My new build is now 4 years old and is rubbish quality, after 4 years of snagging, over 30 people in different departments between NHBC, builders, sound engineers, tradespeople, surveyors, housing association and management companies most of the issues are still not resolved.
The biggest issue on my property is to do with sound insulation between properties which is part of building regulations, after finally proving to the housing association that the building doesn't match the certificate issued they finally presented a stack of emails showing the "remedial works" carried out post completion when they discovered it didn't meet the technical specifications. The building regs specify that if you don't follow the technical specifications to the letter, a pre completion sound test is required in site. Instead they modelled it in CAD and it barely scraped through. The report said "expected to achieve" in other words it still had to be sound tested on site, but the building control body allowed this, even though 2 other walls on site were not corrected for this issue and it would have been discovered if they had tested it.
I can't claim on the warranty because the warranty provider is the same company as the building control who issued the certificate. The builder won't fix it because they built to approved drawings issued by the developer, and the developer says there is no issue because building control signed it off as acceptable. Building control won't take responsibility because it is up to the developer to check their plans before submitting for approval.
I have it in writing them all admitting they've screwed up and it doesn't meet regulations, but trying to get it resolved while living there?
On top of that half the walls are out of plumb, the window doesn't lock because the frame isn't straight, the door wasn't sealed properly and let air in, because the frame wasn't fitted straight. The fitted kitchen door to the washer was fitted before it was levelled, the gas pipe into the property isn't sealed around the cavity wall (and exposed on the gas meter side too, should only be one, not both). The open plan staircase doesn't meet building regulations for sound insulation or thermal efficiency, none of the guttering is properly attached front and back, the bath isn't sealed to the wall, the shower screen was sealed the wrong way so any water getting inside leaked outside the bath. We found loose mains wires exposed above the kitchen not terminated, the soil stack exposed in the kitchen behind cabinets and not insulated. Walls not properly insulated, less than 30cm of insulation in the loft space, extractor vents extracting into loftspace and not outside. Expanding foam used to fill gap under plasterboard where the ceiling height was measured wrong. Electrics not securely fastened to switches (tripped when turning on/off lights). The YouTube snagger would enjoy filming around my flat.
If this was my own property I'd have all the plasterboard off and the internals rebuilt, but it's shared ownership and I have to go through their process. Even if they accept it's faulty and needs resolving, they won't pay it if it's not "cost effective" but they won't allow me to carry out the work myself unless I am qualified to do so because it's their property, or I use one of their approved contractors.