黑洞社区

Housebuilder Persimmon is to launch a retention scheme for its customers which would see an average of 拢3,600 held back by a homebuyer鈥檚 legal team in the event faults are identified at the point of purchase.

The firm, which says it is the first major UK housebuilder to introduce such a scheme, is to draw up a new standard contract which would see 1.5% of the total home value, equating to around 6% of the build fabric costs, withheld by the buyer until any snags are fixed. 

Persimmon said that based on its current selling prices the retained amount would be approximately 拢3,600 per home. 

Last year Persimmon completed 16,449 homes at an average selling price of 拢215,563, and posted a pre-tax profit of 拢1.1bn.

The housebuilder said it expected the new policy to be in place by the end of June.

Major housebuilders have been dogged by reports of poor quality in recent years. Last year residents in a block of flats built by Persimmon Coventry had to leave their homes while remedial work was done to shore up the building.

And in 2017 Bovis had to set aside 拢7m to deal with its torrent of snagging complaints from buyers of its properties.

Dave Jenkinson, Persimmon鈥檚 chief executive, said the housebuilder had heard the message that it needed to 鈥渞aise its game鈥� in terms of customer care.

鈥淲e are now accelerating the pace of change through the introduction of a contracted retention which will give homebuyers far greater satisfaction at the completion of the purchase.鈥�

Jenkinson, who became Persimmon鈥檚 chief executive in the wake of Jeff Fairburn鈥檚 departure last year following a torrent bad publicity around the latter鈥檚 拢75m pay package, said the firm was 鈥渄etermined that the [housebuying] experience is not overshadowed by teething problems. Providing a homebuyer鈥檚 retention is an important step towards achieving this.鈥