RAW sewage in the downstairs toilet and a back garden like a swamp; Redditch couple Daniel Patrick and Katie Kelso have nothing but regrets after buying a Persimmon home in Brockhill for close to £300,000.
The couple, who have two children and bought their Jacob Close home off plan, say they were too excited to notice faults when they moved in 15 months ago, even though back then the back garden was a bog.
They were told at the time that was due to the drains having to be completed and that all would be well.
Taking them at their word, Daniel and Katy levelled their garden with three tonnes of soil and laid more than 50 rolls of turf.
It was only then, said Daniel, that they overheard contractors saying no land drains had been put in.
“Our neighbour has had four different gangs of workers in two weeks due to them walking off site due to the poor conditions,” said Daniel.
“It appears what made ours especially bad was the fact that we are not only at the bottom of a hill, but no initial inspections of the ground were carried out.
“Having dug our neighbour’s garden up they found an old drain from the top of the site feeding water into four drains in our neighbour’s garden which in turn is fed into our garden, so water is pouring into our garden.”
After numerous complaints Daniel and Katie’s back garden has now been dug up three times without the problem being solved.
“Since moving in we have had raw sewage in our property twice,” said Daniel,
“The first time none of our toilets would flush and waste was coming up into the downstairs toilet and into the room itself.
“In the end our neighbour had to call out a British gas dial a rod service as Persimmon did not class this as an emergency.”
The couple say they were even told the flooding was caused by waste water from their washing machine and that they needed a new one – which they bought, only for the problem to continue.
Daniel acknowledges this winter’s wet weather hasn’t helped but added: “It has been an absolute mess; We paid close to £300,000 for a new home which we work our fingers to the bone to provide for our children and we have to live like this with raw sewage in the house.
“It’s a disgrace.”
A spokesman for Persimmon Homes South Midlands said: “We have been in contact with residents and studied the specification used for the land drains fitted in the rear of the properties.
“We are in the process of arranging a better specified system which we can then install in due course, dependent on the weather.”
