New Homes Ombudsman Service

Posted by Granite Building Warranties Ltd on 14th February 2022 -

What it is and how it can help.

Further to the Government’s new Building Safety Bill introduced in July 2021, a new service has been set up to enforce a new housebuilding industry code of practice.

According to the Government, the New Homes Ombudsman will:

• Provide dispute resolution to, and determine complaints by, buyers of new build homes against developers.
• Require developers to become and remain members of the scheme.
• Provide complainants, whose complaints are determined to be well-founded, with a form of redress.

The New Homes Quality Board has announced that The Dispute Service has been selected to be the New Homes Ombudsman, following a fiercely competitive tendering process. The New Homes Ombudsman will enforce the New Homes Quality Code.

Buyers of new build homes who are unhappy with their new home, or frustrated with the way in which the developer has handled their complaint, will be able to ask the New Homes Ombudsman to look at their case. The Ombudsman will look at issues such as whether customers have been treated fairly by their builder. They will also rule on whether there has been a breach of the new code.

Hopefully this will encourage higher building standards and better customer service from the housing developers.

Currently, most new build homes are issued with a 10-year new-build warranty. In future, as a condition of obtaining a warranty, a developer will have to join an industry-led code that their warranty provider belongs to.

Here at Granite, we will ensure that all the warranty providers we use will belong to this code, when this new service is up and running.