A COUPLE claim they haven’t been able to celebrate Christmas at home in years after their new-build was left so botched it’s now worth just £1.
Dayle Dixon and Mark Lee say they noticed cracks in the floor at their dream detached home in Ivybridge, Devon, just days before getting the keys in 2018.
Construction firm Barratt Homes reportedly told them the property was just drying out but since then they’ve faced eight years of damp, floor movement and dangerous dust.
Dayle, 53, says a surveyor concluded the house is worth just £1 after damp proofing issues allowed water to run under the home and wreak havoc with its structure.
She claims that when her elderly relatives last visited two years ago they suffered breathing issues due to dust from the bare concrete floor.
The grandma-of-one says relatives have refused to visit this Christmas as have their three adult children – so they’ll be left to spend Christmas alone “lying in bed”.
She’s admitted “nobody wants to come round when you’re sat in chaos” and that she’s avoided festive decorations for the past five years because “everything is wet”.
Her and Mark, 59, are begging Barratt Homes to pay £330,000 to buy the botched property from them and heavily compensate them for the issues so the couple can leave.
Dayle says they’ve agreed to meet the independent valuation price and give her £5,000 compensation but that isn’t enough as mortgage and Help to Buy repayments would leave the pair “homeless”.
Dayle, from Ivybridge, Devon, said: “The first couple of years we had the tree up but we haven’t had a Christmas for five years at least now.
“All the fun has been taken away because nobody wants to come round when you’re sat in chaos.
“We loved Christmas and used to have the family over but it’ll be just us this year and if we’re at home we’ll probably be in bed because it’s just depressing.
“We can’t have a family meal with everyone around the table or Christmas presents on the floor because it’s wet.
“We’ve got no Christmas tree up because we can’t even decorate the house nevermind decorate a Christmas tree.
“It’s Mark’s birthday on Christmas Eve and we don’t even celebrate that.
“I pray for the day when we can have a proper celebration because I can’t even have my own family come and stay with me anymore.
“[We have elderly relatives] in their 80s and they can’t visit because it makes them so ill.
“The only time my relative had breathing problems like he had at my house is when he worked on building sites.
“The last time relatives stayed was a couple of years ago and one ended up on antibiotics because her chest was so bad.
“We’re asking for a bit of Christmas spirit from the scrooges at Barrett Homes to give us the money we deserve and let us walk away.”
Dayle says surveyors’ reports claim the concrete flooring wasn’t built with adequate support and was too thin so that and the walls would need to be removed for restoration work.
She says that upon selling the home she’d need to clear around £88,000 outstanding from her non-transferable mortgage and around £70,000 in Help to Buy repayments.
The pair, who have been together for 25 years, believe they’ve spent around £15,000 on ruined furnishings such as ceramic tiles that cracked and moved due to the floor’s instability.
They plan to take legal action and claim money to cover the home’s value, the repairs they’ve paid for, and the required Help to Buy repayment.
Dayle said: “It makes me cry all the time and it gives me nightmares.
“We’re living in a building site with bare concrete floors, dust, damp, mould and even damp mites in our food. It’s disgusting.
“Because the water is taking the moisture out of the concrete floor it’ll end up as sand and cement with no glue in it so the floor will completely crumble to nothing.
“If we accepted the offer we’d be technically homeless because once we’ve paid the mortgage off and repaid the Help to Buy fee we wouldn’t have enough money to buy another property.
“If we wanted to sell it privately the surveyor said we wouldn’t get anything for it because of the amount of work that needs doing.
“I want them to compensate us adequately for the seven years of hell. The stress, the health problems and everything we’ve lost.”
Her TikTok post containing the £1 valuation has been viewed more than 16,000 times.
One commented: “Never buying a newbuild again. Sorry you are going through this.
A second said: “Keep pushing no matter what, one day these people will face real consequences.”
A third sarcastically said: “The true value of any new build box.”
A spokesperson for BDW Bristol, who own the brand Barratt Homes, said: “As a five-star housebuilder we are sorry that Miss Dixon is unhappy, however, all of our attempts to remedy the situation have so far been refused.
“This has included using external independent surveyors and contractors of her choosing, but instead of trying to find a solution, Miss Dixon has ceased communication with us leaving us unable to resolve the situation.”
