Crest Nicholson Surrey reviews

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Customer service is appalling and non existent

Where do I start. Moved in to my beautiful home nearly 2 years ago on nine acres development - site manager was fab - sales ladies were lovely - had a few snags but promised they would get sorted.....14months in - nothing was sorted and Other problems started to develop - our back garden floods - we have had so many people round to tell us they don’t know why we flood and dig a hole to put gravel in to see if that helped (but still never re turfed the area just left us with a muddy puddle that fills with water).So now we are told we have been built on a very high water table and they knew we may have issues but they can sort it. Our garden is unusable in the summer after it rains as it floods and we are swamped with flies - and from September on when it rains the water just sits there and never goes away - it’s caused plants to die and grass to die 18 months later (Where we are now) they still haven’t sorted it. They ignore our emails and customer service team just don’t care and in fact find us an annoyance - I tell you what is an annoyance - spending nearly 800k on a house that’s got problems that need sorting in a timely manner.I could go on and on with this story - but the fact of the matter is that Crest just do not care about their customers. They will lie through their teeth to get you to part with your money - oh and do not use their solicitors no matter how much of a discount you get offered just don’t - and then when you are moved in they just couldn’t care less! It’s such a shame cause on the outside our house looks beautiful but our garden is just a disaster that needs sorting - not brain surgery just sort it.Nhbc now are involved and I’m hoping they will make Crest actually do the work they need to do to bring our house to a state that is commensurate with the price tag we paid.My advice is spend your money elsewhere - if you do use crest don’t expect customer service to do anything - don’t use their solicitor - ask questions about flooding and water tables and dont believe a word they say - they absolutely will lie.

Kirsty · 7 October 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

5 Bed c.700k, Bournville Park, Birmingham - Cowboys!

Dealing with cowboys...Received notice to complete - or pay a penalty and lose the house. Moved in and within 24 hours, leaks, stuff not plumbed in, incomplete finishing on almost everything, no lawns/landscaping, no access to a part of our plot for 4 months, shoddy customer service and poor workmanship, endless snag list, etc etc. Getting stuff done entails speaking to obtuse people who defend Crest to the hilt, and then take ages to take any action, if any, whilst the customer gets more and more stressed at having to justify (read “beg”) why the work needs doing in the first place. Errors of judgement on our part include not having the property snagged by a quantity surveyor, not losing my temper early enough, using their funded solicitors (who it turns out later were conflicted), relying on their historic reputation and listed status of the firm, letting them “project manage” the problems, believing them when they said they had undertaken rectification works, or were about to. I wouldn’t bother complaining to anyone as they don’t listen. The CEO doesn’t reply to letters and doesn’t have the courtesy to even acknowledge receipt either (that would have really calmed me down tbh). Presumably he’s inundated with other more severe complaints that need to be prioritised over ours. In summary, beautiful house, fantastic location, shoddy workmanship, poor quality finish, poor customer treatment and I suspect also, huge problems on the horizon that are probably quite fundamental in nature that we haven’t yet discovered.Update Oct 2020. Post-lockdown we realised there's no soundproofing. Anywhere. You can hear a conversation clearly in another room. That's a massive job to rectify! Crest have swerved out of any responsibility again.

Rezwan · 6 October 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Non-existant Customer Service

It's a shame that I'm writing this. As a first time buyer I was so excited, felt very comfortable and informed throughout the sales process and was able to reserve and complete in roughly 8 weeks (at the start of the pandemic). I dealt with two lovely sales representatives who answered all my questions, were professional and courteous throughout. I luckily managed to get keys the week lockdown started (end of March).And that is where the good news ends. Their Customer Service is non-existant. It was false hope from the initial welcome call from Customer Services saying if I needed anything, to please contact them. I sent a snagging report in June and since then it has been radio silence. I followed up in September, giving them fair opportunity to fully return to work and acknowledging there would be a back log. I was asked to confirm "What was outstanding?". Er...um... EVERYTHING! "Oh, can you send photos please?" Er...um...NO, the report is pretty detailed and the site/quality manager is welcome to come by as I'm working from home. Since 2 September I've followed up weekly, just asking for the site manager to give me a call to identify time scales and manage expectations and I've been told he will be in touch shortly. Clearly I have a very different understanding of "shortly" as 5 weeks later, I'm still waiting for the site manager to call.Based on the above, the Customer Service is appalling. As a first time buyer all the excitement of owning your first home is dampened by lack of professional behaviour and zero communication. I definitely won't be looking to buy another Crest Nicholson home in the future.

CandiceJ · 5 October 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

know well about key elements related with the property

The introduction about the property made me very impressing, and clear showing layout of the floors, and out look of the house, as well as community information is very helpful

Zhou · 25 April 2023

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Friendly helpful staff

Friendly helpful staff, answered all queries

Bryn · 25 September 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Great experience and very professional…

Great experience and very professional service. Would recommend to friends and family. Guys at Wycke place made me feel very comfortable and from the initial call, I knew I wanted to buy my home from these guys. Thank you so much!

