National House Building Council - New Home Warranties and Build Standards

New Home Warranties and Build Standards

NHBC offers warranties for newly built or converted private housing, affordable housing, self-build homes and commercial premises located on mixed use housing schemes. Mortgage lenders will usually require that a warranty is in place before lending on a newly built property as detailed in the Council of Mortgage Lenders handbook.

Builders and developers who sell properties with NHBC warranties must adhere to NHBC's strict standards of construction contained in the NHBC Technical Standards in addition to complying with Building Regulations in the UK.

NHBC inspectors visit building sites at key stages to check compliance with its Technical Standards. The stages are usually (but can sometimes be more): foundations, drainage, superstructure (e.g. brickwork), pre-plaster and pre-handover to the buyer. For flats, they also inspect roof construction. The inspection process is not designed to check every detail of the build but if NHBC is satisfied with the overall build quality they will issue the warranty for the new home/premises.

Buildmark, the NHBC warranty for private housing is split into 2 parts. In the first 2 years, the builder is responsible for fixing any defects caused by its failure to build to NHBC Technical Standards. If the builder fails to do this or has gone out of business, NHBC will take responsibility to fix the defect. From the start of the third year until the home is 10 years old, NHBC is responsible for putting right defects to the structural and weather-proofing parts of the home caused by breaches of its Technical Standards.

Read more about this topic:  National House Building Council

Famous quotes containing the words home, build and/or standards:

    Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what’s sensible and what’s foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody.
    Willa Cather (1873–1947)

    I would build my house of crystal,
    With a solitary friend,
    Where the cold cracks like a pistol
    And the needle stands on end.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence. He’s got to have some inner standards worth fighting for or there won’t be any way to bring him into conflict. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it. That’s all there is to it.
    Clark Gable (1901–1960)