WHAT KEEPMOAT HOMES COULD DO TO YOU:
- Forge your signature
- Set a completion deadline with their Estate Agent without your knowledge
- Give your solicitor 2 weeks notice of the completion deadline (even though they gave their EA 5 weeks notice)
- Miss-sell the house and then blame you for their miss-selling
- Subject you to patronising and aggressive behaviour from their staff
- Lie to you and withhold important information
- Make sarcastic remarks and laugh at you behind your back “LOL”
- Threaten you with Police and court action
WHAT THEIR STAFF COULD DO:
- Get their partner to contact you and make a threat to come to your home if you don’t do what they want
- Write emails to their colleagues expressing their need to make sure you pay for what you have done
Keepmoat made it look like my husband had agreed to pay an annual management fee of £175 by forging his signature on a reservation form he had not seen. Keepmoat condone this because when my husband signed the original form (without the fee) he paid a reservation charge, they believe this gives them carte blanche to do what they like with his signature.
Keepmoat agreed a completion deadline with their Estate Agent without notifying us, our buyer or our solicitor. Keepmoat should not have agreed a completion deadline with the EA. They tried to pass the blame away by referring to the EA as an “independent sales agent” and “your agent”. Except for the EA was being instructed and paid for by Keepmoat Homes under their EasyKey scheme.
Keepmoat gave our solicitor two weeks notice of the completion deadline at which point he informed them it was impossible to achieve. Keepmoat say they will give 5-6 weeks notice of completion. They held us to this impossible to achieve 2 week deadline anyway.
Keepmoat substantially miss-sold the house by failing to tell us that compared to the drawings we would be missing 4 windows and would have an internal bathroom. They blamed this miss-selling on us because we had refused to do a “plot schedule”, except that they never asked us to do a plot schedule. Because we pointed out their miss-selling Keepmoat’s staff became aggressive and patronising.
In order to resolve the miss-selling they later offered to install a solar tube free of charge in the bathroom. This offer is withdrawn several weeks after we commit to carrying on with the purchase as it is deemed too expensive to install. But instead of admitting the reason for withdrawing the offer they declare that they never offered to fit a solar tube free of charge in the first place.
Emails obtained through a Subject Access Request show how Keepmoat’s staff were enjoying the misery they were causing. They “LOL” at the fact we could not complete within their 2 week deadline.
When we publish our story online Keepmoat not only accuse us of being liars, they also threaten to contact the Police and take us to court if we don’t take the website down.
10 Months Later…
My husband is getting a little frustrated to say the least with the silly lets dodge the issue letters and sends a rather sarcastic response to Mark Knight (Keepmoat’s Yorkshire Regional Managing Director) in attempt to point out the glaringly obvious about why the reservation form is a forgery. One of their staff had taken the original form he signed, cut off the bottom section, stuck it to the new form and scanned it onto their computer system. This form was also sent to theirs and our solicitor. For your reference here is a close up of the forged form (click to see a larger version):
Reservation from created after my husband left the sales office at 10:30. This form has been created at 11:16 whilst my husband was at work. Bottom section close up.
From my husbands letter:
“I note that you chose to place emphasis on ‘final response’ in your correspondence. I interpret that this means that you will be taking your ball home and I will not be receiving any more cringe worthy replies from your office. I suppose there’s only so much that a person can take. I think we both know that if our written exchanges had been a boxing match it would have been stopped a long time ago and my arm held aloft in victory.
If, on the other hand, I have misinterpreted the situation, I have saved you the trouble of actually formulating a response. Simply print off the last page of this letter and post it back to me. For your convenience I’ve used the correct postal address, I know it’s posed problems in the past, and I’ve signed it on your behalf with all the subtlety that your company signed a reservation form on my behalf. Make sure you print it in colour. If it arrives in black and white I might mistake it for a picture of Angel Delight or the icing from a Midget Gem instead of the steaming pile of turd that it is.”
After trying to get anywhere with Keepmoat the Sheffield Housing Company step in. The SHC is a partnership between Keepmoat Homes and the Sheffield Council. Mark Knight is one of the directors of the Sheffield Housing Company.
As Mark Knight has washed his hands of the matter, Tom Fenton from the Sheffield Housing Company offers to complete an “independent investigation” into the complaint, mainly to give the investigation a veil of impartially and because Keepmoat’s top brass can’t be arsed to investigate themselves.
Tom Fenton is a director of both the Brearley Forge Management Company Limited and the Cutlers View Managment Company Limited. Cutlers view is another Keepmoat development within Sheffield.
(Left to Right) Tom Fenton, Councillor Harry Harpham, Mark Knight and John Clephan, Regeneration Manager, Sheffield City Council.
The investigation does admit some mistakes but skims over some of the bigger issues by either giving a wishy-washy response or completely ignoring the question.
Well after the Sheffield Housing Company did a review into our complaint Keepmoat chose to respond again, after being prompted by my husband of course – not of their own accord. He wanted answers to some of these bigger questions. After several months of getting nowhere, being lied to, being accused of being liars and criminals, being threatened with Police and court action this is what Peter Hindley (Keepmoat Homes Managing Director) had to say:
Forgery: the action of forging a copy or imitation of a document, signature, banknote, or work of art.
Fraud: wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
Definitions for the benefit of Keepmoat and it’s employees.
“We accept the shortfalls highlighted by the Sheffield Housing Company report and have used this as a learning experience to help us develop and implement changes to our Customer Journey Processes and Procedures going forwards.
I would like to offer my apologies for your experience overall, which on this occasion has not achieved the levels of service we strive to provide for our purchasers.”
The whole letter took up less than a quarter of a page, it probably took Peter Hindley longer to sign it then it did to get his PA to copy and paste the generic corporate bullshit.
We are still trying to ascertain why Keepmoat threatened us with the Police, as far as we are aware nothing we have done is criminal. My husband has asked Keepmoat several times what crime they believe we committed and every time they ignore the question.
