The Purchase Process

When you buy a new Gerald Wood home, you are buying a home constructed to a high quality and high specification. We aim to match these aspects by the service we offer throughout the purchase process and after legal completion.

We believe the procedures we have put in place will be convenient to you and give the best opportunity for the purchase process to run smoothly.

• The construction of your new home takes place outdoors in the wind and rain, consequently our construction programmes may be adversely affected.
• For the above reason, usually at the time when you reserve your new home, we will give you an anticipated legal completion date. This may simply be expressed as a quarter, for example “Winter” or “Spring”. Please be aware this is our best estimate at the time and may be subject to change.
• You will be kept informed of progress on a regular basis and your Sales Advisor will update you as to how the purchase is proceeding, how the construction is going and, of course, answer any queries or address any concerns you may have.
• For houses, we generally have a much clearer idea of the completion date once the roof is finished and for apartments, once your particular apartment is dry lined or plastered. However, these dates remain as a guide and do not become firm until we serve the legal notice.
• Once your new home is physically complete, legal notice is served. This has to be done through our solicitor to your solicitor in accordance with the contract. We will of course let you know directly as well.
• The period of notice is as set out in the contract and is usually 10 days.
• You will be invited to a Pre-Handover Demonstration with a member of our team. At this time we will demonstrate the heating system and other functions and facilities to you. The timings of the heating and hot water can be set to your request so it is ready for when you move in. It is possible that external areas and some of the common parts in apartments, will not be fully completed, but you can rest assured they will be safe and secure.
• On the day of legal completion, your solicitor will arrange for the transfer of the balance of the purchase monies to our solicitor. Once receipt has been confirmed, your new home will be handed over to you by a member of our team who will again run through the working of the heating system and any appliances if you wish to do so at that time.
• We recognise that with everything happening on your moving in day, you may not be at your most attentive. There will be a further opportunity to have the heating system explained two or three days after occupation. On handover we will ask you to confirm that sanitaryware, kitchen units and appliances, wall tiling, doors and any floor coverings are in good order. This is to avoid any argument later should any damage occur during your removals. However at no stage do we ask or expect you to do a detailed examination of your new home as our procedures will take care of that.
• Whilst we definitely aim to get everything right first time, we do rely on a multitude of suppliers and subcontractors and we do not pretend to be perfect. (Please remember we are not able to build in factory conditions). After living in your home for a few days, you may notice minor defects which had not previously been spotted by our own inspection. If you let our Customer Services Team know about these we will aim to deal with them within fourteen days of notification. This is subject to availability of materials and to you being able to give us access.
• If something requires urgent attention, please contact any member of our Customer Services Team, or if outside office working hours, the emergency service provider whose details are specific to your development and are included later in this guide.
• A structural defect is extremely unlikely to occur, but if it were to during the first ten years from completion, this will be covered by the NHBC Warranty (Please note that in certain situations we use Zurich rather than NHBC. In such cases you will be given separate information and further references to NHBC will not apply to you). Further details on both can be found on the website.
• Once any initial defects have been attended to, all future correspondance should be sent to our Customer Services Team.