Oxley Woods Living

Been meaning to update the site more, but been busy. Bit like when Wood Newton and George Wimpey are supposed to carry out work on the houses in the neighbourhood.

Fortunately, nobody is booking days off work or rearranging their schedules while they wait for me to post my latest, usually depressing update about life in our Oxley Woods eco home. Whereas this is exactly what fellow residents, and ourselves, are having to do while they wait for workmen to turn up. Or not, as the case too commonly seems to be.

Having spoken to a number of our neighbours (“hello neighbours”) it seems our poor experience with after sales and fault fixing with George Wimpey and Wood Newton is far, far from exceptional. It seems people are, quite understandably, just giving up. The hassle to try and get work done is proving too wearing, too time consuming, and just too much hassle for many.

This isn’t how it’s supposed to be, surely?! We’ve paid good money for our houses. We’re living on a multi-award winning scheme with a multi-award winning site manager, but people are struggling to get work done, struggling to know when their snagging and fault lists are going to be addressed, struggling to get any level of customer service from George Wimpey, and main sub-contractor/site builder Wood Newton.

Residents are suffering, or have suffered from, a number of issues. Right up to now it seems that new problems are coming to light in even the earliest properties built. The designs are changing as Wood Newton and George Wimpey build more homes (which makes sense, with a continual improvement programme), but residents who’ve already invested in this award winning housing scheme appear to be the last to know what is going on, IF they’re told at all.

Work not being done when promised is not the only problem. It seems that if certain residents can’t move their schedules to suit a window of opportunity presented by George Wimpey or Wood Newton on site (sometimes without prior notice), then it seems they’re shuffled towards the back of an increasingly growing pile of complaints and problems from fellow residents.

The more I speak to other residents the less exceptional our situation appears to be. It seems we’re in this together. This could be seen as depressing, as it makes it hard to find a glimmering light of hope, but in some ways, hopefully, it can bring the community together to act in each of our interests to make sure we’re looked after.

It’s a distraction, it’s actually traumatic for us, but hopefully some good can come of all of this for the community as a whole. The majority of people living here have chosen to live here. For their own purposes, be it the design, character, “eco friendly” traits of the buildings.

There are many more “run of the mill” alternatives that we could have chosen, but we chose to buy into this dream. Shame it’s turning into more of a nightmare for some us here at Oxley Woods.

Last October and November, people representing ITV got in touch.

They had seen and heard about our problems at Oxley Park and with the nature of this “prestige” and “award winning” development of eco homes, they were pretty keen to come and see us, and talk about featuring us on one of their “Problem Property”/”Homes from Hell” type programmes.

After a few email and telephone conversations we thought it all over and backed out of the situation.

Why?

Despite reassurances that people who feature on the show generally get a “good result” and positive response from their builder, we declined for a few main reasons.

Firstly, the “stigma” of appearing on the show, for the house, but also for the estate and development at large.

While more than happy to share our experiences online for current and potential owners of Oxley Woods eco homes on a blog, a blog that we believe reflects fairly our situation, life in the house, and experiences with Wood Newton and George Wimpey, this is a far cry from appearing on a TV show.

For a start, here we’re in control. We don’t want to sensationalise, we don’t want to exaggerate or play down the issues. We want to share our thoughts, our knowledge, and our views. We don’t want someone potentially twisting these words and experiences any which way that suits their editorial slant.

Secondly, while hundreds of people view this blog each month, finding it via google or simply being an interested neighbour (or employer of one of the companies concerned) that’s a far cry from thousands of people watching a short, possibly sensationalists piece on prime time ITV.

I can just imagine the “LEAKO HOMES” headlines and up-playing of the situation (if possible!) by the voice-over artist.

Another important part is the unusual nature of these houses. We honestly believed at the time that between them George Wimpey and Wood Newton had been trying, in their own, cumbersome and often painfully slow way, to get the main issue, our leaking windows and doors, sorted. They just don’t (or didn’t) know how.

This isn’t a case of “couple buy house, house is finished badly, builders apply standard fix, job done”. Or at least it doesn’t appear so. We would rather work with the builders than against them, we hope that through our patience and honesty, through all the problems and frustration and anger, that we’ll come to a proper solution that will help not only us, but our neighbours, present and future.

So why the question in the post title?

Because sometimes things just go so slow, so little seems to be being done, I wonder if a kick up the backside courtesy of an ITV production crew would have given the workforce and management the required stimulation.

But at what cost? Who knows. Which is why I sometimes wonder.