BDW Trading Ltd Reviews 143

Awful experience buying with Barratt Homes.
In less than one year, I had an issue with the shower as it was installed with the wrong fuse and died. Had an issue with the dishwasher because they installed a wrong pipe and it stopped work after a while and the biggest one, they did not seal the Bath properly and I had a leaking which went to my daughters bedroom, it damaged all the skirting and the door linings. It's running since September and every week they come with a different excuse and never repair it.
Totally awful.

We moved into our mortgaged house in JULY 2017. We have had issue after issue and poor customer service from Barratt homes. We have recently flagged up an issue with our garden, which is water logged as soon as there Is some rain. Barratt homes attended and then sent us an email stating that because it is out of the 2 year builders warranty there is nothing they can do. Please do not make a mistake of giving these thieves your money. They're the worst company I have ever dealt with for customer service and providing a quality service to their customers.

Put our reservation down in January 2019 for a flat at New Mill Quarter Hackbridge with a promised completion date of June 2019, we are in October and our house is far from completed. Delay after delay. Waste of money and time. No updates, hardly anybody working at the site, no answers. Barratt is in big mess with NMQ Hackbridge and they are not telling us. STOP LYING TO US BARRATT.

Why are your 1 bedroom flats in the same as area a 3 bedroom house the same price!!! Understandable your 1 bedroom flats are new, it still isn't justifyable for them to be priced the same as 3 bedroom houses with a big garden!?! with no ground rent or rent to pay. Clearly property developers are taking advantage of new home buyers desperate to get on the property ladder. Both your development in Newham (with predominant poor residents and high unemployment in these areas) - Upton Gardens and up and coming New Market in East Ham have overpriced 1 bedroom flats in areas where 3 bedroom houses are the same price!!!! It angers me and frustrates me to be British and not be able to get a property or many of my friends because these properties are only for rich people or for money making to benefit the property developers that are already loaded. It makes me depressed and not even want to be British

My wife and I with our young family, viewed a house in Chalkers Rise development, the show homes are stunning. My wife fell in love we paid our deposit and began the part exchange process straight away. Then I thought being the cautious one, I would read up about Barratt Homes. I will not lie it scared me to the point, I wanted to back out of it completely. My wife was so in love that there was no backing out anymore. So we went on with it. It all went so smoothly we were moving a month later!!!!!! Then we got in, our move was horrific because we were let down by movers, however Barratt had 3 labours help us unreal really saved the day. They were super flexible we were allowed to put our floors in early so the kids didn't need to walk on dusty floors.

Then came the after care, I had bashed the walls and ceiling moving in they spotted this and offered us a painter to patch it up amazing!!!! During the tour they spotted the issues before we had or some of them we likely wouldn't have ever spotted them. Felt like they genuinely wanted you have the perfect house.

What I will say having read alot of the reviews below is you have to be realistic they are a producing 16000 houses a year of course its a buisness. The sales teams have targets (just like you do in your jobs), the builders have targets to meet. Its a brand new house it will have niggles, we had a minor leak I called the site manager who was there with a plumber in less than 5mins, they fixed and redecorated within the day!

Everything on our niggle list has been or is being fixed, but again you need to be reasonable they have houses to build at the same time as looking after you, sometimes you do need to wait for the people to fix you issue to be on site. Plumbers, Electricians, are obviously always on site but then other specialist like landscapers, painters wont be on site all the time so these may take longer. It's not a huge drama just keep your list and they are in regular contact with you anyway.

If its your first purchase educate yourself on the process/ market/ expenses. Read through your contracts know what you are signing up to. Then you can decide from there. For us it was the right move and I would do it again and again. The part exchange is very fair, Barratt actaully took a loss on our old house so can't say they under paid for it...

Final point I would say is you get back what you put in, if you are nasty or aggresive with them, they will not put the same effort in as when you are nice to them, its just common sense.

To summarise: I cannot reccomend Barratts highly enough they have been outstanding, amazing people to deal with, enabling us to genuinely enjoy to experience. I would do it again in a heart beat. Be nice to people and they are nice back. Use common sense and read what you are agreeing to before you agree to it.

Ok where to start Me and my family are very happy in our new home it is just over a week since we moved it to kingsbrook village Aylesbury and I must say Susie and Sam our sales team was and have been great from start to finish also the aftercare team has to been great to I don't get all the bad reviews but i guess everyone has there stories anyway thanks barrats family looking forward to many years in our new house

very poor building quality / customer service
Barratt homes has the worst customer service,after sales care and wrong information being provided by the teams very poor quality of work below standards.
Still after 9 months still got issues outstanding and have mae a couple formal complaints but still no improvements the the whole service .

Would never recommend Barratt homes due to poor customer after care and very poor standard of work.

I think this needs to be highlighted nationwide with watchdog or panaroma as this is totally unacceptable and i feel they don’t even provide a 1 star service.

NHBC need to do a full investigation on barratthomes.

