Devonshire Homes Reviews 

I never imagined that buying a new-build home from Devonshire Homes would result in over three and a half years of stress, damp, delays and endless chasing.

We first reported damp in January 2023. Since then, we have endured persistent damp, a foul smell, a cold entrance hall, damage to our carpet and mould-related issues, all while living in what should have been our dream home.

Over the years we have experienced:

* Poor communication and unanswered emails.
* Constant delays and missed timescales.
* Having to chase repeatedly for updates.
* Senior management failing to respond to correspondence.
* Multiple inspections before meaningful action was finally proposed.

It took the involvement of LABC, independent thermal imaging specialists and Marley Risk Consultants before the defects were properly investigated. Those investigations identified a number of defects requiring remedial works, including additional cavity wall insulation, thermal improvements, ventilation and repairs to external door thresholds.

Despite this evidence, Devonshire Homes initially referred to the defects as “alleged” and described the remedial works as a gesture of “goodwill”, which I found extremely disappointing given the independent findings.

To make matters worse, Devonshire Homes entered administration before my case was resolved. After waiting more than three and a half years for action, I now face further uncertainty while responsibility for completing the remedial works is transferred through the administration process. It is incredibly disheartening that such a long-running issue has still not reached a conclusion.

Buying a home should be an exciting experience. Instead, it has become an exhausting and stressful battle to have legitimate defects acknowledged and addressed.

I sincerely hope that whoever ultimately takes responsibility for Devonshire Homes’ outstanding obligations honours the commitments that have been made to customers like myself.

Unfortunately, based on my experience, I cannot recommend Devonshire Homes.

We bought a Devonshire Homes property in 2022 and recently discovered that our roof had been built incorrectly and not in accordance with building regulations or the approved construction plans.

An independent surveyor, an independent roofing contractor, and LABC all confirmed the same findings:

• The roof did not comply with BS5250:2002 (Code of Practice for Control of Condensation in Buildings)
• It did not meet Approved Document C of the Building Regulations
• It did not meet the LABC Warranty Technical Manual requirements
• The high‑level ventilation was inadequate
• The membrane was fitted incorrectly
• The roof was not constructed as shown on the approved plans

In short, the roof was not built to regulations or the required technical standards at the time of construction.

Despite this, Devonshire Homes have so far refused to take responsibility and have been unhelpful and dismissive throughout the process. We were left to cover the warranty excess ourselves, even though the defect was clearly caused by workmanship and non‑compliant construction, not wear and tear or homeowner action.

I’m leaving this review to warn other Devonshire Homes buyers and owners:
👉 Check your roof
👉 Check your ventilation
👉 Check your membrane installation
👉 Check your build matches the approved plans

If our experience is anything to go by, you may find issues that should never have been present in a new build.

I hope Devonshire Homes chooses to improve how they handle legitimate defects like this. Homeowners should not be left out of pocket for faults caused by non‑compliant construction.

Devonshire Homes have been great developers and their customer care has been professional replying to queries in a timely manner.
There have been the usual snags and issues with new builds but overall I am so far very pleased with the service I have received.

We moved in one month ago after 15 months waiting for our old lovely home to finally exchange. Downsizing is quite an experience for many reasons but we are delighted with our new home. Snagging in a new home is inevitable but there seems to be be only relatively minor issues that are being dealt with. We recently had a welcome letter from the developers asking us to review, Couldn't get the qr code to work, hence going straight to trustpilot😊. The sales team and site manager have been brilliant from start to now, we have no doubts at all in recommending this development at Dancing Green in Wincanton.

I’ve been in my home for around four months now, and I can honestly say I’m blown away by the quality of the build. It has exceeded all my expectations in every way. The attention to detail is superb.
Mariners Haven is set in the most beautiful area and is nothing like your typical new build development. Each home feels unique, with its own character. The tall ceilings are a stunning feature, and my garden is beyond beautiful. I truly love every part of it.
From start to finish, I’ve been really well looked after. The sales team were fantastic, and the aftersales service has been truly outstanding especially Claire, who has been absolutely wonderful.
I initially expected there might be quite a few snagging issues, as it’s a new build, but that hasn’t been the case at all. There were only a couple of minor things, which I believe is completely normal.
Thank you to everyone involved for going above and beyond and for making my dream come true. I couldn’t be happier!

Beautiful house, beautiful location and so far a beautiful development. Sales process was really good.
However, customer care is terrible, it been over 12 weeks since we reported a water leak from the shower, the plaster and paint is falling off the wall, they came to see and said it would be fixed. Chased multiple times, always promised that it would be sorted and it never gets done so the damage is just getting worse.
Reported heavily creaking floor boards in the bathroom as well and a similar story, this was looked at and we were told that it would be fixed but still nothing.
Such a shame as everything else is great but the after care really sours the experience.