KS · 6 February 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Arborfield Green

Crest Nicholson have been amazing so far helping me and my partner buy our first property at Arborfield Green. Always very fast to answer any queries either by phone or email and always happy to help. I can highly recommend them! 5 stars from me

Mark · 29 May 2021

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

In the process of buying a 4 bed…

In the process of buying a 4 bed detached house for £475K. We are 6 weeks from completion, just been told by Crest Nicholson that the marketing brochure and show house we bought the house on, wasn't worth the paper it is written on. They have down spec'd our house to the basics of a council house and stuck 2 fingers up at us. So unprofessional to pull this stunt on first time buyers, especially as they agreed to pay the stamp duty and now don't have to pay it. They are making money on our misery.

B · 10 September 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Nobody wants to know your issues

Awful company, I live in Tadpole Garden Village in Swindon, it's run like a clumsy dictatorship with no community engagement or thought about the residents. They sell you a vision of wildlife and family living, then put up signs telling you not to feed the ducks, leave bits of the broken play areas fenced off, overflowing bins and dug up roads seem permanent.Now to top it all off they've closed the parks again and blamed Corona (despite being in complete contradiction to government advice). No announcement, just took the swings down and tape up so it looks vandalised. The "temporary" concrete blocks, with graffiti on, to keep travellers out really add to the vandalised look.You can never get hold of anyone in authority, just the poor people in the call centre who you know agree with you and are just doing their job, they don't even argue with you, just politely listen. The company constantly abdicate responsibility for anything, just giving you a sorry cut and paste reply with no justification for anything.

James · 4 September 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Crest Nicholson are an utter disgrace

Crest Nicholson are a disgrace, I have no other way of summing them up. I spend over £500K on a home with them in Harrietsham, Kent. I was sold (by several associates) a home looking onto a beautiful green space with wildflower and grass that our children could play on. This was due to be completed 14 days after we moved in in September 2018. Two years later and it's been a nightmare. We had a metal fence 10 feed from our door for 18 months, over 12 weeks of noise from huge machines moving earth, a 20-foot hill blocking the light into my upstairs window, weeds 4 feet high across the entire green space and no completed roads.Almost 2 years on and it's a muddy, weedy mess, totally unfinished. It's dragging the cost of my home down, and it'll make it harder for me to sell the property.The communication from Crest has been non-existing for the most part and extremely arrogant.This was my first purchase and I'm so regretful to have purchased the house. I'd never purchase with Crest again, and I've insisted that friends and family in the areas move to other developments (Barratts less than 300M away).

Alex · 3 August 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Our experience as first time buyers

Our experience as first time buyers with Crest Nicholson has been so smooth. The development team at Henley Gate are so helpful and welcoming we really felt catered for and able to ask any questions we needed to!Thank you so much

Williams · 8 January 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Excellent customer service

Excellent customer service - Sara and Chloe in particular, were fantastic. The whole process moved very quickly; every question and query was answered in a timely and accurate fashion. The company showed a real desire to work with us, which was much-needed and appreciated.

Matt · 19 June 2021

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Friendly and professional

Friendly and professional. Really good knowledge of the building and good recommendations.

Amalia · 31 May 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Very helpful staff who made reservation…

Very helpful staff who made reservation at Brightwells Yard very easy.

SC · 16 June 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I am not writing this because I want to…

I am not writing this because I want to damage the failing reputation of Crest Nicholson, they are doing a great job of that! But I do want to warn all potential customers that have worked hard to save their money and are excited about buying and owning their own homes - do not buy from this company. You will be disappointed, frustrated, let down, lied to and dare I say it, ripped off. You deserve better, look elsewhere.

Jackie · 21 September 2020

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

Just came back from their office in…

Just came back from their office in Solihull Blythe Valley to talk about 4 bedrooms houses up to 550k and I have to say I have wasted my time. You really have to want to buy... Digging for information about the properties and plots available, incredible. Basically recommended me to keep watching at their website until houses are released. Disappointed. Will send our money somewhere else, probably at Bellway few miles away as the behaviour and approach of the sales person has been outstanding.

Guimoul · 7 June 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I am trying to arrange a viewing in the…

I am trying to arrange a viewing in the TANGIER GARDENS development. For 2 days now I have been telephoning to make an appointment to view.No reponse to email, no reponse to telephone call's.Maybe this tells me all I need to know about this company.

JOHN · 17 March 2021

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Viewing at Aspen grange stowmarket

Viewing at Aspen grange stowmarket. Staff are very friendly and looks like it will be a good development

A.Alderton · 28 January 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Good customer experience

All questions were answered, and reception was great.

