Avant Homes Midlands Derby reviews

★★★★★ 3/5

Trustpilot

Absolute terrible service

Absolute terrible service. Bought house April 2021. Didn't get certificates for property. After a lot of faffing got copies. Garden becomes water logged as solid clay soil with building materials and rocks/stones. To be fair as house was built prior to take over not had too many problems barring hob never connected, drawer fronts of some kitchen units keep falling off and terrible drafts through outside doors, bifold door hinge screws sheering off . Luckily as I am an electrical contractor and have tools I have mostly fixed myself. Some neighbours have had much worse experiences as bought after takeover.

John · 19 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Terrible customer service

Terrible customer serviceThere groundwork’s contractor Esh has caused damage to my property and they will do nothing about it, called Avant twice now and no call back. The lady on reception seemed genuine but no one bothers to return phone calls.The groundwork contractor came to my property to inspect the damage, advised me to go ahead and get the damage repaired then they will pay the costs. After work completed the contractor asked me to prove it was them that caused the damage.I have the contractor on my cameras and everything.As soon as the show home opens there will be a nice big sign on my fence saying what I think of avant and this is opposite the show home in Ingleby Barwick 😁

Andrew · 18 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

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Worst customer service you could…

Worst customer service you could possibly imagine. They will do the bare minimum and as soon as the 2 year period is up they won’t even entertain you. I have rising damp which comes under structural and they wouldn’t even send someone out to look, I’m now having to go through NHBC. Iv had aggressive behaviour from the site manager at Peerfields in County Durham, stairing me out in the street and I have CCTV of him looking through my windows which I’d post if I could. These people have no conscience and apparently no consequences for their actions. They advertise as upper market builder but that stops at the equipment they use, the installation is shocking and the treatment you’ll get is worse. Iv been in my house 3+ years now and still have no tarmac on the roads of paths, 2 leaking bathrooms and rising damp. With no end in site. STAY AWAY

Andrew · 15 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

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Worse than persimmon

Worse than persimmon! They sell you the dream, they treat you like royalty, up until that final survey is submitted! After that they could not care less about you. Customer service is none existent, you get the same blunt response each time. We endured years of building works opposite us, disruption , noise and mess. No consideration to owners around them whilst working, blocking drives, blocking roads, leaving mess, disruptive behaviour and most of all constant foul language. The standard of the house is great, but botch job repairs if your are lucky to get them out to do them. Still have a cracked tile but because they have no record of it been reported they won’t repair. Would never buy an Avant home again. And would never recommend to a friend or family member. AVOID, there is way better out there.

Ash · 15 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Take your money elsewhere.

Went to go view a house at avant and the customer service is awful. Went to two sites to view two different houses and the staff didn't have a clue. Asked about the 10 year guarantee, asked about part exchange and how to start the ball rolling. Met with blank stares. The staff clearly don't know their product and expect them to sell themselves. Took my business to two other new estates and was actually shocked at the stark difference between them. Shame, as the avant house we loved, but clearly they don't invest in staff training or customer service.We also walked around the estate after viewing, a current owner told us to beware of buying an avant house. Not a good representation of the company if people living in the houses, show you around theirs and all the issues they have with it.

Tommo · 14 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

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Live for wow! Wow at the lack of customer service!

If I could give no stars I would! Considering purchasing a house is the biggest purchase of your life to say it’s been disappointing is the biggest understatement I could make. Don’t get me wrong the sales and completion process was all fine at Highstonehall in Hamilton but once they had our money forget it! Over two years on and covid still being used as an excuse for incomplete snags/works. Customer service is non existent to the point our calls are now ignored unless we withhold our phone number and emails go unanswered. In just over two years we have had 5 floods/ water ingress issues, the most recent of which happened last week ruining our flooring and resulting in two holes being cut in the wall. Naturally I would of went through insurance but given this flood was a result of a faulty part (the same one had failed in our en-suite late last year and avant admitted these were no longer used as they are known to fail at around the two year mark). Naturally now this part has failed and caused damage in our downstairs they are refusing to acknowledge this fault and fob us off to insurance to fix it as we are just outwith our two years. However, they repaired works for our neighbours last year when the same thing happened and they were outwith their warranty. Obviously a result in change of management or lack of!! At the time of the flood we were told by Dawn at customer service that the site manager would be out and would get a report together of what needed replaced. This then never materialised. No plumber was sent and we were left to our own devisees to get a plumber out and all the time they knew we had a 3 month old baby in the house and no water! The next day we were told repeatedly that the manager of customer service would phone. A week on we are still waiting and have been ignored and hung up on. Dealing with Avant is a full time job in itself! Disgusted doesn’t even cover it!! Live for wow… certainly a good Tagline if you wish to hand over your hard earned cash and receive zero customer service and shoddy workmanship at best! I work in customer service and sales myself and if I behaved in this manner I wouldn’t have a job! Outrageous!

