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
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