UPDATE: 21/10/2014 – After asking Peter Hindley the question again about what crime we committed my husband received a letter. He has still not answered the question and now he is refusing to reply to any more correspondence. The question has proved too difficult for Mr Hindley, he even found it too difficult to sign this letter and got one of his staff to do it.
Original Homepage
Below is our original homepage but as so many things have changed since we first published our story we thought it was time to update the homepage. Some other pages on the site need updating and this will be done in due course.
We welcome comments, see the bottom of this page, and if anyone would like to submit their own review of Keepmoat Homes then please get in touch via our contact us page. We are happy to publish stories, both good and bad, about your experiences.
OLD HOMEPAGE:
In Brief
I have condensed the story and missed out a lot of detail as our story is quite long. My husband, however, goes into a lot more detail including emails received from Keepmoat – see My Story page.
If really don’t like reading try listening to a song by Saxon called Wheels of Steel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwKRyizwEKo). Although the lyrics are irrelevant the songs epic nature, the fact that the song never seems to get started, listening to it is like banging your head against a brick wall, and the song ends in the same way it started except that you have wasted 6 minutes of your life pretty much sums up our experience with Keepmoat Homes. Except for us we wasted 6 months and over £2000.
EasyKey
The idea is that Keepmoat organise the marketing of your property and chase the Estate Agent when needed. This did not happen and they even managed to delay our house being marketed by 3 weeks.
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An example of the other Loxley at Brearley Forge. Note that this is the right hand side version of the house with the door near the party wall side.
- Mis-Sold
We were mis-sold the house (Build type Loxley). It is missing a window in the bathroom as it is an internal bathroom rather than being on the outside wall. The living room, kitchen/dining room and master bedroom were meant to be dual aspect – instead they are missing one window in each room.
Instead of Keepmoat apologising for their mistake they blame us, try to make us look stupid and even became aggressive towards us.
They insist that the reason the orientation is different is because this Loxley is in a block of three. Except there is one problem, all the other Loxleys are in a block of three (apart from the showhome which is in a block of 4) have windows to the side, even the showhome in the block of 4 has them. When I point this out by showing them their own site map with the other blocks of 3 the staff became aggressive. Even after pointing out the block of 3 argument was nonsense they still insisted that that was the reason for the orientation. To to make it clear the Loxley we reserved was at one end of the terrace, obviously if we had reserved a mid terraced version of the house we would have known it would not have windows to the side.
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Plot 42, Brearley Forge. The one we reserved. Note that although our plot is on the right hand side we have the left hand side version of house.
Promised. Delivered.
After the mis-selling we take the matter higher up and we are offered a reimbursement of our kitchen upgrade (£550) and, we thought we were being offered a Solartube in the bathroom. We also have the option of pulling out completely as they offer to reimburse our out of pocket expenses if we choose to do so.
When we first reserved we had pretty much our pick of Loxleys, we were one of the first to reserve in May 2013. By now (end of August) all the other Loxleys had been reserved and we were stuck with either accepting the plot and Keepmoat’s offer or pulling out completely. Because of our circumstances and, what we believed was, the offer of a solartube we chose to stick with Keepmoat and the house – a mistake we later regret.
Later Keepmoat deny offering the Solartube and instead say that they were just looking into the possibility and it turned out they would not be fitting a Solartube. However, the news that they would not be fitting a Solartube came 6 weeks later and after we had gone around like headless chickens to secure a new buyer – see below. When we query the reimbursement of our out of pocket expenses it turns out Keepmoat will not cover all of them if we pull out just certain select ones.
Again we are now facing the choice of the house or not. Really we should have pulled out at this point as alarm bells should have been ringing but again due to our circumstances and the fact that we still liked the house we decided to carry on with the purchase.
Our Sale Falls Through
Although not Keepmoat’s fault that the buyer for our current home pulled out they would not give us a reasonable amount of time to sell the house. We asked for a couple of weeks, which bearing in mind the 3 week delay caused by Keepmoat’s inability to organise the sale of our house under their EasyKeys scheme, I did not think that this request was unreasonable. Their answer – you have two days or we put the house back on the market.
We sell the house to another buyer for 81k, our house is worth around 93-95k but we have no choice otherwise we the lose the Keepmoat house. 81K only covers our outstanding mortgage and early repayment fee, we don’t have enough money in the bank to cover a deposit and solicitors fees, surveys, etc. We arrange a loan from family to cover the remainder we need.
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Just for reference here is the left hand version of The Loxley at Brearley Forge, Parson Cross.
- We need to complete by the, 27th September, 25th October, or maybe the 31st of October, or maybe never?
On the 17th of October we are are told that we need to complete by the 25th this is then changed to the 31st. However our solicitor reassures that he has already spoken to Keepmoat Homes’ solicitor and that we can not complete by then because our buyer can not complete yet. He advises that Keepmoat’s end of year is the 31st and this is why they want to complete then – it is basically just a scare tactic used by them and they won’t really pull out. The estate agent is being pestered by Keepmoat to get us to complete by the 31st or they will pull out. However, the estate agent thinks it is also a tactic and they won’t really pull out. At this point we have had no direct communication from Keepmoat since the 17th.
On the 17th we are also told that our solicitor was faxed on the 3rd and 4th of September about a completion date of the 27th of September. However, our solicitor never received these faxes and it took until the 17th of October for Keepmoat’s solicitor to chase this up. I find it very odd it took their solicitor 6 weeks to chase this up, especially when were apparently due to complete two weeks earlier. But as the house was not even ready then, and it had still not been signed off on the 17th of October it was impossible for us to complete on the 27th of September. Keepmoat’s solicitor implies that Keepmoat are being generous when they extend the deadline to the 31st of October, I think giving us only two weeks notice of completion is unfair (Home Builders Consumer Code says we should be treated fairly).
We then find out on the 5th of November, via the estate agent again, that Keepmoat Homes have sold the house to someone else. We only found out because the estate agent is chasing up us and Keepmoat for a progress report. It seems odd that Keepmoat have not told the estate agent to stop marketing our property and waited for the estate agent to contact them as they are paying their fees as part of EasyKey.