Just a serious warning for anyone considering buying a new build at Mariners Haven.
We purchased our property last year and received our keys in December. Here’s a timeline of our experience:
• Jan 26th: We reported a major water leak coming from the roof.
• Today (November): After more than 9 months, the leak is still ongoing.
This has left our front room completely uninhabitable. Every time it rains, we are sick with worry about more water coming through our ceiling, and we are now facing another winter with this unresolved.
To be fair, Devonshire homes has tried to repair it. We've had scaffolding up multiple times, and they’ve even painted the house with waterproof paint, but none of these attempts have worked.
Our frustration is that it feels like we've been forgotten. New houses are still being built and money is still being taken, but we are left with an uninhabitable room and a persistent leak.
I know some people have had zero issues, and as we've said, some residents up here may recommend them based on their experience.
However, based on our 9-month (and counting) ordeal, would we recommend Devonshire homes at Mariners Haven? Probably not.
In our experience, they are quick to take your money but incredibly slow to provide help when it's genuinely required.

Wanted to share our experience, and leave a positive review as I feel the bad reviews don’t reflect my own experiences, from the first visit through to reserving our plot, the entire journey has been great, The sales team have been informative, professional and very helpful. Their knowledge has made the process smooth and enjoyable.

We purchased a new home in the Dancing Green development a few months ago and moved in 10 weeks ago. We found the sales team helpful and the process relatively smooth. The few issues we had were dealt with. We had the house snagged. The snagger found limited snags. We have since come across a few more issues but none of them major and these have been sorted. If we have one issue it would be the customer service team who do not always acknowledge our emails and keep us advised of progress with fixing the snags we have discovered. They could be a lot more proactive. Many of the snags are of a relatively minor nature and when we have brought these to the attention of the site manager he has been able to sort many of them out.

We received a welcome pack which had details of the various installations in the house. The property comes with solar panels on the roof. This is new technology to us as will be to many other purchasers and we would have liked to have a lot more written information on how they work, how they can be used, electric storage possibilities and how we should have them looked after and serviced.

Overall, we are happy with our purchase.

The company is not fulfilling its obligations on sorting out the snagging post the sell.
House was not even ready when i moved in!
I have escalated several times about the poor customer service i am getting but there is silence on the issues.
Suggest they take a more proactive approach in dealing with customers and communicate with them.

Chilla Junction Development.

Moved in 28th March 2025.

Obviously you don't have to look to hard to find poor reviews for Devonshire Homes however we can only say our exprience of buying our property and living in it for just over a month has more than met our expections.

Both Devonshire Homes site agents /sales team Vicky and Doug were at hand thoughout the whole process of the sale from initial viewing to completion which we could not of asked for anymore.

Mark the site Manger has also been excellent and has been on hand since moving in having undertaken the initial handover/snagging review a few days after we moved in and the second follow up review around 1 month after moving in. We only had a few minor defects to highlight and whilst some items are outstanding we have had regular updates from Lousie at customer services in regard to the outstanding defects and I am sure they will be rectified in good time.

It goes without saying that any perspective purchaser needs to throughly check the home they intend to buy for themselves but from our experience my wife and I would have no concerns in recommending purchasing a property from Devonshire Homes.

Devonshires Hones are terrible. The homes at Altarnun in Cornwall have many defects, particularly around the electrics and heating systems. Devonshires customer service is hopeless. They try to avoid dealing with things and don't sort issues out. They lied to purchasers about their plans for development on neighbouring land. Do not trust their sales people.

House purchased in September 2022.
Now out of warranty.

In a word Negligent in all aspects of building control.
Negligent in Health, safety and environmental standards.
Zero customer service.
Management are arrogant, ignorant, belligerent.
Management team lie and ignore
concerns raised by residents.
Access roads on the estate are
unfinished and unsafe.
Bullying tactics by sales team.

Gwallon Keas Estate, St. Austell.
Six years still unfinished !!!!!

I have found my experience dealing with Devonshire homes so far excellent.
From the moment l contacted their new site at Chilla Junction it has been a total pleasure dealing with such a professional team, particularly Vicky the site agent and Mark the site foreman.
Nothing has been too much trouble for them and as l now live in one of the lovely bungalows l am extremely happy with this family company.

Great sales team onsite, nothing is too much trouble, smooth process at completion. Quality product.

Appalling property developer, we purchased our new build in Cornwall back in September 2023 and we have had a tirade of issues, water leaks caused by damp course not installed, not fit for purpose central heating, costing us £50 a day to run and I still had to wear a hat and coat inside the house, electrical fire in the consumer unit, independent electrical test has revealed 46 additional faults, I could go on and on about this awful company, Avoid at all costs

Shocking company to deal with. Many issues with the actual building of the house some so basic you wouldn’t believe. Customer service is absolutely horrific the department might not as well exist. Best of luck if you decide to buy a house from them and expect it to be right or sorted in an efficient and timely manor afterwards.