Ian · 14 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!!!

Having owned my Avant home for a few years now, I feel only now can I give my honest review of the house and services received from Avant.The house, is fine. Built to a good specification and fortunately the standard and quality of the workmanship is pretty good too (apart from the front door supplier they use - Solar Calibre).My issue comes, with any snags and any involvement with the customer services team and associated team leaders/managing directors. They don't follow any complaints procedures despite being publised on there website. It is a constant battle to resolve problems.I would certainly think twice about purchasing another Avant Home, due to the after sales service.

Craig · 14 March 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Grateful for the useful advice by the sales advisor

We are first-time buyers and we have little knowledge about buying a new home. We would like to thank the sales advisor for helping us with our purchase of our new home. She is really helpful and nice. She explains everything clearly and patiently. We get very useful and professional advice on the house type, the options and extras etc. She keeps us updated about the progress of our lovely home. We will move in our new home soon and we get very excited.

Mr · 12 March 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

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Avant Homes-Jackton Green

First class service from Avant homes at Jackton Green. I haven’t bought a new build property before but I have felt fully supported throughout the process. Nothing is a bother for the Regional Sales Advisor whom I met and it is lovely to meet someone who genuinely cares for people. My family and I have received such a warm welcome to the development. She is certainly in the right job! I cannot wait to move into my new home and I would highly recommend Avant to anyone.

Nicola · 12 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Not even worthy of the 1 Star

Not even worthy of the 1 Star. We have had numerous issues with our Avant Home. Purchased a Cotham for over £500,000 and moved in December 2021. Since this time we’ve had email battles (as customer service refuse to pick up the phone and speak to their customers) every week. Water pressure issues, faults with pretty much all fittings breaking (cheap crap materials fitted) granite work top cracked, floor tiles cracked (all which we paid a considerable amount for as ‘extras’) refused to be repaired under warranty. The girl in customer service needs serious training on Avant Warranties and what’s covered. Service manager simply brushes customers off. Both could do with basic conversation training and how to actually speak to people, there are other words in the English dictionary other than ‘not covered under warranty’. Seriously would not EVER buy a home from Avant again. Bought this house as our ‘forever home’ we’ve already started looking for a new house. This one isn’t fit for the dog. Disgusting after care.*** I have responded to the below via the support email address provided, I will post any responses I receive going forward ******UPDATE- as suspected this was a generic email, I have also added another generic email received from ‘Customer Services’ stating as usual that we have damaged items that have been installed incorrectly and will not repair or replace. Disgusting. Email received from customer service- Good afternoon Carli, Apologies for the delay in coming back to you, I was awaiting a response from the granite company. We have passed on the photos that you provided and requested their opinion on the crack as they are the experts in this matter. Unfortunately they have come back to us and have advised that they are of the opinion that something has been dropped on the area causing the worktop to crack, and that this is impact damage. Regrettably with this being the feedback that we have received from them this is not something we would look to attend to as this is not covered under warranty. I understand that this is not the outcome that you were hoping for. If you would like to have your own report carried out by a granite expert, and if this shows that they believe this issue to be down to a fault, we would be happy to have a look at this, however at present we would not be able to assist with this issue. Kind regards, Customer Services Team​

Carli · 12 March 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

A lovely new home

As this was our first house we were a bit unsure of buying a new build property, but Avant and their solicitors made the process as easy as possible. Very responsive customer service from exchanging contracts last year, to getting in touch with the site managers now with any queries. Although the process for choosing extras could have been clearer as the spec changed during our build, but we are very happy with what we got in the end. Even if the kitchen choices were a bit bland for our tastes. A painless completion process, our solicitors were able to get all the paperwork through quickly on the day and we got to pick up the keys early in the day to start moving in. No major issues so far, a couple touch ups here and there, but no horror stories like what I've heard from other new builds.The builders are still on site and always willing to pop in and fix any small snags. We've now got a very nice house which is a million times better than anywhere we've lived before.