I went today with my husband and our son to see a 3 bed house in Harlow. In the morning I had a call that the 3 bedroom house has been sold and if I am interested to see a 4 bed. I obviously said yes and see you at 13:00. When I got there 2 ladies measured me from top to toe and invited me to sit down. Out of the sudden they lost interest probably when they saw what nationality I am and how I got dressed. One of them asked me what she can help me with. When I said that I want to buy a property and to give me more info she said that there is nothing available and if something will come up will let me know. And that was it. When I asked if I could actually see something since I come anyway she asked her colleague to show me the show house from the back of the office. She seemed bothered by this but she took us to show the house. As we entered I started to ask questions about a new house if will have flooring, appliances and so on and all she was saying was I don’t know, I don’t know.... and if we want to go upstairs too.
I felt really bad for what I was treated as the last person in the world. This is not the way you treat a costumer no matter what.
They were both rude to me and my family and obviously bothered that we’ve even considered coming there and disturb.

Tried to buy a house in Cudworth, Salters brook. Levi never answers his phone, people from head office never phoned me back like they promised. Also £295 out of pocket.
Horrendous company to deal with

Fuelled by money & greed, without a care for anybody else in the immediate vicinity.

Advise contractors to park 20+ vans all along the neighbouring roads every day of the week, causing havoc.

Do not clean up the road after constructions vehicles are in and out, resulting in every vehicle covered in a layer of grime.

Absolute nuisance, they will not be getting any of my trade now or in the future purely based off of the conduct and way they have presented themselves as well as failure to acknowledge the disruption being caused.

Do not buy from these, the poorest of builders.

Hubby and i firstly registered our interest in January18 for the Cane Hill Park Development in Couldsdon (Surrey).

We had our flat in London on the market and registered interest for any 3/4 bedroom houses with a garage directly with the site team.

A few months after, not having heard from anyone we dropped by the development again when we again had to register, we also would have liked a move maker or part exchange while our flat was on the market to make things quicker.

in January19 we again decided to drop by and the ones we were looking at were all sold and nobody told us, thats when we discovered the different preferential lists, clearly, we were not rich enogh to buy cash "as many others do" hence we werent called.

We were then given Torch24 contact and until we wouldnt have a mortgage in principle we were not even being considered.
Please bear in mind this is a year after registration!

Torch24 passed our application for a house but we couldnt shake the feeling we were treated as time wasters and looked down, essentially bottom feeders.

We were in contact with the site team again and we were clealy told that the houses we wanted (Rushkin or a Tennyson) were being sold to cash buyers and all were being reserved already, but if we really wanted a part exchange they could sell us the 5 beds wich was 800k!
They made us feel very small and as a couple with a young child we had no chance as they wouldnt even help us.

I believed that Barratts was a reputable company, with principles, but, we wouldnt endure this again so we refused an offer and took our place off the market.

At our eyes Barratt is a developer to avoid at all costs.

While i understand this might not be a nice reading, i felt i had to share such a despicable experience.

We purchased our new build on the honeysuckle estate in shifnal. The actual build of the property itself we are very happy with but the development of the estate around our property is less than impressive. Our house is on a corner plot with a driveway at the rear. At the end of the build barratts have decided to turf the public path from our drive to the front of our house, meaning the only way of accessing the front of the property is to walk in the road. What makes it worse we have two young infants. I originally challenged this but all I got back is that we should use the rear entrance to our property even though this is locked up when we are out. They also state that they have sent me a plan where it shows grass on the pathway but as yet I have not seen this. I did try and request that someone from barratts or DWH should at least come out and see the issue raised first hand but they didnt want to know. It's unfortunate as originally we was happy with our purchase but with the unsafe access we have for my family and the lack of aftercare this plot of land is receiving(And by the way, they also aren't maintaining this turfed area of which a truck as already tyre marked it. Plus now overgrown and unsightly) we are now looking to move to a more appropriate property on a different development with another builder.

Where do I start? Maybe with all the lies I was told by Barbara in the sales office. First lie was that the houses were freehold. Second lie was that all new houses were now leasehold and it wouldn't be a problem. Third lie was you could easily and cheaply purchase the freehold. The solicitor they recommended didn't explain what it meant to "buy" a leasehold property. I bet he didn't live in a leasehold property himself? Consequently I feel very let down by Barratts. Apparently all I actually bought it transpires is the right to live in my property for the length of the lease which started before I even "purchased" my house. The freehold was sold on without even offering it to me. Very let down by what I thought was a reputable builder. When I took my complaint up with Barratts they merely sent me links that told me how I could purchase my freehold or extend my lease. They refused to answer my question as to whether at the end of the lease the freeholder takes the house and got around it by saying they couldn't offer me financial advice!!! Disgraceful.

