LOCALS are outraged after shelling out up to £550,000 for homes on a ‘desolate’ new-build estate that remains unfinished five years after construction began.
Homeowners began settling into Shropshire‘s multimillion-pound Lilly Hay estate in 2019.
However, the estate has been plagued with issues ever since, leaving residents feeling like they are “living on a building site”.
Unfinished roads and pavements have resulted in massive potholes, damaging cars, while drainage problems cause water to flood their “dream homes” during heavy rain.
Retired resident, Lin Glover, 69, started raising issues with developer Taylor Wimpey as problems arose when the first inhabitants moved in back in December, 2019.
Despite the management company implying residents could face prosecution, the community has “banded together” to “force them reconsider legal action and properly finish the site”.
She said: “The management company that has taken over this responsibility has implied we could be prosecuted if we don’t pay,
“but the residents intend to band together so we are strong enough to force them reconsider legal action and properly finish the site, because until then we’re not paying.”
Lin, formerly a member of an M&S management team, bought her property for £360,000 in 2021 as her dream final home.
It will be her third new build purchase and although she hadn’t experienced any problems previously this one has turned into a nightmare for her.
She added: “This is the third new build home I have bought in my life but I’ve never experienced problems like this before.
‘I’m nearly 70 and this was meant to be my dream home on a dream estate but it has turned into a nightmare.
“There is many a night I can’t sleep at all, it’s really been affecting me badly mentally.”
Many of the pavements are crumbling, forcing parents to walk on the road with pushchairs, leading to injuries for children reportedly falling of bikes and deterring elderly wheelchair users from venturing outside..
Lin added: “There is a lady who lives on the estate who has an elderly disabled son who has an electric wheelchair and at one point he couldn’t come home because he couldn’t access the paths and the roads.
Many of the roads also lack a top layer of asphalt in some areas.
Despite many promises to “sort out the problem”, they remain uneven and treacherous and hard to navigate..
The elderly resident shared her suspicions over the departments failure to complete the homes.
She said: “One of the problems being, for the last two years we’ve had no site manager.
“We had somebody put on here for six weeks who was going to rectify it and he was good, known for his finishing off on the issues.
“He told me that himself, but after six weeks he disappeared along with the snagging list we had put together.
“So for two years I have been the eyes and ears of this estate, reporting problems to Taylor Wimpey, ringing anybody that I feel needs to know.”
“I’ve been sending photos for two years now with actually no action whatsoever.
She claims she’s not the only frustrated resident trying to hold the developers to account.
“I’m not saying I’m the only one that’s been in touch with Taylor Wimpey, I know these other residents have, but as their frustrations have built up many have had enough and just given up.
“But I feel it’s up to me to carry on the fight for myself and all the other residents.
“We were promised it would be complete in March of 2023, and then it was going to be September, 2023.”
ALL new build homes come with some form of warranty.
Most often, this is a builder warranty of around 10 years, against structural issues, and a shorter developer warranty against issues with fixtures and fittings.
Registered builders are bound by a Consumer Code, which sets out quality standards.
If the house is not complete at the time it was promised, the customer can cancel the purchase, with a full refund of any deposit or reservation fee.
Complaints can be resolved privately with builders/developers in the first instance.
However, if you are not satisfied, there is an independent dispute scheme that can be used within the first three months of receiving the final response to the complaint from the builders
One father finally called it quits – fed up with the ongoing issues.
James Warriner, father of two, said: “We’re actually selling up, not because we don’t like it here, but because a relative’s house is going to become available to us.
“We put the house on the market two weeks ago and we’ve had five viewings already.”
Many of the other residents echoed similar dissatisfaction.
A dad of two boys, who didn’t want to be named said: “I bought my house for £340,000 two years ago, but there hasn’t been enough thought into planning this huge estate.
“There are no shops. tiny play areas for the kids and the two existing schools will never be big enough for the amount of kids that are going to come off this estate.
“There is one area designated for social housing and we get kids from there causing problems around here and even abandoned cars.
“My kids love to go out and play football, but many of the grassy areas have become overgrown and they often come back having been stung with stinging nettles.”
Another resident, support worker Dylan Roberts, 26, who lives in Pankhurst Way told the Sun: “There have been problems with the roads and pavements here for months.
“My car is quite low slung so I have to go out of the drive on an angle to try to stop the car bottoming on the uneven surface.
Unfinished Infrastructure:
Roads and Pavements: Massive potholes damaging cars and unfinished roads lacking a top layer of asphalt, resulting in uneven and treacherous surfaces.
Crumbling Pavements: Parents forced to walk on the road with pushchairs, leading to injuries for children falling off bikes and elderly people with wheelchairs afraid to venture out.
Drainage Problems: Water floods homes during heavy rain, causing significant damage to properties.
Unmet Commitments: Despite four different promises to complete the roads, including the main entrance road, the problem remains unresolved.
Limited Facilities: Residents pointed out the lack of shops available, small play areas for children, and insufficient school capacity for the growing number of children from the estate.
Neighbourhood Problems: residents complained of kids from nearby social housing causing trouble and abandoned cars contributing to the issues.
“We do love it here, but I wish they would get the place fixed up.”
Developers Taylor Wimpey has apologised to residents and has said remedial works to complete the roads and pavements are now due to start on August 5.
Taylor Wimpey’s Associate Customer Support Officer said: “We wish to recognise the distress this matter is causing you and our residents on the Lily Hay development.”
The firm said that the estate was a consortium site with Persimmon Homes and that their previous procedure of completing the roads and pavements at the end of the development has now changed.
They now intend to ensure roads and footpaths were completed as they go along, which is why phase two of the estate has been completed ahead of phase one.
Meanwhile, Lily Hay isn’t the only new build nightmare.
Camden residents who live in new-build homes so badly constructed they could be demolished.
They’re now trapped in “uninsurable” homes and fear their properties could now be valued at £0 due to the amount of defects.
