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Founded in 1977, we have over 40 years of house building experience behind us. We strive to build high quality homes across Hampshire, Dorset & Wiltshire whilst providing an outstanding level of customer care.
Reviews 92
Ruth Young
Sep 01,2023We have thoroughly enjoyed moving to a Pennyfarthing home. Sina has been a fantastic asset to our moving experience, and has made our move to a new home beautifully easy. She has kept us up to date at every opportunity and been friendly with a smile on her face as she has done so. We have appreciated everything that Sina has done for us over the past few weeks/months, and are grateful for her always being cheery and pleasant. She is a delight to work with!
Helen
Aug 30,2023We are in the process of purchasing a home on the potters wood development in Verwood. I asked to deal with Sina from the beginning and I have not regretted it. She is a really good fit and no question and query is too small. My partner is a very detailed person and Sina has met all his expectations. She also understands our humour and directness which is not for everyone. Looking forward to continue the journey with Sina and the team. Hopefully the move will go smoothly!.
Rob
Aug 27,2023Matt & Chris from the Customer Care team carried out a shower installation to a very high standard in a timely and efficient manner - keeping the work site tidy, minimising disruption and leaving the site clean after each days work
colin woolven
Jul 25,2023Bought a 4 bed detached house in April. Generally happy with it, build quality etc seems fairly good, but with some irritating exceptions, such as poor tiling here and there, kitchen worktops not properly fitted/sealed, double glazing needing alignment, varnishing and painting all a bit slapdash etc. That said, Malcolm the on site manager, and the rest of the customer care team have been impressively responsive so far and most things have been quickly resolved with a succession of trades people in and out over the last few weeks with a refit of the kitchen, hopefully last item, due this week. It's a shame therefore that the head office people caused us so much problem and extra cost on the day of our move, and have yet to respond to my reimbursement request, (sent via email to the local sales office team) Their refusal to allow hand over of keys in a timely manner, despite all funds for purchase having been transferred to their solicitors early in the day, made our move very stressful, running late into the evening and cost me extra "late key" charges from the removal company. I don't think it unreasonable to ask for these charges to be met by those who caused the delay!
Carly
Jul 21,2023We had an issue with our bathroom meaning it needed to be ripped out and retiled. Matt and Chris were amazing, they were so caring towards our home and cleaned up thoroughly every day. They could not do enough for us. Chris and Matt were very good with our girls to the point the girls miss them now they have gone! Chris and Matt are lovely and were very grateful for them for all they did. Thank you!
Elaine Kempster
Jun 08,2023Extremely helpful and friendly . Especially Jackie in the office , Malcolm and Rafal in customer care in potters wood Very well built house and no complaints…. So far !!!!
John Chappell
Jun 05,2023Thanks to Malcolm and the customer care team. Replaced a roof ridge flashing in a prompt and professional manner. Great service. Thanks.
Pete Hurley
May 26,2023There are often teething problems and niggles with a new build property, but Matt, Chris, Clare and Sue in the Customer Care team are friendly, efficient and easy to deal with. On site, Matt and Chris are perfectionists and always willing to "go the extra mile" to ensure they leave behind a happy customer!
Kurseong
May 22,2023Evaded responding to questions about their contract, crucially one concerning the absence of indemnities, and revoked the sale without notice following a 6+ week wait for a reply. Our chain collapsed from lack of progress between times and although restored shortly after, the developer seemingly had advertised, sourced & authenticated a replacement buyer in the interim all whilst maintaining the "Reserved" tag on their website and without any notification to us as the Reservee! An incredible feat given the somewhat sluggish market but more astounding as we were in correspondence with their MD at the time about their delays !!! Our request for timing details of that ‘resale’ not too surprisingly failed to elicit a reply. The net result was that we lost out on the purchase and left with abortive legal costs as a result of failures on their part. The implication being, whatever the "weaknesses" of the contract, the prospective purchaser must accept it unconditionally under threat of unilateral withdrawal of sale without warning. We do wonder whether the ‘irregularities’ in the contract would have come to light if we had appointed the developer’s recommended solicitor to act on our behalf (billed as giving surety of completion but at twice the cost of high street equivalent). Certainly personalising finishes by non-refundable payments in advance of seeing the contract which we felt pressured to do, would have placed us in a more submissive role in relation to accepting the contract ... thankfully we repelled such overtures. BEWARE
AJ
May 09,2023A special mention and thank you to Malcolm, he has gone above and beyond to assist us with his customer care. He has been very friendly and professional in helping us.
