Cotswold Vale residents in 'newbuild nightmare' after paying £300k

2022-12-06

Furious residents say they are living a newbuild ‘nightmare’ because their £300k Persimmon homes are riddled with HUNDREDS of faults including wonky windows, freezing rooms, cracked walls and unlockable doors

Furious residents in Cotswold Vale say they’re living in a ‘newbuild nightmare’
Homes worth more than £300,000 are ‘riddled with hundreds of faults’ they say
Persimmon Homes has acknowledged the complaints and is investigating
Families say they’re worried for their health and for the health of their children
• Have you had new-build nightmare? Email [email protected]

Furious residents who paid more than £300,000 on homes in a newbuild estate say their lives are a ‘nightmare’ with the properties riddled with hundreds of faults.

Homeowners living in Cotswold Vale near Stratford-upon-Avon complain of ‘shoddy’ building work with wonky windows, unlockable doors, mould, cracked walls and freezing rooms.

More than 140 residents have now formed an action group to demand Persimmon Homes urgently correct the catalogue of problems plaguing the newbuild estate.

Retired Royal Navy serviceman Robert Fung, 68, moved into a brand new £315,000 three-bedroom detached property with his wife Mary, 64, in February 2019.

Have you had new-build nightmare? Email [email protected]

Furious residents who paid more than £300,000 on homes in a newbuild estate say their lives are a ‘nightmare’ with the properties riddled with hundreds of faults

Homeowners living in Cotswold Vale near Stratford-upon-Avon complain of ‘shoddy’ building work with wonky windows, unlockable doors, mould, cracked walls and freezing rooms

Mr Fung said rooftiles were capped with ill-fitting fascia trimming (pictured)

Since moving in, the couple have had eight new doors installed after they either failed to lock or were fitted incorrectly.

Dad-of-two Mr Fung said: ‘The whole development is a nightmare when it comes to windows and doors.

‘The site management do not seem to care and there is a lack of quality and no duty of care. They know what the issues are, but nothing gets done.

‘People are suffering with mental fatigue.’

In the estate, there are 52 social housing properties governed by Platform Housing.

Dad-of-two Mr Fung said: ‘The whole development is a nightmare when it comes to windows and doors’

Retired Royal Navy serviceman Robert Fung, 68, moved into a brand new £315,000 three-bedroom detached property with his wife Mary, 64, in February 2019

Katie Biddle, 29, rents a two-bedroom semi and lives there with her four-year-old son Tobias.

She says she has to ‘kick’ her front door to open it and can hear wind whistling through her drafty home.

She said: ‘I spent my first Christmas bathing at mum’s house because the bath leaked two days.

‘I now have mould on my bathroom floor and damp patches on my living room ceiling.’

Ms Biddle said she’s been repeatedly ‘given false promises’ and is getting increasingly concerned about the threat of break-ins.

Her son, she claims, is ‘constantly coughing’ while she always feels congested. She worries it’s a result of mould.

‘You can literally hear the wind whistling through my house. I get scared about my son’s health.

‘I physically have to kick the door open, and the windows and doors don’t lock properly.’

Housing Secretary Michael Gove has vowed to crack down on mould and damp in housing following the tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak.

Over the last year, the social housing ombudsman has received 3,350 complaints about damp, mould and leaks – almost double the number reported in 2020.

Katie Biddle, 29, rents a two-bedroom semi and lives there with her four-year-old son Tobias

The community has now formed an action group and are demanding Persimmon Homes urgently correct the catalogue of faults

Mike Hobbs, 52, moved into his £320,000 four-bedroom detached house in July 2019 with his wife Charlotte Hobbs, 49, and their three teenage children.

Mr Hobbs, a Tesco delivery driver, said: ‘Our front and back doors were warping out of shape and started to not lock.

‘Persimmon kept replacing them but then the same thing would happen. In the end, I had to get a professional in to solve the problem.

‘When we moved in, we also noticed the three back upstairs windows were not square, so we complained about this too.

‘We eventually had them replaced last December but they have been replaced with windows that don’t match all the other windows in our property.’

Mr Hobbs also said his house is freezing in the winter which he believes indicates it may not have been insulated properly when it was built.

He added: ‘At the moment we are trying to heat a house that might not even be heat efficient.

‘I want my kids to be comfy and warm and not have to put jumpers on to watch the TV because they are freezing in their own home.’

Mike Hobbs, 52, moved into his £320,000 four-bedroom detached house in July 2019 with his wife Charlotte Hobbs, 49, and their three teenage children

A spokesperson from Persimmon Homes said: ‘We acknowledge there have been some further issues with properties on Cotswold Vale’

Wheelchair-bound Taz Wright, 60, lives on her own in a three-bedroom house and says it has been riddled with problems since she moved in to the property in 2018.

She said: ‘After four years, the baseboards in the kitchen have still not been put in.

‘There are lots of faulty electrics across the house including two electrical sockets behind the sink in the kitchen which is dangerous.

‘My front door doesn’t close properly, and you have to force it open, and I was promised a ramp to be installed to give me better access to my house two years ago and this still hasn’t been done.

‘The door frame is wonky and the rubber seal around the door is broken, and slugs get into the inside of the door… My garden is appalling.’

Ms Wright said her garden is a ‘bog’ because of the lack of drainage, meaning she’s essentially unable to use it at all.

Initially, the fence was put in upside down and while it’s now been fixed, it’s ‘still wonky because the posts were not put into concrete’.

‘Every single room in the house has some form of snagging issue.

‘You have to try to fix it yourself or live with it and because I am disabled it is causing me more stress and anxiety.’

Wheelchair-bound Taz Wright, 60, lives on her own in a three-bedroom house and says it has been riddled with problems since she moved in to the property in 2018

Dad-of-three Kris Street, 32, moved into a three bedroom detached house last summer with his partner, Hannah Johnson, 27, and their three young children.

Mr Street, a customer service operator said: ‘By Christmas we were having to block up our front and back door with draft excluders and towels, and eventually our sofa to keep in the heat.

‘We found ourselves spending an absolute fortune on gas and electricity and by the end of January we were in £600 debt of our energy bills.

‘I dread to think what we be in by the end of this winter as we are already £500 in debt because our house is so cold due to the doors and windows.

‘My youngest two, who are aged two and three, are always coughing and in October this year I had to take my three-year-old to A&E. I walked into her room one day and she was stone cold.

‘I had to shake her, and I got a lump in my throat and thought the worse but thankfully she was okay.’

Dad-of-three Kris Street, 32, moved into a three bedroom detached house last summer with his partner, Hannah Johnson, 27, and their three young children

Lisa Johnson, of Platform Housing, said: ‘After discovering the complexity of issues on this site, Platform took the decision to create a dedicated team to support and engage with customers at Cotswold Vale

‘We set up an event to meet those customers earlier in November and since then have also held meetings with Persimmon, involving the National House Building Council, to take customers’ issues to them and fine resolutions.’

A spokesperson from Persimmon Homes said: ‘We acknowledge there have been some further issues with properties on Cotswold Vale and have written to all residents urging them to get in touch with any concerns.

‘We have carried out surveys on all homes where residents have contacted us and are currently in the process of putting right any issues identified.’

It comes as David Wilson Homes faced backlash for a new-build at their Wendel View development over allegations of collapsing walls, wonky radiators and broken doors.

Other families have reported being ‘driven mad’ by ongoing construction at a housing development in Worcester, while the 120-home Weogoran Park development was also besieged with problems.

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