Pennyfarthing Homes Reviews 

Absolutely awful! Where do I start?! I’ve never dealt with a company with such shocking after care as PennyFarthing Homes. Sales lady (Ellen) was brilliant, but we were given a lot of false info. ‘Customer Care’ needs renaming - it’s non existent! Any snags are logged with CC, yet they just forward the emails onto the relevant contractor & don’t follow anything through…. You can chase each issue a few times before anything gets done.

- We straight away had cracks in walls, sockets & tiles not fully sealed, wonky taps, grouting not finished, paintwork very slapdash (we have bristles in walls, paint on windows!)….yet we were told it’s down to ‘settlement’, which surprise surprise, they don’t cover. How this passed their ‘inspection’, I’ll never know.
- Our extractor fan was incredibly poor, meaning a very damp bathroom. After much chasing, they finally tested it & agreed it wasn’t good enough & replaced it. Every issue takes a LOT of fighting.
- The driveway has sunk in various places (not just ours!) which we logged with them, received the incredibly hilarious response of ‘it’s because you’ve parked your car on it’. The allotment spaces which don’t get parked on yet have done exactly the same thing.
- Our garden is awful. One side is always wet - The turf was not laid correctly & now we’ve laid a proper patio, you can see how unlevel the lawn is (a good 11cm!). This was originally logged in the 2 years but PF brushed us off, and recently literally ignore emails despite chasing regularly (it’s been 3 weeks since they last replied!). Our builder came round to measure up for the patio, and straight away said the garden looks uneven! He was appalled once he’d finished laying the patio, & advised us to get back onto PF (as we’d originally logged it within the 2 years, but they don’t even reply). Still nothing.
EDIT: after MUCH chasing I received a very rude letter saying ‘matter closed’ & that they ‘have no obligation to lay a garden flat’ - so we’re left with a huge slope & a waterlogged garden.
- Given the wrong back door keys on completion day. No one thought to check this!
- CC were meant to follow up after a few months of us moving in as we didn’t get a handover due to lockdown. Still waiting for this ‘follow up’!
- Carpets / underlay are very poor quality… we take our shoes off at the door, don’t wear slippers yet after 12 months it looked awful.
- Our house didn’t come with a garage. Was told by Sales that we can’t do anything to build one for 2 years, but once that time is up we can crack on but must ask PF permission first (?!). Exactly 2 years on, I email PF only to be told that they charge a permission fee of £375 + VAT (a copy & paste easy money making exercise!). Then said if I’d asked before completion, there is no charge?! Sales need to stop giving out false info for a quick sale!
- Promised by sales that we would be a closed estate & that the rumours of a through road were simply not true. Lo & behold, plans have been granted for the through road despite lot of objections by residents.
- Patio door fascia was cracked, and a dead bug inside one of the bedroom window panes!
- Boiler leaked after about 15 months, told to use the emergency number in the binder, this goes unanswered.
- Gutter joint not clipped together properly, they came out & said they’d done it but it’s happened at another join so clearly not installed correctly.
- We have a bath with a shower on the wall. There was no shower screen installed when we went up for a look before completion, & told our spec house didn’t come with a shower screen - how did they expect you to shower?! They eventually installed a screen, which then leaked the first time we used it… emailed CC, told ‘not to use it’ until they’d fixed it, we gave up waiting for them after 3 weeks & sorted it ourselves.
- No consideration for residents when building the remaining plots. Contractors parked outside houses at 6:30am in their vehicles, left on tickover for a good half an hour until they started work. Roads were left in a very muddy state, vehicles would speed up & down the estate. Everything was filthy!
- We have an estate group, and the general consensus is that PF wash their hands of anything once they’ve sold you the house. There are some absolutely shocking issue that residents have experienced, and it’s a constant battle to even get a response!

I cannot explain to you how much stress buying a house from PF will cause you. Sales were lovely (as expected!) and the contractors are brilliant (once they come out!), but PF are simply horrendous.
I wouldn’t normally leave a review but after being completely ignored by PF, their AWFUL aftercare, and the fact that they’re building more houses, I felt it’s only fair to let prospective buyers know. (Don’t be fooled by the influx of 5* reviews, we were offered a M&S voucher if we completed a glowing review!)

