UK ministers urged “obtaining” stronger protection

Digest opened free editor

Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The ministers are urged to “continue” with plans to compel the developers to join the customer compensation system, with the consumer group warning against leaving people with more rights when buying more toas than home.

The appeal comes from the alliance of homeowners and consumer voice, as the number of complaints about the new homes submitted to the service of the Volunteer Grievance Secretary has doubled more than twice to 100 months compared to a year ago.

The new Grievance Secretary of Houses (NHOS), which was launched in 2022, provides a service for buyers from new homes to settle disputes with developers, which can range from demands for poor sale of the house to defects with complete property.

However, participating in the plan by developers is voluntary, as the number of companies recorded about 65-70 percent of 545 in the market.

NHOS told the Financial Times this week that most of the largest developers in the United Kingdom had participated in the plan, but there was a “long tail” of the younger developers who did not join.

As the government’s ambitious plans to build 1.5 million new homes are expanded by 2030, the homeowners coalition says the government needs to make the plan compulsory.

“It is completely frustrating,” said Paula Higgins, head of the homeowners coalition.

“There is not a truly an excuse for delay because the initial legislation exists (to make the plan legal). They have done hard work, they really need to continue and end what they started.”

“This leaves many buyers without protected from bad practices. For many new home buyers, they will have greater protection than buying more than a new house, where you cannot return to the house (returning to the seller).”

The focus is intensified on protection for buyers from new homes after achieving 2024 by competition authority and markets concerns about the quality of some new designs.

About 123,000 new homes were completed throughout the United Kingdom in 2023.

CMA investigation concluded that home builders have no strong incentives to compete for quality and that consumers have unclear ways to correct. The International Energy Agency found that the “increasing number” of homeowners had a greater number of problems related to new structures, or specific problems after completing the house.

A large minority has also faced special serious problems with its new homes, such as collapse, stairs and ceilings, according to the CMA report.

CMA recommended that the government determine a legal plan for grievances in new homes throughout the UK “as soon as possible” to protect buyers who have problems with their new home. In August last year, the government accepted this recommendation.

Complaints of home buyers have increased steadily over the past three years with more developers registered, according to NHOS.

“Most of the problems that we see are related to the material aspects of property – defects and imbalance, but they can often exacerbate them due to additional problems in customer service or sales promises,” said Nigel Kits, chief secretary of grievance secretary in NHOS.

“The worst issues we see tend to be inquiries related to developers who have not yet participated in the plan and where customers do not have the protection of NHOS.”

He added: “The government has committed to making the legal plan, which will be a welcome development and means that all customers are covered with the plan.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and the local government said it remains “committed” to make the plan compulsory – but it has not made a schedule.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and the local government said: “We will present the new Secretary of Grievances in the new homes to ensure that the new home buyers can challenge the developers when things get worse and the standards increase in the sector.”

“This will help us to connect good quality houses of 1.5 million as part of our change plan, and we will put more details in time.”