Wonky walls, unfinished drives, no power. Meet the... Bovis buyers who became victims of the rush to build new homes
WHEN Kelly Terry and her husband reserved a £315,000 three-bedroom new-build in Maidstone, Kent, last April, it was the culmination of four years of careful saving.
Their builders said they would be in their first home by Christmas — and they couldn’t wait.
But as soon as the Terrys opened the door on December 23, all their hard work started to unravel.
They found the construction firm, Bovis, had left dented plasterboard, sagging floors, unfinished tiling, hallways that needed repainting and no guttering on the garage.
The bricks on the garage didn’t match with those on the house and, worst of all, the property was being powered by a diesel generator because it hadn’t yet been hooked up to the electricity grid.
Kelly, 28, a primary school teacher, had to light candles to put on her make-up before work because the power kept cutting out.
‘It’s heart-breaking,’ she says. ‘Bovis sold us a dream and you get this idea of how everything will look... but we have been massively let down.’
Hundreds of buyers have flooded internet forums and social media sites with stories just like Kelly’s.
Today Money Mail can reveal that Bovis has finally launched an inquiry into allegations it is selling homes that aren’t fit to live in.
The firm has set up a dedicated team led by a senior director to review complaints and pay any ‘reasonable’ costs incurred by the owners as a result of its failings.
Complaints about Bovis s began to mount towards thee end of the last year.
Roughly 600 people havee joined the Bovis Homes Vicctims Group on Facebook sincee reports in January it hadd bribed homebuyers to movee into unfinished properties. In n some cases, they were offered d £3,000 in cash if they agreed to o complete before Christmas.
The group now has moree than 1,200 members and itss spokesman, Marc Holden, n, says victims are considering g joint legal action.
Industry insiders say thee bribes were a desperate finalal ploy to hit ambitious targets. .
In 2014, former Bovis chiefef executive David Ritchiee announced the firm planned d to build 6,000 homes a year.
It missed the target — butut has nearly doubled the number er of houses it builds each year.
A former site manager, who o left Bovis last September, saysys the company put profits abovee the quality of its properties.
‘I was scared to go to work att times because I was worried I’d find out someone had been hurt [due to poor workmanship],’ he told Money Mail on condition of anonymity.
Paula Higgins, of the Home Owners Alliance campaign group, says other housebuilders are making similar errors as they strive to hit targets.
‘These companies are being driven by their shareholders, and the quality of homes suffers as a result,’ she says.
‘We often hear from customers who are ignored once they move in because the developer has moved on to the next project.’
The pressure on housebuilders is mounting: the Government wants more homes built more quickly. In a paper this week, it says developers could lose planning permission if they fail to complete work within certain time frames.
Bovis should by now be aware of the risk of poor workmanship after receiving so many complaints. Sarah Ramsey and her partner Lewis Mortimer moved into a three-bedroom terraced home in Apsley, Hertfordshire, last summer. But when they arrived on July 7 they found a team of builders still working on the £385,000 property.
The toilet didn’t work, there was no turf on the garden and a major leak had flooded the kitchen. The couple, furious they had not been warned, told Bovis to complete all the work by the time they returned from a two-week holiday in Tenerife at the end of August. Even then, the house still had large holes in the kitchen panels and not all of the windows had been se sealed. Screws were wedged un under the kitchen units to ke keep them level and there w were three badly patched ho holes in the ceiling. T The drainage system was so po poor that every time it rained, th the grass became a bog. S Six months later, Sarah is sti still waiting for Bovis Homes to finish the job. The 32-yearold recruitment manager, say says: ‘ I’m worried whether I’m ever going to be able to sell the house at this rate. ‘T ‘They’ve started building hom homes across the road before help helping us. It’s like they ignore you and hope you’ll go away.’ Ro Robert and Sophie Elmes wer were offered £ 3,000 to com complete on a £320,000 threebed Worcestershire home before December 23 last year. On December 22 the workmen hadn’t finished installing the cooker, rooms needed painting and the lounge bay window was being installed. The kitchen units were wrong and the decorative chimney hadn’t been put in place. Robert, 33, a project manager for the local council, says: ‘It’s unbelievable. You had the Incas building temples by hand 500 years ago with no technology, and yet Bovis can’t even build a house to a plan they created.’ A spokesman for Bovis says: ‘We fully recognise our customer service has to improve. The leadership of the organisation is absolutely committed to getting this right.’
The Incas built temples by hand 500 years ago, yet Bovis can’t get a house right ROBERT ELMES