Homebut/Shared Ownership

[majik]

Hi

 

I have recently bought my first place and we moved in on 29/1/09, Its a part buy part rent thing through Paradigm.

The property was a new build about 14 months ago but no-one has ever lived in our flat before us.

We have a few issue's that have only come to light since we moved in.

 

• Shower is plumbed in wrong, Turn hot to get cold and vice versa not major issue but took us 2 days to figure out lol.
  
• Radiators whistle when being used (Can be quite loud although it is getting better naturally) defect guy seems to think that it could be due to build up due to it not being used for over a year etc ? i have British Gas coming to service boiler soon so will mention to them as im hoping i wont have to have it power flushed as thats like £500.
  
• We have a hole in the wall behind a radiator. (Going out to communual stairs, not quite right through but not far off it) This is the main issue as the flat always seems cold as we cant have the radiator on, if we have it on then we just lose the heat instantly from the hall way. It quite imply needs some plaster board to fill it etc.
  

These issue were informed to Paradigm as soon as they came to light i believe that one was on 5/2/09 and the other 2 on 9/2/2009.

They keep telling us that the original housebuilder is liable under the defects regs (Defect inspection on 25/2/2009 where all issue were informed to the personal visting and we were told that someone would be in touch within 14 days) etc but no one has attempted to correct any problems or even contacted us to arrange for these to be fixed.

 

The hole in the wall issue has already cost us quite a bit as the flat (small 2 bed place) is now quite cold in places due to having to have the radiator off.(If we leave it on it will be on constanly and we have already had a gas bill for £90 for a month which is going straight through the bloody hole.)

It has a 10 year NHBC (I think the new build gaurentee thing ??) but we cant use that to correct the issue's as we have no paperwork for them as Paradigm state that the original housebuilder is liable under defect (12 from time of handover) and until we are happy they wont give us the paperwork for the NHBC thing.

 

What can i do, i chase them every other day and am just told we have sent an email to them and are waiting for them to reply.

 

Can i get some one in to fix the hole in the wall issue and send the bill to paradigm ? (5-6 weeks so far and nothing has been done ?)

 

Can i pass on a proportion of the gas bill to paradigm ? (If we didn't have the hole then we wouldn't have the heating on elsewhere in the flat as much ?)

 

If the radiators need power flushing can we pass that bill onto Paradigm ? the boiler is under 2 years old and has only been used regulary since we moved in ?