Incorrectly fitted fire barriers on new build

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2 Oct 2004
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1,048
Hi all,

Bought a new build (Persimmon) Oct 2017 and just been informed that our fire barriers are insufficient/incorrectly installed.

What makes it worse is after this issue made the headlines and one house in Exeter going up in flames, Persimmon actually sent someone to check ours who informed us they were fine! Luckily our neighbour (semi-detached) hired a 3rd party to inspect their cavities which highlighted the problem to us and prompted us to contact Persimmon who came out today and have now told us they will need to do some work and get scaffolding up.

Persimmon are, as widely documented, completely useless and the after sales care is shocking, we knew this before buying, and luckily, only had a small snag list, which we're handling ourselves because it's almost impossible for Persimmon to arrange anything and in fact close tickets after a certain time, even if unresolved!

What I'm asking is, am I right to be very miffed about this, surely we've lived in a fire safety compromised house for the last 2 years, according to Persimmon this isn't the case though as apparently the house has many layers of safety (whatever that means) and seem rather blase about the whole thing.

I feel like writing to the BBC for example, who wrote an article about this very issue telling them that Persimmon are still not tackling the issue as operatives who are doing the checks are reporting the fire barriers are fine which in our case wasn't the truth.

Rant over.
 
I think you have a right to be miffed.

I would call the Building Control department of your local authority. They'd be out very quick I imagine when you mention fire risks in these days of Grenfell...

Other option is perhaps your local fire brigade? They also might be keen to take a look...
 
You’re absolutely within your right to be angry.
Unfortunately to determine whether fire socks are present where they should be you need either a borescope or opening up works, neither of which Persimmon will be keen on doing.
Would be worth contacting NHBC as well and asking for their sign off on the cavity socks being there, they should after all have checked.
 
So for anyone who cares, this is still ongoing, I put in a complaint 2 weeks ago and asked for someone senior to review/respond.

They got back to me Tuesday, it was handled by the Customer Care Manager for the South West and the Head of Construction, who basically said they take this seriously and they cannot explain why the most recent inspections had differing results to the first and just stated they need to put scaffolding up to repair.

I know why the results are different, first time round the inspection was performed by the site manager and his chump with a drill who looked in one place, second time round was a proper inspection, carried out by competent people with the right equipment which should have been done first time around for such an issue.

I responded immediately stating that simply isn't good enough and I've given them another 7 days to come up with a better response before I'll be contacting the NHBC, Local planning authority and asking BBC if they want another story on the issue, I also asked yet again for the report from the inspection and the breakdown of the planned works, something they seem hesitant to provide, or probably just don't have a clue, so I still don't even have a date for the repairs although they have measured for the scaffolding.

I've let a lot of things slide with this shoddy company, for example being forced to use their mortgage brokers and solicitors or we wouldn't get the house, the ground floor also wasn't flat, despite them attempting to rectify twice, resulting in us having to pay another couple of hundred quid to the laminate fitters and letting them off with most snags because they literally wouldn't respond for months and generally just try and deny, delay and deflect as much as possible.

As I've said in the OP, I've let this happen because I knew this was likely with Persimmon, but on this issue, I'm not letting it slide because enough is enough.
 
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