New Build Defects and Issues

When we arrived at the house in April 2022, the front door frame was cracked. The crack was visible across the top right-hand corner of the frame.

EG Carter & Co attempted to resolve the issue twice. On the first visit, they attended with a replacement frame that was the wrong size, along with a door that was the wrong colour and style.

On the second visit, the frame was replaced successfully, approximately 14 months after the issue had first been reported. However, the replacement left us with further problems. The door was marked on the front, the inside was a different shade of white, and the door remained difficult to lock and unlock.

The marks on the front of the door and the colour difference have since been resolved. However, issues with locking and unlocking the door, along with issues identified in the RISA report, remain unresolved.

We identified problems with loose bathroom floor tiles very early in our occupation of the property. EG Carter & Co attended and repaired the affected tiles, but they soon became loose again.

A third-party tiler identified the underlying problem as the floor itself. The floor was uneven, causing the adhesive to fail and the tiles to become loose.

The repair involved removing the bathroom sink and toilet, removing the floor tiles, levelling the bathroom floor, retiling, allowing the adhesive to cure, and then reinstating the bathroom suite.

In total, the family bathroom was out of action for six days. When we complained to Willow Tree Housing Partnership about this, their response was only that “my frustration was noted.”

Once the carpet had been laid throughout the house and we were able to walk around without shoes, we noticed a ridge running along the landing floor.

The issue had been identified earlier as a gap between floorboards, and the gap had been filled. However, once the carpet was down, the ridge was much easier to feel when walking along the landing.

The carpet had to be removed, and an engineer from EG Carter & Co spent two days sanding the ridge with a mechanical floor sander. The carpet was then relaid.

While the sanding removed most of the ridge, there are still small areas where it can be felt.

During cold weather, we quickly noticed that bedroom one was significantly colder than the rest of the house. It cooled down faster and took longer to warm up. The carpeted floor felt cold, and the tiled floor in the en-suite felt extremely cold.

Because of the design of the house, the thermostat for the first floor is located in bedroom one. This meant that when the bedroom door was closed, the heating came on more often than necessary.

EG Carter & Co initially attempted to resolve the issue by adding additional insulation to the garage ceiling, as bedroom one is above the integral garage. It was not made clear to us whether insulation was missing, whether the original insulation was the wrong type, or whether it had been installed incorrectly.

This did not resolve the problem. Bedroom one remained significantly colder than the rest of the house.

EG Carter & Co later commissioned a thermal survey. The manager responsible for the survey initially verbally agreed to provide us with a full copy of the results. However, once the survey had been completed, EG Carter & Co refused to provide the full results.

The images we have seen following our Subject Access Request appear to show further areas where insulation may not have been correctly installed.

Following the survey, EG Carter & Co arranged for blown insulation to be added to the roof space above bedroom one. This also failed to resolve the issue, and the bedroom remains colder than the rest of the house.

It was clear from very early on that there were serious issues with some of the windows and doors. Windows were stiff and difficult to open and close, and some were draughty.

The subcontractor responsible for much of the window installation appeared reluctant to make repairs. In our experience, they often claimed that issues were within tolerance or not their responsibility.

They would address only the specific issue identified to them, even where an identical issue existed on a window directly opposite.

We commissioned an independent RISA inspection at our own cost. The inspection identified issues with almost every window, some of which were serious.

The subcontractor initially disputed some of the issues, but it was clarified that RISA are an authorised FENSA inspection body.

Because we were not confident that the remediation work had been completed to a satisfactory standard, we commissioned a second RISA inspection. That inspection confirmed that some work had been completed correctly, but that some serious issues had not been correctly remediated and, in some cases, had been made worse.

Our plumber first alerted us to a problem with the kitchen cabinets when measuring the space for the dishwasher and washing machine. He noticed that the gap was significantly different between the top and the bottom.

We checked the rest of the kitchen and found that many cabinets were not square. The gaps between doors were uneven, the worktop was damaged, and the fridge door could not open fully enough to allow proper access to the lower drawers.

We also noticed that the freezer door would not close securely and was beginning to frost up.

EG Carter & Co arranged for the cabinet supplier to carry out a survey, but we were not informed of the outcome.

EG Carter & Co later ordered a replacement worktop and other items. The cabinets were removed and refitted, and a new worktop was installed.

While the remedial work resolved many of the kitchen issues, it did not resolve all of them and introduced new problems.

• The fridge/freezer doors still do not open fully or close securely.
• The replacement worktop is damaged in a different place.
• There is a poorly mitred joint that allows liquid to penetrate the worktop.
• The laminate surface is visibly beginning to bubble and lift from the substrate.

The garden areas appear to have been prepared to a poor standard. We have found builder rubble, stone, lumps of concrete and bricks embedded in the garden.

The lawns appear to contain different types of grass and are very uneven, making them difficult to cut and maintain.

Large cracks have also appeared in the lawn. Some are more than 12 inches long and over an inch wide in places, creating a potential trip hazard.