LABC Reviews 22

Misleading, unfair and unreasonable. Have to pay over £1k excess upfront even before any work is carried out. Ridiculous and I don’t believe this is made clear to customers. It’s not a warranty at all. Will be going to FSCS to complain.

There needs to be a government enquiry into LABC. Its not a new build cover. Its an Insurance policy farmed out to underwriters, who then just reject your claim. Avoid at all costs. Amazing some large developers use LABC.

Absolute useless warranty..It's an insurance not a warranty . You have to pay an excess.
Had a problem 1 year after the builders 2 year guarantee expired . The excess was more than the cost of fixing it. Builders did not do the render correctly.
Problem number two was recent and involved the next door house having a leaky roof which because we are semi detached involved some work on our side of the roof.
They wouldn't treat it as one fault.
Each house was supposed to make a claim thus incurring two excesses at £1300.00 each . The repair total was £2500 making it pointless to claim .
No good complaining as they stuck to their original decision.
They use a company called Marley Risk whose reveiws are as bad...

Soon after moving in the windows of our new house started leaking. The developer and window installer made over 20 visits to rectify but failed. Eventually we notified the LABC warranty, who say their role is simply to provide mediation between us and the developer. They won’t fix anything. Even better, each time the window leaks and some work is done, it’s a ‘recurrence’ from which we have to start again apparently and give the developer reasonable time to fix the problem. The developer has now retired, the window company doesn’t answer our calls. There is absolutely no point and no assurance in an LABC warranty on your home.

Very poor don’t buy a house thinking the LABC will cover the problem they don’t

Waited >2 years to flag an issue so they could bill me an extra 20% "late fee"

LABC seems to be a warranty we are given by the developer at their choice. If it was possible to choose an insurance policy in comparison to others nobody would.
It appears LABC are just a tick box exercise to satisfy the legal requirements for the developer.
The unbiased dispute resolution service is not fit for purpose and the company just works for the developer unless you push them to work to their own specifications. They won't even clarify warranty questions.

What they are supposed to be covering and making you feel protected with, could not be further from the truth. Lose files, infomration and details shared, ask you to send and re-send the exact same information. And whilst I can't say legally speaking they are, I would argue they are working directly with the house builkders they are meant to be protecting you from...

LABC Warranty is a truly awful organisation to deal with. They insist on excessive information to accept a claim. Their systems are terrible they closed my on-line case by mistake. The whole organisation is clearly set up and ruled by lawyers. I simply wanted some advice and spent hours filling in forms and arguing with people who were there to protect their back-sides and the Builder. I gave up in the end. stay well clear if you are a house buyer you do not want to deal with this organisation unless your house has a major problem. The one star is wrong they deserve a minus score.

Utter garbage! Not willing to help or offer advice over the phone - what’s the point in this useless organisation- without filling in forms! Obviously more interested in diverting away from giving help, and would much rather push back with paper and bureaucracy. Clearly also on the Developers side!

We arrived back from a 4 day break on 23rd Dec only to find water ingress in the bedroom of our 3 yr 5 month old house. Innocently, we assumed that it would be covered by the 3-10 year period of construction faults. We contacted our builder (Wiggetts of Oldham) who said we were out of the 2 year fault period. So we went to LABC only to find that they seemed to have no interest at all in contacting our builder - rather to deter us from making a claim. After sending endless documentation to prove that we own the property, we were told that we had to provide a surveyor's or roofer's report which wasn't reimbursable. The whole tone of the emails was negative towards us. We went to our own insurers who were more than helpful.
And the moral of the story is: don't purchase a house from Wiggetts of Oldham and don't waste your time with LABC.

Only given 1 star because I had to. Not worth the paper it is written on. Wriggle out of claims leaving you holding a structurally unsound property when the builder refuses to take any responsibility. When buying a new house refuse to accept LABC from the builder and insist on a better track record warranty. It does not appear NHBC are any better. They are corrupt and in cahoots with the house builders.

Ignorant company.Sent two emails in a week explaining that i needed a copy of the warranty as my buyers solicitor was asking for it.They did not even bother to acknowledge my two emails.If this is their attitude dealing with a simple request,then i do not hold out much hope if god forbid you need to make a claim.I eventually got sorted by contacting the builder Grace Homes and a lovely lady called Jenny emailed me the required documents the next day.

LABC have accept liability for a defect on my home, I have to pay them £1,000 excess, plus £468 indexation fee.= £1,468. Total rip off, That fee should be claimed back off the builder who built the house whose fault it was that caused this claim not the homeowners.

Don’t buy a new build property with LABC 10 year guarantee as I did with my Bloor Home. After 2 years, I find a possible defect and LABC tell me I have a £1,000 excess on any claim. What is the point of a 10 year construction warranty? I might as well claim on my House Insurance which will be cheaper.
My recommendation to a new build house buyer is to stick with houses that have a 10 year NHBC warranty.

I have had to give one star but really it should be no stars. LABC focus every effort on finding reasons for declining claims. My experience of them has been dreadful. The developer tried to hide behind LABC and I have been bounced between the two and left with life-changing bills.

Policy isn't worth the paper it's written on. Messed me about for 6 months nearly.

Absolute scum bag rip off merchants.
They lie about fees and rip people off and then you have to take them to court to get your money back.
Do not trust these scum bags

Be aware you have to pay for an independent survey and report on the cause of the claim before they are interested. Not made aware of this when purchasing the house. Must be in the very small print!!

Beware, your LABC warrantee is not for 10 years.

You have to inform the builder of any faults in the first 2 years and the builder is responsible for making good. Not LABC.

If the builder does not fix the issue, then you have to claim from LABC within 6 months of the end of the 2 year defects liability period. If you don't LABC bounce your claim.