I have bought three previous new builds. This has to be the worst for customer service and after sales. The house after 4 months is covered in shrinkage, cracks, the garden sinking and not levelled, customer service have ignored my snags for months and then promise a report and actions and then nothing! I then book my dog in the kennels to not being told its cancelled. They just do not care once you have paid! I do not know how they put these big signs up stating they are a 5 Star builder! I really do not know who gives them that rating... clearly not a clear representation of their customers as I have NEVER complete any feedback or surveys to warrant that... and going by the feedback on here neither has anyone else. TBF I still haven't got over the sales manager also laying the wrong carpets and then not putting what we requested in... its all shambles! I email a full list of snags and images and they then state they never got it or to resend... I could go on... stay well clear!

There seems to be internal communication issues between Sales, Site, Barratts board (who produce the Build Updates) and their Own Solicitors.

Suggestion: get everything the sales advisor tells you via email so you can forward all communications to their solicitors if they are playing catch up (which often seemed to have been the case). The internal loops are not closed quick enough so often the different parts of the company have different info, moves dates, deadlines etc.

Home Tour (often week before move in date)

This is a good opportunity to start the snagging list as they advise you it will be. It's really nice to see your new home and get a feel for it. Some of your snagging list maybe done before you move in but 99% of mine wasn't.

Moving in Date / Picking up the Keys

The day arrives and fingers crossed for you it goes well (Barratts made a very large mistake for me!).

It becomes apparent when you move in and you have been living there for a week that you realise Barratts seem to lack in quality control. An inspection by someone with a keen eye would be able to pick up on the little things such as grouting poorly done (I'd get your own tiling done if I was you, if you can, that way you can choose someone who's been recommended), walls not smooth, cleaning not done to anywhere near a standard a professional cleaning company should be, little things in the kitchen such as draws not shuttling properly (again easy to resolve but just not picked up or tested before being signed off, if they are checked before signing off). You get a distinct feeling things are rushed before the contractors move onto the next house.

It really is such a shame a quality control person doesn't seem to go round and check things off before the house is legally completed. Something simply to do, and to be honest I expected would happen before you pick up the keys.

There is a real lack of pride in the work the contractors do & Barratts don't seem to mind this.

Customer Care and Snagging List

I have to admit if they could apply this level of service aspect prior to moving in this would be the best review ever.

The New Home Customer Care team and the sites guys are absolutely fantastic when it comes to sorting out any issues / snags you list. It is a shame for the bigger things you may have to take extra days off work, but nevertheless the 2 teams work well together communicating things on the snagging list and the site guys get them done really quick (I really can't knock them for this).

To conclude

Quality control & internal communication poor

Immediate after service gold star... slows down to a snails pace when further issues arise.

Avoid if you don't want to live in a shoddy house with caravan thin walls. Asbestos pipes still present running round outskirts of development. Rushed homes not fit for purpose on completion/hand over day. Incompetent site managers. Poor quality. Enough said. Don't waste your life buying a shoddy Barratt home.

We have just moved in to our home and moved all our belongings into the home - still had some work to be done so a spare key was given to the site manager.
We came home about 8/9pm and our door was open with our key in the front door!!!! It had been like that for hours - luckily nothing was stolen!

I love my home it’s evrything I wanted and more ! My only concern and please anyone looking to make a purchase please consider this as it is becoming a massive headache for me now ! When you purchase a Barrett home there will be an allocated spot or you will possibly have your own drive But this will be passed to RMG management company which means you will pay a fee every six months or annually I have only been in my home for just over a year the fees were between £75 -£150 per year that seemed manageable however this is NOT the case since moving in last February 2018 I’m now paying over £400 per year which iv been told by other very angry residents that the costs rise every year . This is causing me no end of concern for my future affordability. Please check before you buy .

Does it go lower than 1 Star!!!
Absolute hideous Company to deal with. We visited Beecham Place for 18 months before finally reserving the plot we wanted. As soon as we did they began harrassing to exchange (as it is tied to their bonus). After telling us lies and us calling them out, the sales manager was shouting down the phone at my partner!! We are the customer, but we were always treated like they were doing us a favour by letting us buy their house, never mind we were spending nearly half a million. Appalling people skills.
Anyway, they gave us a deadline of today to exchange and we have done everything except the sale of my partner's house, which is being handled by external solictors and they told us it needs a few weeks to complete the legal process.
So Barratts are pulling the sale and re-marketing the house!!! So not only are we now out of pocket, we lose the house we have been invested in for 18 months, because they won't give our external solicitors another 2 weeks to complete a legal transaction!!!!! It is out of our hands but they don't care.
The manager phoned me and tried to say it was because we were a bit slow at the start!! It is irrelevant because we are ready by the deadline with everything but the one thing we cannot influence!!
For the last two weeks, there has been poor communication from Barratts, not responding to email or phone and not returning answerphone messages. It appears this was their preferred result from the start and even turned down an appeal from our solicitor for an extension based o the circumstances beyond our control.
I fully expect the property to be on the market tomorrow at an inflated price, or already sold to whoever they had lined up.
Truly awful company as these reviews show. Maybe in the end we had a lucky (but expensive) escape?