Countryside Properties Campaign Site
Here is our Countryside Properties (Archive) story - its probably the same as yours: we bought a house a long time ago, we trusted Countryside Properties, and after over 9 months (June 2007), we still have 34 unresolved problems.
We've had over 80 in all.
Extract:
What kind of problems? Well, here’s a few:
Unsafe gas fire (denial, multiple checks, multiple defects, big sticker saying ‘illegal to use’ – eventually resolved.)
Non-working smoke alarms (wrongly installed, going off together if any battery flat..)
Plumbing leaks aplenty (hence loads of knock-on replastering, painting, mastic etc.)
Wrongly installed (unsafe) downlighters, now all being changed
Security alarm that goes off whenever you set it!
Total lack of house-specific user instructions for alarms, heating et cetera, and no wiring or plumbing diagrams
Why not relax and fall asleep over our full list of open issues?
But the real scandal is the sheer incompetence of the Customer Service! Here’s how someone else put it:
There are not enough people to go around and they do not seem to have all the parts that are needed. What is the point of putting aside three days, which we assumed would be 24 working hours, when no one turns up until late morning and then they are on their way again by 3.30pm. That might still be enough, but they are continually dragged off their jobs here and taken to God knows how many other houses at regular intervals, no doubt in an attempt to placate other unfortunate residents.
Read more about Countryside’s Customer Service
Let’s be clear about one thing – the houses Countryside Properties builds eventually turn out ok. There is nothing wrong (from what we know – maybe you know better) with the basic structure and design of the houses. After a few years, when they’re completely debugged, they should finally be ‘as good as new’. The problem is not the fundamentals, it’s getting from what you got, to what you paid for. Good luck, and hope you find this site useful. Come back and register when we’ve added that feature.
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