Family’s outrage after home deal with developer falls through

Family who were two weeks away from moving into ‘dream’ Bellway new-build home have their sale CANCELLED after house builder ‘fails to fix wonky roof, mismatching and botched kitchen’ and ‘refuses to refund £1,000 fees’

• Sarah Chan and her husband Jon were planning to buy a new house this year
• They were due to move into the new-build home in Merseyside last month 
• The couple complained the house had a number of faults ahead of moving in 
• Now house builder Bellway Homes cancelled the contract with the couple 

A family were left devastated when their dream home reservation was cancelled after they complained about the building work.

Sarah Chan, 27, and her husband, Jon, 36, were set to move into their new-build home in Huyton, Merseyside, with their two young children in September.

But the couple said they had a number of issues with housebuilder Bellway Homes leading up to the move-in date.

Sarah Chan and her husband Jon, pictured, were left devastated when their dream of moving into their own home collapsed following a disagreement with the developer

The Chans had complained about the quality of workmanship at the home in Huyton, Merseyside

The alleged problems included a wonky roof, bricks not matching, and the kitchen being nailed in with screws and not fitting properly

The alleged problems included a wonky roof, bricks not matching, and the kitchen being nailed in with screws and not fitting properly.

The couple emailed their concerns to Bellway’s customer services team and were told the problems would be fixed.

However, when they returned to the house, Mrs Chan claims the repairs were ‘botched’ and ‘worse than before.’

It was then the couple decided to visit head office to speak to a manager about the issues, but were met by the firm’s North West managing director, David Williams – who they said told them their house reservation was cancelled.

The mother-of-two from Kirkdale, Liverpool, said: ‘We were two weeks away from moving and we had problems throughout the construction.

‘We were horrified when he told us he had cancelled our contract all we wanted was our dream home we were promised.

‘Throughout the process we spoke to the site manager and they said to come back in several weeks.

‘We emailed customer services and they said they sent someone over to fix the problems.

‘They were botched repairs and even worse than before – they knocked bricks out and shoving them back in without cement and expected my two young children to live in that.

‘The roof structure was incorrect in the beginning and made it wonky. To fix it they took off the tiles and put wood underneath to make it straight.

The couple complained that the roof on the property had not been completed to standard

‘Under the window it was meant to be a pattern but it was wonky – my two-year-old could build better than that.’

They claim Mr Williams said all costs incurred associated with the house would be refunded to the husband and wife.

But Mrs Chan said when she sent the bills to Bellway – including solicitor and evaluation fees – Bellway replied that it refunded the couple for the full reservation and ‘additions’ to the property only.

The firm said it would not refund the family for any other fees.

In an email, Bellway wrote: ‘We are advised that a refund for any other fees in relation to your purchase was not agreed during your discussions at these offices with our Managing Director.’

Mrs Chan added: ‘We sent all our bills to them and then they wrote back and said that the discussion never happened.

‘We would only be given the money back we directly gave to them, however when we spoke to him he said he would refund any costs which have incurred to with the house including the solicitor fees.

‘We are now £1,000 out of pocket, we have two young children under two and it took it a long time to get that money together.

‘Me and my husband had nothing new the whole time and we had cheap cars to save money.’

The Chan family are now having to live in a property owned by Mrs Chan’s parents – they said if they didn’t have this the would be homeless.

Their nightmare comes after another couple, Emma Moffatt and Jordan Burns, revealed they had also had their reservation for a Bellway home cancelled after complaining about faults.

Mrs Chan added: ‘We’re living in my mum and dad’s property, which they were about to sell – so now they’re out of pocket too.

‘If it wasn’t for this property would be homeless.’

Mrs Chan claims that shortly after being told their reservation was cancelled, their property was once again being advertised on Rightmove.

The family said they now have to wait until May to move into a new property they reserved and have filed a county court claim.

A spokesperson for Bellway Homes said: ‘As an NHBC five star accredited housebuilder, we are incredibly proud of our customer service and feel that it would be inappropriate and unprofessional to comment on individual customer cases which remain a private matter between ourselves and our customers.’

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