Bovis set aside a further £3.5m to fix faulty homes

Bovis (LON:BVS) announced plans to aside an additional £3.5 million to deal with faults with customer homes following complaints.

The house-builder said the additional funds would be used to address complaints from customers that had been sold uncompleted and faulty houses, which had occurred due to company pressure to fulfil sale targets.

As a consequence numerous customers encountered issues with their homes, including electrical faults and plumbing complications. The situation eventually led to the departure of chief executive David Ritchie.

The FTSE 250 firm’s statement on the decision said:
“This further provision will ensure we are fully resourced to complete the works identified as swiftly as possible whilst at the same time delivering the appropriate high level of service to our new customers.

“We are confident that all legacy issues are now identified and that where possible these issues will be fully dealt with and the related costs incurred during this financial year.”

Current chief executive Greg Fitzgerald also commented on the group’s results for the year.

He stated: “The trading performance in the first half of our financial year is in-line with management expectations.

“In the past 11 weeks I have spent a good amount of time with each of our operating regions, visited 85 sites and met the vast majority of our people.

“We continue to identify and implement operational improvements and I am very confident we can deliver a successful turnaround, returning Bovis Homes to being a leading UK housebuilder.

“I look forward to providing an update on the Group’s strategy with the presentation of our half year results in September.”

According to its latest trading update, the company expects its completion rate to be as much as 15 percent down on the year previously.

Since the appointment of Fitzgerald as chief executive, the group has been following a turnaround plan, which in turn has seen the slowdown rate of completion to avoid any similar complications in the future.

Shares in Bovis are currently down 0.57 percent as of 13.09PM (GMT).

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