Keepmoat insist that they told us on the 1st of November that the house was being re-marketed. Later on we are sent a copy of this email. Unfortunately Keepmoat managed to send the email to the wrong person as they have typed in my husband’s email address wrong. The incorrect email is actually a valid email address so someone unrelated to this knows what happened with our house sale. Great way to break the Data Protection Act Keepmoat.
Saxon, live in concert, possibly singing Wheels of Steel – Image taken by Mumu Silva http://www.flickr.com/photos/mumusilva/
Can we have the house?
Our solicitor advises us that if we can act quickly Keepmoat Homes might still sell the house to us. It takes our buyer 3 weeks to be ready to exchange but we ask Keepmoat anyway as it would be unlikely for the other buyer to be ready to exchange already – searches are taking around 2-3 weeks and other preliminaries are usually carried out before these are requested. We ask Keepmoat and get told we cannot have plot 42 as they are now selling it to someone else.
Keepmoat make no real effort to sell us an alternative plot, they say they can move our reservation fee to another plot but do not tell us which plots are available. I would have thought as we are ready to buy a house now they might have had least tried to talk us into buying another property, but instead they seem happier for us to walk away.
Reserved or not reserved?
Keepmoat cannot cancel a reservation as part of the Consumer Code of Conduct for Home Builders. However, it can expire if they give us a clear expiry date.
Keepmoat still have our reservation fee, which suggests that we still have a valid reservation. In my head it should work like this, Keepmoat can let the reservation expire and give us our money back. Or they carry on the reservation and keep our money. They can’t cancel our reservation but make no attempt to give us our money back.
The END
So in summary we have have waited 6 months for the house to be ready, have had Keepmoat staff a few inches away from my face shouting at me, received a lack of communication, put up with a company which is happy to break the Code of Conduct they are obliged to follow, and broken the property misdescriptions act. You would think after all that really they should be the ones to lose out but sadly no – we have. We are over £2000 lighter and have no new home to show for it. However, Keepmoat are selling the house to someone else just so they can line their pockets a little quicker (if at all quicker, probably more likely through spite) than if they had stuck with us as buyers.
UPDATE 12/01/2014 : Sections marked in bold red are sections which we have amended since being notified by Keepmoat that our version of events is incorrect. Please see Keepmoat’s Right of Reply for more details. We have not amended all of our story as we can disprove sections of Keepmoat’s Right of Reply.
Keepmoat have offered to cover our out of pocket expenses. Although this puts us back in the position we were in May last year (minus all the travel expenses of visiting the site several times) it does not rewind the clock – we have still lost a significant part of a year messing about. We have missed out on other properties. And nothing can repair the emotional/mental damage caused by all the stress and hassle.
UPDATE 23/05/2014 : We have published several new pages, for anyone who interested the full time line is now available to view. For a much shorter version which covers some of the key points read the TIME LINE OF EVENTS SUMMARY/SHORT
UPDATE 16/07/2014: I have been considering this for for a few days now as it is something which has niggled at me. For anyone who has visited our website you will know that we had to change our story as Keepmoat claim they never offered a Solar Tube but I noticed something when we received documents via our Subject Access Request but I decided at the time to stick with our amended story, however, I don’t see why I should – after all we told the truth the first time round unlike Keepmoat.
What niggles me is this, my husband sent a list of questions to Keepmoat one of which queried why Vanessa reneged on the offer of a Solar Tube. Two people wrote notes at the side of this question, one wrote “MK Overruled” and the other “RMD overuled did offer LED lighting”.
Now just to make it clear to anyone in doubt (@Keepmoat Homes – because they need everything spelling out to them and even then they still don’t get it), here is the definition of overruled according to Google:
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reject or disallow by exercising one’s superior authority.“Chief Judge Moran overruled the government’s objections”
synonyms: countermand, cancel, reverse, rescind, repeal, revoke, retract, withdraw,take back, rule against, disallow, override, veto, set aside, quash, overturn,overthrow, repudiate, recant, annul, nullify, declare null and void, invalidate,negate, void, abrogate; antonyms: allow, accept -
reject the decision or opinion of.“welfare staff overruled an experienced detective”
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So we can surmise from this Vanessa did offer the Solar Tube but the Regional Managing Director (Mark Knight) overruled her. So we didn’t lie and we were offered a Solar Tube. I’m glad I got that off my chest – feels good to tell the truth, maybe you should try it sometime Keepmoat?
Keepmoat Reviews | Keepmoat Complaints | Sheffield Council | Sheffield Housing Company | Brearley Forge | Falstaff | Parson Cross New Homes | New Build Sheffield | Keepmoat Homes
I’m in the middle of a debate with Keepmoat and found this site. We’re on Day 4 so far, and already they’ve contravened a number of building code regulations, the most major one by cutting off the entire footpath, meaning that any pedestrians have to walk down the road. I saw a tiny kid on his bike have to use the road today, a man negotiate around oncoming cars with his dog and a mother attempting to push her child along the road…. We also objected to the plans of digging up the fantastic green area outside our home (that we were told by our home builder that it would be protected…a whole other story!), and mysteriously, that’s all been cut off from our use from Day 1 of building, like some kind of message that they’re trying to send out. They sound like a bunch of idiots…. Hoping you get a decent resolution. Good luck – so sorry to hear about your troubles with them.
I wish you every success in getting your complaint addressed.
Sadly, I haven’t dealt with a Keepmoat member of staff that is honest. From Sales Executive right through to Managing Director, I’ve been lied to at every opportunity. Dishonesty lies deep in the company ethos and shows no sign of changing any time soon.
I hold no hope of getting my complaint resolved. This website probably wouldn’t exist if Keepmoat had done the right thing. The Managing Director, Peter Hindley, has avoided answering questions, but insisted that he had. When asked to resend or paraphrase the responses, he declined and stated that Keepmoat would no longer be responding to me.
The questions were simple;
1, Your solicitor threatened me with the Police and court action. What crime do you believe I committed? (To my knowledge I have committed no crime)
2, Will you allow me to see my inked signature on the reservation form included in your Subject Access Request documentation? (I know they can’t allow me sight of it because I never signed it.)
