At Dunmar Homes we are committed to offering the highest levels of customer service to meet and exceed the expectations and requirements of our clients.

You are the most important person in our business and because we are a small friendly company you can rest assured we are as passionate, energetic and excited about your home as you are!

Because we pride ourselves on our originality, innovation and high specification and concentrating on bespoke developments in select locations we know that we attract the most discerning of purchasers…..clients who know what they want, people who understand quality and commitment and share our enthusiasm for excellence.

Our Customer Charter is designed to explain to you the standards of service we offer at Dunmar Homes, the procedures we have in place to ensure a smooth purchase, and the information you can expect to receive from us from your first enquiry through to our after sales support.

Our charter is important in setting out our commitment to you – it is not something that we take lightly; it is a 10 point strategy we aim to deliver time and time again.

1) We will keep you fully informed with reliable information on the progress of your new home with regular updates on construction and legal completion
2) We will provide you with detailed information about your home from the very start
3) We will offer help with choices and selections
4) We will demonstrate your new home to you
5) We will offer you a moving in pack
6) We will provide you a helpful and efficient after sales service and deal effectively with any emergencies
7) We will offer health & safety advise
8) We will give information on NHBCs 10 year building warranty which comes with your new home.
9) We will listen to you and carry out customer surveys in order to improve our service to you.
10) We will give you details of who to contact if you believe we have failed to reach our customer commitment.

You will be given a copy of Our Customer Charter on reservation or you may request one from a member of our sales team at any time. A copy is always available in our Sales Centre or on the web site.

1. Communication is paramount
Two way communication throughout the process is paramount if we are to offer you a seamless and stress free journey from reservation to moving in and beyond.

Our Sales Team is fully trained in Customer Service and responsible for dealing with your questions on a day to day basis. Courteous, friendly, attentive & efficient, they understand their personal responsibilities to you; they understand the company’s main legal responsibilities to you.

When you speak – we listen, when you ask – we respond

We help our customers to define their requirements.
We care about customers' problems and we work with them to find solutions.
We are responsive and flexible in meeting our customers' needs.
We will contact you on a regular basis, usually weekly, and keep you advised on progress of the purchase process and construction progress and give you clear advice as to when we need information or action from you or your solicitor.
If for any reason your Customer Service Representative is not available and you would like to talk to us then please do not hesitate to contact:

Sarah Pritchard, Sales & Marketing Director on 01332 600601

Our team at Head Office are always fully up to date with your current situation and will be pleased to offer their assistance.

2. Information is the key
We have taken great care in producing literature that is accurate, clear and helpful. When we take a reservation fee from you we will do so with absolute confidence that you will be proceeding to legal completion. From the very beginning we want you to have as much information as we can give you and will be as open with you as we can be.

On reservation you will be given a New Home Pack which includes comprehensive information about your new home:-

Full contact details for your elected Customer Service Representative
A signed copy of your Reservation Form
A sales brochure which will show you the layout of your home and the sizes of each of the rooms within your home
A full sales specification
Pricing information for the development
Moving forward – dealing with your purchase and sale
A kitchen layout
An electrical and heating layout
The energy efficiency rating for your home.
The window sizes of the property
An options package
Full details of legal representatives and mortgage advisors
A copy of Our Health & Safety procedures when visiting site
Details of items that may not be finished before the property is complete such as final surfacing to roadways etc.
Details of any costs and charges that may be incurred annually ie service charges
A list of reminders before moving
A customer survey questionnaire
Our Customer charter

In extreme and rare situations, often due to unforeseen circumstances, clients are unable to proceed with the purchase of their property. In this situation we are unable to refund your reservation fee and ask that you return the pack to us.

3. Choices and options
Everyone wants to be given the opportunity to personalise their new home and we will work closely together with you to ensure your home reflects you and your lifestyle.
In your new home pack you will find our Options package which details what choices, extras and changes are available to you.
Obviously these options become less as the build progresses and are subject to the construction stage, but we are usually able to offer a wide range of colour choices for kitchens and bathrooms plus our fabulous range of optional extras.
You will be told exactly when we need decisions on choices and additional items and adhering to these dates is important, otherwise there is the potential for disappointment, which we wish to avoid at all costs!
A meeting will be arranged with our customer service representative to discuss your choices and the optional extras available to you, subject to the stage of construction of your new home. We ask for payment at this time so as we can progress your requests, unless you have exchanged contracts that is, in which case we will add the cost of any additional items or alterations to your final completion statement. For added convenience we would be pleased to accept payment by credit card as well as cash or cheque.

4. Building up to a brighter future
On reservation you will have been given an exchange date which should be closely adhered to. Set out below are a few pointers to help you progress the sale but rest assured that your representative will be on hand to guide you through the process every step of the way.
Make sure you apply for your mortgage, pay the valuation fee and have the appropriate documentation available with your solicitor.
Pre-warn your employer that your mortgage lender will be contacting them for a reference.
Ensure your solicitor has the funds to undertake local searches on your behalf.
At this time, we’ll send a draft contract to your solicitor – check that this has been received as its arrival signifies the start of your six week reservation period. Your solicitor will also take it as the trigger to apply for local searches and request the release of the deeds to your current home.
Our Customer service representative will liaise with any other estate agents in the chain, to inform them of your reservation deadline and giving them an indication of your preferred completion date.
With all wheels in motion, it is vital that you personally ensure all parties involved know exactly what is going on and that everything is moving forward.
You will also at the point of reservation be given an estimated practical completion date. In your weekly updates from your customer service representative you will be given information on the progress of the construction of the property. Just remember a house is built by hand, in the great outdoors, so our construction programmes may be greatly affected, but as soon as the roof is on you will be given a more accurate date for the property to be completed. As the property is being decorated we will be able to give you a firm date for moving in and then work together with you to agree on a final legal completion date.
Before you move in, the property will have been inspected for any defects by three teams of professionals. We aim to deliver a quality product and are proud of the properties we hand over to clients. At no stage do we ask or expect you to do a detailed examination of the property as our procedures will already have taken care of this.

