts ! - Underground - roof structure - Masonry Heating. Before you sign anything get a thorough independent Survey ! !

If that’s what you can see imagine all the shit that’s hidden 😳

The problem is these builders do not want any employment costs so they use sub contractors . Often these are middle men who take all the money off the job and there is very little left for the lads doing the work . There is no investment in apprenticeships no employers national insurance contributions holiday money or sick pay so trades are poorly motivated.

As a some what competent DIYer who has taken a house back to the brick and refurbished (with help of tradesmen) I could not sleep knowing these types of snags exist in the property!

As someone who used to deliver safety decking to building sites, the quality of some of the new builds was horrendous. They tried to get our lads to brace the decking against a wall and when they did, the wall moved. It was still wet... Buy old. Sure, it'll need some work, but it's a lot less hassle than getting a new build

This is a luxury finish compared to the Bellway house I bought. We had the same… wrong wardrobes, wrong tiles, awful finishes. Gave up and sold after 3 years as Bellway just kept bodging over bodges. Would never waste a Penny on a new build!!

Persimmons executives were awarding themselves huge bonuses while at the same time there was a huge backlash against the company for building sub-standard houses that were not fit for occupation. The worrying thing is that new builds are popping up everywhere up and down the country. The government of course does nothing.

The affordable homes initiative (and for many of us they aren't even affordable). I was a civil engineer and later worked for an appliance company installing into numerous new builds like this one. Over the years the deterioration in design, never mind execution, is shocking. We see more and more pokey maisonettes with virtually no daylight, steep concrete stairwells, and appliances having to be plumbed into airing cupboards and hallways because the kitchens are too small. When you see small children growing up into these instant modern day slums - that their stressed out parent still struggle to pay for - it makes you very angry.

So sad to see the lack of love put into the creation of these boxes. Reminds me of my new build purchase back in 2002. I ended up with 4 x A4 pages of snagging. I have some stories to tell including fly infestation, builders taking a dump in the toilet and leaving it in there for hand over and leaving cement in the drains so my sewer backed up and flooded the bathroom bringing the kitchen ceiling down. I'd never by a new build on a site again. Watching your later videos of the flood brought it all back for me, so sorry it wasn't the perfect move in you hoped for and I hope it all worked out ok in the end.

I was thinking about a new house for my first home till I looked round a Taylor wimpey show home. I’m a roofer and my family are made up of builders so I know basics to look out for. The show home was a joke. And this should of been the best one to help sell them. As I walked out the houses opposite had already been moved into and there was gutters pulled apart and falling off 7 of them. I would avoid new builds at all costs

I'm looking for a house at the minute, and there is zero chance I would buy a new build. The lack of care is shocking. The build quality is shocking. It's a money racket to the highest degree. The internal walls are 60mm thick. The ceiling joists are 600mm apart when they should be 400mm, so they save the price every two joists, that pretty much sums up their thought process

Wouldn’t touch a new build with a barge pole!

I am glad to be able to say that Bovis has massively cleaned up its act. The first thing the new CEO did was give the builders three months longer to complete properties. A lot of the corner cutting is/was due to unreasonable deadlines. Their sales department still has quite a bit to be desired, but we had very few snagging issues and the ones we did have have all been fixed within a few days.

I wouldn't take that house. Nope. This many issues cannot be fixed. Imagine all the hidden shit in the walls.

Boris, Berkeley et SL have calculated that it is cheaper for them to turn out houses with lots of faults (and then rectify the lesser amount that are reported and that the builder has to deal with) than to pay for reasonable quality control (and hand over a fault-free house) It is not usually the sub contractors who make the money as they are to the developer what farmers are to the supermarkets. They are certainly not blameless - Sub contractors do cut corners and delivery shoddy work to make extra margin. The developer is a financial business. It buys land; it stocks land until the retail prices are right for them; and it sells the cheapest product at the highest price. All controlled by bean counters. I’m not in the house building business at all but I have had a lot of building work done; have just had a large barn converted for us and experienced new builds. The overwhelming advice I would give is to urge people who buy a new house is to look at the small developer. You are more likely to find quality there than any of the big boys. Another related fact is the big boys will win any planning application. They might have to win on appeal but the cowards in local planning know that the big boys have more money and more influence than the planners do. However, the planners, like many bullied people, get their own back on small developers (1 to 20 houses) by making their life very difficult from day one. What is he learnt is never, ever trust a local council planner. I learnt this from Maidstone Bc. They lie (in writing); they try to deceive (in writing) and are not worthy of public trust. They do not act in the public interest; they have found a position where little people can have some power. The whole stem is corrupt and needs to be swept away and replaced. Currently, central government is imposing planning changes but the local planners will do anything they can to thwart central government if it suits them. Rant over; don’t buy a new house from a big developer.

