Cala Homes North Counties Waterbeach reviews

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Most awful builder

Most awful builder, bought house of them in last year May 21 and till date at the time of the writing of the review their handy man have been in and out of the house, most of the list is a snagging, i would the snagging as poor workmanship which is still pending, as the house should not have signed off as passed. I would not recommend this builder, you will part with your hard earned money and get headaches for years instead of enjoying your new home. To give few main examples (as the list is too long to be mentioned here), main door not hanged properly, all amtico flooring had to be replaced, even after replacing it was not good, as during construction Cala homes used cowboys to build and forgot to put proper floor boards(now we have to live with their bodge job), ventilation ducts not attached to fan, electric sockets wonky and wired into wrong switches, creaking floors, cheap mdf skirting boards which will come off in 2-3 years time, Cala homes market themselves as premium builder, what they charge and what you get is different. I would not recommend this builder, but if you are going to go ahead a full professional review is a must, finally buy tar your own risk, as after you will be chasing customer service team, days off work, work not finished, redecorate the house again……these are few pains you will go through.

Harry · 20 July 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I would definitely not buy a Cala Home…

I would definitely not buy a Cala Home at Hampton lakes Completion moved out 3 times from the agreed initial completion date - June 2022 to then November 2022 and now potentially October 2022 and beyond. I have required 3 different mortgage offers which have all expired over the period to accommodate their ongoing and continuous delays. The market rate I secured initially from my mortgage provider was 1.63% then 1.96% and now after placing an ever bigger deposit 3.9% all due to their delays and interest rates going up 4 times over the period. I wonder if I will need another mortgage offer and what rate that would be with further delays now anticipated. By chance, I visited the development recently and noticed a 1.8m wall being erected on the property boundary which separates our plot from the lake. The plot we purchased is on the lake the reason we purchased this plot and paid a premium was to be able to enjoy the open space from our garden. This 1.8m wall which is now being erected means that even though we are the property closest to the lake at wait for it "Hampton Lakes " separated by less than 2 meters from the water we cannot enjoy the view or open space they advertised and mislead us about. Rather we are boxed in, more so than my property in London which has lower walls and is to be expected in a concrete jungle. Cala's response to this is that we can see the lake from the balcony, they also omitted the very fact that they had unilaterally changed the height of this wall without informing us...Imagine buying a sea view home and then erecting a 1.8m wall directly in front to obstruct the Sea view??? Unbelievable.Beyond disappointed and cannot recommend this development or builder. BUYER BEWARE , TAKE PHOTOS OF EVERYTHING THEY SHARE WITH YOU AND TAKE NOTES.

Jade · 19 July 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

The best team and service

The best team and service, Hannah and her team have just been amazing we are so happy to be part of the Cala family and cannot wait to move in.

Allen · 9 October 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Had a viewing with Chloe at Barden…

Had a viewing with Chloe at Barden Croft around your lovely show home. So helpful and informative and was very impressed with the both Chloe, company and the show home. We have a lot to think about but will definitely be in touch Chloe. Thank you.

Georgia · 4 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Cala Homes West of Scotland Customer…

Cala Homes West of Scotland Customer Service is beyond a joke, totally can't believe that is Cala Homes standards. My new house had shower leaks just a few weeks after moving in (the issue was resolved later). My downstair washroom had toilet leak and caused impact on the floor. I have been communicating with their customer service for the downstair floor issue since Oct 2021. It took them several months to get an appointment booked (I had to explain to them that I understood their backlog post pandemic, I only wanted to have a date confirmed at this stage) and then nobody showed up on that day (I was told they left a voicemail, but nothing at all). I had to keep chasing them every few days and still no progress until now (I had been asked to provide floor material photos twice). I'm not a picky person (e.g. my front and back gardens are quite bumpy, never raised this concern to them), really running out patience on Cala Homes.

Jie · 8 July 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Snagging in Craibstone, Aberdeen

I had my two year snagging completed by Scott Downie, along with the support of Craig, at Craibstone today. Absolutely stellar and very professional service from them both today. Very friendly and went over and above to do a great job - my flat looks like new! Thank you

Kim · 16 September 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

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Chilton CALA review

Roger Newport was very helpful and friendly, got the job done really quick and good work quality.

