Countryside Homes Vulnerable Customer Policy

At Countryside Homes we seek to provide high levels of service, tailored to individual needs and also look to provide the additional level of assistance that maybe required for vulnerable customers, in order to achieve a good outcome. However, it is not always easy to recognise these characteristics. Therefore, if you believe you meet the criteria for a vulnerable customer, please notify us as soon as possible of your particular needs and the reasonable steps or adjustments that may be required, such as nominating someone to support you. You are encouraged to do this when you first make contact with us.

We also operate a vulnerable customer policy which is designed to ensure that the way we conduct our business does not have a detrimental impact upon vulnerable customers.

Code Compliance

We want every stage of your customer experience with us to be a good one, starting from your initial enquiry right through to moving into and living in your new home. To support this we follow consumer codes, the relevant code for your home purchase depends on when you reserved your home.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

We pride ourselves in listening to our customers and their feedback is important to us. We want to make sure that everyone is completely satisfied with the way we’ve managed the process of building and selling our new homes.

We hope that your new Countryside home will not only meet, but better still, exceed expectations. However, if there are any aspects of your journey with us that have caused issues or difficulties, we’d like to know about it so that we can prevent them from happening again in the future.

NHBC, on behalf of the House Building Federation, sends out a survey to all new homeowners 8 weeks and 9 months after legal completion. Please take the time to fill it in. We take your responses seriously and will incorporate everything we learn into the way we work and into our staff training.

The feedback we receive is analysed within the company and you can be assured all individual comments are taken on board. Constructive criticism, as well as positive feedback, are equally important to us.

Significant changes to our procedures have already been put in place because of the feedback we have had from our customers, and we will continue to strive to get better at what we do. We look forward to receiving your completed Questionnaire and would like to thank you in advance for taking the time.

Two-Year Warranty

We’ll still be in touch once you have the keys to your new home to make sure that your experience of living in a new Countryside home is as everything you hoped for. If you need our help, we are only ever a phone call away.

While we work our hardest to ensure there will be no problems after you move into your new home, unfortunately issues do sometimes still arise.

You will be given details of the members of our Customer Services team so you know exactly who to speak to. If any remedial work is necessary, it will be attended to within the hours of 8.30am - 5.30pm, Monday - Friday. Details of an emergency service provider will also be given in the event anything should occur outside normal office working hours.

Non-emergency Service Calls

If any defects are identified we will aim to rectify them, subject to availability of materials and you being able to give us access within twenty-eight days thereafter.

Exclusions

Things we do not cover are:

• Normal shrinkage cracking which can be reasonably expected during the drying out period of the property
• Wear and tear through the use of your new home
• Damage caused by neglect or failure to follow operating instructions, or lack of maintenance
• Things which are normally covered by household insurance. You should approach your Insurer in the first instance
• Please note: Matters related to communal areas are to be reported to the Management Company

Emergencies - these will be responded to within 24 hours.

These we define as problems which are, or seem to be, harmful to your health and safety or security or immediately harmful to your new home.

Emergency examples:

• Uncontainable water leaks – drips are not considered an emergency
• Total loss of water – if only affecting your property and not a street/community issue
• Loss of power – if only affecting your property and not a street/ community issue and not caused by an appliance
• No hot water or heating – check boiler pressure first and timer settings
• Blocked drains causing overflowing waste
• Toilet not flushing – if this is the only toilet in the property
• Failure to external ground floor door locks – preventing the property from being secure
• If you suspect a Gas leak – first call 0800 111 999 and then call our out of hours team

Customer Complaints Procedure

For information on our complaints procedure please click here