There's going to be a new housing epidemic in this country. Mark my words there's going to be some serious problems with these new Builds in the future.

Firstly thank you for the video. I move into my Barrett home in two weeks your video has been really helpful. One quick thing with mine which has come to light is day one I specifically asked for a combi boiler and it's a cylinder. I asked for an electric hob and it's gas.i haven't even entered the building yet. The garden I was told they would put a wall between mine and next door and it's a shabby fence. Thanks for your video and the vents handy to know

My house is over 100 years old. No such problems anywhere. Double glazing downstairs, but the windows upstairs are all the original wooden windows. Still in excellent condition - no rot anywhere. I’ve had it rewired and central heating installed though! There’s also a wooden garden shed that’s been there since the house was built. It’s still there and in pretty good condition, perhaps because it has always been soaked in creosote (not now, because I can’t get creosote). I know the history because it’s always been in the family.

This is not a problem of one tradesman of low quality it would seem multiple trades on this job just don’t care. Each person has to be responsible for their own work but I wouldn’t mind betting that the main contractor is paying poorly and putting the tradesmen under unrealistic time constraints. This is part of the reason why I would never ever consider working for these types of companies. I feel really sorry for the people who end up in these shoddy homes.

Back in the 80's Bovis were the best quality builders in the UK. As a sub contractor who used to work for all the major building companies in the UK I see how much the quality of trades has dropped over the last 35 years.

Being a labourer on site for many years.. you learn alot of things.. You also learn a lot of people don't want to put in that extra effort.. I build homes daily that I can only dream of affording to buy. let alone thinking to rent..., Iv built tens of brand new student accommodations with good views and brilliant rooms, whilst being about able to survive in a house share with strangers it shows... And im not the exception.. classes are getting pissed..

How did this house pass the final inspection,the builders who were involved in this should be named and shamed, no wonder us tradesmen get a bad name.

I’ve worked on some of these houses before. I asked the Forman whilst on site how much they were making off of it? He just smiled and said for every third house they sold it was pure profit! I just shook my head and walked away. I would never buy a new build, they are so poorly made and no care taken, just slapped up as quickly as possible, the snag lists on every one I went to was at least 2 pages long!

Thr saddest thing is people spent alot 9f money to purchase their homes and you expect quality for the price you pay. Its a shame. Thank you for this video I will be looking at this when we go into our new home from David Wilson 👌🏾👌🏾👊🏾

I know someone who moved into a new build, opened a window downstairs and the entire window frame fell into the garden. I helped my cousin move into her house about 10 years ago. Her boiler was dead on the day she moved in and had to be replaced. Unbelievably the engineer who covered much of the South East for the boiler company appeared within about 10 minutes of her phone call. It turned out that he lived across the road!! She opened a kitchen cabinet and the door fell off and hit her kitchen floor and the corner of the door punched through the thin wooden flooring. The upstairs walk in shower had a problem and new drainage had to be fitted within a few days. I believe she had about 30 faults that had to be sorted. Luckily the builders were still on site building many more houses so they were, supplied with much tea and bacon sandwiches, very good to her and her family and were, to be fair, very apologetic. I am sure much of these faults are because they are pressurised so much to throw these places up. Always comes down to profit and build time no doubt.

I know this is five years old now, but that house is appalling. As a sparks I would not be at all surprised to do a thorough electrical inspection and test, and to find it would probably be a total failure. I have been called in to brand new houses by new owners to find the most appalling wiring that could not have been done by anyone qualified.

3:08 LMFAO that caulk, I'm a sparks and even I'd be ashamed of that

Cheapest materials, cheapest fixtures, cheapest fittings, and cheapest labour, all thrown up in the minimum possible time for maximum developer profit. The UK construction industry absolutely sucks. Modern houses are little more than short-life prefabs.

