Balfour Beatty Reviews 62

Moving into a new home is always a daunting experience regardless, however this latest experience moving into our new home was in both myself and my wife's opinion effortless, Balfour Beatty excelled themselves in evert department from sales through to the site workforce, everyone worked together to make our move a real pleasure, to the point where it was becoming embarrassing as I thought I was overwhelming them with requests, every request was met with a real positive attitude, great to see these days, all I can add is that everyone acted as though they were ambassadors for Balfour Beatty even thought they did work directly for them, that shows respect to the builder, I think that is the result of good management process being implemented, YES I would highly recommend Balfour Beatty for your new home, in addition I think great value for the money, quality product, quality build and quality after sales.

Last night I drove past a construction sight in SE London lewisham to be specific, upon checking I had seen their was a nail in my tyre. This is the second time I have been in this situation both occurring at the same time within 2 months, this morning I had to cancel work to replace my tyre as it could not be patch in this
financial climate is a addition unexpected expense which is not cheap. I went to the site this morning to be told by the site manage the screw is from a lorry he even suggested I look at the building to see they do not use those actual screw at that point I had felt my intelligence was being insulted. This company needs to adapt safety measures for the public, and reimburse those who have to replace tyres due to their negligence to clean the roads once they have completed a days work. I’m extremely shocked and surprised at the lack of empathy I experienced and will be taking this case further.

Please please think very carefully before buying one of these homes. The customer care to deal with the endless snags is a disgrace. They dug up my garden 10 months ago because they hadn’t built a wall that was in the plans of the house behind and 10 months later I have been left with a building site of a garden, different colour fencing and they weren’t even going to build the wall right to the end. I have a second bedroom that’s temperature doesn’t go above 7 degrees, they just ignore emails. Honestly it’s problem after problem and no one cares once they have your money. Even when someone does come out to do a simple job they mess it up like dropping paint on your carpets. Avoid

Unpleasant experience with both the Alabama regional manager, Patrick, and the associated property that he oversees, the Moretti at Vulcan Park. Today, I tried to convey my concerns about the Moretti to Patrick who unfortunately responded unprofessionally in the form of ongoing interruptions, a raised voice, and blaming. We’ve been paying for a gated community that hasn’t been gated in over 8 months and is still not gated. My car has been broken into. Our packages have been stolen multiple times. He responded “a gate isn’t that big of a deterrent.” I also conveyed that our dog has been attacked multiple times by unleashed dogs on the property despite a leash rule for the complex and a city leash law. I’ve brought this up to the front office many times without resolution. He offered no solution and was only able to respond with anger and blame. I’m disappointed and will not be recommending the Moretti or anything associated with Balfour Beatty going forward.

If you're considering buying a house from them - don't!

Moved into the East Kilbride estate, after 2+ years our
- Snagging list still not completed
- Customer services are a joke, no interest in resolving issues
- Lost count of the amount of site managers come and gone
- Build quality poor and gaps found in the house still ongoing
- Everything subcontracted and you have to deal with them directly, forget BB lifting a phone to sort out any snagging jobs, however to be fair you'll do a better job organising than they ever could!

I could fill a book with the comedy of errors, by far the worst building company in the UK.

