Congratulations on reserving your new home with us. We hope you will be very happy here.

 

Prior to your legal completion, your site sales executive should be your main point of contact.

Once your sale is complete, our site and customer services team are available to support you for the initial two years from completion, with a further eight years structural warranty being provided by the NHBC.

After you have completed on your home, you will receive a welcome letter from our Customer Service team welcoming you to your Rowland Home and providing you with the contact details for the team who will be responsible for your development. 

At or very shortly following legal completion, our site management team will arrange an appointment with you to carry out a seven-day visit. At the time you will be able to raise any snagging issues that you have found during these early days of your home ownership; these will be logged onto MyRowland and updated by the site team with anticipated completion dates for the works.

Once all the issues noted and agreed at your 7-day inspection have been resolved, our customer services team will write to you confirming that they are now your main point of contact if any further issues arise.

If you have any questions or concerns as you settle into your new home, please contact the customer services team for advice and support.

 

How to contact us

If you have a question or need to make us aware of a new issue, please contact us via email using the details below:

Email: customerservice@rowland.co.uk

Phone: 01772 6994512 or 01772 643694

 

In the event of an emergency

For emergencies during office hours (9am-5pm Monday to Thursday & 9am till 3pm Friday), please use the information provided above to contact the Customer Service team. If the call is unanswered, please leave a voicemail with details of the emergency and property address. Your call will be returned within 15 minutes.

For emergencies outside of normal office hours please user the emergency contact details which will be provided to you by the Sales team which are specific to your development.

Please note, as an example only, the following situations constitute an emergency:

• Complete failure of the heating systems and/or hot water system*.
• A water leak or flooding that cannot be contained.
• A complete failure of the electrics*.
• Flooding caused by blocked drains that threatens to enter the home.
• Security - a fault to a window or external door causing a loss of security; or
• Any other situation that causes a risk to life.

*Before reporting an emergency, please ensure that the problem is not caused by a general failure in the area.

 

Running in your new home

During the first few months, your home will need to ‘settle’, which includes allowing it to dry out gently. During construction, a new home is subject to the weather, and the structure can absorb many thousands of litres of rainwater before it is made watertight. 

As the structure is drying out, you may notice minor cracks in interior walls (shrinkage) or white deposits on any brickwork (efflorescence). Shrinkage happens when timbers and plaster contract as they dry out. Efflorescence deposits are natural salts that come from the wall materials and are quite normal. These salts are not harmful and usually disappear over time.

Shrinkage and efflorescence may occur regardless of what you do, but there are steps you can follow to try to minimise them:

• Allow your home to dry out gradually to minimise cracks and gaps.
• Leave windows or trickle vents open and use extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms to help ventilate your home and allow moisture to evaporate more naturally. This will also avoid condensation forming, which can damage timber and paintwork.
• The length of time your house takes to dry out depends on how it was built and in what weather conditions. It will typically take around nine months to a year.
• After this time, shrinkage can usually be corrected very easily with ordinary filler and a simple lick of paint during routine redecoration.
• Shrinkage is accelerated by heat, so try to keep an even temperature throughout your home. 
• If you move in during winter, it may be tempting to turn on the heating to its highest setting. This is not recommended as the high heat may accelerate shrinkage.

 

Caring for your lawn

If your home has been provided with grass, follow these guidelines to help your garden establish:

• Typically, it is best to avoid walking on newly laid grass for around 4-6 weeks, although weather and the time of year can also extend this period. Your grass will still need an additional three to four months to become fully established, and it is best to avoid heavy use until then.
• During the summer months, it is critical that your turf is watered to ensure it establishes well.
• Once your lawn is established, it is recommended that you cut it regularly, with a recommended length of about 15-20mm.
• If you own pets and allow them to use your lawn, it is common to see patches of green or brown grass. It is important that you treat these areas regularly; otherwise, the lawn will deteriorate.
• After constructing your garden, soil settlement can occur. This is a natural occurrence that happens during and after the construction of your home. It's normal to expect variations in the levels of your garden, and topdressing can address this problem. Topdressing is applying a thin layer of soil to the affected areas, which will work its way to the roots and smooth out the affected areas.

 

Snagging issues

Your home has been constructed by several different trades in accordance with relevant building control requirements. Although every care has been taken to ensure it is handed over without problems, there can occasionally be some minor issues that only become apparent once the home is occupied. These are known as snags or snagging issues, and they are covered by the two-year builders’ warranty.

If you identify any snags or believe something could be a snagging issue, please contact the after-sales team using the details above. They will log the details and either arrange for a repair or, in the event of a more complex issue, arrange for somebody to come and inspect the problem to confirm the appropriate next steps.

Under normal circumstances, we expect to resolve most snags within 30 days. Where this is not possible, for example, due to having to order materials which have a longer lead time, we will keep you regularly updated and confirm an anticipated date for the repair as soon as we can.

In the unlikely event that work requires customers to be moved into alternative accommodation, this must be at the developer's expense and take into account any specific customer needs and the duration of the requirement.

 

Homeowner maintenance

Some elements of your new home will require regular maintenance. These are not snags and are part of routine homeowner maintenance. These could include annual servicing of your central heating boiler, protecting garden fencing, or painting external timber or render. Please review the warranty and service information we have provided and contact the after-sales team if you have any questions.

 

Complaints

We trust that we can resolve any issues swiftly, but if you are dissatisfied with our service, you can log a complaint by following our formal complaints procedure. As of the 7^th April 2026 we are a registered developer with the New Homes Quality Board (www.nhqb.org.uk)and comply with the New Homes Quality Code, for any reservations prior to this date we were a member of the Consumer Code for Home Builders (www.consumercode.co.uk) and complied with their Consumer Code.

A copy of our formal complaints procedure can also be found at www.rowland.co.uk/contact-us/have-a-complaint