After torturous repeated build delays, during which my family and I have been living in rental accommodation, I was finally told the new build I'm buying is 'ready' for snagging.
Except it's not. It's painfully apparent even at a cursory glance that the workmanship on pretty much every last inch of the place is half-baked and substandard, and whatever skilled contractors the builder used on the showhouse obviously haven't been next nor near my place. Lumps out of kitchen cupboards crudely patched back up, doors not hanging right or closing, messy paint splotches and more worryingly, double-glazed windows instead of triple as per the brochure/showhouse.
The guy surveying the place for me was equally taken aback at the level of finish, the snag took him 3 hours and his list is about twenty pages long. I'd expected some issues of course, but if the outward stuff looks that bad, it makes me wonder what other corners have been cut beneath the surface that I can't see. To say nothing of the fact that the place is costing us the guts of €1m!
What are the builders legal obligations in this regard? Is 'good finish' merely in the eye of the beholder? Can I refuse to complete if they don't bring everything up to showhouse standard as this feels like a blatant bait and switch. Or is them saying it's ready for completion when it's clearly not, be merely another excuse for seemingly endless delays?
*Edited to add: Builders have not yet responded to any of the snagging concerns which we submitted last week.*
Except it's not. It's painfully apparent even at a cursory glance that the workmanship on pretty much every last inch of the place is half-baked and substandard, and whatever skilled contractors the builder used on the showhouse obviously haven't been next nor near my place. Lumps out of kitchen cupboards crudely patched back up, doors not hanging right or closing, messy paint splotches and more worryingly, double-glazed windows instead of triple as per the brochure/showhouse.
The guy surveying the place for me was equally taken aback at the level of finish, the snag took him 3 hours and his list is about twenty pages long. I'd expected some issues of course, but if the outward stuff looks that bad, it makes me wonder what other corners have been cut beneath the surface that I can't see. To say nothing of the fact that the place is costing us the guts of €1m!
What are the builders legal obligations in this regard? Is 'good finish' merely in the eye of the beholder? Can I refuse to complete if they don't bring everything up to showhouse standard as this feels like a blatant bait and switch. Or is them saying it's ready for completion when it's clearly not, be merely another excuse for seemingly endless delays?
*Edited to add: Builders have not yet responded to any of the snagging concerns which we submitted last week.*