Phil Button

Review of Martin Grant Homes Ltd

We bought an MGH home on the King's Reach developm...

We bought an MGH home on the King's Reach development in Biggleswade in 2013. We had a few initial glitches, nothing major, but did later find the ensuite cold and had a leak in one of the bedrooms. The cold ensuite, we were told, was 'normal'. It took four years and many emails to get them to come and look at the bedroom leak; it only took a squirt of silicone in the right place to fix it.
Soon after the bedroom leak was fixed we found the cause of the cold ensuite - there was no insulation in the attic above it. We also found that the ventilation ducts had been fitted incorrectly in the attic, draped over the trusses in a way that can allow condensation to form inside them. That was a breach of building regs but we had to pay for someone to fix it because we didn't find it in the 2 year warranty period.
Soon after that my partner became disabled; our house was, internally, well suited to a wheelchair. Externally it was different. Building regs require a level threshold and we have a 3 inch step (and some MGH houses on this development are worse!) and the roads had been laid out as per plans developed before the DDA came into force in 2004; our route to the main shop on the estate involved cobbled or rutted grass/mud surfaces, and was not at all wheelchair friendly. I contacted MGH about this two years ago and they don't seem to be interested in solving it, they seem to want to palm the problem off on to the council.
In short - I would recommend anyone buying an MGH home get a surveyors report within a month or two of moving in, and notify MGH of all issues they find, and chase them to ensure they are.
I would also recommend that any local planning authority involved in dealings with MGH check their work very carefully, for they have quite clearly signed off properties and roads on King's Reach Biggleswade as being compliant with the necessary legislation when they shouldn't have done.