New Homes Ombudsman to support homebuyers facing problems with new homes

22.10.2018

News

The government has recently announced a number of new housing measures to champion the rights of homebuyers and help ensure that when buying a new home they get the quality of build they rightly expect.

Update 26 May 2020: Natalie Elphicke has been chosen to chair the board that will get the New Homes Ombudsman up and running.

One of the measures being introduced is the New Homes Ombudsman which will aim to support homebuyers facing problems with their newly built home. The New Homes Ombudsman will protect the interests of homebuyers and hold developers to account when things go wrong.

The New Homes Ombudsman will act as a watchdog that will champion homebuyers, protect their interests and hold developers to account. The government plan for it to be a mandatory requirement that all new developers belong to a new homes ombudsman. This will provide homebuyers with the security and confidence that their new build is the quality of build and finish that is expected.

It's still early days for the initiative and the government will continue to develop the proposals, working alongside industry and consumers with more details to be published in due course.

While this proposal is being set in place the government expects industry to continue to improve the current redress arrangements and improve the consistency of quality for new build homes.

Further information

Visit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-new-housing-mea… to find out more.

Comments

New Homes Ombudsman Service

Submitted 6 years ago

If this service is as good as the other Ombudsman Services then it will be a complete waste of everyone's time. Lobbying from major housebuilders will ensure that the service will have no teeth and be utterly useless. New housing in the UK is appalling and built to the lowest acceptable standards with the cheapest components and materials and using the cheapest labour the developers can get their grubby hands on. Building Control is ineffective and the role of the Clerk of Works has disappeared so quality control is virtually non-existent. As a Building Designer and Passivhaus Consultant who has self-built his own Band A, national award-winning home, I have watched the standard of new building in the UK become some of the worst in the western world. The performance gap in energy demand between what is designed for (and shown on the EPC) and what is achieved in use is often as much as 50%. This is as a result of poor design, poor workmanship and a complete lack of site supervision of sub-contractors working to a low price. If you want a new home that performs well in use and lasts for the mortgage period, build it yourself

New Homes Ombudsman

Submitted 6 years ago

There will obviously be a fee for mandatory enrolment therefore penalising new home builders who build quality homes and look after their customers. Fees should be charged to the company who have caused the complaint.