Beechcroft Developments Avaliações 

Moved to Beechcroft on 18/12/2020. The flat had numerous existing problems including a toilet that did not flush. We are both in our 70’s, and viewed the flat just once due to the Covid outbreak. The repairs, including fixing the flush to the main toilet, was not attended to until the staff returned from their three week vacation. We were very disappointed.

A smooth move

Moving into a Beechcroft apartment compared favourably with all my previous house moves. The process took longer than expected. It always does. But there were no dramas and no last minute price rises.
The staff in the office could answer my queries or find an expert for any obscure technical information.
Moving in is like going to stay in a superior hotel. The decorations are flawless and the design is thoughtful. The light switches are in the right places.
My only criticism is of the introduction to the electrical appliances and the heating system. It was flimsy and rushed. It was done by an outside firm, not Beechcroft staff. I doubt that particular company will be asked to return

I moved into a Beechcroft development four years ago.

Almost immediately I began to discover many flaws which should not be present in development designed primarily for those who have retired.There are many 80 and 90 year olds here.

So..
Why would a developer put in a freezer that needs defrosting?
Or heating controls where the numbers are so small as to be difficult to read, when there are others more suitable on the market?
Or a bath which has sides too high for most elderly people to access and no suitable grab rails for those who can.
Or an electricity meter which is so high in a cupboard that I have to find someone over six foot two to read it?
And why use paint in the kitchen which can’t be washed when marks appear and indeed why use paint throughout which is a mixture, when there are plenty of shades of white on the market to choose from?

However, it’s the aftercare- or lack of it- which is most frustrating.
Many residents have had serious problems with drains or gutters for which Beechcroft has been reluctant to take responsibility.

There is a problem of standing water on the tarmac outside one block of flats, when it rains and no drain to get rid of it. The same tarmac has so many patches on it, where it has been dug up when trying to sort out some of the drainage problems that it is now an eyesore and certainly not in keeping with the expensive properties .

Some residents have e-mailed Beechcroft to express their concerns on matters relating to faults which clearly relate to poor building practices but have had no reply.

Although dating back to December 2016, when I bought my Beechcroft property, it is only now I feel able to write a review. I had a long snagging list but by far the most serious problem was a foul smell of rotten eggs from my shower drain which varied at times to a strong smell of sewage. Despite including this on my two-week snagging list, Beechcroft tried to wriggle out of any responsibility by saying I hadn't listed it. Fortunately, I'd made several copies of this snagging list so the company had to back down. Even so, it took two months to resolve the problem which proved to be as straightforward as a missing drain cup. Months later, during a courtesy visit from the Development Manager, I learnt that he'd known the reason for this foul smell all the time but had done absolutely nothing to resolve it.
For three weeks after this problem had been sorted, I enjoyed my new home although there had been several issues at the development with blocked drains and a holding tank that kept breaking down. The smell of sewage in the air was becoming all too familiar!
I was dismayed at this stage to see sewage bubbling out of a drain outside my living room. A call to After Build resulted in my being told repeatedly that, if I was responsible for the blockage, I would have to pay to sort it out. It made no difference that I explained many times that the drain did not draw off waste from my property but from those immediately above. After an anxious weekend, a technician from Dyno-Rod informed me that he couldn't clear the blockage because he couldn't make any sense of the drainage system. He also informed me that the soil fronting my property was contaminated with sewage to the extent that it had reached saturation point.
Tithegrove Ltd, which had been contracted by Beechcroft to lay the below-ground drainage system, dug a trench on one side of my new home which revealed not a poorly connected sewage system but an unconnected one! I endured days of noise, disruption, dirt and the stench of sewage, which culminated in attempts to clear a blockage in a 'pipe' (actually just part of a pipe), that resulted in water under high pressure blasting a hole through the wall at the back of my boiler cupboard. The water was forced upwards and gushed down like a shower, flooding the cupboard and hallway and contaminating the freshly laundered clothes I'd only recently stored in the cupboard. To add to my distress, after work to deal with the damage inside, I was told the job outside had been completed. No one listened to me when I said, and said again and again, that the Dyno-Rod technician had identified contaminated soil on the other side of my home as well.
Beechcroft was holding an Open Day at this time to sell the few remaining vacant properties at the development. In total contrast to the lack of interest shown in my problems, the garden fronting my property was given a hasty cosmetic makeover to ensure it looked as attractive as it had when I moved in. It was only because the gardener employed by Beechcroft, who was friendly with one of the Beechcroft big wigs, said that she too could smell sewage outside my home and reported this directly to her friend that further action was taken. A second trench on the other side of my home revealed more drainage problems and soil heavily contaminated with sewage. I had to live again with noise, disruption, dirt and the foul smell and sight of sewage. The faeculent soil was moved into a dumpster which sat outside my home for longer than I care to remember.
Yet more drainage problems were identified at the development over the next few months from unconnected downpipes and blocked storm drains to yet more unconnected sections of the drainage system.
Of course, Beechcroft denied all responsibility for this disgusting mess. The company laid the blame wholly on Tithegrove. In turn, Tithegrove laid all the blame on Beechcroft. Children, playgrounds and name calling spring to mind. I took legal action and won my case. It's been a long, hard and very stressful experience but I'm glad I did it.
My verdict of Beechcroft?
IF YOU EXPECT AN ACCEPTABLE STANDARD OF BUILDING, ANY CUSTOMER SERVICES AFTER PURCHASE, ANY PEACE OF MIND, ANY QUIET ENJOYMENT OF YOUR NEW HOME, AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE OR RATHER LIKE OUR CURRENT PANDEMIC.

