Some more unhappy tenants who have had a bad experience with dealing with Keepmoat: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1495535657339414/

Uploaded to the Hyde Housing Independent Resident Group Facebook group by Dino J Comet. Don’t think he will mind me posting it here.

They are also subject to having their posts deleted from Facebook, sounds familiar I wonder who else that has happened to 😉

Deleting posts from Facebook

Why are Keepmoat so desperate to hide complaints? Why don’t they actually resolve them rather than trying to cover them up? They don’t want bad publicity but by covering up their mistakes they just make themselves look worse.

During a WhatHouse? interview Mark Knight. Yorkshire Regional Managing Director, thinks the Brearley Forge Development is the best Keepmoat can offer: so dishonest staff that attempt to defraud customers is not only condoned by Keepmoat but to be applauded. Just hope that other Keepmoat developments haven’t yet achieved the high standards set at Brearley Forge, Parson Cross.

“Which of the developments Keepmoat is currently developing do you think stands the best chance of winning a WhatHouse? Award?

The project that we will be submitting is the Sheffield Housing Company joint venture with Sheffield City Council to deliver 2,300 new build homes for sale and rent across the city.”

The Sheffield Housing Company developments include Brearley Forge, Norfolk Park and Brearley Springs.

http://www.whathouse.com/news/article/540073a9534719a143000001/One-on-one+interview%253A+Mark+Knight+of+Keepmoat+Homes+Yorkshire#.VDPr4eZd350

Well after the nightmare Keepmoat put us through we were put off buying but as we have a toddler and a baby on the way we really wanted to move so they were settled in before the our little boy started nursery. We started looking at houses earlier this year, we decided no new builds and instead have been looking at ex-council houses.

It was harder for me to deal with the whole housing stuff (I just tended to not think about it unless I had to), my husband has coped a lot better as his attitude was it can’t be as bad as it was with Keepmoat. He was right we wanted to a buy a house the vendor wanted to sell. No jumping through hoops to get there, all fairly straight forward and we exchanged on Thursday (24/07/2014).

We are due to complete on the 1^st of September as that is when the vendors 2 year fixed deal runs out – to be honest I don’t really care when we move as long as it was before Christmas, I’m just glad we are moving at all!

We used the same solicitor as last time and the vendor was using the same EA as we were using last time, so we ended up dealing with Karen from YourMove again. Again neither us nor the EA had trouble with getting hold of our solicitor and neither did the vendor’s solicitor – funny how it was only Keepmoat who had trouble getting hold of him? Anyway I don’t want to dwell on that I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Our new arrival is due on the 3^rd of August so that is something else to look forward to along with our wedding anniversary next week (knowing our luck the baby will probably arrive on the same day!). The whole baby thing too so far has been a lot easier, I have anti-bodies which can effect the baby and had to be induced early last time as the anti-bodies can have more of an effect the longer the pregnancy goes on. I had to have loads of extra scans and blood tests too to check the baby was OK, this time the anti-bodies levels are low enough for me not to need extra scans and to be allowed to go into natural birth.

The house itself doesn’t need any work, I don’t normally might a bit of DIY but with two small kids it will nice to be able to move in and not start ripping things out! The only thing I plan on doing is decorating the kids bedrooms other than that it can stay as it is for the time being.

So it turns out that buying a house isn’t always so stressful!

Ayshea.

Published yesterday 15/07/2014 on the Sheffield Housing Company’s website: Sheffield is New Home Hotspot

An article all about how popular the homes are, how they are built to exacting standards, the bit where they show a happy couple holding the keys to their new home – nothing unexpected. The bit that caught my attention though was this: “However, unlike in the South East, where Help to Buy has been cited as one of the reasons for dramatic house price rises, that is not the case in Sheffield.  Here mortgage companies are being very strict on valuations and prices have increased by around 7% on average over the past year*.

* According to statistics from the Nationwide House Price Index report – June 2014.”

So buying now means I pay on average 7% more, it is a shame I couldn’t have bought last year – oh hang on a minute I could have if Keepmoat had delivered their promises.

“Customers are our first consideration”

After doing a bit of digging I have come across Keepmoat’s Customer Service Charter dated September 2012 (this is the most up to date version I can find: http://ripassetseu.s3.amazonaws.com/www.keepmoathomes.co.uk/_files/documents/sep_12/KEEP__1348153349_KM_LEAF08_-_Customer_Charter_1.pdf

“We, as a company, have trained staff who are aware of our key legal responsibilities and are available to help our customers throughout the purchasing process.” – I wonder what would have happened if they hadn’t been trying to help?

The document states, under the section titled “Making a reservation”, “A copy of our Customer Charter and The Consumer Code will be given to the customer, if not previously supplied.” – We didn’t receive either.

And after reading the document I have now, finally, found out what the complaints procedure is “If any customer is not satisfied with our service, they should make a complaint in writing and address this to our Regional Managing Director, clearly stating their issues. This letter will be receive a response within 7 working days.”

And my personal favourite quote from the document – “At Keepmoat, customers are our first consideration. We will endeavour to make the purchase of a Keepmoat home a pleasant experience and your ownership a delight.

This is the site plan that we were shown, we reserved Plot 42 (The Loxley, shown in Orange), it is not clear which side the door is on.

Site Map for Brearley Forge, please click the image for a larger version.