Duchy Homes Reviews 

Found the sales staff to be quite snooty and the show homes we viewed at Elwick were finished to an appalling standard. The paintwork was dreadful…kitchen units and all internal doors were covered in paint splashes…wallpaper hung wonky…attention to detail just really poor.

Totally put us off the home we had decided on once we viewed the show homes on the site we were very interested in.

I’ve also noted duchy delete any negative comments or queries from their social media feeds…why would they do that? I think after what we’ve seen in the show homes and from the reviews we’ve read we would never buy a home from these guys. Glad we decided to do some research before going ahead with reserving a plot.

I would think twice before purchasing from Duchy. I moved in a year ago and still waiting for loads of defects to be fixed. I have a waterlogged garden which is not fit for purpose-it’s a mess. Customer service don’t call back when they say they will, if at all.

Much better house builders out there other than Duchy. David Wilson were pretty decent to deal with.

Further to my previous comment it seems Duchy cannot handle criticism given I have commented on their instagram posts about how atrocious their customer service is, requesting correspondence from them and advising people to read trust pilot reviews before considering them as developers, they have instead not replied to me at all and blocked me from viewing and commenting on their instagram profile. Atrocious customer service!

Purchased our home 2 and a half years ago. Initially the snagging seemed to go ok, but some repairs didn’t get completed. 2 years later a significant issue still isn’t resolved. Duchy do not reply to you properly or at times just not at all leaving you to chase. Duchy are very quick to blame others taking no responsibility for their decision of sub contractor. I would avoid buying from this company unless you are prepared to put in a lot of time and effort for issues to be resolved with them.

Duchy homes are definitely NOT “5-Star” builders. We had a snagging list as long as my arm, which two years later are still waiting to be finished. Notable events were the entire kitchen had to be replaced, after multiple attempts to fix the original one, as well as the whole roof was essentially fitted incorrectly; under felt not secured, loose tiles, ridge tiles not even nailed down, possibly causing danger to the public and my family. The very small, r0dent like MD, Craig is a particularly hilarious treat.

Take my advice. By from a different builder.

Moved in March 2022,
Cheap products, awful customer service,
Still waiting for defects to be completed
Passed on to my solicitors now to sort,
they just ignore your complaints, or use poor excuses why they haven’t completed the jobs
Not worth the money,
Think hard before you part with hard earned cash?!

Duchy homes suggests they provide a 5 star service when in reality, I have not found this to be the case.
Sure, when you first move in, they are more responsive and keen to sort out issues but then once they get their feedback they quickly move on. In my opinion, if they issues their customer service feedback 6 months after you've moved in, they would see they are not a 5 star customer service company.

My advice would be to get all of your issues resolved before completing their feedback form. They are more likely to prioritise you then.

After a good start, I'm really disappointed with Duchy and I would not recommend them anymore.

We had issues with our windows not closing and it took months to sort this out, right as the weather was getting colder and with a newborn baby in the house. We had to chase them constantly to sort this out with their suppliers.

We have issues with our kitchen light switch not being in the correct place. Even though they have resolved this for other houses with our design, they are not willing to rectify this for us.
Just really disappointing!

Don’t be fooled by Duchy Homes’ “5 star builder” status and show homes. They are cowboys.

The show homes suck you in. You’re then promised the world by the sales assistant on site.

We paid a £1000.00 reservation fee to secure our plot on Woodland Manor, Wynyard were assured our property would be finished this summer. However, the house still wasn’t getting built. Duchy Homes don’t pay the going rate for scaffolders so the scaffolders prioritise other building sites. False promise after false promise about the scaffolding being erected and it never materialised.

During the process of purchasing one of their homes, we lost our buyer. However, we reluctantly agreed to explore their part exchange scheme. In the meantime, our existing home remained up for sale.

The part exchange company that was associated with Duchy Homes started making excuses as to why they were no longer able to offer us the amount we had reluctantly accepted in the first place. Due to these issues, we accepted another offer on our home from a buyer who was in a position to proceed with the sale.

Duchy Homes, terminated the reservation and refused to give us back our £1000.00. It appears they’ve done this to others too (read some of the other reviews).

I wrote a letter of complaint to one of the Directors and guess what? No response! That’s how much they care…..

We are therefore in the process of starting legal action and will be taking this to the local press and making sure everyone knows about their underhanded tactics and appalling customer service.

We are friends with another couple who have just purchased a home on Woodland Manor and so much of their home is damaged.

We have ourselves witnessed how their kitchen unit fronts scratched (barring two), floor tiles scratched, paint all over the spot lights etc. it is an absolute disgrace. They’ve since found out a handyman ended up fitting their kitchen as they couldn’t source an actually professional kitchen fitter!!

There is nothing executive or luxury about this builder or there customer service . The quality of build most definitely does not warrant the price tag . Over 200 snags and still waiting for issues to be addressed after we moved in December 2020 .
Once they have your money, they are no longer bothered . Don’t be fooled by the word ‘luxury’ or the tag of 5 star builder . In our experience neither of these statements have been true .

A few months after moving in to our new property, we started receiving debt letters from British Gas for another property. British Gas had been given our name as a contact for the wrong property. Having made several calls to British Gas and emails to Duchy (you can't phone them unless it's an emergency!), I was assured the problem had been resolved. It had not and we have received several debt letters since. Duchy Customer Service have been appalling at dealing with this issue. They have fobbed me off or ignored emails altogether. In short, house is 4/5, customer service is 1/5