Avoid. Rubbish. Don’t buy a property on one of their developments.

Not sure if I’ve been clear enough so perhaps No No No

They have failed to provide any kind of after care after our mother purchased a property

The flat was lovely but there were numerous problems which took many many calls to resolve

They seem to be completely uninterested in helping when things go wrong - our mother has been left for four days without heating or hot water

The problems at The Sidings in Wheatley, Oxfordshire have been numerous and are due to Beechcroft and Afterbuild:-
1. The guttering was totally inadequate and water poured down the side of the house in front and back. It took approximately 11 months to be repaired and was reported months before the lock-down began.
2. The loft door has shifted and now scrapes against the opening.
3. The surround to the loft hatch is very cheap plastic and has twice come away. The first repair was before we moved in and consisted of a bit of glue!
4. The seats on two of the three toilets have come lose and are a nightmare to tighten. We had to call in a repairman to tighten them and he had to use his own materials instead of those provided.
5. The freezer is not self-defrosting and this in a house for which paid almost half a million pounds.
6. About 7 weeks ago the cold water tap literally flew off its moorings when turned on and we had a jet of water reaching 4 feet - net result, a flooded kitchen and a £20 repair bill. (Were we suppose to ring them and wait for a repair?)
7. About 3 weeks after the above the pipe coming up from under the sink came adrift and wobbled about - another £20 bill so we are out £40 on kitchen taps.
8. When we moved we could get no TV reception or internet. We had to call in an electrician who said the wiring was 'bizarre' - this cost us over £60. (Another resident here had the same problem.)
9. The widow in one bedroom cannot be closed or locked because the device which stops the open window from swinging out is now too high.
10. The rubber insulation round one of the balcony doors has come adrift and makes it difficult to close and lock this door.
11. The paint used on the woodwork is water-based and not worth a damn - it is difficult to keep clean, one can rub it off quite easily and I have had to do a fair amount of repainting.
12. The front door has no window which means that the entrance-way must have a light switched on throughout the day.
13. The initial meter readings for the electricity meter were provided by Beechcroft and our supplier said they were totally wrong.
14. The fridge/freezer is located so near the wall that it is impossible, not difficult, but impossible, to pull all the shelves and compartments out. Very bad design.
15. The shades in the sun room are totally inadequate for a house that sits on an east-west axis. They will have to be replaced.
16. Elm have proved themselves totally inefficient in providing a decent gardener and various residents have had to step in to do the work!
17. This paragraph has been added the day after the above was posted. During last night's rainfall I watched in amazement from the kitchen window as the water cascaded down the outside walls. The people who organised the repair of the gutters in the front of the house never bothered to tell the firm making the repairs to do the same work at the back, yet last August it was of the back gutters that I originally complained. Now we shall have more delay, more damage to the walls and garden, more emails and, we hope, eventually a repair. One lives in hope.

I wonder what will be nest? Carefree living it certainly is not.

4.10.20. Since posting this over two months ago nothing at all has been done and emails have not only not been answered but receipt has not even been recognised. I have now gone to 'complaints' at Afterbuild. Oh yes, now the right-hand patio door has lost its bottom insulation and there is a loose brick on the back wall. To add to the joy of life at The Sidings, another resident has complained about the state of her balcony floor while yet another resident has had water flowing through areas usually reserved for electricity cables. We are also without adequate gardeners and have no site manager but borrow one on a part-time basis from another site. For this we paid £490,000 for the house and £3000 a year in fees. Odd, very odd.

We moved into a new build show home to live out our retirement with no problems.How wrong we were,since moving in we have had numerous,too many to list here.Our worst problem was a new flush fitted to our en suite toilet which didn't switch off,as a consequence water ran into the toilet 24/7 & the flush came on every minute to refill the tank,this noise was very unsettling when trying to sleep.We kept contacting the Company for a plumber warning them about lockdown,in the end had to get our own plumber & have had to pick up the bill for that & our huge water bill.Definitely poor build quality & seriously bad aftercare.

Our parents bought a retirment apartment in White Lion Cobham Surrey. In their 80s they have had untold problems. When they moved in they had no heating or hot water for 3 days. The bath leaked twice into the apartment below. The shower from the apartment above leaked. They have been waiting over 18 month for a window to be replaced (it has now been measured 3 times by a chap who travelled 3 hours to them). Recently had no hot water and contacted the agent on the Friday and nothing happened all weekend and had to call their own plumber. So again they have paid for their own plumber to come out. So poor build quality and bad aftercare.