Most corrupt U.K. Company needs serious investigation on every level.., their business ethos is that they are above the law. They should be held to account on every level
I believe the matter they wish to involve the law in would be the extremely strong case for defamation…
I would suggest that reporting facts is not defamation. If they believed it to be so they would have followed through with their threats, would they not? They would have had no problem confirming the same in writing, would they not?
Defamation — also calumny, vilification, and traducement — is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.
Sitting in my bedroom drip drip drip.
1 yr ago I moved here, 4 weeks in the ceiling in my bedroom began to leak, my whole bedroom is ruined, do they care? No I give it a week before the whole ceiling comes through, I thought because of it being social housing they didn’t care, but it’s plain to see it’s everyone
Had enough going back to solicitor, going to papers, watchdog and channel 4
Omg, I’ve just read this comment after looking for a way to vent at keepmoat. We have had a bad leak in the bedroom for a week n a bit for someone to come out n patch it up n say it’s nothing major, we then had a roofer out who can’t get up to the roof as 3 levels n was waiting for keep moats say so to come out to cost scafolding, I between which rang keepmoat 4/5 times today as leak has become bad, dripping down wall near electrical socket n know one has come out if it rains again I’m worried for my bedroom! As it’s already a mess on the Celling! Why do you have wIt for ppl to come out when your house in under guarantee n there putting you at risk with the electrics!
We own a keepmoat house and we wish we had read up more on this company before selling our other house and buying this one, problems from the start, house wasnt 100 percent ready when we got the keys on the 23rd of december 2013, yes 2 days before xmas, it was supposed to be ready in september 2013, weve had ceilings re plastered, whole dorma window replaced and waiting for it to be replaced again, faults faults and more faults the list was endless. garden sunk, re landscaped and its sinking again…….. weve been in almost a year and we are thinking of selling it in the new year,,,, our neighbour is in the same situation and he has given up and sold his(waiting for completion), 3 doors down have had floors replaced, doors replaced and there driveway has sunk so much they cant park on it….. so in a nutshell DONT BUY A KEEPMOAT HOUSE.
My partner and I are due to buy a house with keep moat near Doncaster , the sales rep seemed really nice and genuine , as did the property,although their mortgage advisor and solicitor seem to amble along and we are constantly having to chase them up via email , messages and phone .should we just forget it or persevere ?
Ultimately, you have to make your own mind up whether to proceed. I’ve dealt with the same region that you are dealing with and haven’t found one honest member of staff yet, from Sales Executive right up to Managing Director level.
A couple of other resources available on Facebook are pages entitled ‘Keepmoat Beware’ and ‘Keepmoat Ruined My Refurb’.
During my attempted purchase, I reserved in May and their solicitor, Atherton Godfrey, didn’t attempt to contact my solicitor until September – that’s their version. My solicitor didn’t actually receive any contact until mid October, 2 weeks before Keepmoat wanted completion. I have used my solicitor for other property purchases, as have many members of my family and never experienced any issues. The solicitor I use has never appeared on a website entitled ‘Solicitors From Hell’, http://www.solicitors-from-hell.co.uk/
Atherton Godfrey were a lot quicker off the mark when Keepmoat wanted me threatening regarding this website, so make of that what you will.
Regards, Mike.
Dont buy it unless you want to find yourself in hell
Keepmoat are jokers! Buyers beware do not purchase a keepmoat home. They have zero customer service skills they have no manners and are appauling to speak to. I agree they tell lies they have left a trench at the rear of my property 4ft 7 wide by over 3ft deep. Half my garden is missing when reported to my conveyancing solicitor they wrote back to say that I had dug this hole out over 60 ft long big enough to bury an army in JOKERS!! The NHBC have since confirmed they have breached regulations although the matter has not been resolved they are not fit to build houses!!
Having been employed by this sham of company I can only sympathize with their customers. Bullying in the work place is rife, management is an absolute sham. I myself have heard ‘the cliques, the importants’ laughing about customer complaints. Not only do they lie to customers, they lie to employees.
I absolutely agree with these comments, they are only concerned with £££££ don’t give a shit about their customers, their staff or their business relations. The houses are thrown together by liers and cheats who would rip their own family off BE WARNED DO NOT ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH THESE THIEVES
Trust me, it’s not just on the new build side. The rip offs that go in on the refurb side of councils and HAs (tax payers money) you wouldn’t believe. As to the bullying atmosphere, as FHM it was a great company, Keepmoat is a nightmare and I am so glad I left,
You are a very lucky person. On the 29.03.2017 i moved into keepmoat houe, once they get the money in, you will be ignored, bullied. They have no features of normal humen being- lying, not fullfing their promises, bullying. I have waiting for 3 months to fix the problems but until now no adequate response andno sollution. I would like to advise every one not to come in contact with evils.
Don’t be shuch in HURRY to take our Money, and take more time in the Building, people have spent a lot of money in there homes and want it to be Right and livable. !!!!!!!!
Massive issue at the minute trying to sell our house on. They set up a dormant management company, we need a signature so our buyers can register but the one director available at keepmoat and for the management company will not sign the register so we can’t sell!! So annoyed and considering going to the press.
DO NOT LET KEEPMOAT IN YOUR HOME! FOUL MOUTHED, SHODDY JOB, ITEMS FROM GARDEN GOING MISSING. WRONG FLOORS LAID THAT THEY REFUSED TO CHANGE. CHEAP MATERIALS. JOB TAKEN TWICE AS LONG AS PROMISED. WORKER’S NOT TURNING UP. MY KITCHEN AND BATHROOM LOOK RUBBISH. PAINT ALL OVER THE ROAD AND PAVEMENT!
My 3 month old Cat was stolen form the scaffold erectors sent by KEEPMOAT to re-do our roofing! KEEPMOAT are Being ignoring about the matter an will not ring back or pick up there phones
We are not being told any information of who they are! Makes me sick to my stomach.