You can’t use that boiler until the flue is completely sealed

This is the problem with all new builds. Time and deadlines are making builders cut corners and make mistakes. Look for 1930s terrace houses to get some good old fashioned building that will last.

The excitement and all the happiness when buying youre new home totally goes out the window when you have a house that's been finished as bad as this. Very fast to take youre money though. Totally disgusting

People choose a new build thinking that it they can just move it, put up pictures, curtains and blinds and that's it, no hassle. Sadly, that's rarely the case, with new build homes having an average of 40 issues, some of them pretty major, and suddenly it's up to the customer to report them and enter into a constant battle with the developers to get them sorted out. This should be done within the first two years, but if everyone on a site of, say, 100 houses is chasing up their faults too, it often doesn't happen - the developers just string customers along until they give up.. Don't forget that buying a new build is more expensive than other houses in the area, you pay a premium based on the fact that it's new and perfect with nothing to be done (!) and if you hate it and want to sell can take some years for the house to come out of negative equity.. Buyer Beware!

I am always baffled at the landscaping - around 1:15 you can see two silver birch trees planted within about 2 metres of the house - these are surely a future subsidence risk etc & entirely inappropriate ? Where I had a new build previously the developers & planning inspector seemed entirely at odds with the Association of British Insurers & others’ who warned against such planting. How come you don’t comment on them please?

Having worked supplying the construction industry for just under 48years, unless a house is built by an independent builder, forget it - all you are buying is sheer bloody heartache - all the trades are subbed out to the lowest price, quality of workmanship is secondary, price is paramount. Once you have purchased your “forever” home, the National House builders will just ignore snagging, pass complaints to HO and generally think YOU are the lucky one, lucky to live in this wonderful home. This is why, despite very competitive deals offered (below book price by quite a chuck), when I purchased my first house, it was already 100years old, and when I moved it was to a property built in 1930 (1980 moved in), both properties were built in a time when trade apprenticed craftsmen were the backbone of the construction industry, every builders directly employed his own trades, bricklayer, carpenter, plumber, plasterer, roofer, electrician - their work reflected the success or failure of the builder - just look around all the great cities, towns and villages and see just how good houses built nearly 100+ years ago are, they may need to be tweaked to upgrade to open plan living etc, but one thing is guaranteed, when you do start to knock a hole, you will be hitting something solid and not cheap - very rarely will you find plasterboard/timber dividing walls. I understand why people fall for “new” build tomorrows jerrybuilt slums - the financial deals look so good, teaser rates to get you started, pay your legal fees, anything and everything to get that sale and keeps the number of units (yes, National house builders don’t sell homes, they sell units) going - please, if you value your sanity, look not only at National HB new builds, but independents and pre- 80’s - they may not have the funny money bits, but you just may avoid the heartache of realising you have been duped, and as a added bonus, they will be built in areas where people have lived for years, so instantly you will have a ready source of knowledge regarding the area - best of luck.

It's all the blame of the big building companies. If you want a job done well you have to respect the trades and pay them well.

Some years ago in Scotland, a friend of a friend was delivering some building materials to a construction site. When he'd finished at the end of the day, he told us nearly all the builders couldn't speak English!

If the builders can't do sealant properly and are willing to leave it looking like that...imagine what they've done in the bits you can't see. Take some pride in your work

Workmanship goes out of the window, how they have the cheek to charge a premium for a new build baffles me.

The prices these houses sell for as well is criminal!!

so when you buy a property dont the surveyors pick up on this or do you have to employ professionals to snag a property b4 purchase?

Why are the NHBC Inspectors passing this and why are the end users not picking this up on the home tour?

In the middle of house booming I rented out a new apartment in a new area in construction . They were moving quickly in phases. My apartment was 675 a month plus bills. I have spent at least the first 8 months fixing problems due to the rush of finishing. From faulty sockets, to lights, bathroom seals, doors not painted properly. All I was doing was calling the company who was sending a person who said was employed to go around and fix things. They make you pay top prices but the quality sucks. The only person pleased was my landlord who didn't have the hassle and after 3 years he pretended all the walls repainted as new taking the money from the deposit.

