Couple face £88k bill to fix ‘collapsing’ garden
STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS TURN DREAM HOME INTO NIGHTMARE
A COUPLE who bought a dream home say it has become a nightmare – after its outdoor area developed serious structural problems that a structural engineer said would cost £88,000 to repair.
Paul Minchella, 57, and his wife Dawn and bought the brand-new build at Dale View, Longwood, near Longwood Brook, for £173,000 from the Leeds-based Brittania Developments in April 2007.
Paul said: “We bought the home as a family home with future thoughts to our retirement with views to it being a profitable investment.
“This was a beautiful location with a structurally solid foundation plot.
“However, over the last months and years, our home has now developed an extremely serious problem with the gabions, (a basket or container filled with earth, stones, or other material and used in civil engineering works), at the side of our property.
“In September 2019 we put my property up for sale with a price tag of £220,000. The estate agent came to value the three-storey house and the gardens and everything was ok.
“At the end of October 2019, we noticed that all of a sudden, the gabions had come away from the fence by quite a significant amount and the garden had collapsed. We had to take our house off the market because of this.
“The gabions have come away from the fence and are slowly falling into the water. Because of this our garden is at a very steep incline because the gabions act as retaining walls.
“We recently spoke to a structural engineer from Elland who told me that the gabions weren’t built to the standard that they should have been.
“He has sent a report on his findings and sent us a quotation for the work that would be required to repair the gabions. He would have to knock the gabions down and build them back up, build the garden back up to where it was and install a new fence. His quote was £88,000.”
Paul says he and his wife have hit a brick wall in attempting to get any redress.
Brittania Developments went into administration eight years ago and his house insurers declined to pay out saying the problem was down to ‘wear and tear.’ They then approached the Ombudsman but following an investigation, they said the insurance company had acted properly.
Paul added: “Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney has done his best writing letters for us but we have got nowhere.
“We have four grandchildren with a fifth on the way and when they come over the natural thing for us to do is to let them play in the garden but we dare not do that given the potential danger.
“We would like to move nearer to our daughter’s home in Almondbury but that doesn’t appear to be on the cards at the minute.”
Mr McCartney said: “I’ve been supporting and helping Mr Minchella with this complex issue and will continue to do so.”