A year on, we are in a house that has frozen double glazed windows on the inside. House requires ‘remedial works’ after having to cut holes in the wall to show them it didn’t have the correct amount of insulation. They made an amendment to our plot that they no longer owned seemingly falsifying paperwork to the local Council who then approved the application, apparently on that basis. At a meeting they told us they would amend the design retrospectively so they didn’t need to do all the work highlighted and ‘there was nothing we could do about it’. This wasn’t true, they would need to inform us and we could object.
Stairs are out of specification, heating still doesn’t work correctly, electrics have a mind of their own, 10 year bulbs last a month if we’re lucky. They agreed to move us out when the works start, they’ve been adamant they won’t move us out until they have all their ducks in a row. One family member can’t use stairs (out of spec), has nowhere to shower downstairs and they think that putting in a shower for us when they do the rebuild somehow mitigates not having access to bathing or sleeping facilities on the first floor for around a year.
We can’t sell the house, we can’t rent the house out as it doesn’t meet minimum standards for renting and the Sap calculation, which we’ve had three times , all different, seems to be a work of fiction misinforming the energy certificate.
We believe their own workers/trades are not allowed to work in the conditions in which we live in one of their houses with ice inside the house.
I cannot read the kids a bedtime story or check on them when they’re ill, or shower!
We’re not the only house on our development with issues. Others include moving in with a cracked bath that hasn’t yet been repaired months later a handrail that apparently does not need to go all the way to the top of the stairs, vent pipes not connected in the loft causing visible damp, black mould found behind kitchen units that needed to be replaced, to name a few of probably thousands.
Is this what you want from your new house/

Worked for them for a number of years. Found them to promise progression in careers for 20+ people only to see them all let down. They profess that their staff are the most important thing but it complete nonsense. The turn-over of staff is insane. In around 5 years I must have seen 200+ people leave. I'd go into work and there would be 20 new replacement staff, half of them would leave within the first 2 weeks. If you're considering a role with them I would at the very least have other alternatives on the table. Check the T&Cs of your contract as the demands will be completely different to what is talked about in the interview. Get ready for being expected to do 60 hour weeks. The 1 star is only given , other than its the lowest I can give, is that you will experience some of the best projects out there. They also, normally, pay you too, just don't expect any overtime agreements or bonuses to actually be in your payslip.

Put roadworks outside our cafe for weeks with no work being done, very few people coming in now as the works divert away from our entrance, bad company, would not recommend!

They should simply stop building homes and shattering peoples dreams.

I’m not sure I have enough words here to fully describe our experience purchasing a home from these crooks. The house was delayed repeatedly, it wasn’t ready when we moved in, it was unsafe and we were left breathing in latex screed that had failed for over a month. The snagging list is literally endless and they make lots of promises but fix nothing. When they do attempt to fix things they make it worse, leave a mess and create more problems. They don’t respond to contact, very rarely and when they do it’s often rude, dismissive and misogynistic behaviour. They change bosses every couple of months. The whole estate is a mess, the contractors are unreliable and hate working for them. They covered our house in raw sewage and left it after months and months of us saying the plumbing wasn’t right and being palmed off. Just horrendous start to finish. Not even bothered to respond to our complaint. I can’t describe how sick of dealing with them I am. Rarely make apologies just constant excuses!

The Sublot was a nice place to work. Some of the Leadership team are untrustworthy. Long hours, no appreciation. Expected to do 3 roles as no replacement recruited. The Core service is a disaster, do not support the PA. Left with no money after moving closer to the Sublot. Recently forced to resign through no fault of my own. there is some racism white vs brown. This has affected my mental health and potential homelessness. I would not promote working as Support in this Sublot.

In conjunction with SSE BB did work on a substation and pylons in our wee rural area. Destroyed the roads/verges around our properties full of promises to repair any damage caused. Did absolutely nothing promised. A year later I had to go to my local councillor as our access road became all but impassable. The council finally repaired this....

Been trying for 8 months to get BB to complete snagging works and close out dates for my son and his partner for a new build home on their East Kilbride site in Scotland. Absolutely appalling service. What I would class as their middle management personnel in "charge" of Customer Service and close out of snag lists are totally incompetent and entirely out of their depth. There is apparently nobody directly responsible for anything. In my experience when you have poor middle management it is normally a direct consequence of having a similar poor level of Senior Management who have no control or interest on their teams performance. Anyone considering purchasing from BB I would strongly advise to re consider. Have had to get lawyers involved.

