Cala Homes North Counties estate agents in Waterbeach, Chelmsford, Great Bentley and 2 more

★★★★★ 5/5

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Awesome builders and great support for…

Awesome builders and great support for the buyers all through

Ritesh · 1 July 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Cala @ Wellesley Aldershot 1 Year Review and horrendous experiences

I'm a neighbour of John C and the experience across our Mews estate from every home owner is identical. Some people, unfortunately, are not able to recognise poor quality or issues, so Cala are content with leaving it this way for them, as they provide the least hassle. It's ultimately very poor customer service, bordering on negligence and a huge lack of integrity and honesty. Like John, I wish to withdraw any previous rating, as it's all well and good selling the >£500k property - everyone is bound to be nice until exchange of contracts and they receive the money, but after an initial surge of activity, it's been hugely frustrating, disappointing, stressful and I've spent a LOT of time communicating, meeting tradies, briefing them on what they need to do, checking their work and finding it unsatisfactory, cleaning up after them, re-contacting Cala, sending emails about broken promises, dealing with people not qualified or competent to recognise the issues and finding myself negotiating with customer services about what they should do to remediate the issues.Some of the issues since June 2021:Air bricks falling out of wallRender repaired with different colour material (noting these are listed buildings)Wooden windows paint peeling due to lack of undercoat before top coatCarpets will not clean if a spill occurs, they just stainAir vents from house to patio - airway crushed and uselessInternal doors with horizontal features - do not line upUnder external render and below the garden soil surface - no new mortar in bricks, bricks fitted without mortar, old mortar turns to black dust on contactRear gutter down pipe backs up instead of drains creating water pooling and damp to sub soil brickwork.Fence posts not correctly concreted into the groundWindows sashes split and crackingExternal common areas totally unmanaged to the point where weeds are past the window sill and grass is 12 inches long.Cracked brickwork where fence post has been incorrectly anchored using an expansion bolt into the soft heritage style brick.Iron railings front and rear corroding badlyDoor frame adjusted but job not made good filling nail holes, paintwork or hoovering up mess on floor.Scratched double glazed glass units in patio doors replaced with scratched units.Sagging and cracking plasterboard due to incorrect fixing to walls.I'm now at the stage where I am fixing thing because it is just too much hassle to have a poor quality tradie come in, screw it up and leave a mess, only for me to restart the complaint cycle.I suppose this is what Cala want, as it removes the burden from them, but I feel sorry for those who do not have the skills to do it themselves, or choose not to.Cala - you CAN do MUCH better. If you allocated a couple of dedicated tradies to the Mews for a week, many people w0uld be happy.If you compensated us for the time spent fixing your VERY poor quality standards of work in places, then we'd be happier.If you gave me the opportunity to engage my own trusted tradie to do the work and covered the bill, as you have refused to do this time after time, then that is my ideal position.I don't want to manage the issues....that is your job, but the more time I spend doing this due to the lack of communication and clarity about the fault, fault location, ideal outcome, timeframe, standard of work and clean up, etc, at your end to tradies.I have landscapers that have been booked for 5 months coming in on the 10th July. They will not be able to progress without the drainage and lack of mortar issues being resolved. Your answer was to state that everything has been Heritage England inspected, so it should be fine, and I should contact NHBC, who might take 2 months to respond (thanks for pointing that out!).More stress. More frustration. More broken promises. Unacceptable. Poor customer service. We're a VERY unhappy family.Potential buyers - do your research, take lightly Cala's promises, negotiate your price down to potentially compensate you for all the stress you will undoubtedly go through post sale. Don't accept their low standards. Keep pushing for the right thing to be done, not the easy thing!

Gary · 1 July 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Really poor after sales service, broken promises.

Bought our home in Dec 2018 and it’s lovely (but that’s what we paid for). We had a lot of snags and there was decent effort from Cala at the start to sort a few of them but that soon subsided. We have complained many times about the need to complete our home, but it’s been ignored. The last contact we had was September 2021 when someone came out, looked at the house and said he would finalise work and come back to us the following Monday. Still waiting to hear and our chasers get ignored or fobbed off. It seems they give their teams really long holidays - we chased in April and were told no update was available as someone was on holiday. They are going to reply on their return…apparently….I need to find a job where I get > 2 months’ holiday!Update: Cala commented below to say we’d get an update today. To be clear - we won’t! Apparently there is another holiday preventing that from happening. We’ve been told we’ll get one on Monday - happy to take bets from people on whether this will happen…. Only 3 years and 8 months after we move in!