5. You will be invited to a Pre-Handover Demonstration with a member of our team during the week prior to moving in. At this time we will demonstrate the heating system, the alarm system, the audio system, the fire 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. You will at this meeting be given your handover pack which will contain:-
Your Dunmar Homes welcome pack
Your NHBC guide to moving into your new home
Appliance instructions and guarantees
Certificates and warranties
Useful information about your kitchen, tile and bathroom selections
Product information including instructions for the central heating boiler
Guidance on items that require servicing or maintaining
Emergency telephone numbers
One month Customer Evaluation Form
A Customer Care log
It is possible that external areas and some of the common parts 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 anything you wish them to.
We recognise that with everything happening on completion day, you may not be at your most attentive and your mind will be on many other issues! There will be a further opportunity to have the heating system explained two or three days after completion and your customer service representative will visit you again in a weeks time to check that you are settling in.
On handover day we will ask you to confirm that sanitary ware, kitchen units and appliances, wall tiling, decoration, glass, doors and any floor coverings are in good order. This is to avoid any argument later should any damage occur during your removals.

6. We provide you with an excellent After Sales Service once you have moved in. Although we have inspected your home scrupulously, we have not lived in it! After you have moved in you will notice minor defects, this is because your home is man made and not precision made in a factory.
In your handover pack you will find an Evaluation Form. Please complete this form with any defects that you notice over the first month and then return it to us in the stamped addressed envelope provided.
We will contact you upon receipt and aim to deal with the items within twenty eight days of notification. This is subject to availability of materials and to you being able to give us access. However, whilst we aim to get everything right first time, we do rely on a multitude of suppliers and subcontractors, so can not guarantee every item will be completed to the set timescales.
Once any initial defects have been attended to after the first month we will then write to you again 7 months later to see if you have any further defects that require inspection/attention. Again we shall endeavour to rectify any remedial works as soon as possible for you. Finally just before your 2 year warranty runs out, we shall contact you again at approx month 22 of occupation, by telephone, to check whether you are maintenance free or require another inspection.
If something requires urgent attention, please contact any member of our Customer Services Team or After Sales Team, or if outside office working hours, the emergency service provider whose details are specific to your development and are included in your handover pack.

7. Your home is covered by NHBC Warranty.
The NHBC was established in 1936 as the independent regulator and standard setting body for the Uk house building industry. They are an independent non profit making organisation who’s role is both to protect the homebuyer and also help us a developer construct sound, good quality new homes.
For the first two years Dunmar Homes together with the NHBC will cover you against physical damage to your home should this be caused by a defect which results from a failure to NHBC standards. Like all insurance policies there are items which may not be covered by the cover so please ensure that you read in full your Buildmark Cover Note which you will find in your handover pack.
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.

8. Safe and Sound
Buying a new home is exciting and you will be eager to look at the property whilst we are building it, but, your safety is of supreme importance to us.
For your own safety you must not go onto the development site without our prior agreement and only by pre-arranged appointment, accompanied by your customer service representative.
We will invite you, at key stages during construction, to view your new home so as you can see for yourself the progress we are making and we can enthuse together with you! However building sites are dangerous and defined in law as work places. We are legally responsible for the site where work is taking place and must not allow access to the public. Children must be kept under your control when visiting the sales centre and will not be allowed access to site.
When you visit your home with your customer service representative we will provide you with the necessary protective clothing.
Please be understanding, we are not trying to be awkward it is purely for your safety and it is a legal requirement.

9. When you speak – we listen, when you ask – we respond
We work hard to meet the rising expectations of our customers, and to help us understand these expectations we carry out customer surveys to find out how we can improve our service to you.
You will be asked to complete a survey at Reservation and again when you have move into your new home.
We welcome you to contribute to our business success through offering us thoughts, ideas and suggestions based on your Customer experience and feedback – we all accept the responsibility to constantly find the better way.

10. If for any reason you are not happy with the service we deliver and believe we have failed any of these charter commitments then we ask you to please contact our Head Office in writing.

Dunmar Homes
1 St James Court
Friargate
Derby
DE1 1BT

We have a clear complaints procedure and will document, analyse, investigate and respond to all complaints.

And finally - What our Customers say about us

“Better than the larger, national house builders!”

“Excellent communications with sales team, nothing was too much trouble”

“We are thrilled with the attention to detail, especially the finish on the brickwork”

“We are tremendously happy with our new home”

“Since moving in we have had nothing but praise and admiration from many friends
about the quality and design of our Dunmar home”

“The layout, design and standard of finish in the home exceeded our expectations. Thank you for a lovely home”