Background

As a result of the Barker Review of 2004 and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) Market Study into the house building industry dated October 2008, a group of stakeholders within the industry joined forces to develop voluntarily a Code of Conduct for home builders to address the issues raised in those reports relating to customer service and satisfaction.

The Consumer Code was formed by agreement between NHBC and MD Insurance Services Ltd (trading as Premier Guarantee and LABC Warranty). These organisations have agreed that builders and developers registered with them will be required to adopt the Consumer Code. 

A Management Board runs the Consumer Code Scheme, supported by an Advisory Forum currently consisting of representatives from:

• Construction Employers Federation (NI)
• Council of Mortgage Lenders
• Federation of Master Builders
• Home Builders Federation
• House Builders' Association
• Homes for Scotland
• NHBC
• Premier Guarantee
• LABC Warranty
• Retirement Housing Group

This Consumer Code is a voluntary industry code that, whilst solely an industry led and run scheme, has been drawn up taking due account of the main criteria of an OFT code.  The work of developing the code, which came into force on 1st April 2010, was undertaken in accordance with the timetable proposed by the industry and incorporated into the OFT Market Study published in September 2008.

The Consumer Code was officially launched at an event hosted by Lord Fowler at the House of Lords on 24th March 2010.