After Care

As developer, you are required to provide a level of After Care to all new home purchasers, not just because of your obligations during the Builder’s Rectification Period (years 1-2 of the structural warranty) but because its good practice.

This is a sizeable commitment for any business as it’s resource hungry and for this reason it’s often not practical to do this in-house. Furthermore, managing defects requires a thorough understanding of warranty build standards and access to a system capable of recording reported issues and tracking their progress as contractors are instructed to rectify problems.

Cost effective solution

After Build are the industry’s leading out-source provider of new homes After Care. We are the single point of contact for all new homeowners, who may contact us at any time throughout the first two years of the structural warranty. Our team of highly trained Property Coordinators will ask questions to determine whether the matter being reported is a legitimate build defect (and explain the difference between a defect and homeowner maintenance when necessary).

Fixed-Price

Our approach to After Care is provided for a single Fixed-Price (per plot). Our aim is to deliver a friendly professional response to the homeowner and to unburden the developer from the daily demands of managing the occupant.

Our operation has evolved over 15 years during which time the UK new-build sector has experienced exceptionally challenging market conditions. During this period certain aspects have fundamentally altered, making the developer’s responsibilities under any recognised 10-year warranty all the greater. The most influential are:

• New technology
• Quality control
• Contractor management
• Consumer expectation

Our common goal is “… to provide excellent after care for the new homeowner and cost-efficiency for the developer”.

Homeowner contact with After Build

We want to make communication with the homeowner as easy as possible so a range of channels are offered:

• Occupant Portal – this is by far the most convenient way to report and track a defect, using a smart phone, tablet or PC at any time of day, 365 days a year
• Email
• Telephone

Our flexibility to cater for a wide range of consumer needs is critically important in the creation of a seamless service. In many cases we ‘white label’ the service, either in the developer’s name or the name of the development.

How the service works

Diagnosis

We provide a friendly but professional response to every call …

• Listen carefully to the matter being reported
• Apply a proven Q&A
• Determine legitimacy of defect
• Applying warranty build knowledge

System

Our technology enables us to record every issue, track and update the progress, organise appointments and raise job instructions.

Contractor management

We manage all of your original contractors …

• Raise and send job instruction
• Provide a detailed description of the defect (or snag)
• Request dates the work can be accommodated
• Issue a 7 day notice

All communications

Good communication is essential …

• We liaise with the contractor and the homeowner throughout
• Obtain mutually acceptable dates
• Agree the job appointment

Appointment

The day before the appointment …

• SMS text the homeowner to remind them that the contractor will be arriving in 24 hours

Close Defect

The day after the appointment …

• Call the occupant to establish that the work has been completed to their satisfaction
• Close the job down on our system

Reporting and Accountability

We keep you informed all the way …

• You have 24/7 access to our secure Client portal
• Create your own tailored reports using the filters provided
• Schedule different reports to arrive by email at different times of the month
• After a job our system automatically despatches an email questionnaire to the homeowner to establish how well we handled the problem

WHAT ABOUT EMERGENCIES OUT OF HOURS?

Our service includes an Out of Hours desk to manage genuine emergencies every evening, all day Saturday and Sunday plus every bank holiday (including Christmas Day).

What happens when a contractor fails?

Sometimes a contractor will let you down – unfortunately that’s just a fact of life. So at the outset of any CSA (Client Service Agreement) we give you the option to either:

• Provide us with an alternative contractor we can instruct without bothering you – OR –
• Authorise After Build to instruct an alternative contractor – OR –
• Escalate the problem to you for a decision

In all cases our system will be able to provide you with a detailed audit trail of calls made, responses received, instructions issues etc. so you have sufficient documentation to justify your use of any failing contractor’s retention sum to finance an alternative.