Anon · 30 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

The staff and Cala Bagshot

The staff and Cala Bagshot, have been very good and kept us up to date with how things are progressing on the development and the plots we are interested in. The communication has been fantastic and Deborah and David have been a pleasure getting to know. We have now reserved a plot and very happy and cannot wait to move into our new home.

Carla · 27 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

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Early days at the moment but great so…

Early days at the moment but great so far.

TH · 24 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Poor Customer Service

Purchased new, CALA initially gave good first impressions and the the first few months of ownership were fine. Whilst every new house isn’t perfect, the list of remedial works soon built up and there the problems started. Standards of after-sales/customer service were, and still are well below the standard expected and communication between their team is poor. The development has its own social media group and we are quite literally fed up with Cala homes. I am still chasing works that appeared 4 years ago by claims they have been completed. My overall experience has been poor, customer service has been poor and follow-up action by Cala, poor. I have little confidence in the few remaking jobs being completed and would advise caution when considering their services.

Simon · 24 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Excellent Customer Service

My Wife and I have recently reserved a CALA house in Aberdour. The customer service we have received from the CALA staff we have dealt with throughout the process has been exemplary. In particular, Sunnie, our customer advisor has been a delight and so helpful and efficient every step of the way. On those rare occasions where she did not immediately have the answer to a query she would find out and come back to us quickly. Over the last forty years we have purchased a number of new build homes and in our experience, this level of personal attentiveness and customer service is rare in the housebuilding sector. I would not normally post a review until the whole purchase process was complete, but, the help, assistance and level of service we have received to date has made it such a positive experience, I decided to provide this feedback after the reservation stage, with confidence that the service still to come will be just as good.

Peter · 23 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 4/5

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The sales women was very polite and let…

The sales women was very polite and let us in to see the show homes without having the appointment and also helped us to reserve the plot on the same day. It was a very quick process.

Vishwanath_Thamagonda · 23 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

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Fantastic service!!

Rating only, no written review.

Ally_rutherford · 21 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

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I found Cala Homes very efficient and…

I found Cala Homes very efficient and friendly. All my questions and emails were answered promptly. The whole process was dealt with very smoothly. It has been a pleasure dealing with Cala Homes.

Anthony_Goodman · 20 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

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excellent service from bee and her…

excellent service from bee and her staff had a security problem with my wife's id which was sorted promptly looking forward to the next visit

Kevin_Craig · 20 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Excellent

So far my experience with Cala has been excellent. The members of staff, sales advisors at the Prince's Quay site, I have encountered in person and on the phone all been friendly and efficient. I have felt supported throughout these early processes of buying a flat from Cala.

Norma_Aldred · 16 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

issue after issue with our property

issue after issue with our property , sucked in by the Cala propaganda , whistling windows for 9months , internal doors needing replaced , snagging repairs making original issue worse , question over garden levels , as constantly flooding etc etc etc now at the stage where we wantsenior management as customer care isn’t enough to remedy our issues . no hurry either to fix problems . would i buy cala again - absolutely not

Customer · 14 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

So far excellent

Rating only, no written review.

Milan_Knapik · 13 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Absolutely terrible experience

Absolutely terrible experience. Cala lure you in with high quality new houses, that look great from the outside. What they miss from the sales pitch is that all the building works are done as cheaply as possible with substandard materials, that will pack up the minute the 2 year warranty is over and CALA will wash their hands of you. I had major problems with two of my toilets as a result of incorrectly fitted pipework, the boiler had a pipe installed upside down resulting in costly repairs, a leak from the bathroom because the bath wasnt installed properly and structural issues with the carport. I have been chasing CALA for months and their customer service is dreadful. It is such a shame and has dampened my experience of living here.

Pippa · 10 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 4/5

Google

A well constructed range of 3/4 bed houses, detached and semis. Many wirh a nice outlook over farmland,... for as long as it remains that way.