Interesting that Balfour Beatty have just been fined £49 million pounds for fraud after stating building works were carried out on homes where American service people lived. The work was falsely signed off

7 months after moving into a brand new property. We had the snag list as we would expect with a brand new property and none of it was seemingly scary or difficult to solve. However, Balfour seems to have made it its mission to make this as difficult as can be. We still do not have working kitchen lights or a bath that will hold water. Not to mention the litany of other smaller livable ongoing problems. All the issues with this property are quick and easy to solve yet they are just not interested. Their customer service is appalling and now they are seemingly ignoring us. You wait over a month for a reply which never comes so have to try and contact them again. You leave messages on the phone numbers given which are ignored. The finish is poor and with us only being in this house for a short amount of time I am astounded at the lack of durability in the materials used to build it. I regret purchasing this house and dealing with this shower. Do not buy a Balfour Beatty.

If considering buying a BB property, ask yourself if you have the time and energy to deal with a 'snag' list of over 400 items that will take years to fix. We're snagging previously fixed snags. Ask if you have the resources to pay for heating a house that has daylight showing through the external doors and windows. Ask yourself if you're healthy enough to have rockwool floating about the kitchen because it wasn't finished. Ask yourself if you are prepared to talk to a brick wall that would be more responsive than any BB staff. If the answer to these questions is 'no', choose another builder

What a bunch of cowboys ! Roadworks in CV47 area. Catastrophic and random road closures. Dug out a layby and replaced it with new mud !! The local Gypsy tarmac gang would have done a better job. Why are bullies like this given space on Trustpilot - none takea any notice

Having read the majority of these reviews I realise that our experience is not unusual as we had been led to believe - rather it appears to be the norm.

We had major issues with the build before we moved in, in April 2021. If we had known what we would face once we moved in, we would have pulled out of the purchase.

On Day 1 it was apparent that there were serious issues with the drains. I was made to feel as if I was being unreasonable and that everything was fine and I was being too picky.

After repeated occasions where plumbers etc had to be called out as waste was not draining away from the property it was discovered that 3 out of 4 drains had collapsed under the house.

The plumbing contractors are beyond incompetent. Issues have included taps connected incorrectly, loos not working/ flushing properly, sinks not fitted correctly, leaks in pipes and in trying to fix initial problems, more issues created resulting in a huge leak in shower room which damaged walls, ceilings, carpeting etc. 6 months on this is still not fixed.

In the recent heavy rain we have further water damage suggesting that the brickwork is substandard as well.

In trying to sort the shower room - the emergency plumber had to break into the walls to create a hole so he could have access to the problem. We then discovered empty drinks cans had been left behind the walls - just appalling!

I have lost count the number of times we have had to email or call with a number of messages being outright ignored. Promises made and broken on a regular basis.

Given what we were going through the Director of Construction paid a visit and promised emphatically that our awful experience to date was not the level of service we should expect to receive and matters would be sorted quickly. That was in May and things are still outstanding.

I also emailed the Managing Director of Housing. Initially she responded - but only the once. One of her assistants was in touch again promising that things would be sorted, but sadly all empty promises.

Their tag line is that they are large enough to deliver and small enough to care. I stressed that neither of these applied to our experiences to date and beyond a promise that things would be sorted - nothing has changed.

I echo others comments and would say avoid, avoid, avoid this builder.

We purchased a home with Balfour in June this year. It started off fantastic, the house was lovely and the staff were extremely helpful.

The on site team were really good and we agreed a 7 day snag list.

Fast forward 4 months and most the items on the snag list are still outstanding and they are not small issues:

- En-suite bathroom flooded on day 1 which caused damage to kitchen ceiling. 4 months on and we are still without the shower and ceiling with damp plasterboard

- No heating downstairs at all as radiators plumbed incorrectly

- Taps fitted the wrong way round

There are lots more. They do not answer the phone or return calls. When they finally get in touch they make promises but never see it through.

You have been warned, the houses look nice but the aftercare is shocking so would honestly avoid.

Unprofessional staff, a member of my team went into greggs for lunch and member of balfour staff started shouting, swearing and wanted him to go out side so he could attack him, this is so unprofessional for a company like this. And if balfour do read this and care which I doubt by reading other reviews they where working at Bicton Heath in Shrewsbury