david
Apr 28,2023Just moved into a newbuild, beautiful home , and any slight issues after moving in all i had to do was speak to the site manager Malcolm who was friendly and professional, who had people out very quickly and made sure issue was rectified asap. Great service
Matt
Apr 27,2023Positive Points -------------------- The quality of our house is good. The finish and insulation are brilliant, and our home certainly appears well-constructed. Initially, small problems were fixed quickly with no trouble (dents, scratches, paint touchups, etc). Malcolm and Raf were especially brilliant at communicating/sorting. Jackie on the sales team was also friendly and very helpful. Negative Points -------------------- With any new-build project, issues can be expected. This review is based on how these were handled (rather than the issues themselves). More complex issues were met with denial, misdirection on actual costs to put you off, lack of apology and were generally poorly managed. Each issue felt like an exhausting fight, rather than two parties working together to solve a problem. Calls/emails to Customer Care often went unanswered and required constant chasing. Decision-makers were unwilling to communicate or have a simple phone call. Often preferring the use of posted letters to respond to emails. Processes designed to make replying as difficult as possible for the customer. The legal team were extremely aggressive/uncaring. When we purchased, it was a seller's market. Interest rates were skyrocketing with huge backlogs/delays faced by all mortgage lenders. Issues beyond our control. Penny Farthing enforced unreasonable timescales, disregarded our concerns, applied excessive pressure, and were in denial about delays faced by lenders. They even put our house back on the market to apply pressure. Just all round rotten tactics. Summary -------------------- The quality of our house, and the on-site team would easily have made this a 5/5 review. But the behaviour of their legal / head office team was just inexcusably poor and uncaring.
Anonymous
Apr 27,2023Upon completion of the purchase of the property, I was extremely impressed with the workmanship and the level of customer service I had received. Sadly, all this is a distant memory. When looking over the property with finer detail now I have moved in, it’s clear that standards are slacking. The carpentry is pretty poor in places & the painting and decoration lacks a fine finish. I genuinely haven’t purchased a large spirit level as I really don’t want to highlight how poorly aligned some of the interior walls are. Additionally, don’t use their carpet fitters or tilers. The carpets have been fitted with absolutely no pride and the tiled floors in the bathrooms are all scratched from boot wear. Also, we’ve been one of many plots to have had our bathroom ripped out since the tiling was so poor, leaks were found. I’d suggest using an alternative developer.
Mr D
Apr 22,2023What initially appeared to be a positive experience has sadly been progressively soured by consistently poor customer service from Head Office. The staff based at Potters Wood are fantastic and very helpful, but ultimately they are let down by their Head Office. My house recently had failed coaxial cabling for satellite tv, a replacement en-suite required due to poor workmanship and no hint of an apology. Poor tiling and damp loft voids are common faults throughout Potters Wood, and Head Office refuse to address this, stating instead that buyers should expect their lofts to be damp and mouldy for up to two years. They don’t tell you this until you’ve moved in, and they refuse to reimburse you for items stored in the loft that are damaged by the mould, or the inconvenience of having a brand new en-suite ripped out and replaced. The timber roof rafters in my loft and the underside of the ‘breathable’ roof membrane are covered in mould, and this is getting worse over time. Penny Farthing insist this is normal. On the surface these properties appear very good, but sadly over time poor quality and workmanship becomes apparent, made worse by the woeful customer service experience from Head Office.
Tony Swain
Mar 24,2023First class company. We have been in our new build for two years now and have had a few minor problems but all have been dealt with very courteously and efficiently by an excellent Customer Care Department. Sue located some chrome screw covers for our shower which we had accidentally broken and within a couple of days we had an email to say they had been sent by the manufacturer and would be forwarded on to us. Excellent response Sue- thank you! We have been pleased with the response to all the issues we have had since moving in. We would highly recommend Pennyfarthing to any potential purchaser for their quality of build and aftercare.
Glenn
Mar 23,2023Sue from the customer care department was very helpful. I had a query on a colour for a product used on our house when it was built in 2016, which wasn't in the house file. She came straight back to me with the information I needed same day. Great customer service. Thank you Glenn
Sean Reuby
Mar 15,2023Malcolm was fantastic , he looked after us at Potters Wood (customer care), pre and post moving in 👍 Sean .
Tim Kirtley
Mar 14,2023We've been in about 6 weeks now and still as happy as they day we moved in. There have been no issues with the house at all and everyone we have dealt with have been helpful and friendly. During the whole sales process Jackie has been incredible and really helped our first time buying experience go as smooth as possible. From the day we moved in Malcolm has looked after us and been helpful and efficient getting the few minor snags taken care of and its been a pleasure to deal with him and his team.