We bought our house from Devonshire Home back in May 2023. As a house, by and large it's great, very pleased. It lets heat out at an alarming level on the top floor but we're told to assume that's normal so I'll gloss over it. If you decide to purchase a house from Devonshire, go into it knowing that once there will come a time when you will become a burden to them and they will no longer be interested. Their 'customer service' team are farcical. They verge on rude most of the time, they leave tasks unfinished for months at a time and I'm convinced rely on residents to take the time to chase them so they don't have to stay on top of it. The estate we live on in Kingbsrigde, Devon was promised to be completed autumn 2023. I write this in November 2024 and it remains unfinished with both the public spaces and road surface still to be finished. As always with Devonshire Homes though, there's always an excuse as to why it hasn't be done and it never their fault. If I ran my business like this, I would very soon be out of clients. Go into it with your eyes open if you are to buy from this company. Be fastidious with fault finding at the handover process and chase it religiously until they're completed.

We moved into our brand new Devonshire Homes house in April 2024 at Sunhouses, and we are delighted with our new home.

Here are hopefully some useful and helpful observations regarding the process from sales through to Devonshire Homes after care:

Sales Process...
We found the back and forth communication during the process of selling our own home and liaising with Devonshire Homes was very good. Sarah Hall and her sales team were attentive and flexible to our needs and wants. We found the process helped us to understand what was extra and what was included etc. Where there were any doubts, then these got resolved amicably with minimum fuss.

Build Quality...
We understand that Devonshire Homes have a reputation of building a quality house in North Devon, and that reputation significantly helped to trust that our house would be built well. However, what was extremely useful to us, was being able to take regular visits as our house as it was being built. Liaising with the sales and site team during the build process certainly assured us that we were doing the right thing as we could visibly see progress from the ground works to the completed house.

I would encourage anyone buying a new home from Devonshire Homes to do the same for houses under construction as this helped us to be reassured. For example through various visits we witnessed the timber framed walls being installed, cladded and insulated as well as the insulation under the floor being installed, and in the roof. We also saw the underfloor heating installation being fitted to the heat pump. We loved the fact that our house came complete with a heat pump as that is in line with green policies.

One thing we would have liked in addition to heat pump powered underfloor heating would have been the installation of solar panels with battery storage as well. Sadly that was not part of the design brief for any of the sunhouses development. However, the insulation quality and the heat pump tech will significantly go a long way to minimising our electricity bill. Our EPC rating is a high B (installation of solar panels would have made it top A).

On the plus side, Devonshire Homes did make good provision for electric vehicle hook up - something we will use in the future.

Moving In...
On moving into our brand new house, we found a bottle of bubbly in the fridge waiting for us and hamper of lovely local products - this was a nice touch.

It was clean inside and importantly the windows were regularly cleaned as the site was still being built and as such was dusty during the summer. This progressed during the very busy site activity as well as the road being swept and cleaned. 5-months on we have had occasional window cleaning done for us which was greatly appreciated by us.

I am hoping that Devonshire Homes will spray clean our rendering once they have finished building the houses all around us and this will be gratefully welcomed.

Aftercare Customer Services...
We have had good back and forth communication with Customer Services regarding our snagging list. And over the summer we have had the majority of our snags complete which were certainly appreciated.

My advice would be to get an ongoing spread sheet going with Customer Services (and this was in fact initiated by Customer Services). Driving ongoing snags this way is very useful as progress can be monitored. My other advice is to be proactive by regular contact with Customer Services to manage your snags and get them expedited quickly in a timely fashion. We found Emails back and forth were less effective than simply calling Devonshire Homes Customer Services. And to be fair they always answer the phone and are polite and understanding.

Our moving in pack was helpful, but incomplete in our opinion. However the heating aspect was excellent as the system was complex due to it being a zoned heat pump system with thermostat controllers in each zone. But the instructions were very useful for us to get our heating system set up as we wanted it and to optimise our ongoing costs. I do consider that the house info pack from Devonshire Homes Customer Services could have been significantly improved as there was a lot more that could be given in terms of house maintenance etc. However, following our conversations with Customer Services this issue was acknowledged (which was helpful) and more importantly is now being addressed and we will be given and updated manual soon. This will be very welcome.

Final thoughts...
As mentioned in the opening sentences we are delighted with our new Devonshire Homes house. We have a slick, modern, extremely 'green' and highly efficient house. The whole sunhouse development is outstanding, with exciting architecture, balconies and with a south facing aspect. All our friends say, "wow!" when they visit us.