From the day we moved in Malcolm and Raf helped with all the little snags and loose ends that needed tying up. The tradesmen that came were all friendly, helpful and did a great job. All of the sales team were great and we are really happy with our new home. Thanks Pennyfarthing!

Jackie in sales was with us at the start of our journey. She is very customer focused and always went the extra mile to make things happen. She is brilliant at her job and made us feel at ease when making one of the biggest purchases of our lives. Jackie really is a credit to Pennyfarthing Homes!

We then met Sina in sales and she has been incredible every step of the way. She dealt with our queries very efficiently and went above and beyond to ensure we were happy with everything.

We love our new home. A huge thank you to Jackie and Sina for helping to make our dream a reality.

Sue and Steve Lay

The Sales Negotiator at Potters Wood was incredibly patient and took the time to discuss my options with me. At no point did I feel pressured into purchasing. Since reserving the property, she has continued to be available to support me through the process. Nothing is too much trouble.

Home owner at Augustus Park - Fordingbridge. Northerbury house design. Purchase date: December 2020

I cannot in good conscience recommend this builder and would advise others to stay away from their further developments in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

Dealing directly with their Construction, Sales, and Customer service Directors it is very clear they want rid of us and have failed to upkeep any promises made, we have been lied to and eventually they no longer respond to our emails. Unfortunately this has been the experience all of our neighbours have received as well, leaving us as a community frustrated and angry.

At least every month or few weeks our manhole outside the house has blocked stopping the two bathrooms mentioned from draining. Unfortunately PF did not initially take the issues seriously and we were told:
- Flush twice when using the toilet.
- Use different toilet paper.
- That the house was designed for more than two people living in it and that we were using the toilets too infrequently, making it our problem not theirs.
- The other toilets in the house were meant to help with flow and to use them more instead.
- Clearing our blocked manhole regularly is a part of normal household maintenance.
Now two years later, they have told us to go to the buildings warranty provider and stop emailing them as its household maintenance.

I attempted to have hard wood flooring laid in the carpeted half of the downstairs (the rest is large tiled). It was found that the subfloor of the downstairs had been improperly laid and that it had totally failed.

After a discussion with PF it was agreed that my contractors would rip up and relay the defective floor for hardwood fitting later, PF agreed to pay for this extra work.

After the work was completed and the invoice was sent to PF they refused to pay the amount as they deemed it “unreasonable” and that my £3000 bill would not be reimbursed. Their directors visited the property whilst it was an unliveable concrete mess and said that they had had retrospective quotes from contractors that never visited the property for £450 and that it was immoral for them to pay. (Job size: two men, 4 days of work, equipment hire and materials.)

To get the money from them I had to take them through the legal system at small claims court, which took over 8 months. The judge awarded the full sum to me and gave PF a good scolding. All documents/transcripts/evidence are, of course, public domain and I urge you to read them to understand the attitudes of PF should you ever be in the same position after buying a house from them.

Salisbury Claim/Court reference: 365MC626

Further to this, the large format tiles in the rest of the downstairs have faults. The downstairs bathroom and the utility room have every tile loose and eventually cracking, along with some of the tiles in the kitchen. When lifting the tiles, you can clearly see they never bonded to the defective subfloor, that hasn’t yet been replaced.

PF agree that the subfloor for the whole of the downstairs would have been laid at the same time, they agree that the subfloor would have the same defect (obviously) as the replaced area, but they do not classify the tiles coming up as a defect with the subfloor. This means that they will not be making good. Instead they wish to spot replace the tiles that have come up, with a wildly different batch colouration, but as it’s the same part number they do not care. (Its practically a different tile and looks ridiculous, I don’t want a floor that looks like a chessboard).

Not only this but PF are trying to wheedle out of it by saying that we loosened the tiles by having hardwood flooring laid. Luckily we have video evidence of the subfloor being taken up in the areas near the tiles, showing it soft and coming up almost with your fingernails.

Now we are over the two-year mark we have engaged the housing guarantee who will ensure PF put it right. To note, if you go this route, if you are not extremely lucky/careful ALL of the investigation costs to resolve a problem with your house must be paid by you, they are not reimbursed, this might include surveyors etc who are expensive, the guarantee provider will foot the bill for the repairs after that.