Gbenga · 5 August 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

The staff was welcoming and patient.The…

The staff was welcoming and patient.The houses are beautiful.Quite homely.

Chetachi · 30 June 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Customer friendly and informative

Customer friendly and informative when visited the Cringleford Heights development

Shyam · 28 June 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

BEWARE EVER INCREASING MANAGEMENT FEES COVENANTS WHICH MEAN NOTHING BAD WORKMANSHIP

When we paid a lot of money for a Crest Nicholson house over 2 years ago the Crest representative did not mention a word about MANAGEMENT FEES . The only time these became apparent were when it was too late to back out and our solicitors happened to mention in passing we need to pay Crest 6 months fees in advance ! We had no idea buying a new build property freehold that you are required to pay management fees and allthough you own the property freehold you are still classed as a TENNANT on all the correspondence from the "MANAGING AGENTS " who we really believe are A subsidiary company of crest as they use the same address in Surrey .It turns out not only do you pay Council tax but also pay the management fees due to the land not being adopted by the Council . We would have never bought a home knowing we were tied into these fees which are not regulated by any laws and they can and do keep INCREASING them . At the end of each year or at half year they will say that they have underestimated certain costs and we have to pay even MORE money,if you don't they tell you in no uncertain words that you will be libel for admin charges and will be eventually taken to court to recover costs . For what you get charged they do very little employing useless firms to Mow grass which is the only thing we actually see them do . The lights on a green space path were on all day every day last summer wasting electricity and NOTHING got done about it however when it came to the bill they had under estimated the cost of electricity usage ! It beggars belief . We were charged the extra cost , plus the accountants decided they wanted more money and the company secretary of the management company also put their fees up . There really should be a law against this . It is daylight robbery . The Crest rep did not inform us that there was no fast fibre broadband in this area and there are no plans to install this by any of the broadband companies,the phone signal is also very poor .You are also told that to keep "standards" on this estate that the Covenants state no Estate Agent signs are allowed and that no Commercial vehicles are allowed to park on site .So within weeks of being here Crest themselves decide to use a local agent to sell one of the last houses remaining and put a board up outside the house ! The estate now has more than its fair share of vans,pickup trucks etc which are being parked up outside other residents properties because the owners of these favour parking their 2 cars in their allocated parking spaces not the vans .The point here is why do crest make such a thing about these rules when they mean absolutely nothing .The management company won't get involved but you are sold this Lifestyle which is far from the truth .The workmanship on the house is dreadful ,We could list about 100 things which are not right but We try to be realistic and believe you will never get perfection and to be honest sick of workman coming round to rectify work other contractors should have done properly and often causing more problems by disturbing something that wasn't faulty in the first place. Some things of note though are as follows the gutters leak and seem to have lots of masonry in them .The contractors who did the guttering have been back 4 times to do a piece on the garage guttering and seem to treat it all as some sort of joke . We are sure the house has no insulation or sound proofing what so ever .Reading other reviews people have said that party walls are so bad that it's like being in your neighbors front room .If you remove one of the downstairs down lights and put your phone in the hole and take a picture you will see no insulation between the floors what so ever ,you can go in the garden and hear the TV as loud as anything if you play music in the kitchen with the doors and windows closed you can hear it in the garden .The double glazing is useless the extractor fans in the kitchen useless.We are selling ASAP it is so stressful

Miles · 30 April 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

My Husband and I in December 2019…

My Husband and I in December 2019 bought a home with Crest Nicholson at their Harborne Manor development in Stoke Mandeville. Our experience with the team has been excellent throughout. Suzie and Matt in the Sales team made the whole process beginning to end as seamless as physically possible, helping ensure we were able to move as quickly as we wanted to. After care provided from David has also been excellent. David attended our home having allowed us a period of settling in to identify any snags we may have found and all have been kindly rectified by his team and the on-site team run by Ben and Johnny - both of whom regularly check-in to make sure everything is going ok. We cannot fault the care and attention given by all Crest staff we have come into contact with and would highly recommend anyone to buy a home with them. So much so, my parents and brother are actually looking to move in to the same development as us and have equally had a positive experience with the Crest team.Thank you Crest Harborne Manor for all your continued help and hard work.

Eleanor · 22 April 2020

★★★★★ 4/5

Trustpilot

We love our home and developers

We love our home and crest Nicholson have done a great job. The house is exceeds that of other developers in build quality. Unfortunately their first builders made some mistakes when the development started but the current team couldn’t do enough now to put things right. Sasha who sold us our house is an excellent asset to the company and goes above and beyond to make you feel assured and fixes issues which are not normally her remit. We are awaiting the snag list to be completed and hopefully it will all be done once this corona nonsense is over.

Ashley · 7 April 2020