lizzie Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 3 minutes ago, Amateur bob said: any of you heard of timber frame company Ptarmigan Homes? i had thought of using scotframe but i looked on company check and they has over £1m loss last year, could be risky? Possibly should be called Phoenix Homes as was formed from embers of defunct Roy Homes Inverness...same directors picked up the assets of Roy from liquidators and put them into the company they had formed ready and waiting...Ptarmigan Homes. No idea beyond that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 10 minutes ago, lizzie said: Possibly should be called Phoenix Homes as was formed from embers of defunct Roy Homes Inverness...same directors picked up the assets of Roy from liquidators and put them into the company they had formed ready and waiting...Ptarmigan Homes. No idea beyond that. We used Roy homes to build the shell of our first self build in 2004. Back then they were happy to build our design on our plot. When planning the present new build, I did go to see Roy Homes again, but they were basically only interested in selling us one of their stock design houses on a plot that they were selling and not at all interested in doing our bespoke build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recoveringbuilder Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 This was the company I first contacted as I liked one of their designs, they were very helpful and the price of the kit seemed ok, architect ended up talking us out of paying for their plans and said he’d design something similar, sometimes wish I’d gone with their design as it would have been tried and tested and I wouldn’t have had the problem with the staircase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amateur bob Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 14 hours ago, ProDave said: We used Roy homes to build the shell of our first self build in 2004. Back then they were happy to build our design on our plot. When planning the present new build, I did go to see Roy Homes again, but they were basically only interested in selling us one of their stock design houses on a plot that they were selling and not at all interested in doing our bespoke build. were they ok to deal with? any idea why they went bust? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amateur bob Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 14 hours ago, lizzie said: Possibly should be called Phoenix Homes as was formed from embers of defunct Roy Homes Inverness...same directors picked up the assets of Roy from liquidators and put them into the company they had formed ready and waiting...Ptarmigan Homes. No idea beyond that. sounds a bit dodgy? clients couldve paid for their timber frame and then lost their money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 54 minutes ago, Amateur bob said: were they ok to deal with? any idea why they went bust? Yes they were okay to deal with. But you had to be careful what you said, Mention a small seemingly insignificant change to anything and next day the "letter of variation" to the contract landed on your doormat with the extra cost. I don't know why they went bust but looking back, when I went to see them about the present build, as I already mention they were pushing hard for me to buy a stock house on one of their plots. I suspect they were already in trouble then and trying to sell assets to prevent the crash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 6 minutes ago, ProDave said: Yes they were okay to deal with. But you had to be careful what you said, Mention a small seemingly insignificant change to anything and next day the "letter of variation" to the contract landed on your doormat with the extra cost. I don't know why they went bust but looking back, when I went to see them about the present build, as I already mention they were pushing hard for me to buy a stock house on one of their plots. I suspect they were already in trouble then and trying to sell assets to prevent the crash. Given the slow state of the market where you are, then if they were sitting on plots of land that weren't selling they could well have just run out of time/money. Might be just down to them being caught by the relatively local house sales recession in your area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amateur bob Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 is there much that can be done to avoid being left seriously out of pocket from one of these timber frame suppliers going bust? the scotframe company has huge assets but strangely made a big loss last year after 4 sucessive highly profitable years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamieled Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 Scotframe were bought by St Gobain at the end of 2017. That loss may not be reflective of the scotframe business in isolation ( would need to dig into the accounts to understand why though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 Not a lot.... we know someone who had 2 tf co’s go bust on them. Sure someone on here who is also in Scotland (as you are?) will be able to suggest some that may be worth looking at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amateur bob Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 6 minutes ago, jamieled said: Scotframe were bought by St Gobain at the end of 2017. That loss may not be reflective of the scotframe business in isolation ( would need to dig into the accounts to understand why though). found an article saying they had moved to new premises in dundee this year the losses may be due to buying/building this site? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 Aren't most TF contracts on a phased payment plan? Ours certainly was... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 1 minute ago, dpmiller said: Aren't most TF contracts on a phased payment plan? Ours certainly was... Ours was, five stage payments, with something like a 10% deposit and then payments at completion of each erected stage that were roughly equal to the value. The final payment was 20%, paid only after the house was complete and had been insulated and air tested and shown to meet the passive house criteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recoveringbuilder Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 We didn’t pay a deposit when ordering, our first payment was made a week before the main structure arrived , the amount being the amount quoted for the shell, erection was paid after it was done then we paid the roughings and lastly the finishings but only days before they arrived Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 I had the stages as @JSHarris The people I know who came a cropper with TF co's going bust had paid between 10 and 20% deposit. May not sound a lot but 10k or more is a lot to lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 Pay on a credit card, the bank takes the risk then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 14 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: Pay on a credit card, the bank takes the risk then. Was not an option for us and I dont think may TF co’s take CC. We felt reasonably comfortable with the financial stability of co we used but some risk with anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 I did do a check on the frame company and its directors before placing the order. This showed that the company seemed to have had some tough times during the recession but had kept going. It's a judgement call in the end, with any company, but I took the view that a company that had managed to keep trading, despite a significant downturn in new builds, was probably going to be a reasonable bet. The history of the directors is also a useful guide, as some companies come and go with the same directors just starting a new company from the ashes of the last one. This shows up on checks, reasonably well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 the other option (with a cost involved) is to put the funds into escrow with a solicitor, I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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