Onsite Foreman extremely slow to do any post move in fixes

dionsiseire

So I bought a new home. Went through the usual process of getting a professional snagger, getting those elements fixed and eventually moving into the property.

Since moving in, certain things have come to light which needed work. The foreman at the time, did some of them, but a whole bunch of things remained undone.

After chasing him for weeks and weeks to try get the remaining items done. With no response, a new foreman was introduced via email by him. This foreman started off all positive, he came to the house and inspected some of the items needing work. He sent a guy over to do 2 of the items (there's still about 12 or so items) and for both jobs the guy didn't seem like he knew what he was doing, one was a settling crack from a skylight that looked like the roof area was pulling away, foreman said the guy would do a job with expanding foam etc, the guy who came just caulked it. Then with a noisy pump in the attic which our neighbours can hear in their bedroom when we turn any tap on, he had no plan or ideas, just pulled it up by the pipe and suspended it to a beam to keep it off the ground, said it was all he could think of.

It hasn't fixed the issue at all, the caulking he said he'd be back to go over once dry so he's appear the following monday, it's been another 3 weeks now since. Emails galore to the foreman, no responses. Neighbours been ringing the new foreman too trying to get any kind of response.

What do you do in these scenarios, where do you escalate to?

Tell me how

Tell them you are not paying them unless you see intended actions and timeframe for all remaining items on list.

If they don't engage, tell them you are terminating the contract and will only pay proportionally for any work completed (to your satisfaction)

Get someone new.

dionsiseire

So it's a new build property
To get into the house the mortgage had to draw down

So it's already paid for. This is essentially snag work that they need to do to finish the house. Some of the outstanding work was on the original snag list but was deemed not significant enough to stop us moving in. Other stuff has appeared since moving in or couldn't be found while snagging (for example, the water pump, 5 power sockets were not working, settling cracks)

Tell me how

Is it a private build or an estate?

I'd still chase for timeframe and actions to close out.

You could park yourself in the site office making a nuisance of yourself until you get a firm commitment.

Gumbo

Talk to your solicitor that desk th with the sale.
Maybe a letter from them will speed it up.

Where is the development.

enricoh

Are show houses still open? A few of ye n placards outside it on Saturday will work wonders.

These lads do have a fairly thick skin, driving sales away will focus the brain more than any solicitor letter. Will build community spirit too!

Wildly Boaring

Squeaky wheel gets the most grease.

These foremen are usually given very little resources to go back to stuff. He's probably managing a new build elsewhere too. So no time or resources.

I'd get my original snag list.
Add new snags.
Indicate which open or closed.

Issue to them repeatedly say every 2 or 3 days. Then daily.
Try to find someone higher up to issue to.

Talk nicely to them but firmly tell that you will be issuing till closed.

Keep evidence of issue.

After few weeks of inaction your only option is for your solicitor to issue as a letter

I assume 100% paid for?

harr

I had very similar issues a number of years ago .. private estate. Money paid and the major stuff on snag list done . When we moved in we noticed a few bits that needed doing and to be honest one or two should have been noticed on snag but some only developed a few weeks after moving in.
Foreman was a pain and made many promises to rectify the issues even after I contacted the company building the houses I got no joy.
Show houses were still open as only half the houses were sold so I did up a little information leaflet outlining my problems and stood outside show houses on a Saturday morning to hand out said leaflets.
I managed to give out 3 before the sales team coped me and promised issues would be resolved on the Monday.
Sure enough 7 am Monday morning foreman and 3 lads fixed the remaining issues.
He wasn’t a happy man because seemingly he got into a bit of trouble for letting go so far.

Edgware

This is a big problem with new builds and has a lot to do with the shortage of tradesmen.
In South Dublin I know of a builder running three developments all nearing completion.
All he is doing is moving men from one site to another to try and give the impression he is on top of things. One day you pop in to see how the house is coming on and the place is full of vans and men, next day its like a deserted village. A lot of our tradesmen went overseas during the recession and there seems to be noincentive to get them back. Also there is no meaningful Apprentice scheme. Young people have been fooled into thinking that their future is better served with some B.A. in ****ology