KEEPMOAT REVEIW FROM HULL
This is the worst company to buy a new home from. Buying from them means buying troubles for yourself – NOT RECOMMENDING BUYING A NEW HOME FROM KEEPMOAT.
I am saying this for countless reasons; some of them are appended below:
Low quality of material they use: Examples from their new homes, after few months the windows locks stopped working properly, paint on kitchen cupboards peeled off, holes in the wall that were already painted with different colours, low quality of switches and unfinished work around them, lowest quality of paint that faded already in six months, inefficient heating, banisters came out, very bad gaps on staircases, holes around switches, uneven kitchen and toilet floors, shower came out in few months because of low quality material/work, the fence started breaking, chipped doors, rusted locks, window locks missing, we were rushed and misled by wrong information….
Low quality of work: most of above problems are due to their workers; no matter how many times you request them to fix a problem they will never do it properly.
Customer service, which is responsible for all outstanding work motioned above: the worst customer service we have seen, they will always have a reason not to solve problems, they always advise you to call them rather than email so you don’t have any proof that you have reported the problems, they will avoid emailing because it goes against them. When you call them again, you have to start that again as they will say you did not call before. They are very rude, the head of customer service (Sara…) hung up multiple times and denied promises made on the phone to solve the problems. They failed to fix the problems on due dates. The things they could not fix due to their incompetency, they will always have a reason not to fix it. For example, they were unable to even the kitchen floor, which they supposed to fix before we move in, finally they said they have put the self-balancing solvent and it balances automatically. It did not work and made it worse even. They did the same with the toilet floor and made it worse. Also, they were unable to fix a number of gaps between the floor and cupboards. There are a number of other examples.
Anyway, their service is only good until you buy from them, they give you 10 years warranty but they will forget you in 10 days once you have bought from them. So it is best not to get into their trap. Their prices are bit low because they use the lowest quality material but I personally now prefer to pay a higher price than all these troubles and inconvenience.
Now, I am intended to take them to the court because of not fulfilling the promises they documented, causing unnecessary stress and wasting of my time. I think other suffered customers should do the same so they stop troubling and ripping off others. In fact, such customers should file a joint case against them.
hi, sorry if you have posted this but have you taking any legal action against keepmoat?
At the minute I am at the start of taking legal action against keepmoat for the property I purchase in December for breach of contract and breaching the CPrs.
And was wondering if you know what their legal team is like?
Sorry for the masked email address don’t want anything linked to my case in case they try and use it against me.
Hi Vincent, I’ve had lots of dealings with their legal team. I don’t want to post too much here as I’m still in correspondence with them, but if you email me more detail at mikesimmons[at]hotmail.co.uk I can let you know about my experience without putting it in public view.
Hi,
Although i dont own a keepmoat house and by the sounds of the above i am glad i dont, i have just had my first encounter with the not so lovely folk that are building an estate down the road from where i live. It seems not only the company is a nightmare but most of its employees are rude and have approximately 6-7 words in their vocabulary. Just to give a brief idea of my background, i am a dog trainer and own a German Shepherd and an Akita cross, both rescues who have been trained to be therapy dogs so both have amazing temperaments. I walked out of my front door this morning to be confronted by 2 young builders both wearing Keepmoat uniforms. One of them immediately shouted “F-ing hell, keep that F-ing thing away from me” and some other obsceneties that werent worth remembering. This is after about 3 weeks of having them walking past exclaiming that my dogs are “F-ing huge and needed a shotgun shell to the f-ing head” and me hearing a great deal about some poor girl named Beth’s private parts which one of the builders felt the need to share with the entire street. They have also been barking at my dogs through the windows…. Both dogs have obviously got more sense than them all combined so have just looked at me puzzled as to why these men are doing this. So after today’s barrage of expletives outside my home, Leia, whom i was walking at the time has become so stressed that she slipped her lead and ran away from the builders, thankfully she came back to me once they had gone but it has left me both angered and even a bit nervous of going out with the dogs while the builers are around which is 7am-6pm most days. She has never shown any form of fear before towards people and to be honest it has upset me that she had to feel that way and left me wondering what else they have been doing to the dogs while im out.
To put this in perspective I am a young woman living on my own. What sort of moron would speak to anyone like that anyway, regardless of their gender, especially when they are paid to work on a building site which is easily identifiable. Furthermore if they have such a fear of ‘F-ing huge dogs’ then I doubt the best thing to do is start swearing at said dogs owner.
If those idiots who clearly have no regard for anyone around them are building houses then i would be very very surprised if it doesnt fall down within a few months.
Fortunately i have a legal background so will be looking to persue some form of complaint against the company in relation to this.
Sorry to hear about what they have done to others over the years. What a disgusting company.
Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I have just stumbled upon this website! We viewed a Keepmoat property and fell in love with it. We have been approved a mortgage and will soon be in the process of buying. I am SO glad I have seen these posts as it sounds like this could have caused us so much heartache! Thank you posters- we will definitely be having a re-think. Best of luck to all of you x
Hello,
As I write this my husband is currently ripping out our shower on the top floor of our Keepmoat home. During the demonstration phase they tested the shower and water immediately flowed out onto the floor outside the shower. Their solution was just to fix it with some sealing around the base. (Apologies as that’s the best way I can describe it). Not only did we have to remind them to fix it as it was still outstanding but that was not the entire issue. Water has leaked through the tiles and drywall and down to the second floor bathroom. The walls where it leaked down have water marks and the ceiling is wet. This is how we realized it was a much bigger problem. I will not dare let them step another foot into our home. I’m am grateful my husband has knowledge in this area and we can fix it properly ourselves. This will cost us time and money as new drywall and tiles will need to be put in but I won’t dare even try to call them about this.
This has not been our only problem. I wont get into details as the list is long. I just wanted to write to warn other potential customers. I do not know of a company to recommend. I do not know if anyone has had a good experience or if they will turn themselves around. So I just say beware and do your research into all possible companies.
Kind regards,
Pass the names and addresses of the disrespectful staff to your local IS IS party they will put things right for you as they hate dishonest people. I am sure that will give them the shits, lol.
