OUR £22K SNAGGING HEADACHE

Couple’s new home nightmare

Additional reporting by Jane Barrie David and Jacqueline Snedden’s dream home has turned into a nightmare with faults costing £22,000 to fix.

The couple have spent two years chasing builders Charles Church for a resolution but the work is still not complete, despite them invoking their National House Building Council guarantee.

They called me in last week in a final attempt to get things moving.

David, 50, said: “We are stressed to the max over this.

“The house is a disaster area. It has been a building site since March when the joiner last walked off the job.

“There are so many holes in the walls from nail pops, caused when construction nails work themselves loose, that it looks like someone has gone on the rampage with a machine gun.”

The Sneddens bought the £250,000 new-build property from Charles Church, a division of Persimmon, and moved in in March 2014. But they had problems almost right away.

David, an offshore pipe fitter, said: “We reported the usual snagging and things were attended to at first.”

But the Sneddens decided they’d had enough and escalated the outstanding issues to NHBC in November. The faults include more than 600 holes from nail pops in walls, faulty front and back doors, a sinking garage floor with a 6ft crack along it and wonky window sills.

David and Jacqueline, 50, a bakery worker, were pleased when NHBC inspected the property and instructed Charles Church to take action.

But things did not go to plan. David said: “They were supposed to start in January to fix the faults but never did.

They had three dates given to them but they failed to show.

“Then in March a joiner turned up, changed over some internal doors, put screws in plasterboard in two of the bedrooms and left.”

The Sneddens, of Redding, Falkirk, were advised by NHBC to