An Ivybridge couple’s dream home has been valued at just £1 because of a series of faults.
Dayle Dixon and Mark Lee bought their three-bedroom new build home in 2018 in an estate called Lucerne Fields.
Dayle explained: “It started with a hairline crack on the floor which grew and grew and grew.
“Barratts sent out different structural engineers who couldn;’t state what the problem was but did confirm the concrete floor should have had reinforcement in it and that the floor insulation was too thin.
“We got our own RICS surveyor out and he confirmed there was water ingress.
“We’ve had around 500 issues with the house.”
They paid £274,995 to David Wilson Homes (as subsidiary of Barratt Developments) and it should now be worth £330,000 but because of a number of major defects it was valued by independent chartered surveyors at just £1.
Dayle continued: “Our entire lives have been consumed with this property.
‘Every holiday we’ve taken off work we’ve had to be here for people either not to show up or for people to show up and damage our property.
Dayle said: “We bought a brand new house expecting it to be plain sailing but it’s been a living hell.
“The developer eventually agreed to bore a number of holes in the floor to check underneath.
They sent the couple a report with 30 blurred photos saying there’s nothing wrong with the block and beam floor or the foundations which didn’t satisfy the couple so they bought their own Borescope as Dayle explained: “I fired back saying these are our photos and that is not true and I literally shredded the report.
“It’s taken four years for them to rebuild my garden walls but they haven’t rectified the blocks underneath that are broken and moving.
A spokesperson for BDW Exeter said:
“As the UK’s leading five star housebuilder, we are sorry that Ms Dixon is unhappy.
While we try to get things right first time, occasionally mistakes happen which we try to rectify as quickly as possible.
We paid for an independent surveyor’s report of her choosing and have confirmed we will deal with any issues it finds – offering to pay for an external contractor of her choosing to deliver the work.
So far Ms Dixon has rejected our attempts to resolve the issue in line with her demands, but we continue to try and work towards a successful resolution.”
Rebecca Smith, MP for South West Devon, said:
“I was delighted to have been elected as the new Member of Parliament for South West Devon just over a week ago.
“I exchanged correspondence with Dayle Dixon and Mark Lee about their ongoing issues with their home during the campaign and I will be writing to them again over the coming weeks to ensure they have a local voice in Parliament that they deserve.
“I was elected with a mandate to get things done locally and to make people’s lives better, that’s exactly what I intended to do.”