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Persimmon probe reveals problems including unsealed showers

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Persimmon probe reveals problems including unsealed showers

Housing giant Persimmon is forced to apologise after TV probe reveals hundreds of problems with its homes including a faulty fire door and unsealed showers

  • Homes being built with faults so severe they fell outside building regulations 
  • UK’s most profitable builder criticised last year when boss took £75million bonus
  • Channel 4’s Dispatches found homes with up to 295 defects
  • Company makes average of £66,000 on every home it sells and had profits of £1.1billion last eyar 

By Glen Keogh For The Daily Mail

Published: 20:30 EDT, 14 July 2019 | Updated: 20:51 EDT, 14 July 2019

The housing giant Persimmon has been forced to apologise after an investigation found its homes were being built with faults so severe they fell outside building regulations.

Britain’s most profitable builder, which provoked a storm of criticism last year when its former boss took home a £75million bonus, makes an average £66,000 on every home it sells.

However, it has admitted on ‘many occasions’ we have ‘fallen short on customer care’ ahead of tonight’s Channel 4 Dispatches which found new Persimmon homes with up to 295 defects.

The housing giant Persimmon has been forced to apologise after an investigation found its homes were being built with faults so severe they fell outside building regulation

The company, which this year announced record profits of £1.1billion, said ‘we can and will do better’.

The TV investigation found homeowners were given just 24 hours to identify faults in new properties – a period now increased to one week.

The programme also commissioned an inspection of a new Persimmon home. It found 295 ‘snags’ with 70 per cent so serious they fell outside building regulation ‘tolerance’ limits – including a fire door that did not close and unsealed showers. 

The Daily Mail has also highlighted poor workmanship at the developer.

Persimmon has admitted on ‘many occasions’ we have ‘fallen short on customer care’ ahead of tonight’s Channel 4 Dispatches which found new Persimmon homes with up to 295 defects

Persimmon is Britain’s biggest developer of Help to Buy homes, receiving public money to build one in seven of all such properties. 

Becky Williams, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, used the scheme to buy a Persimmon home in December 2017 but, on moving in, found builders on site, a workplace in the middle of her living room and a staircase with cracks in it. 

Miss Williams, 24, added that when builders came, they cracked the walls. ‘It’s my first home,’ she told the documentary. ‘I wanted that happy feeling. It just didn’t happen.’

In another case, Theo Borstlap and Kelsey Alldritt, from Pembroke, Wales, found 167 defects when they moved into their property, including missing fire barriers in their timber-framed home.

Persimmon is now inspecting 3,200 timber-framed homes in the South West and conducting spot checks elsewhere over concerns about fire protection.

The housebuilder has said it is deliberately slowing some sales to improve quality and buyers can partially withhold money until defects are fixed.

 However, the amount is capped at 1.5 per cent of the property value.

Commenting on the revelations, the housing minister Kit Malthouse said: ‘We know more needs to be done to protect buyers.’

A Persimmon spokesman told Dispatches: ‘We have fallen short on customer care and we can and will do better. We apologise without reservation to the customers featured in this programme.’

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