The NHBC admitted that there were irregularities in a number of its inspection records after it wrongly claimed to have carried out a site inspection that never took place.
NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi authenticated the false records, which claimed that NHBC inspectors carried out detailed surveys of a house and approved work. The organisation now admits that part of the survey was never carried out.
The evidence emerged after Allan Manning, who moved into a three-bedroom £84 000 Redrow home in Pontypool in May 1997, complained about defective construction work.
Manning asked the NHBC for copies of its inspection records for his home. He noticed that three of the inspections had supposedly taken place after he and his family had moved into the house, although nobody remembered a visit.
When Manning contacted the inspector whose name appeared on the inspection record, Manning said the inspector denied inspecting any homes in the vicinity.
The inspector was unavailable for comment.
Manning contacted the National Association of New Home Owners, which sent copies of the inspection records to the NHBC for authentication.
In a letter to NANHO director Chris Lorentzen, dated 1 April 1999, Farookhi said: "I can confirm that this is a page of our computerised system of logging the inspection stages, and that the inspector named was the inspector covering the area at the time. The details are input to the system by the inspector's hand-held computer, and once the details are entered and sent to the mainframe computer, they cannot be altered. We are satisfied that these are the correct details as indicated." When Manning pointed out that the inspector named on the inspection record denied visiting his home, the NHBC admitted a "possible discrepancy" in its inspection records.
However, in a letter dated 13 May, NHBC director Edward Chandler told Manning that the inspections had taken place, but that the inspector, who was not the one named on the inspection record, had not found it necessary to enter the house.
Chandler said that during one of the visits, on 9 July 1997, the inspector supposedly viewed a number of roof vents installed by the builder at the inspector's insistence to fix a condensation problem. However, Manning said the additional vents were not installed on the house until five months later, on 11 December, after he had complained to the builder.
A spokesperson for the NHBC said: "It's a simple mistake. We agree our inspector never saw the vents installed in the house. He took the site manager's word that they would be installed and issued a completion certificate on the house on 9 July 1997." The spokesperson added that the NHBC accepted that it made an error in attributing the inspection of Manning's home to the wrong inspector.
She also said the confirmation of the inspection records by NHBC chief executive Farookhi was in error. The spokesperson was unable to explain how the errors occurred.
She said: "We hold our hands up to these errors, but they are administrative errors. They don't question our integrity. We understand our inspection service was less than perfect, which is why we have revised it with a new assessment system which will start this autumn." The spokesperson said the delays in resolving these problems were because Manning had failed to use the NHBC's conciliation service.
Manning said: "Why should I want the NHBC involved when it has deliberately deceived me with its inspection records? The inspection history of my house is fictitious; why should I trust it to do the right thing now?" Manning added: "It fobbed me off and lied to me in the hope that I'd go away. But I've put my life into this house, and I'm not going away."