Roamers · 10 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Great Bentley

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Extremely disappointed

Extremely disappointed with the service I have received since purchasing my new property at Jocelin Gardens. The sales staff were rude and dismissive - apart from one team member. I moved in and the property was dirty and full of snags. I was shocked at how bad a condition it was handed over to me in. I understand there are always snags in a new build but I was dismissed by the flat manager as if I was an idiot even though there were clearly things that needed addressed. I had to then raise it with customer care despite the fact site were meant to be dealing with it as the flat made no progress after months of chasing. I’ve had my keys since October and still have a long list of snags to be addressed. Some of which I’d be surprised if they ever are. I’ve had to raise the issues even higher than customer care as they have never have wanted to accept liability and simply don’t care to remedy the issues. The blame is always passed to someone else. I wasted time meeting the sales manager and contract manager only to be in the same position two months later. If I could go back in time and not purchase the property believe me I would because the stress and time this has cost me is quite frankly not worth it. This is my first home that I have purchased on my own and the experience has been awful, not exciting or enjoyable. Cala advertise themselves as a ‘5 star builder’ but this is absolutely not my experience and judging by the majority of reviews on here, it’s a common consensus. If I could make any recommendations it would be that you don’t purchase a Cala home. Once Cala have your money they really don’t care. They’re more concerned with rapidly building the other homes than looking after clients that are already moved in.In response to Cala’s reply. I work full time in an office so yes obviously I’m not going to be able to be here at the drop of a hat whenever suits you. Hence why I asked at the start for my repairs to be carried out before I moved in where there were 3 months before I moved in that the work could be done in an empty flat which would be easier for all parties so it’s really not my fault that it’s not been done. I take offence to your reply. A painter was due to come six weeks ago and that’s still not been rescheduled despite it being your mistake they didn’t show when I took the day off work and waited in all day and cleared the flat for it. I’ve had my keys since October 2021 and I’ve still not signed off on my initial snags. Cala also never called me today but had time to respond to this review. Shocking!

Anon · 9 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

The sales team were excellent and very…

The sales team were excellent and very supportive in guiding us through the process

MA · 9 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Overall Horrible Experience

Horrible experience after sales..Leakage issue in 2 of our toilets out of 3. One we really had to push very hard and wait for months to convince CALA that there our whole toilet floor is damaged. They had to change toilet and the whole floor as it was a major leakage. The second one we have noticed 3 months after our 2 year warranty period so they do not accept any responsibility now. So we have to change plumbing, flooring, and toilet at our cost due to poor materials and workmanship of CALA. We have not been using the 3rd toilet but I'm 100% sure there will be issues once we start to use it. Imagine how could it be this difficult to build a proper toilet for a builder!Impossible to talk to anyone from customer service. I believe they have a strategy in place : If you do not chase them for months they just ignore you and hope you do not contact them again. If you continue to pursue your case then they accept their defeat and start to respond to you every now and then.Very poor workmanship, customer service is shockingly unhelpful. It has been very disappointing experience and we have wasted our hours to just to reach out to them. Through social media, countless of emails, countless of unanswered phone calls...Sales team draws you a completely different picture but reality is very far from it. Everybody lies to you and hope that you'll forget their promises and will not contact them again.STAY AWAY IF YOU CAN! Or accept the frustration from the start!

Elif · 9 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 4/5

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M.R.

Very polite and helpful assistants.good explains and helps.thank you

Mantas_Rauba · 8 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

bad website please get better

Rating only, no written review.

Caelan · 7 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

We received a fantastic service to help…

We received a fantastic service to help us buy our new home.

Anon · 5 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Cala have been outstanding throughout

Cala have been outstanding throughout - a huge mention to Nick and Lance at St Peters Quarter - such genuine and helpful guys - couldnt have done it without them!

Ellie · 3 June 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

An unbelievable experience with Cala…

An unbelievable experience with Cala Homes! The company have no customer values or respect. After interest in one of their Ayslett’s properties and putting in an offer they had no professional conduct of responding or contacting me. The response from Mr Copper left me dumb founded. If this is the way they treat customers before buying, I dread to think how they treat you afterwards and with any property issues!

Jonathan · 30 May 2022 · Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach