Housing giant Bovis ‘pressured customers to move into unfinished homes before Christmas’ and even offered cash incentives

HOUSING giant Bovis pressured customers to move into unfinished homes before Christmas, it is claimed.

The firm offered £2,000 to £3,000 in cash to ­complete purchases.

3

Those who did faced problems including missing windows, workmen in the house, holes in ceilings and unlaid gardens, it is claimed.

Fed-up customers joined the Bovis Homes Victims Group on Facebook. The 650-strong body plans to protest at Bovis’ HQ in Longfield, Kent.

Member Mark Holden, of Milton Keynes, Bucks, said: “We got lots joining just before Christmas who were posting of being "encouraged" to complete by December 23. Some were offered money.”

3

RELATED STORIES

INSIDE 'SICK NOTE CITY'

Life on one of Britain's largest housing estates where 20% of residents are on benefits and drugs

IT'S WAR

NHS chief Simon Stevens accuses Theresa May of 'stretching the truth' over health service funding

ROLF 'HOSPITAL ATTACK'

Rolf Harris 'groped a blind, disabled woman and slobbered all over her at London eye hospital'

ARMY LOVE TRIANGLE

Soldier 'wrapped pal in clingfilm and held him at knifepoint after he bragged about sex with wife '

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.

Days after the offers the firm warned it would complete 180 fewer houses than expected in 2016, knocking profits by about £10million.

3

Bovis, whose chief executive David Ritchie quit on Monday, admitted a “limited number” of customers were offered an incentive to complete before the end of the year, but no one was forced to move in.

A spokesman said all the homes were habitable and had the necessary Council of Mortgage Lenders’ certification plus a “timetable for outstanding finishing works to be carried out in the new year”.