Dad who spent life savings on £700k new-build says it ‘looks like scene out of Aleppo’ after being dogged with issues
A DAD who spent his life savings on a £700,000 new-build says it “looks like a scene out of Aleppo” after being dogged with issues. Mark, 41, who would only give his first name, lives in Heathlands, a four-year-old housing estate built by Linden Homes in Frimley, Surrey. He claims the estate is a “dangerous […]
A DAD who spent his life savings on a £700,000 new-build says it “looks like a scene out of Aleppo” after being dogged with issues.
Mark, 41, who would only give his first name, lives in Heathlands, a four-year-old housing estate built by Linden Homes in Frimley, Surrey.
He claims the estate is a “dangerous dump” with exposed electricity cables and rubble blocking the drains.
Mark bought a four-bedroom house on the estate in November 2019, and lives there with his young family.
But he says he was “promised a lot more than I got”.
“When we viewed the property there is a sunken garden in the middle of
the estate which was absolutely lovely. And it looks like a scene out
of Aleppo right now,” he said.
A self-employed carpet cleaner, Mark used his life savings to buy the £700,000 new-build that he originally “fell in love with”.
Mark claimed some of the issues on the estate were there when he first move in, but that the Linden Homes sales team said they would be rectified.
Nearly a year later, new issues have come up and the old ones haven’t
been fixed, Mark claims – despite paying a service charge of £600 a year to
the management company.
Mark said other estate residents have been dealing with similar issues for the three years before he bought the house.
He said life in the brand new development was not what he expected, with blocked drains and a strong stench of sewage, to crumbling walls and protruding cables in the communal areas.
“None of us have a problem paying the service charge. But at the moment we are paying the money and half the development is a dump, and it’s a dangerous dump at that,” Mark said.
The Linden Homes development was opened in 2016.
A brochure advertising the estate tells prospective buyers that “Heathlands is a delightful place to live”, with “extensive landscaped communal grounds” including “the restored original sunken garden”.
But Mark claims he was not given what he was promised.
“The drains are an ongoing problem. We don’t feel the sewage and drainage on the site is up to the job of dealing with 101 properties. There is a constant issue with blocked drains,” he said.
“All the drains are full of builders’ concrete and rubble. They are full to the brim of dirt and mud. There are things growing out of them.”
He claims that once a week there is a sewage “stink” in his en-suite bathroom.
Mark added that the blocked drains contributed to his neighbour’s
garage flooding in recent days.
In April 2018, fellow resident Mark Buller was dealing with the stench of sewage at his Heathlands home due to a pump station sitting directly underneath his garden.
Mr Buller said at the time: “My concern is that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sell it. I would have to be fully transparent.
“Out the back at the weekend I couldn’t even let the kids out it was so bad. The moment the sun comes out the worse it gets.”
A red light, which neighbours have coined the ‘poo light’, was installed outside the property.
When it flashes, it is supposed to alert contractors that there is a blockage that needs attention.
Residents say there are also exposed cables, crumbling pillars and cracking walls.
Mark claims Linden Homes have ignored complaints from residents for
years, and that he is now concerned for his family’s and his neighbours’ safety.
He says there are collapsed walls “all over the place”, particularly in the sunken garden.
“We are concerned there are two and three-year-old kids, if any of those boulders fall it is going to injure. So we just stop going there,” he said.
“It is overgrown with weeds, there are trip hazards on the steps. We were promised beautiful landscaped gardens.”
There are also concerns over protruding cables at the estate which Mark says he “hopes” aren’t electric.
Mark says he can’t afford to move elsewhere.
“I have put everything that I have into this property; my life savings. I owned a second property in Southampton and had to sell that to buy this.
“My pension, everything, I put into buying this house. So the option of moving and paying another lot of legal fees and stamp duty, it is not on the cards. All my focus is getting the estate safe and finished.”
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Around 70 Heathlands residents have joined a self-made action group in
the hope of tackling the problems.
A Linden Homes spokesperson said: “We are aware of outstanding issues
at the location and are working with our contractors to resolve these
as soon as possible.
“We will continue to provide our residents with regular updates and
apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
