Kevin P

Review of Martin Grant Homes Ltd

I feel that the one star reviews are unfair and so...

I feel that the one star reviews are unfair and so I feel it only right as a resident of their Summerswood development 6 months in that I offer my own view.

First the purchase; this went smoothly although we were put under what I felt was an unreasonable amount of pressure to complete within a very tight timeframe. Clearly MGH needed to get some cash together to continue the development. This pressure and the various associated agreements we were obliged to sign made us rather nervous and uncomfortable but in the end our solicitor managed to turn things round very quickly and our buyers were in a great position to meet the timescale.

Now the move; this went smoothly and the site manager, Joe Beard, was wonderful, he made a real effort to make us feel at home and looked after us right from the off. Indeed Joe is to be commended for the customer service he has provided over the last 6 months.

Aftercare; I was nervous about the 'snags' and having never moved into a new home was worried about what I might find and how promptly things would be resolved. I need not have worried. It is true that there were snags, every new build has them, and indeed I raised over 25 issues in the first 28 days. Most of the snags were minor. Since then I have raised more than a dozen further issues which have all been resolved within days or weeks at most, some within the day. In summary I would say that 80% of the snags shouldn't have been there at all and I believe MGH would benefit from a quality assurance (QA) inspector. The snags are as a result of the way the developer employs contractors from the various trades. Many of these contractors aren't particularly loyal or diligent and go in and out to do a particular job on a price which means they rush the job and dont do anything other than what has been stated on the job sheet. This results in issues with the finish and compromises the quality of the product. Its a problem for all developers but one that the employment of a QA inspector would largely resolve.

As I say, there have been many issues, far more than I had imagined and clearly some careless and lazy contractors have worked on my property but the fact is that MGH have resolved everything promptly to a very good standard and for that they deserve credit.

Whilst things haven't been without issue we love the house, the interior was very well thought through, it's light, spacious and well equiped and the exterior is sympathetic to existing properties nearby. MGH have achieved a lovely blend with the existing landscape and we are proud to own a home within our MGH development. For that reason I feel a 4 star rating is realistic. If they get the QA inspector in place to resolve the snags before the customer moves in they would get that extra star.

Update April 2019. It took 15 months to get all the snags and other issues resolved, we lost count in the end but possibly up to 80. Not what you expect buying any new product. However, finally we appear to be defect free. The number of defects discovered is completely unacceptable. However we are now comfortable in our home and hopeful that we can now sit back, relax and enjoy it. I ve therefore increased the star rating back to 4.