John and Liz Pritchard, pensioners in their 70s, have been living with over 200 defects in their £600,000 new-build home in Wellington, Somerset, for over a year. The property, built by Bovis Homes, has a variety of issues including wonky floors, uneven ceilings, and poorly fitted fixtures. The couple has been battling with Bovis to get the issues fixed for over a year, but they claim they have been ignored and fobbed off. The shoddy workmanship has left the Pritchards unable to sleep and has caused them a great deal of stress and anxiety.
The couple first noticed the problems when they moved into the five-bedroom townhouse on the Monument View development. They noticed that their furniture was wobbling, and on closer inspection, they discovered that the floor was uneven. Ground-workers sent to the home by Bovis assessed that the floor would have to be ripped up and re-laid. However, when floor layers arrived weeks later, they were instructed to carry out a “bodge job” and just fill in some problem areas.
An independent surveyor sent to the home by Bovis agreed that the floor had been laid unevenly, and as a result, the whole house is out of kilter, with uneven walls and ceilings and wonky fixtures and fittings. The retirees even find it difficult to open their own front door, which appears to have been fitted askew.
Mr. Pritchard said his multiple complaints had been largely ignored. “The floors aren’t level, the ceilings aren’t level, the doors aren’t upright we’ve never been able to open and close the front door properly in a year,” he said. “They don’t want to fix it. We are being fobbed off and strung along with bodge jobs to make it look good. We are fed up that it’s not been built properly. They obviously didn’t check it properly. The treatment we received from Bovis has been appalling.”
An independent snagging expert identified almost 200 defects when he carried out an inspection at the property, which could cost tens of thousands of pounds to make right. Mr. Pritchard even said that he couldn’t move his dishwasher into the utility room because it was blocked by a kickboard, and when he approached Bovis, he was allegedly advised to saw it off himself.
“It’s not what you would expect for £600,000,” he said. “We were sold the house that Jack built. Bovis are behaving like cowboy builders. You point out the problems and they don’t respond. It’s shoddy.”
Mrs. Pritchard said the insulation in the property was so poor that guests sitting in the lounge can hear sounds from the upstairs toilet “as if they were in the same room,” which she said could be a cause for embarrassment. Workers from Bovis have previously moved in to fix the “badly fitted” kitchen, which remains in part uneven, because the cupboard doors wouldn’t close and the sink’s tap was so tilted the couple say they couldn’t even fit a kettle under it.
Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard also highlighted what they described as “rank amateurish” brickwork on the property, which was particularly acute in the garage where concrete appears to be falling away from some of the bricks and excess mortar can be seen plastered over the walls.
The couple said their year-long fight with Bovis to correct the issues had left them “up night after night, unable to sleep” and described their treatment by the house-builder as “disgusting and shocking” and alleged their emails and telephone calls were repeatedly ignored.
The couple is now demanding that Bovis steps in to carry out snagging works immediately. “We want to see Bovis come in and get the work done and have done for the last 12 months but we have been fobbed off, ignored and strung along. It’s been absolutely awful, they won’t even reply to our emails. We have been taken for granted. When we found out there were so many problems we even asked for our money back and they said no chance.”
A spokesperson for Bovis Homes said: “We apologise for the issues Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard have experienced with their property and any disruption and inconvenience it has caused. We have been working on a remediation plan and can begin these works at a time that’s convenient for our customers.” “As a five-star housebuilder, awarded by the Home Builders Federation, we are committed to delivering high-quality homes for our customers and will ensure any issues are fully resolved.”