Mason Sutch
Mar 13,2023Do not buy a penny farthing home. We purchased our home back in 2021 yet we are still waiting to have a fully working bathroom. We paid extra for tiles which had to be relayed 8 times due to poor contractors and poor workmanship. We then have had our en suite replaced now 5 times due to the same error happening. It is appalling that such a large company cannot get a bathroom correct. We now have no faith in our entire home. If you want a stressful, disruptive and time consuming home please go and buy one because thats exactly what you will get. The complaints team do absolutely nothing when it comes to raising a formal complaint, had to go to trading standards and they have advised to make a formal complaint. Next step is the ombudsman as we have been purely ripped off. With a brand new bathroom each time installed they refuse to extend warranty, some how they can't guarantee their own work will not fail. This is the reason why. With over 250 bathrooms being replaced across Potters Wood and Augustus Park due to using cheap parts, not what you would expect in a premium home. The only reason we have had things moved is due to Matt from customer care. He has been brilliant. I wish I could say the same about everyone else at the company.
Pennyfarthing House, Ossemsley, BH25 5TL, New Milton, GB
http://www.pennyfarthinghomes.co.uk
Alastair
Sep 11,2023Home owner at Augustus Park - Fordingbridge. Northerbury house design. Purchase date: December 2020 I cannot in good conscience recommend this builder and would advise others to stay away from their further developments in Fordingbridge, Hampshire. Dealing directly with their Construction, Sales, and Customer service Directors it is very clear they want rid of us and have failed to upkeep any promises made, we have been lied to and eventually they no longer respond to our emails. Unfortunately this has been the experience all of our neighbours have received as well, leaving us as a community frustrated and angry. At least every month or few weeks our manhole outside the house has blocked stopping the two bathrooms mentioned from draining. Unfortunately PF did not initially take the issues seriously and we were told: - Flush twice when using the toilet. - Use different toilet paper. - That the house was designed for more than two people living in it and that we were using the toilets too infrequently, making it our problem not theirs. - The other toilets in the house were meant to help with flow and to use them more instead. - Clearing our blocked manhole regularly is a part of normal household maintenance. Now two years later, they have told us to go to the buildings warranty provider and stop emailing them as its household maintenance. I attempted to have hard wood flooring laid in the carpeted half of the downstairs (the rest is large tiled). It was found that the subfloor of the downstairs had been improperly laid and that it had totally failed. After a discussion with PF it was agreed that my contractors would rip up and relay the defective floor for hardwood fitting later, PF agreed to pay for this extra work. After the work was completed and the invoice was sent to PF they refused to pay the amount as they deemed it “unreasonable” and that my £3000 bill would not be reimbursed. Their directors visited the property whilst it was an unliveable concrete mess and said that they had had retrospective quotes from contractors that never visited the property for £450 and that it was immoral for them to pay. (Job size: two men, 4 days of work, equipment hire and materials.) To get the money from them I had to take them through the legal system at small claims court, which took over 8 months. The judge awarded the full sum to me and gave PF a good scolding. All documents/transcripts/evidence are, of course, public domain and I urge you to read them to understand the attitudes of PF should you ever be in the same position after buying a house from them. Salisbury Claim/Court reference: 365MC626 Further to this, the large format tiles in the rest of the downstairs have faults. The downstairs bathroom and the utility room have every tile loose and eventually cracking, along with some of the tiles in the kitchen. When lifting the tiles, you can clearly see they never bonded to the defective subfloor, that hasn’t yet been replaced. PF agree that the subfloor for the whole of the downstairs would have been laid at the same time, they agree that the subfloor would have the same defect (obviously) as the replaced area, but they do not classify the tiles coming up as a defect with the subfloor. This means that they will not be making good. Instead they wish to spot replace the tiles that have come up, with a wildly different batch colouration, but as it’s the same part number they do not care. (Its practically a different tile and looks ridiculous, I don’t want a floor that looks like a chessboard). Not only this but PF are trying to wheedle out of it by saying that we loosened the tiles by having hardwood flooring laid. Luckily we have video evidence of the subfloor being taken up in the areas near the tiles, showing it soft and coming up almost with your fingernails. Now we are over the two-year mark we have engaged the housing guarantee who will ensure PF put it right. To note, if you go this route, if you are not extremely lucky/careful ALL of the investigation costs to resolve a problem with your house must be paid by you, they are not reimbursed, this might include surveyors etc who are expensive, the guarantee provider will foot the bill for the repairs after that. I can only despair and urge any potential buyer to steer clear. Mistakes and bad workmanship are all very well, but this company is negligent, uncaring, and immoral, they have often resorted to bully tactics to get their issues left alone. I am not able to go blow by blow in a review but a lot of this is within the publicly available court case documents. Many of our neighbours have given up with their problems as the effort required to get anything resolved is too much. These are aside from the appx 200 snags when we first moved in, some major, some small, some requiring lots of pushing for resolution.