Its not really the sort of thing we would do but your entitled to your opinion.
Please be aware that Glen merrin mentioned in ur website died in a road traffic accident 3 weeks ago. Out of respect for him and his wife Mandy please can their names be taken down from your site.
We are already aware of his death as Keepmoat’s legal department have written to us to also ask us to remove their names.
I appreciate that Mandy must be going through a hard time right now however this does not change the series of events.
Glenn Merrin threatened my husband over the phone and threatened to come to our home if his wife’s name was not removed from our site. We have two small children and the thought of him coming around to our home was frightening. When Mandy passed on my husband’s number to Glenn she must have been aware what he was going to do. They were both complicit in the action of threatening us.
I don’t know your circumstances but if you had two small children at home and was threatened by someone would you have respect for that person?
Mandy and Glenn could have apologised for what happened, they did not. Now Mandy wants me in the words of Keepmoat to show “respect, peace and understanding”. They did not respect us, they did not act peacefully or understand the worry and fear they caused.
I have just read your response and I am appalled by your attitude. Maybe it’s shows your true nature. After all this all took place 2 years ago. Maybe time to move on?
Glenn threatened my husband only a few months ago not 2 years ago. Maybe threatening someone shows their true nature? I will ask you again would you respect someone that threatened you?
In regards to moving on, our website is here as a warning to other prospective purchasers of Keepmoat Homes. Keepmoat and their employees have time and time again shown that they have not changed – proof that our website is needed. If My Keepmoat Hell helps just one person who is thinking of buying a house from Keepmoat then it is worth all the threats that have been made against us. I will not be bullied into silence.
You make not like my response but it is an honest one none the less.
My husband received threats from glen merrin who said that our house would be burned down. Why? Because i proved mandy merrin to be a liar. They are both bullies and think they can get away with anything.
Can anyone comment on there legal team & if this actions proved successful for your dispute? Be interested to hear as it looks like I will need to take legal action against Keepmoat in the near future!
An uneducated guy living in an undesirable part of town should be bread and butter to a decent lawyer shouldn’t he? … Yet my website is still here.
Keepmoat staff visit this site almost daily – or at least they try, they get diverted to a letter dated 19th July 2015 which they have still declined to respond to asking them to explain how my private phone number fell into the hands of a Keepmoat staff member’s husband.
Their legal team’s thorough investigation found that he must have got it from the public domain. The letter they are directed to invites them to find my number in the public domain and since then all has been quiet.
My advice, if you’re in the right then stand your ground and don’t be bullied.
Thank you so much for this informative website. Me and 3 members of my family were looking to buy a home each in a new keepmoat development. No chance of that now. You saved us from a nightmare.
Keepmoat the company that put lives at risk !
My daughter moved into one of keepmoats flat pack homes in June 2013 the boiler that keepmoat install ,the logic make ,basic model ,broke ,when she got a corgi reg gas engineer out to it he noticed that the flue pipe (from the top of the boiler to the outside) had not been fitted flush to the top of the boiler!!that he told us could have resulted in carbon monoxide poisoning.
When I rang keepmoat up all they kept saying is that the boiler is out of warranty and there’s nothing we can do !
Disgusting firm who care nothing about lives.
I have posted a picture of the flue on Keepmoat Beware! Site on Facebook
may need your HELP. I am going to be sued by Keepmoat. I purchase a hard disk drive on eBay, on inspection I found lots of data on it, when I contacted the seller I would told it was of no value and I should just delete it.
I replied back to say that I can see names, addresses, contact numbers, emails, company reports, staff report, bank details, passports, driver’s license, P45, P60, tax returns, surveys reports, building contracts, and sub contracts and much more.
The reply from the seller was the same, I was so shocked by that reply, and I contacted some of the names that I found on the disk.
I send an email to about 10 names of the Keepmoat staff of my finding, only to get an email from the Keepmoat lawyers, to say they are taking me to court for a breach of the data protection act. I am just the messenger, this has shock me, I have looked up Keepmoat on internet, Keepmoat Revenue for year 2015 is £1,105.7 million. There is no way fight a giant like that.
They want me to send them the disk, but they are not willing to compensate me for my lost, I feel as if I am shafted one way or the other.
I want to fight this giant.
Receiving data is not a breach of the Data Protection Act, but releasing it or holding it unnecessarily definitely is as a company but I’m not sure how you stand as an individual. I suspect it may not apply as you didn’t request the information from the individual in the first instance and have not collected data with a view to processing it. Might be worth getting some legal advice.
Keepmoat have almost certainly breached the act as they lost the data in the first place and they have collected it with a view to processing it.
In my experience, Keepmoat’s lawyers write very long letters with difficult words, but when translated into standard English are nothing more than piss and wind designed to intimidate.
With respect to the ownership of the drive, i’ll email you.
Regards, Mike.
The contract of purchase was between you and the seller. Keepmoat have breached the Data Protection Act by not cleaning the disk before they (and it matters not precisely who it was as long as they worked for, or were subcontractors to, Keepmoat. They cannot sue you at all, and can only report you for a breach od the DP Act if you knowingly move the data on to a place that can cause some form of damage. Sell the disk and its contents to a decent newspaper, and enjoy watching the results. If Keepmoat threaten you, IGNORE it, and do not reply. It is all waffle and bullsh*t.
When the Scottish arm of Keepmoat carry out work in your area they subcontract out the work to other companies. On this occasion they used a company from Cumberland with a “boss” that seems to favour Vicky Pollard cos play. I do have pictures.
They will also damage your garden by throwing work buckets up against decorative fencing and snapping it, kicking over and trampling lights and plants, leaving empty cans and bottles three feet from a perfectly usable bin, leaving half eaten sandwiches on the ground, saws left lying and broken off used stanley blades also lying around your house, not to forget the lumps of wood with 2 inch nails sticking up out of them actually on your door step across your garden (not a smart move when there are two young children and a dog living in your home), again I have the pictures to prove it.
