The Abel Homes Customer Charter

This is our Customer Charter. It sets out our commitments to provide you with service, procedures and information at appropriate stages during your purchase.

1. We will give you a copy of our Customer Charter if you ask for one. We will automatically give you a copy if you reserve a property.
2. We will train our staff to understand their responsibilities in our dealings with you and what the Customer Charter means for you.
3. We will give you the detailed pre-contract information you need to make an informed decision about buying the property. We will seek to ensure that you appoint your own professional legal advisor to carry out the legal formalities of buying the property and to represent your interests.
4. We will let you know who to contact at every stage of your purchase, who to contact regarding any relevant choices and options you can consider and who to contact after the occupation of your new home.
5. We will give you Health and Safety advice to reduce, as far as possible, the risk of danger on the development site during construction and in accessing your home during construction.
6. Our marketing and advertising will be clear and truthful.
7. Our contract-of-sale terms and conditions will be clear and fair.
8. We will make clear to you your cancellation rights.
   When you reserve one of our properties you will be required to pay a deposit. This deposit reserves the property exclusively for you until the exchange deadline. Should you wish to withdraw from the agreement to purchase the property for any reason prior to exchange of contacts or do not exchange before the set deadline, we reserve the right to deduct our reasonable administrative fees and other costs incurred in processing and holding the reservation from the deposit you have paid and sell the plot to another party. Any remaining balance will be repaid to you.
9. We will give you reliable information about the 10 year NHBC Buildmark Cover Standard 10 Warranty and any other guarantees and warranties from which you may benefit.
   Appliances and white goods included in the purchase price are covered by the manufacturers warranty for 1 or 2 years; information about these warranties will be included in your handover folder.
10. We will explain how we protect your deposit and how we deal with any other pre-payments.
    Your deposit will be held within our “client account” and will not be accessed until legal completion has taken place, unless instructed by you, e.g. if you wish for the reservation deposit to be used as part of your exchange deposit.  The same applies to any money you pay towards any customer choices and options you request.  This protects your money in the unlikely event that we become insolvent.
11. We will give you reliable information about the timing of construction, legal completion and handover of the property. Once a completion date is agreed we will ensure that the transfer of ownership takes place and the functions and facilities of the property are explained to you.
12. We will inform you clearly about the after-sale and emergency services that we will provide for a certain period after completion. This information will be provided in the hand-over folder which will be given to you on the completion day.
13. We will ensure that your new home is completed, cleaned and ready for living upon handover.
14. We will tell you about our procedures for dealing with customer complaints, including the availability of any services that can help resolve complaints about warranties.
    Should you experience problems with your new home after moving in, our service continues after the sale has been completed. For the first 2 years, we are required under the terms of the NHBC Buildmark policy/Zurich Standard 10 Warranty to carry out works that fall within the terms of the warranty and we will repair defects in your home under the terms of NHBC’s Buildmark cover/Zurich Standard 10 Warranty. However, we are not responsible for problems caused by wear and tear, decorating and routine maintenance, you are responsible for these items, nor are we responsible for storm damage which is usually covered by your home insurers.
    If we fail to rectify problems with your property, the NHBC and Zurich provide a free Resolution Service which will investigate defects covered by the NHBC Buildmark Cover/Zurich Standard 10 policy and aim to resolve disputes between you and us. Under the Resolution Service, the NHBC and Zurich can also help arrange the remedial work needed to put things right if we fail to do so.
15. We will co-operate with appropriately qualified professional advisors you have appointed to help resolve disputes.

Our Customer Charter commitments do not affect your statutory rights.