Story Homes - Carlisle

james spark

Although the fixtures, fittings and design of story homes is very nice, their after care is appalling. We recently had a small leak in our kitchen ceiling, after lots of investigation I finally pulled the side off the bath to find a small drip, over time had caused lots of water to cover beneath the bath with black mould and eventually drip down a pipe hole, causing the leak in the kitchen.

Upon approaching Story Homes, without any assessment and as we'd been in the home for 3 years 2 and a half months, they would not help - this sounds perfectly reasonably considering the 2 year warranty however as the drip has clearly been there a very long time and likely well within the warranty period it should at least have been assessed - they point you to a national company for a 3-10 years house warranty but that's a waste of time as they well know it doesn't cover internal plumbing.

The state under the bath was disgusting and still like a builders site, they've completely ignored this and didn't even offer an apology. So in summary, if you're buying a Story Homes home, before you're warranty period ends make sure you rip all the panels off your bath, rip out your shower, pull up your floor boards and punch holes in your ceiling and walls, just to check there's no leaks - once your house is in tatters you can rest easy knowing you're not getting screwed over by the house builder.

Julie Brady

My daughter has just bought a house from story and the snagging list is endless and I mean endless. Mould on the stairs that she had to clean off before carpets being fitted. Integral washing machine leaked and the kitchen was flooded. I now have to ring the helpline number at 9am to get someone out. I shouldn’t have to be doing this. I’m afraid Fred Story the workmanship of the house leaves a lot to be desired. You may have started off 37 years as a one man band in Carlisle - friends who bought one of your houses in Moorhouse - but the personal touch is no longer there. My daughter wasn’t even informed that on her completion date the site would be closing down. She should have been given the choice if she wanted to complete or not. But it comes down to money as usual.
I wouldn’t recommend Story’s at all.

Andy Bateman

Having been living in a Story Home for 7 months I can give a balanced, fair assessment of my experience thus far...
The house design is exquisite. The materials used also excellent. We're delighted with our new home.

Then there's the customer service. We can't get a response on the simplest snagging query - so we're making very slow progress, everything is a battle. We've even involved the NHBC and they ignore them too!

The issue is staff churn - in 7 months we've seen multiple Site Managers, Sales People, Production Managers, Production Directors and Regional Directors. Because of the churn they're either getting up to speed or serving their notice.

Overall - it's probably worth the effort for what you end up with but don't expect it to be anything other than a battle of attrition!

Neil Stark

Woeful aftercare service. Snags are inevitable, but they are very poor at sorting them.
They advertise as premium house builders, but the reality is that they revert to ‘industry standard’ when a genuine snag is too costly to fix.
Really nice houses, but better off buying a second hand one and let someone else suffer the battle with the aftercare team to get the issues fixed.

stuart anderson

extremely poor build quality, had major issues with leaking roof on a 4.5 year old house, ruined ceilings and carpets etc, had a survey done and it clearly states builders liability but story homes do not want to know. They say it's down to premier guarantees, their warranty provider for years 2-10 on a new build. Problem is this company do not want to know either just give you the run around and their policy includes a £1100 excess for a WARRANTY claim, how does that work Should not have to be a penny out of pocket for a 4.5 year old house which is not water tight. One star is actually too generous a rating!,,,

ahusuyip68

Have purchased a Story Home at "The Woodlands" Shotley Bridge, the biggest mistake of my life. I have discovered many major problems way beyond what are classed as snagging issues which are usually resolved once they are brought to the site managers or sales staff attention.
Unfortunately my property has major issues which the company want to repair by covering with a sticking plaster. I am an elderly woman who is being treat like an old fool who is making an issue out of nothing. My life savings have gone into buying the house & I do not have the resources to have the repairs done by reparable builders/workman or seek legal advice.
I am not alone in my complaint with Story Homes as home owners either side of me have issues with the company. I was promised by head office customer service that a Production Manager from head office Carlisle would come & discuss with me my complaint, however a phone call this morning has advised me that this will not be happening, it appears I am way below his pay grade & that the site manager is all I can expect.
I have no confidence in the sales staff, site manager, overall site manager or the customer care manager, so looks like the big boys can ride rough shod over us mere mortals at the bottom of the pile. I have discovered the workmen who build my house plus the site manager & landscape/gardening workforce were sacked. apparently. My rating for Story Homes is zero.

Scott Morrissey

Very poor aftercare from Story homes, they are not good at communicating and often do not call you back. I have been advised to complain in writing to the aftercare manager!! They have left a leaking toilet for over a week now with no urgency at all to repair.... Lets see how long it takes them to resolve it

NW Social

See the facebook group of mainly horror stories. They cause problems when they plan to build - not joining in as landowners and their site web page seems to have been written by guesswork; it appears they are planning to build an exclave.