Josh · 11 March 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Just a really nice house

Just a really nice house! All the appliances are great, we even got some extras we didn't pay for that they just did anyway (e.g. integration of the washing machine, outside tap) which was a bonus. The site is still being worked on so it's a bit noisy on weekdays but that was to be expected. And the silver lining of that is that any issues have been dealt with pretty quickly as there's usually someone on site to take a look at an extractor fan that's not working or a doorbell that's temperamental. We've had to chase a couple of things like the painter touch ups but having come from rental propertie this isn't much of a bother. The site manager is lovely and helpful.We chose to do our own flooring which was obviously a faff but I'm glad we did in the end as we had more choice and got more for our money that way.

Heather · 10 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

If you're considering buying one of…

If you're considering buying one of their homes, don't!Our home is in Chacefield View and like many other houses within the estate is beset with poor quality workmanship and materials. Don't be fooled by their marketing slogans. The quality of the product and of the customer service has to be ranked as some of the worst on the market. A premium housebuilder they are not.We have had issues with external door handles, leaky showers, drainage issues, driveway not completed properly, uneven paths and drylining problems. The barrel in the front door lock mechanism had to be replaced within 2 years. The list goes on. If you're close by, take a drive around the estate and have a look at the workmanship of the exterior brickwork. The customer service manager had the audacity to suggest 'but it's in spec'. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. We don't live near the sea however most of the houses exterior walls are wavy........the problem is exacerbated when downlighters are fitted. Dreadful. I've been online and noticed lots of Persimmon sites suffering the same. It's like a match made in hell.Roads still aren't finished, there is no visitor parking and still we wait for replies. Avoid at all costs.

Chris · 9 March 2022

★★★★★ 4/5

Trustpilot

Lewis has been great

Lewis has been great, kind , helpful and genuine sales person. Put us at ease and was reassuring. Excellent customer service skills . I’d recommend to see him again

LD · 7 October 2024

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

-Portlands Creswell- sales team have been horrendous from start to finish.

-Terrible customer service, no empathy, no care or thought goes into the customer, how we feel or what we have been promised- despite avant being unable to deliver and denying what they have previously verbally promised -The house we was shown is not the house we have ended up with, lots of spec changes including a missing wall.- lots of snags caused by tradesmen being rushed by Avant to get things done rather than giving them an adequate amount of time to get things right the first time. Some snags made the home unsafe.I recommend getting everything in writing and checking over the paperwork with a legal professional before signing anything. All of the people on my road have made formal complaints to Avant about the same things.

Mollie · 7 March 2022

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

Site Management Unsatisfactory

Avant likes to present themselves as a premium house builder.The sales lady and the sales process was good but when it comes to the management of the site, customer service is shocking.We paid Avant to fit our floors because we needed to move in straight away and know that since lockdown waiting times for workmen has increased.Two days before we were due to get the keys I got a phone call with an update which ended with oh you've been spoken to about the floors. No, we had not. They had not been fitted.This caused great upset as both myself and my partner had taken time of work to move in which we had to use up.When we got the keys the floor was still being fitted which meant that the house was not cleaned properly before moving in and you can tell with the fit that the job has been rushed.It then took 4 months for the floors to be sealed to make them fully waterproof.In addition to that trying to get snags fixed is ridiculous. 4 months in and our kitchen is still missing a kickboard and a drawer that was not fitted properly with no date of when this will be resolved and we have incorrect wardrobe doors which have not been re-fitted or even a date provided for when we should expect this.We are also awaiting a date to get the paint work touched up. We've been asking about this for the past 7 weeks. The site manager is supposed to take care of this but he does absolutely nothing.Anything that the after sales team can deal with on their own without site is resolved quickly.

Kerrie · 3 March 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Jackton Green - Biggest regret of my life. Mentally unwell from dealing with them.

