Inspector Home, a housing standards pressure group, is to submit a 5000-name petition to the House of Commons to demand that new homes be covered by statutory consumer protection law
As the law now stands, houses are exempt from much consumer legislation, including the Sale of Goods Act. Inspector Home's co-director, Vanessa Ambler, said the purchase of a house was the biggest investment a person was likely to make in their lifetime, but that consumers had no legal right to inspect a new-build property before completion.

Ambler added that consumers had no recourse to the law if they encountered serious problems after buying their home. She said: "The whole system is unregulated by the government and exempt from normal trading standards."

Inspector Home has catalogued numerous cases where new homes have been affected by serious faults and a poor after-sales service.

Marion Roe, Conservative MP for Broxbourne, who is supporting the petition's proposals, said she was surprised to hear about the lack of legislative protection for homebuyers in this sector of the housing market.

Many people encounter serious problems after buying a house, yet the law does not adequately cover them

Marion Roe MP