I can only despair and urge any potential buyer to steer clear. Mistakes and bad workmanship are all very well, but this company is negligent, uncaring, and immoral, they have often resorted to bully tactics to get their issues left alone. I am not able to go blow by blow in a review but a lot of this is within the publicly available court case documents. Many of our neighbours have given up with their problems as the effort required to get anything resolved is too much.

These are aside from the appx 200 snags when we first moved in, some major, some small, some requiring lots of pushing for resolution.

We have thoroughly enjoyed moving to a Pennyfarthing home. Sina has been a fantastic asset to our moving experience, and has made our move to a new home beautifully easy. She has kept us up to date at every opportunity and been friendly with a smile on her face as she has done so.

We have appreciated everything that Sina has done for us over the past few weeks/months, and are grateful for her always being cheery and pleasant. She is a delight to work with!

We are in the process of purchasing a home on the potters wood development in Verwood. I asked to deal with Sina from the beginning and I have not regretted it. She is a really good fit and no question and query is too small. My partner is a very detailed person and Sina has met all his expectations. She also understands our humour and directness which is not for everyone. Looking forward to continue the journey with Sina and the team. Hopefully the move will go smoothly!.

Matt & Chris from the Customer Care team carried out a shower installation to a very high standard in a timely and efficient manner - keeping the work site tidy, minimising disruption and leaving the site clean after each days work

Bought a 4 bed detached house in April. Generally happy with it, build quality etc seems fairly good, but with some irritating exceptions, such as poor tiling here and there, kitchen worktops not properly fitted/sealed, double glazing needing alignment, varnishing and painting all a bit slapdash etc.
That said, Malcolm the on site manager, and the rest of the customer care team have been impressively responsive so far and most things have been quickly resolved with a succession of trades people in and out over the last few weeks with a refit of the kitchen, hopefully last item, due this week.
It's a shame therefore that the head office people caused us so much problem and extra cost on the day of our move, and have yet to respond to my reimbursement request, (sent via email to the local sales office team)
Their refusal to allow hand over of keys in a timely manner, despite all funds for purchase having been transferred to their solicitors early in the day, made our move very stressful, running late into the evening and cost me extra "late key" charges from the removal company. I don't think it unreasonable to ask for these charges to be met by those who caused the delay!

We had an issue with our bathroom meaning it needed to be ripped out and retiled. Matt and Chris were amazing, they were so caring towards our home and cleaned up thoroughly every day. They could not do enough for us. Chris and Matt were very good with our girls to the point the girls miss them now they have gone! Chris and Matt are lovely and were very grateful for them for all they did. Thank you!

Extremely helpful and friendly .
Especially Jackie in the office , Malcolm and Rafal in customer care in potters wood
Very well built house and no complaints…. So far !!!!

Thanks to Malcolm and the customer care team. Replaced a roof ridge flashing in a prompt and professional manner. Great service. Thanks.

There are often teething problems and niggles with a new build property, but Matt, Chris, Clare and Sue in the Customer Care team are friendly, efficient and easy to deal with. On site, Matt and Chris are perfectionists and always willing to "go the extra mile" to ensure they leave behind a happy customer!

Evaded responding to questions about their contract, crucially one concerning the absence of indemnities, and revoked the sale without notice following a 6+ week wait for a reply. Our chain collapsed from lack of progress between times and although restored shortly after, the developer seemingly had advertised, sourced & authenticated a replacement buyer in the interim all whilst maintaining the "Reserved" tag on their website and without any notification to us as the Reservee! An incredible feat given the somewhat sluggish market but more astounding as we were in correspondence with their MD at the time about their delays !!! Our request for timing details of that ‘resale’ not too surprisingly failed to elicit a reply. The net result was that we lost out on the purchase and left with abortive legal costs as a result of failures on their part. The implication being, whatever the "weaknesses" of the contract, the prospective purchaser must accept it unconditionally under threat of unilateral withdrawal of sale without warning.