We were sold what was described as a property in Jackton Green from a ‘5 Star’ builder. It should have been our dream first home but instead is a nightmare. The amount of frustration and stress Avant are causing me is making me mentally unwell and causing a flare up of an existing medical condition. We’ve had two instances of water ingress. The first was due an to an issue that was known to them and happened on a number of the other houses. The second was due to poorly fitted roof tiles, resulting in rain pouring in for weeks in winter. It was like watching the Chuckle Brothers trying to get up to fix it. They left a sewage venting pipe with a live open end. Should never have passed CML. This is a building regulation failure! My house was stinking of sewage. I have over 100 snags. There are definitely trends with mine (and other houses in the development) which suggest it’s not just a mistake but their general approach. Examples - every door handle loose and missing screws, every radiator not fitted properly, multiple houses having water ingress through a vent, uneven floors. One of the worst things for us is the absolutely shambolic taping and plastering. Full ceilings and walls in literally every room need ripped out and redone. Imagine the amount of mess this is going to cause. 5 doors need replaced. They’ve been telling us since March they had been ordered but then change their mind a couple weeks ago. Either misleading us or doing absolutely nothing. A contractor was meant to come out yesterday and didn’t show. They told me they can’t give too much specifics but they’ve had to cease working for Avant. They don’t deal with complaints. Snagging goes undone and even when it is, it’s still to a very poor standard. I’ve had to escalate to NHBC. They failed to respond to them in 5 days. I’ve had to escalate to their directors. They have blocked me on Facebook because I posted photos of the problems in my house for others to see. It says it all when a company silences customers rather than respond.I have receipts for all of this as proof!Buying from this company is the single biggest regret of my life. I fully expect to end up in litigation with this. Please save yourself the stress I am under and avoid avoid avoid.

Jade · 16 August 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Moved into new home 5 month ago

Moved into new home 5 month ago, over 25 snagging problems. Still waiting for 3 quarters to be resolved. Main ones being leak from bathroom in to kitchen below, no heating in day of moving in, fridge/freezer needed a new thermostat and is still not working correctly, three quarters of the kitchen needs replacing as badly fitted still waiting for that to be done. Currently we have a constant rattling sound above our bedroom window, we are unable to get a full nights sleep. We are constantly disturbed by the vibrating noise. Terrible customer service, no empathy to our personal situation. I appreciate things go wrong but it’s how you put them right and on this occasion they have failed completely. The house was not fit for purpose when we moved in.

CYP · 23 February 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Very underhand

Very underhand company. Reserved plot before Christmas, the directors have now reviewed it and are not willing to wait for our sale (which feels like a lie) we have a big deposit and are not in a chain. But they said that’s the decision and before they even told us the plot was back up for Sale for over £10k more!! The reality is the housing market has increased and they wanted more money from the sale!! Greedy company. Be careful!!

Kristen · 18 February 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

The service of Avant homes is…appalling.

The service of Avant homes is disgusting. I made the mistake of reserving a house in Leamington Spa early December, even though i had not seen the house internally because Avant homes "couldn't find the keys"! It was reserved under the proviso that i can have a full refund within seven days if i changed my mind - which I did. I even persuaded them to put it in an email. I called and emailed and filled out the necessary forms within three days. I have been chasing them ever since for my refund with no luck. i will be taking legal advice. They were quick enough to take my money. Their lack of communication is shocking.I am only giving a one star as it doesn't give the option to give no stars.

Pamela · 18 February 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

DO NOT BUY

Honestly where to start.. we bought our Avant home nearly 2 years ago and we have had endless issues! We bought a house on Chevin Park originally sold to its residents as a self contained village which would have its own amenities however, Avant are greedy and decided to fill it to the brim with houses instead which has put immense pressure on the local facilities due to the amount of people now living here. As per other reviews you will spend years after moving in chasing issues going round in circles, blaming others and promising call backs you never receive. Lauren head of customer services doesn’t reply to emails either even for serious issues! The Clock Tower building we live in has endless issues the ballroom roof is leaking the doors are broken leaving it open to security issues! The area behind the building ‘Highroyds Court’ has no street lighting and uneven tarmac the road sign has blow down numerous times. One of the main issues with the Clock Tower as a whole is the roofs and window sealants falling out due to cheap materials which Avant promised to follow up which they never have, the tiles on the roofs are falling off people have leaks in their homes! The list is endless! Avant are now trying to pass the site to a management company asap to wipe their hands of it all! Disgusting

Clock · 17 February 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Beautiful house.

Lynsey was very nice. Showed us around the home. They house is built to a high spec. Unfortunately for me it's about 50 minutes away so it will not work with my commitments. Would love to live there though.

Annet · 7 April 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Process of buying

Currently in the process of buying our first home, despite a few delays so far Sarah has been amazing since taking over our case at bishops quarter and answered any questions or eased any worries we’ve had promptly. 😊

Shania · 6 April 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Exciting Avant new build

After 40 wonderful years in our previous house it was with a certain amount of apprehension that we decided to slightly downsize and move into a new build with Avant. We needn’t have worried, the options of design were varied and exciting, the sales staff were friendly and knowledgeable and the whole event to moving in seamless. The quality of the house is excellent and with our own personal after sales service manager Laura to talk to regarding any problems we couldn’t be happier.Ian & Jan Robinson

Jan · 13 February 2022