Homeowner’s ‘nightmare’
PEOPLE living in Persimmon-built estates say they have experienced all manner of problems after moving in.
One said life had been a “nightmare” ever since they moved into their new home on the Golwg y Mynydd estate in Mountain Ash.
PEOPLE living in Persimmon-built estates say they have experienced all manner of problems after moving in to their new homes.
Michelle Holland said life had been a “nightmare” ever since she moved into her Persimmon home on the Golwg y Mynydd estate in Mountain Ash.
The mum-of-one was in hospital with her newborn baby when she and her partner got the keys to their house just before Christmas in 2018.
It was her partner who was greeted with the unwelcome sight of a leak when he first stepped through his new front door.
Michelle said: “My other half had came down to get our keys and move us, as myself and the baby were in hospital. He walked through the front door to a leak coming through the ceiling and the floor soaking.
“They [Persimmon] had to cut a hole in our brandnew ceiling and patched it up. Ever since we’ve had problems with the en-suite floor.”
Not long after the family had moved in, Michelle said her new neighbours knocked on her door. There were issues with a gate, which was on her neighbours’ plans, but not hers.
Michelle explained: “They’d bought a house with a plan of a gate on the side of the house for their dogs and animals. We had bought a house with nothing attached.”
After a lot of wrangling, Michelle said all parties, including the Persimmon site manager, agreed on a wooden gate which both houses would have access to.
Michelle was shocked and disappointed when she came home to find something else entirely more akin to a “prison gate”.
This was after weeks of unfinished surfaces along the side of her house, which Michelle claimed caused her to nearly fall on one occasion.
The gate now means Michelle has to ask her neighbours for access to the side, as her gas meter is inside the gate.
Parking outside their home is also an ongoing battle, said Michelle: “We have spent more time off our drive finding somewhere to park on the site rather than on it.”
At one point, she arrived home to find workmen has dug up the freshly-laid Tarmac drive to fix a pinhole in a pipe underneath. This was in response to the fact that the toilets had never flushed properly since the family had moved in.
The list of outstanding issues is ongoing, added Michelle.
“They promise it will be done by tomorrow but actually end up taking weeks,” she said. “The workmen never bother to think that parking and blocking our drive will stop us from actually getting our car out either.
“The site manager promised us the world. You have a survey to complete via email and he said, ‘Oh do this now and we’ll do that.’
“I agreed and he came into my house and did it himself on my phone. We’ve never seen him since.”
Persimmon said it had acted “promptly and fairly” in addressing the problems reported by Michelle.
A spokesman said: “A leak was reported towards the end of last year and immediately rectified. We are not aware of a problem with the en-suite floor.
“There was an issue externally with a Welsh Water pipe which meant Welsh Water needed to cut into the customer’s driveway.
“Despite it being a Welsh Water issue, Persimmon re-Tarmacked the drive and laid new slabs as a courtesy.
“We believe that we have acted promptly and fairly in this instance but apologise to the customer for any inconvenience.”