Looking after you, looking after your home

Having now received the keys to your new home, another chapter of customer care begins. Your Sales Advisor will contact you within 14 days, and a further call from our Customer Care Department* will follow a month later.

We will also contact you around the first anniversary of your move to make sure that your new home is everything that you expected it to be.

Settling in...

Within fourteen days your Sales Adviser will call you. We want to make sure that you are happy with your home and to answer any further queries you may have.

Anything that is less than perfect can be raised with us at this point. We will bring it to the attention of the Customer Care Department who will aim to have any teething troubles remedied by the end of your first month.

At this time, you will also be invited to answer a few questions about your new home and the quality of service you have received to date.

After a month...

At this point, our Customer Care Manager will be in touch with you and make arrangements to visit you in your new home. It would be our intention to have remedied any snagging* matters prior to this visit taking place.

This is an opportunity for our Customer Care Manager to assess at first hand whether any remedial work has been carried out to your satisfaction and ensure that it meets with our own high standards of workmanship.

If any outstanding work remains, our Customer Care Manager will liaise directly with the relevant contractors and ensure that it becomes a priority matter.

You will be issued with a list confirming what needs to be done and when the contractors will be visiting your home.

In order to allow us to carry out this work, we will need you to help us by providing access to your home. As far as possible, every effort will be made to avoid unnecessary disruption.

One year on...

At the end of your first year, we will send you a form, which we would ask you to complete. This gives you an opportunity to highlight any items that you consider require our attention.

Once we receive this form, our Customer Care Manager will contact you. In the event that there are any issues that require our attention, or if certain items were deferred during the course of the year, these will be attended to at this point.

Running in your new home

Rather like a new car needs to be "run-in" when you first get it, your new home also needs a little tender loving care during the first few months.

The NHBC Guide to Your New Home booklet (contained in Your Essential New Home Pack) offers lots of relevant advice and information about how to successfully settle into your new home.

Drying out & condensation

When we were building your home, it would have absorbed a lot of moisture. This is due to both the weather and the fact that some building materials, such as plaster and mortar, contain water. This is perfectly normal and totally unavoidable.

During the first few months of living in your new home, it will still be drying out. Normal household chores such as cooking and washing may create moisture, which can cause condensation. So it is important to consider the following useful tips:

• Keep your home well ventilated and keep windows open as much as possible.
• If you have to close windows at any time make sure that the trickle vents (slotted vents on the window frames) are open instead.
• In the first year, it is a good idea to try and keep your home properly heated. Rooms that are not in constant use should still be heated, although at a lower temperature than rooms you use all the time. Remember that heating can be set a few degrees lower and turned up when you return home.
• Try to avoid overfilling wardrobes and cupboards and leave as much space as possible for air to circulate.
• When cooking, remember to make use of the cooker hood's extractor fan to avoid too much steam building up.
• The NHBC also advise that it may not be wise to carry out any redecorating (especially wallpapering) within the first 9 - 12 months, as this may delay the drying out process.

By following these simple tips, you can expect to enjoy maximum levels of comfort in your new home.