We already own our home and they are carrying out insulation and roughcasting to improve the area. They simply do not care who they choose to represent their company.
Sorry, predictive text typo. The company is from Cumbernauld
I am having major problems with keepmoat since buying my house in June 2013, NHBC are involved yet still just move repair dates back and back, long story short my kitchen was fudged when we moved in, reported it staight away and still waiting for it to be fixed, ever time the send someone they further damage it, I’ve had 3 replacement front doors, 4 bath panels, garden refitted 3 times and the gas condemned for pipping not being installed correctly.
I think court action is the way forward, the north east branch are horrendous, Sandra Mcfaulds constantly lies about things, Simon the customer care supervisor orders new parts and keeps them for his own kitchen, Mark Binns a big beefy bloke sent to intimidate us but did not work, and Jeanette the perpetual liar who couldn’t organise origami classes in a paper factory because they would have no paper, made to feel like tenants in a bad tenancy.
Good luck all with your doomed purchase, all as I can recommend is run for the nearest caravan park as that’s what it’s like on their sites.
Does anybody have a head office email address
I am from Hull, very bad luck, I unfortunately bought a house from Keepmoat in Scholarsgate scheme,
Please,, never buy any property from Keepmoat,,
worse experience in my life to deal with keepmoat people.
I worked in the building industry all my working life; 45 years. You need to remember that all large builders and their staff are crooks. They have no interest in your interests; they are simply in it for the money.
I have not read through all of the comments but own a keep oat house in Doncaster and have done flr 4 years now. What is everyone’s experience with their garden/labdscaping maintenance comlanies that come with the sale of the house. W ehave found year on uear costs are going up and no work is being done. Any advice?
Ask for an itemised invoice and dispute any points that haven’t been done. Would be useful to have photos as evidence.
How much have the costs gone up. My son is currently in the process of buying
Hi,
I am very worried, I reserved a plot with keepmoat, in process of Mortgage, should I buy, it seems they already overvalued the plot for me ( increase price), As First time buyer, with help to buy, I reserved it. Now, I am so worried as the quality KEEPMOAT give for price and the feedback from the customers, It looks like hell, I will think about now!!!
We had a really really bad customer service experience with keepmoat at Bardon view coalville yesterday, the sales executive promised to reserve a plot for us last thing on Sunday if we contacted our mortgage company to approve the funds on Monday morning, she had (under protest, as seemingly we were an inconvenience to her Sunday afternoon peace and quiet) shown us around twice (the first time with around 6 other people which is not a great way to sell a house). The next day (Monday) an hour before the reservation appointment at 1pm, having had approval for the mortgage and absolute confirmation that all was ok we called to let her know and make sure all was good – she said it was fine and she would see us in an hour to fill in the paperwork, We arrived for the meeting 10 minutes early, only to be told that someone had “just been in” and she had let the plot go to them instead, absolutely disgusting customer service and morally wrong – we get the impression it was already sold a while ago but she hadn’t told us and still let us waste hours of ours, and our estate agents, and our mortgage companies time and efforts. Luckily there is a David Wilson estate right next door we reserved a much higher quality home there instead the same day, which is incomparably better to the quality of the keepmoat property, yes it’s slightly more expensive but you get what you pay for in terms of build quality and customer service. We’re so glad we don’t have to deal with the downright rude and incompetent keepmoat staff for the purchase- our advice is go with David Wilson or Barratts in future (the same company) we’ve had two new builds from them now and the quality, customer service, and after sales support is exceptional – but as for keepmoat avoid avoid avoid!!!!!!!!!!
I went to Coalville myself this week to look and reserve. Was given pricing by the rep 10K higher than that showing on-line although estate agent had only listed in the last 10 days. On querying, was told basically “tough, you should have reserved earlier – we are in it to make money”. How true – they won’t be making any off me though. Got to say though, David Wilson Homes took my deposit and then they resold the plot days later (still with my deposit against it) to someone else. No call, no advise, no information nothing. Keepmoat may be poor but David Wilson is horrendous.
@doodaa
House builders have to follow the Consumer Code for Home Builders: http://www.consumercode.co.uk/home-buyers/what-is-the-code-and-why-is-it-important-to-me/
“While the Reservation agreement is in force, the Home Builder must not enter into a new Reservation agreement or sale agreement with another customer on the same Home.”
What they did was a breach of contact they could not cancel your reservation whilst it was still valid. Problem is Keepmoat did this to us as well, we complained to the NHBC and they did nothing. House builders are a rule to themselves. NHBC and other warranty companies are funded by house builders themselves and that is who you are meant to complain to if the house builder refuses to assist you. So of course the NHBC and others will not do anything with any complaint you make. They WILL NOT bite the hand that feeds them. It’s all a complete fix.
Anyone buting keepmoat …beware …. we bought ours 12 months ago …. now they have sold our lease to some private company in London …. not even informing resudents who have put all their hard earned cash into their home …. feels like we are renting again as we cant do anything to our home without writren permission …. and guess what that costs too …. if you are buying keepmoat …. please ensure yiu buy the freehold … stay away from leasehold …. well keepmoat you have a fight on your hands as i will be taking this further
We’re just in the process of buying a keepmoat house and they have bribed us to complete in their chosen completion date!!
We luckily have a fantastic solicitor!
I wish I’d read these comments before our purchase.
As a council tenant in central Scotland, i’ve been unlucky enough to have these cowboys assigned to do external cladding work on the flats I live in.
They have been a nightmare since day one. Cheapo labour who show up and leave their rubbish in your garden (even when they access to a wheelie bin). They removed the outlet pipe from my toilet and bodged a new one in, which resulted in my bathroom flooding as it wasn’t fitted correctly. Additionally, they have blocked the drain for my kitchen sink twice. My next door neighbour has had the same problem with his drains.
How can councils, in good faith, use dodgy companies like Keepmoat other than to save money?
I can only hope this company goes out of business as soon as possible!