We do wonder whether the ‘irregularities’ in the contract would have come to light if we had appointed the developer’s recommended solicitor to act on our behalf (billed as giving surety of completion but at twice the cost of high street equivalent). Certainly personalising finishes by non-refundable payments in advance of seeing the contract which we felt pressured to do, would have placed us in a more submissive role in relation to accepting the contract ... thankfully we repelled such overtures.

BEWARE

A special mention and thank you to Malcolm, he has gone above and beyond to assist us with his customer care.

He has been very friendly and professional in helping us.

Just moved into a newbuild, beautiful home , and any slight issues after moving in all i had to do was speak to the site manager Malcolm who was friendly and professional, who had people out very quickly and made sure issue was rectified asap. Great service

Positive Points
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The quality of our house is good. The finish and insulation are brilliant, and our home certainly appears well-constructed.

Initially, small problems were fixed quickly with no trouble (dents, scratches, paint touchups, etc). Malcolm and Raf were especially brilliant at communicating/sorting.

Jackie on the sales team was also friendly and very helpful.

Negative Points
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With any new-build project, issues can be expected. This review is based on how these were handled (rather than the issues themselves).

More complex issues were met with denial, misdirection on actual costs to put you off, lack of apology and were generally poorly managed.

Each issue felt like an exhausting fight, rather than two parties working together to solve a problem. Calls/emails to Customer Care often went unanswered and required constant chasing.

Decision-makers were unwilling to communicate or have a simple phone call. Often preferring the use of posted letters to respond to emails. Processes designed to make replying as difficult as possible for the customer.

The legal team were extremely aggressive/uncaring. When we purchased, it was a seller's market. Interest rates were skyrocketing with huge backlogs/delays faced by all mortgage lenders. Issues beyond our control.

Penny Farthing enforced unreasonable timescales, disregarded our concerns, applied excessive pressure, and were in denial about delays faced by lenders.

They even put our house back on the market to apply pressure. Just all round rotten tactics.

Summary
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The quality of our house, and the on-site team would easily have made this a 5/5 review.

But the behaviour of their legal / head office team was just inexcusably poor and uncaring.

Upon completion of the purchase of the property, I was extremely impressed with the workmanship and the level of customer service I had received.
Sadly, all this is a distant memory. When looking over the property with finer detail now I have moved in, it’s clear that standards are slacking. The carpentry is pretty poor in places & the painting and decoration lacks a fine finish. I genuinely haven’t purchased a large spirit level as I really don’t want to highlight how poorly aligned some of the interior walls are.
Additionally, don’t use their carpet fitters or tilers. The carpets have been fitted with absolutely no pride and the tiled floors in the bathrooms are all scratched from boot wear.
Also, we’ve been one of many plots to have had our bathroom ripped out since the tiling was so poor, leaks were found.
I’d suggest using an alternative developer.

What initially appeared to be a positive experience has sadly been progressively soured by consistently poor customer service from Head Office. The staff based at Potters Wood are fantastic and very helpful, but ultimately they are let down by their Head Office. My house recently had failed coaxial cabling for satellite tv, a replacement en-suite required due to poor workmanship and no hint of an apology. Poor tiling and damp loft voids are common faults throughout Potters Wood, and Head Office refuse to address this, stating instead that buyers should expect their lofts to be damp and mouldy for up to two years. They don’t tell you this until you’ve moved in, and they refuse to reimburse you for items stored in the loft that are damaged by the mould, or the inconvenience of having a brand new en-suite ripped out and replaced. The timber roof rafters in my loft and the underside of the ‘breathable’ roof membrane are covered in mould, and this is getting worse over time. Penny Farthing insist this is normal. On the surface these properties appear very good, but sadly over time poor quality and workmanship becomes apparent, made worse by the woeful customer service experience from Head Office.

First class company. We have been in our new build for two years now and have had a few minor problems but all have been dealt with very courteously and efficiently by an excellent Customer Care Department. Sue located some chrome screw covers for our shower which we had accidentally broken and within a couple of days we had an email to say they had been sent by the manufacturer and would be forwarded on to us. Excellent response Sue- thank you!
We have been pleased with the response to all the issues we have had since moving in. We would highly recommend Pennyfarthing to any potential purchaser for their quality of build and aftercare.