Kitchen, storage cupboard, bathroom, they should install a threshold between wooden floor and floor tiles.

That is a shocking job. The poor workmanship and site agent not dealing with it is unacceptable. How can that be ready for handover to client. I am a decorator and painting contractor and that is ridiculous standard of work from all involved

I would'nt call it a poor finish I'd call it an absolute disgrace! It's rank amatuer. General builders - the mastic men. Those who attend at 10am and home by midday - the Lord Lucans. Those who blag their way out of the snagging list - the Houdinis. Those employed on this build - the John Waynes. I wonder when the buyers of any building services are ever going to get some skilled workers?

Whoa!!! For a £300,000 home? That's ridiculous...those builders give the decent ones a bad name.

As a quite competent diy-er I’ve laid laminate and tiled floors for myself and family. If the job is done properly why would you ever need mastic around the skirting or door frames? At floor level this white mastic will get really dirty in no time - shocking job!

You’ve clocked a fair bit. I can tell you don’t have a trade background though. Someone who’s been in the industry would have spotted even more. FYI that flue should be point round with mortar. No cut or bare tile edges should be visible. Those metal thresholds are acceptable though. Looks like they’ve started to cut the architraves for tile/laminate and then laid LVT. Yes that is vinyl not laminate.

I've just moved into a new build. Don't get me wrong overall I'm happy with it but there were many things wrong with it. All of which you can tell are down to the work being rushed. The waste pipes under the sink leaked because they weren't put together properly. The drains blocked because there was building crap In the drain. Bits of fascia fell off in winds. The lawn was awful. They did give us a free shed as a welcome gift. The door wouldn't open because the lawn was higher than the base the shed was sat on. The problems did get sorted one by one. Well the shed door still doesn't open all the way. Behind our house they're building the rest of them on the development. The speed at which they go up at is astonishing. But you can see why they have problems.

You can tell a good tradesman by how little caulk and mastic they use ... never been a more true statement on this property 😂

If it makes you feel better, Linden Homes are not much better. The worst part is their customer support and their managers.. they try their best to not do anything to fix the issues. Its been nearly 1.5 year and I am still waiting for several issues to be fixed.

They should make the developer pay the buyer’s costs to employ an independent snagging company before completion and allow the buyer to pull out of the sale if the quality is defective. There’d be a real incentive then to do it properly. That and slap the builder with a fine for serious breaches and say more than 10 minor snags, increasing if it’s over 15, 20 etc.

It's actually frightening that soo many safety issues were overlooked

I always think that they’re built to quickly I clean new builds and some of the trade workers are always telling me that they have impossible dead lines if you ask me it’s a lot down to company’s taking on agency workers who don’t care about the quality of their work as they can get more work through their agency plus all the suits who run company’s like bovils just want to sell as many homes as they can in a little time as possible I hope that they repair all things that you have showed us take care xxx

By far the biggest issues resulting in snags on new builds stems from optional extras, if all the options are decided by the time the roof goes on the property and handed to the site team correctly and clearly marked, you stand a chance of receiving a good house. Late optional extras say after first fix stage is asking for trouble. Ask to meet the site manager in person at your property at first fix stage and talk them through exactly what you are expecting. Believe me it will make all the difference!

Oh my goodness I'm speechless.

Shambles, will always be snagging on new builds, but this is poor. The finish at the floor is shocking. The caulking or mastic at the skirting and around the door frames ,it just beggars belief. Caulk and mastic are both great products when used properly, unfortunately people go nuts with it to cover up piss poor work.

Bought a new Warwick house from Barratt four years ago...best house I’ve ever lived in...all snagging completed without delay.

The external brickwork didn’t look the best. Perps particularly

lack of planning, low money for labour, probably all the trades trying to work on top of each other to get it done to 'schedule' and noone giving a crap apart from the people at the top making all the money

The outside of the bay doesn’t need sealing where you said that needs sealing. That gap is for drainage and if you seal that the window will fill with water. 🤦🏻‍♂️

What's crazy is these houses are paid for before the buyer has a chance to see this. Get the buyers to pay a small deposit for the house and MAKE the developers WAIT for confirmation that the buyer is happy with the finish. That would certainly improve the build quality and if the buyer isn't happy with the plot, they lose their deposit, the developer is quids in and someone else would buy it.