Angela · 3 November 2023

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Good customer service experience

After a long period of various attempts to sort out our leaking Juliet balcony bedroom doors Vicky took over our case and oversaw the repairs from start to finish. Even when there was problems with outside agencies Vicky followed everything through professionally and thoroughly. Thanks again to Vicky!

Fiona · 30 September 2024

★★★★★ 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

★★★★★ 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

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

I would highly recommend Tomasz from…

I would highly recommend Tomasz from Cala,he is very professional, clean tidy and excellent at his work. 10/10.

Chelsea · 6 October 2023

★★★★★ 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

★★★★★ 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

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Visit to Cala homes Roman park

I was really impressed with the quality of the homes and the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff. Geraldine was very knowledgable.

Hannah · 13 June 2023

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Excellent customer service

Excellent customer serviceAndrew Galloway recently visited from Cala home care, to rectify a few small snagging issues in our house. He was extremely professional, friendly and helpful. All the issues were fixed quickly and Andrew even sorted a seal on the front door that I hadn’t reported yet.

Louise · 24 September 2024

★★★★★ 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

★★★★★ 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

★★★★★ 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

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Connor Campbell of Calla Homes did an…

Connor Campbell of Calla Homes did an excellent job in replacing our faulty kitchen door, he was very efficient and carried out the work required in a very friendly and speedy fashion and cleaned up any mess made after him with his little Henry 👍😂

Black · 7 November 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Fantastic customer service

Fantastic customer service from the Prince's Quay team. Very accommodating and reassuring during a first time buying experience. Entertains and answers the many small questions I have and all have been delightful to chat with throughout the experience. Very professional feeling people but also very human and friendly people.

David · 3 September 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Hello everyone

Hello everyone I would like to inform you that cala homes houses are not good build by Churchill contractor Uk ltd.Alex and joe Forman which are working there with Churchill are doing rubbish work.If we look inside DPC is not look proper way and all have been tear during cleaning time because I and my team is working there.all will leak in future during rainy season.so guys be careful before buy the house.Thanks

Gurvinder · 28 February 2023

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

After a long 5 years Cala still hasn't…

After a long 5 years Cala still hasn't fulfilled any of the deficiencies at the Parklands site in Aberdeen.Bike and bin rooms not fit for purpose disabled parking spaces the kerbs are all loose.We were advised that after 2 years they would reseal all window that never happened resulting in multiple leaks tarmac on paths are very shoddy and uneven I could go on and on.Warning to anyone buying the new block opposite (which we were assured would never happen) you will be in for a long fight.

Rita · 26 May 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

IGM Meeting with Site Engineer - Beatrice Meadows

After completing the reservation, CALA has set up a IGM meeting with Site Engineer. Carol has given warm welcome to us and introduced site Engineer Barry. Both Carol and Barry has given lot of information about the site and our plot and explained the structure of the building stage by stage. They are quite open and honest. And they had given lot of recommendation and educated us about the whole process and they are pleased to consider our request as well. I hope rest of the transaction will go smoothly and get the handover on time!!! Thanks to both of them

Kiashiq · 25 May 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Let down to buyers, and community.

We are now 3 years in the new home in Haddington with Cala. A plethora of issues from faulty plumbing, carpeting issues, no topsoil, garden drainage issues, and absolutely no help available. We have given up on the last of our snagging as we can just get it done ourselves and not wait 3 more years for works to be done. On top of all of this we are still awaiting street signs as Cala has stated “there are still works ongoing”. We haven’t had any major trucks or works on our phase in over a year, and the neighbours are all very upset as a large group. We also have to constantly chase for the communal areas to be sorted as they are now overtaken with weeds/animal feces/rubbish. The few trees put around entire site are mostly dead so when folks drive up to the area it looks like a forgotten waste land. Head to the other side of town and the other Cala site is immaculate in comparison. We don’t need a large field of roses and lavender, but to have torn up the previous wild grown field and be left with nettles/rocks/trash is so disappointing. The local community is also suffering as a friend in another development is struggling to get answers for road works needed. The road is owned by Cala but neither Cala or the other builder will sort the issue. Such a complete let down and with consensus from the entire neighbourhood is we don’t think people will stay long term in this area.

Kevin · 22 May 2022