Are your home buyers bogging you down in complaints and disputes?

All those complaints and disputes take valuable time and money to respond to and resolve. Here are a list of typical complaints that housebuilders face:-

• A claim for compensation under The Consumer Code for Homebuilders Adjudication Scheme.
• Breaches of the Consumer Protection Regulations.
• A Subject Access Request for a full copy of your “plot file” under the Data Protection Act 1998.
• Inflated and exaggerated breach of warranty claims.
• Allegations of mis-selling and misrepresentation in the sales process.
• Compensation for delay in completion.
• Unrealistic snagging demands.
• Threats of County Court litigation.

This is clearly not an exhaustive list. These examples all however have one main effect for the housebuilder. They take time and cost money to resolve.

So what is the practical advice? How should you deal with these issues? I have two proposals. The first is not rocket science, but it is amazing how it gets overlooked.

“Prevention is better than cure”.

Improved organisation, appropriate systems and checks, realistic and achievable sales targets set in consideration of individual site resources. Lupton Fawcett specialist housebuilder team are available to offer guidance on how to better comply with the Consumer Code for Housebuilders.

The second proposal is again obvious. When the complaint arises, obtain immediate advice on the practical steps available to quickly and effectively remedy the complaint. Again, the Lupton Fawcett specialist housebuilder team have substantial experience of advising clients on practical and cost effective options to quickly reach a resolution of the complaint. The idea is to avoid the complaint escalating to a full dispute.

Is contacting Lupton Fawcett’s Housebuilder team just going to increase your expense? Absolutely not! Our team are able to offer an initial fixed fee review and offer guidance and direction to bring the complaint to a much swifter conclusion.

Please feel free to contact Director, Rob Cooke or any other member of the housebuilder team for cost effective advice on all housebuilder issues.