A Guide to Living in Wiltshire

Bad – parking not great. Huge 5 bed houses with drive way space for 2 cars for example. Lots of cars parking on main roads means rush hour and school drop off/pick is horrendous. For a huge estate it still feels quite spacious compared to Red House/Oakhurst for example – wide roads and houses not on top of each other.
Strange design/layout in some areas for example a neighbour can’t get their wheelie bin out of their garden easily as they have to go up a step. My house has a pretty poor finish.

Please review your development:

Good – lovely open spaces, at least 3 parks and fields leading to river. Great coffee shop, barbers and hairdressers and Sainsburys. Great community spirit – lots of events put on such as allotment open days with stalls and produce, Remembrance Sunday service, litter picks, carol singing. Good Primary and secondary schools.
Bad – parking not great. Huge 5 bed houses with drive way space for 2 cars for example. Lots of cars parking on main roads means rush hour and school drop off/pick is horrendous. For a huge estate it still feels quite spacious compared to Red House/Oakhurst for example – wide roads and houses not on top of each other.
Strange design/layout in some areas for example a neighbour can’t get their wheelie bin out of their garden easily as they have to go up a step.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wish I had know there was such a thing as professional snaggers, and that shared ownership owners only have a 1 year warranty (not sure that is the right word) to raise defects. (‘normal’ homeowners have longer than 1 year to raise defects)

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Very very slow to act – gave up on chasing many things.

Please review your development:

The development is nicely designed, I still think it is one of best looking new builds I have come across. The site is starting to mature quite well, some of the trees did not survive long but I hope that these will be replaced. Recently had lots of rain and not experienced any flooding so drainage seems to be fine. Not had any experience of dealing with the management company yet so can’t comment on that.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wish we asked more questions about the garden as the soil quality was quite poor and the turf has taken a lot of attention to get it going.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

The snagging list was quite long but it has all been sorted now. Most of it was done to a high standard but somethings took months longer than they should have.

Please review your development:

The design of the property is amazing. The layout of the home is spacious and designed brilliantly.
The laundry room is what really us the property, you do not see many of these features anymore and it makes the home feel bigger and somewhere for white goods to be.
The size of the downstairs bathroom is really accessible.
The size of the windows in the property make the house feel clean, spacious and luxurious.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Ensure all emails regarding defects are recorded as there has been confusion around outstanding defects.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

We have raised defects with the property and some of these were completed efficiently. However we still have ongoing pending defects since moving in October 2021.
However its easy to communicate with them to get updates. There was an incident were someone was coming around to look at final defects however myself and my fiancé work full time. We tried to re-arrange but this was not applicable and we missed out on the viewing of defects.

Please review your development:

Rubbish, rush building the houses and don’t finish them or don’t do things properly
Don’t like to take responsibility for there mistakes and refuses to fix them even when still in warranty
Been waiting 5 years and still fix my issues even with complaint after complaint even with threats of court action against them

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

How unreliable soverign Is and wish I didn’t go for a new build!

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Won’t take responsibility and bounce my problems back and forth from soverign to bovis