Bovis faces £7MILLION payout to customers after hundreds of angry buyers lodge complaints
Bovis is to compensate customers after many were 'pressured' into buying homes that were unfinished in order for the firm to hit sales targets
HOUSING giant Bovis yesterday siphoned off £7million to repair homes and compensate customers after it received hundreds of complaints from furious buyers.
It follows claims that customers were forced to move into unfinished homes in order for the company "to hit sales targets."
Buyers who were given cash incentives to move into their homes early faced problems including missing windows, workmen in the house, holes in ceilings and unlaid gardens.
The home building firm has now promised to use the pot of cash to repair homes. A small portion of this cash will also be used to compensate customers but this will be assessed on a case by case basis.
Angry homeowners formed a Facebook group to give Bovis Homes customers a platform to "share experiences, hints and tips."
Some members of the 1,420-strong group - called Bovis Homes Victims Group - accuse the house-builder of pressuring them to move into incomplete houses to hit sales targets.
The Sun Online previously reported that some buyers were offered £2,000 to £3,000 in cash to complete purchases.
At the time, city analysts said Bovis had offered bonuses in a bid to meet targets because it gets its money only when a house has been finished and the buyer has completed on it.
Bovis revealed yesterday that its profits fell 3 per cent last year to £154.7million - well below expectations of up to £170million.
It shares fell 10 per cent, down 86p to 755p, wiping £115million off the firms' value.
In the company's end-of-year results statement, it said: "We have embarked on a programme to deliver significant and urgent improvement in underlying processes across the business, focused on the delivery of the highest quality of product and service to our customers."
Earl Sibley, interim chief executive of Bovis Homes Group, said: "Our customer service standards have been declining for some time and combined with the delays to production towards the year end, we have entered 2017 with a high level of customer service issues.
"The Group has taken a one-off £7 million customer care provision in 2016 to address this high level of customer issues."
The £7 million provision will mostly cover work to fix problems, while some compensation will be offered to affected customers.
The statement also confirmed that the company would be hiring additional staff to deal with customer enquiries, and will have more operatives on the ground working in customers' homes.
The cost of compensating customers caused Bovis’s profits to fall 3 per cent to £154.7m in 2016, below expectations.
The company said profits would fall again next year as it is cutting down on the number of homes it is building by 10-15 per cent.
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