We just bought a new house from keepmoat and received our keys . We also feel cheated as we were shown and promised something different during reservation then what is delivered when we received keys of our property. When we asked for clarification they said it was by mistake. what a liar I will never recommend to go with keepmoat as they don’t deliver what they promise. worst thing is it was on NHBS HUG site throughout our buying process that what we will get and now they are saying it was by mistake. not sure how can I take this further??? any suggestions??
Do not buy keepmoat home unless you want loads of stress and headaches….
What a joke we have been in ours 2 month now and in that time had nothing but problems….. We where lied to from start to finish and once they have your hard earned cash you can kiss them bye bye they don’t want to know.
Just a shame I did not see these reviews before we bought , as would of looked else where… in a nutshell CRAP………. Now stuck with this god forsaken house..
DO NOT BUY FROM THEM
keepmoat is a great company in all aspects, they build great homes and student accommomodatin. why the bad comments I never know, keep it up keepmoat your doing great.
Keepmoat are the worse company I have ever dealt with!
We were given false and inaccurate information from the get go. We were shown plans at a welcome meeting that had a cupboard in the hall that is now in our second bedroom. Advised by a site manager it was gas central heating to then find it is all electric. The build is 2.5 months behind schedule at the moment! We asked for a response from their solicitor and were basically told the original sales leaflets was correct so it doesn’t mater what else you are told. The NHBC state you should be informed in writing of any significant changes to the plans so I have requested to view the new and old plans together to evidence all of the changes we were not informed about.
Keepmoat ( Keep – Every – Effort – Polite * Mainly – Offer – Atrocious – Trouble )
This Company is Totally unprofessional – Site Managers are the Main issue! Poorly trained no decent education! Anyone who is directly employed by them is a sneaky little trouble maker. They love creating issues for Buyers so they have something to talk about, that Simple! Site Managers are Box-Tickers who can’t even check what they tick during build phases. Managers have no formal training on how to Lead a team and so use poor corrupt Hitler methods to make friends. To bond with Local Builders working for them, Site Managers strive to cause trouble for you!!! Just so they have something to talk about with the subcontractors!
K – Keep putting issue in writing with deadline otherwise they Lie!
E – Every expectation writing may help is false, its just for your protection later.
E – Eventually go NHBC but don’t expect miracles, they are paid by the Builders.
P – Persuasion comes with civil courts Small claims etc.
M -Making good your home? NEVER let them alone! They will Damage mainly Site Managers!
O -Overall you will be sorry you fell for the friendly smile and trusted them, its ok.
A – Always remember verbal agreements promises will later be denied!
T – Trust None of them! The whole staff are weirdos who try upset happy buyers lives, Don’t Forget!
KEEP AWAY at all costs. They are nothing but Trouble Stirring people. They constantly tell lies to local builders (they use) so the daft builders act like the manless fools. Not one decent or honest bone in any of their bodies. When you meet one of them smiling KNOW that they are telling you F-off and will cause hell for you. You Have Been Warned!!!
Builders are absolute joke!
Three NHBC meetings, all three they failed to represent themselves!
5 Kitchens, 2 New Drives, Various Groundswork issues, Breaking and Entering, 12 Visits for issues with windows and doors.
They don’t give a toss about anyone but themselves! No wonder they had to make half of their staff redundant.
Vile vile company. Will forever regret buying our home from then and wish we had gone to Barratt instead. Sold us a house for X price and then another house in the street for the same amount. We got nothing included with ours but other house came fully furnished with appliances and all flooring. Absolute joke not to mention we have had no heating since moving in, patio doors have broke 3times, showers leaking, gaps that you can fit more than a pound coin through. We also haven’t got a bathroom window but we’re told it wouldn’t be dark (it’s absolutely pitch black in there) which will mean we will struggle to sell it when the time comes ( sooner rather than later I hope)
We bought our house 18months ago now and had no problems until now.
Repeated drainage problems- I haven’t been able to use our downstairs toilet since mid December which is a nightmare having a toddler. We reported the same problem only a couple of months before to be told it was my fault as I flush baby wipes. I can assure you I DO NOT! They even sent my partner a photo of down the drain whilst he was at work.
We have huge cracks which keepmoat have said they are our problem and they will only look at ones bigger than 4mm.
We are still yet to receive a response as to why we are the only house not to have a porch at all? The brochure picture clearly states the house has one.
Now we cannot get a response from them at all. Email after email ignored.
To top it off, we have received a letter this year explaining that we need to pay a further £9,000 to keepmoat as there was a “shortfall” during the purchase. This was after using the mortgage company and solicitors that keepmoat recommended !
Now we are currently trying to find out why we owe this money which weirdly has come about just as we are due to remortgage…
I feel we have been missold and completely scammed. Be careful !
We are in the process of buying a house from Keepmoat. We viewed one of their homes and we fell inlove with it. I have had this weird feeling though with the way we were treated by their sales executive right from the door. No enthusiasm at all and she tries to intimidate us every time. We tried to negotiate and we were just plainly told NO without letting us finish. We thought she maybe had a bad day so I just ignored it. Then our lender sent the house valuation, it came under their asking price so we are trying to re-negotiate right now. We are trying to buy their show home but after looking online how much all the similar furnitures cost, we find that they are trying to rip us off. Their sales manager came back with sarcastic patronizing email that they will not reduce the price and we have to let them know by end of play or they will relist the house back to the market. I had to remind her that I am a customer and have my own rights. It really made my blood boil. Now Im having second thoughts buying from them. If this is how they treat us now, how would they treat us later?
Wow, shocked by the comments! we were going to buy keepmoat home but never after reading all this! I am so glad mum and dad didn’t like the location so decided not to go ahead. I could not stand all these problems. I’d feel guilty for wasting their money!
Thank you so so much everyone who wrote their story here. It means so much. You are saving so many people from trouble! All the best!
I looked at reserving a plot yesterday with Keepmoat at Brealey Forge in Sheffield, and really liked the look of the showhome , but boy am I glad I came across all you guys and read all this. Will definitely be avoiding, you guys saved me a lot of trouble with this one. Thanks to the website admins and others who shared their experiences, very helpful!