Dream homes tearing apart

11:00am Thursday 23rd October 2003

What were once dream homes in Shenley's Porters Park Estate have become a living nightmare for two families.

Several houses in Poultney Close, built less than ten years ago, are literally cracking up because of subsidence.

But the Cox family and their neighbours, the Burretts, have had little luck persuading property giant Bryant Homes to buy the properties back.

Paul Cox and his wife Evvy bought their house in 1994 when it was brand new, but two years later cracks appeared.

Now cracks in the external walls are inches wide, and Mr and Mrs Cox fear their bay window could shatter or their boiler pipes could burst, causing a fire or flood.

"In the last three years I would say subsidence has really taken hold of the house. You can stick your hand in the cracks," said Mr Cox.

Doors on one side of the house have to be forced open, and doors on the other side barely close.

Bryant Homes offered to buy the house back at market value several years ago, but the family refused because it would not have been enough money to buy another house.

Now they have three children and need to move out of Hertfordshire, but cannot sell and Bryant Homes has not repeated its offer.

The National House Building Council (NHBC) guaranteed the house, and has offered to repair the damage. But the family does not believe the house can be fixed, and wants it to be bought back instead.

"I think the stress has affected our health, and our children's health. We just want to move out," said Mr Cox.

Mrs Cox added that Bryant Homes was no longer returning her calls, or her solicitor's letters: "They are ignoring us. They are washing their hands of us."

Fran and Pete Burrett bought their house in Poultney Close in 1999, and, after it had been repaired in 1996, put it back on the market.

They were told "strengthening work" had been carried out, but as the NHBC offered a ten-year guarantee they went ahead with the purchase.

Now, despite being underpinned twice since it was built, the house is coming apart again.

Emergency work was recently carried out on the gas meter, which could have leaked if the pipes had become any more warped, and there are cracks in every room in the house, some as wide as half an inch.

Mrs Burrett said it was extremely stressful to see her house tearing itself apart, hearing the walls creaking at night when it was quiet, and she wanted Bryant Homes to buy it back.

A Bryant Homes spokeswoman said the firm, which became liable for the houses when it bought the original builder Admiral Homes, was no longer liable. Too much time had passed, and the families would have to pursue their claims through the NHBC.

The NHBC is negotiating with both families. A spokeswoman said the NHBC was waiting for permission to investigate the problems at the Cox house, and that engineers would be investigating the Burrett house soon.