Persimmon extends customer retention period to a week

Persimmon has announced it will extend the length of time customers can check for faults in their new homes from a day to the first week of occupation.

Following a barrage of complaints from customers about the quality of their new homes the housebuilder announced in March it would offer buyers the chance to hold back 1.5% of the purchase price of their new home until faults identified on the day they moved in had been rectified.

At the time chief executive Dave Jenkinson admitted the group had to “raise its game” over the issue of snags and problems with newly-built homes.

The scheme had been due to start this month but in a trading update published today the group said it would extend this from a day to the first week of occupation.

Jenkinson said that since the initial announcement in March 2019 the firm had been in discussions with stakeholders and had decided to extend the retention “to cover faults identified in the first week after moving in, not just by the moving in day itself.

“At present the availability of this added customer service benefit may be determined by which mortgage lender the customer chooses. We remain hopeful that in due course all lenders will support this important initiative.”

Ahead of its half-year results being published next month, Persimmon said it anticipated total turnover the first six months of 2019 coming in at around £1.75bn, down 4.5%.

New housing legal completion volumes of 7,584 new homes were down 6%, at an average selling price of £216,950, up 0.5%.

Persimmon said it expected its underlying housing operating margin for the 2018 full year of 30.8%.

Jenkinson said there were “clear early signs that our focus on increasing the quality and service being delivered to customers is beginning to bear fruit. Although we are still in the early days of our improvement plans our customer satisfaction rating, as measured by the Home Builders Federation, has increased during the period.

“Our progress on customer service shows that Persimmon is listening carefully to all stakeholders and making the changes needed to position the business for the future, while maintaining a robust trading performance. We enter the second half with our build programme well progressed, healthy rates of sale on site and an encouraging forward sales position.”

The group’s results for the six months to 30 June 2019 will be published on 20 August 2019.