Aftercare in your new-build home

Please contact us if you need to report a defect. Alternatively, if you're registered on MySovereign, you can login to report a defect online.

Before reporting a defect

Check the user manual guides provided in your handover pack. Follow instructions provided to see if you can easily and safely fix the issue yourself

• Check that any gas or electrical issues are not due to local works being carried out in the area
• Be sure that the issue was a result of poor workmanship or poor quality of materials
• If you are able to, take a photo of the issue and send it to our customer contact team.
• Check our FAQs below and what you can expect in a new build house.

A defect is an issue in the home that is due to the design, materials or workmanship of the developer. Whilst new homes are known for needing time to ‘breathe’ or ‘settle’, defects are more serious faults with the build or quality of your home that may need attention.

It is not a repair, damage, settlement or a homeowner maintenance issue. Some things are your responsibility to maintain; for example re-pressurising a boiler or maintaining the garden. Please see the section below about common issues. Defects are not cosmetic flaws and any cosmetic issues that were not picked up when the property was handed over to Sovereign are not defects.

Once you have contacted Sovereign, we make contact with the developer and tell them about the defect. It could be the developer or one of their sub-contractors who attends to the defect.

Your new property has a 12 month ‘defect liability period’ in which the developer is responsible to attend to defects at your property. This is because we know that the property needs to dry out and settle during this time and therefore we expect some defects to occur. At the end of this period, we will contact you to let you know that that this period is coming to an end and that your property will be inspected.

Please note that the defects period last one year from the date the property has been given to Sovereign, not from your move in date.

Someone from Sovereign and the developer will come to your house to identify any remaining defects. This is your last chance to let them know about issues that they are responsible for resolving. Unfortunately, we are unable to rearrange these appointments so please try your best to be there. If the defect is not on the final inspection sheet the builder will not remedy it and you will be liable for rectifying it.

We suggest you put together a list of issues to discuss. Our representative will discuss these with you and agree which items should be treated as defects.

The developer will contact you to make arrangements to carry out the work. This will usually be within 3 months.

We try to minimise the amount of defects that we have at all of our properties to make sure that we are providing high quality homes for our residents. But some issues do not come to light until the house is in full use so we wouldn’t have been able to identify them. We do expect some defects to occur so don’t be alarmed if you do find an issue but please report is as soon as possible.

As the property settles and dries out, things might move a little bit. For example your doors and windows might settle in their frames a little and become difficult to open or close or small cracks might appear It’s extremely unlikely that these cracks are anything structurally significant, and they can normally be put right very easily with ordinary filler and a simple lick of paint during routine redecoration.

Sovereign will have been inspecting and checking your property throughout the whole build process. It will have been thoroughly ‘snagged’ to make sure that we are providing a really high quality home for our residents.

At the end of your defects liability period, you become responsible for all repairs in your home. If you live in a flat, Sovereign will have responsibility for communal areas and the structure of the building.

If you feel a problem is the result of poor workmanship or materials, you may be able to make a claim under your insurance policy (NHBC Buildmark Warranty, Premier Guarantee warranty or Zurich home insurance policy). Instructions to do this are in your welcome pack.

Developers will only take action (fix or arrange to be fixed) on defects that are logged within your home’s defect liability period. You’ll be told what this period is when you move in, but it’s usually 12 months from the date your home was handed over to Sovereign (it may vary depending on your developer).

When a defect is passed to the developer for action, we will, where possible, tell you how long it will take for it to be fixed. This depends on the type of defect, how difficult the fix is, and which developer built your home.

General defects will usually be completed within 20 working days but this may be longer, for example if a
specialist part is required.

If a defect is an emergency, developers will usually fix this within 24 hours of notification. Emergency defects are
those which cause:

• Risk of injury or serious endangerment to health of persons
• Undue hardship
• Extensive damage to property
• Loss of security

Some defects, depending on their nature, may not be fixed until the end of the defects liability period when it is more practical to do so.