There are dark stains on the outer walls of Dean Carpenter’s new-build home and when it rains, sheets of water cascade down the brickwork. Since buying his Bellway property in Bedfordshire a year ago, he has found patches of damp or discoloured tiles, accretions of moss and mould growing in the loft space. Dean is one of many homeowners on two Bellway estates claiming to have endured lengthy battles with leaking roofs – and time is running out on their structural warranties. Bellway says it strives to resolve issues as quickly as possible.
There are also stains on the outer walls of Robert Degavino’s home. Eight people on the Willow Green estate shared their concerns about stained walls, mould, or crumbling mortar in the eves. One of them, Robert, says his loft is full of black mould.
Georgina Bright, another homeowner, says damp has been pooling on her upstairs ceiling, such that “all the lights have been flickering” and when an extractor fan was removed “loads of water flew out of it”. She says Bellway’s contractors tried to clean up the mould, but it is growing again all over her loft and on the bathroom walls.
The chief executive at the Homeowners Alliance, Paula Higgins, said the level of cover for new build homeowners could be “deeply unfair”. The NHBC’s is by far the most common, but for the first two years, the builder is obliged to fix any defects or “snags”, and from years three to 10, the homeowner is usually insured for structural defects.
Despite market challenges, Bellway fared better than most of the major house builders over the past year, with profits of £381m. However, Bellway is expected to complete 8,500 homes by April, and the BBC reported on another Bellway estate in Fordham, Cambridgeshire with thousands of ongoing snagging issues.
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