Persimmon Homes has announced the introduction of a homebuyer’s financial retention initiative in a bid to improve its reputation for quality of homes and customer care.
The new scheme sees the company write into its standard contract that 1.5% of the total home value – averaging around £3,600 per property – will be retained by the purchaser’s solicitor until “any faults identified at the point of key release are resolved”.
Work is already underway by its legal advisors to have the new policy “fully in place” by the end of June 2019.
The company is currently a 3-star housebuilder in the latest HBF National New Home Customer Satisfaction Survey – some way behind other national competitors – and has had a string of trade and national coverage for its poor building standards, huge bonuses to directors and customer care.
Its financial success has been negated by a poor reputation with peers and potential buyers.
With Jeff Fairburn departing the role of CEO last year, that senior role has been taken by Dave Jenkinson, who said today: “Persimmon is listening hard to all of its stakeholders and we hear the message that we need to continue to raise our game in customer care.
“The initiatives we have already announced, including the action taken in the new year to deliver greater accuracy of anticipated moving in dates by adopting a more targeted approach to the phasing of sales on specific sites and the improvements and investments that we have made in our customer care team, operations and technology over the last few months are beginning to take effect.”
He foresees that the contracted retention “will give homebuyers far greater satisfaction at the completion of the purchase”.
Persimmon’s chairman, Roger Devlin, said: “This is a first among the UK’s large housebuilders and I hope will lead the way in change across the sector. This move, and the urgency with which we will introduce it, is a clear and unambiguous signal of cultural and operational change at Persimmon, putting customer care at the very centre of the business.”