Shocking workmanship

The bricks are not sufficiently mixed when laying looking at the zones of shades. The tiles being higher in the bathroom may be hopefully because they have laid a cement board 6 mm over the floorboards . Tiles layed direct onto the floorboards will move and crack even with flexible adhesive. Needs a better coverstrip to cater for the height difference though. That sealant is appalling throughout.

I think these companies would pay a lot more attention if, instead of NHBC, the purchasers got around people like this post completion and then billed the companies directly for the cost of putting the shoddy work right, including offering a FULL refund where people weren’t happy.

Did they ever get these all sorted out.

Smart option would be to call the special " new build refurbishment team".

The boiler flue would of been classified as at risk so reportable to gas safe register

One of my best friend works on site as a manager for plastering .. He said don’t touch a new build

I'll never doubt my work again

will be a lovely home once completed

is there not a height requirement for safety latches on windows?

This is what happens when big building companies don’t pay enough work to be installed correctly..

I think them laminate flooring was ment to be 10mm higher as it looks like the arcatrave and tiled floors are finished to the same level ?.?

Have they done anything right?

With this many problems on one house i dont just blame the contractors i blame the site manager for letting it slide problem is this is one house on the plot of land i wonder what the other properties look like

There’s supposed to be a slight gap between the verge and the wall so that water can escape. Or at least thats what the MI’s say

When I was working on sites if anyone left a job like that they would of got the piss taken out of them and sacked, makes everyone else look bad.

The beautiful new builds going up all round the country coming to you, do your self a favour and avoid like the plague and that also comes from a pal of mine who's worked on a number of them, materials and cost of banging one of these together comes no where near the price they charge and then look at the finished product, shocking 😵

In the Short's on this channel you can see people saying things like "is that it?" on each individual fault, but its the fact there are sooooo many.

This house is dangerous. Thanks I know what to look for when buying a house now.

Surely most of the flooring issues are fixed there by using a thicker underlay to raise the laminate?

That laminate floor lets that house down big time.

Now that we have a Prime-Minister-for-sale who’s effectively waived all planning regulation, things can only get better.

when you walk up to a house and the air bricks are three courses too low, walk away. In the new build I live in only 1 internal door closed into the keep, the keeps were all off-set, too high or too low, doors running out and hinge bound, I fixed them myself as why trust someone who couldn't get it right the first time,

What is an air brick used for?

Uk needs to stop these crappy bulk building companies buying all the land and building large numbers of slap together houses. Let land be available for individual families to purchase and chose local quality tradies who will take pride in their workmanship. But the government want numbers not quality...

I would never move into that house. If it looks that bad on the surface, imagine how bad it is underneath.

Have you never heard of escape windows in the event of a fire? They will be on the builders drawings.

You've missed major defects. The boiler flue isn't sealed. You have no idea about snagging.

Thank you for this informative video! Are you able to bring in someone to check the snags before putting any money down? One of my concerns is not being able to spot those smaller snags ourselves, so would need someone to join us and check it out but I'm not sure of thats allowed. Also, once you have pointed out the snags, will the housing company fix everything on your list, or are there certain things they won't fix? Thanks again

This is a good advert to buy a new house don't buy old

So much bodging going in in the UK, with these new build companies and tradesmen in general. We've had so called tradesmen in our house recently, a pair of kitchen fitters, a plumber, bathroom fitters and a tiler. The tiler was half decent, but the rest were just bodgers, rough as, no finesse or attention to detail, terrible..

Michael Caine voice ‘I’ve got an idea. No more off plan sales, all sales take place after the property has been finished and signed off by the mortgage company’s surveyor.’ Aleksander the meerkat voice ‘simples’.

Isn't laminate flooring for a start lol and the metal strips in the doorways you have to have to finish the carpet into, downstairs the tiles are way too high against the karndean flooring is why I believe probably didn't put a metal strip down to finish, don't think they really have anything big enough, probably need chippy to make a threshold ramp or something out of wood

This is every site in the UK as a builder my sister bought a new house and we did the snagging list went to the site manager he said you try building a house in 10 days

How do they get away with it