A COUPLE who spent £300,000 on their dream home have been left furious after it flooded twice with raw sewage. Daniel Patrick, 32, and his partner Katie, 37, bought their four-bed home from Persimmon in Redditch, Worcestershire, in August 2018. The couple, who have two children, said they were so excited to move into their […]
A COUPLE who spent £300,000 on their dream home have been left furious after it flooded twice with raw sewage.
Daniel Patrick, 32, and his partner Katie, 37, bought their four-bed home from Persimmon in Redditch, Worcestershire, in August 2018.
The couple, who have two children, said they were so excited to move into their new home they didn’t notice any faults – but it wasn’t long before their downstairs loo began flooding with raw sewage any time they flushed the toilet.
Their back garden also started to flood with rain water.
When they complained, the couple claim the builders said there was no external drainage system fitted to their home.
They later discovered the drains had been backing up into their washing machine, soaking the family’s clothes in raw sewage water.
After numerous complaints Daniel and Katie’s back garden has now been dug up three times without the problem being solved.
Daniel, an IT manager, said: “Since moving in we have had raw sewage in our property twice.
“Within a few days of moving in I approached the site staff with my concerns regarding the rear garden.
“My concerns were ignored and I was told it was due to the drains having to be completed. The first time [raw sewage got in the house] was last year Christmas. None of our toilets would flush and waste was coming up into the downstairs toilet and into the room itself.
“The second time, around February, Persimmon acknowledged there was an issue and someone was sent out. Both times tools were found in the drains that were left over from the build.
“The dog walked it through the house and I tried to claim for cleaning and replacing carpets. They said no and in the end we have had to replace all the downstairs with laminate flooring in case it happens again.”
The pair also claim they were told by plumbers sent by Persimmon that water waste was due to a faulty washing machine.
Daniel and Katie quickly replaced it, but the problem happened again.
Daniel said: “The plumber came and said it had nothing to do with the drainage and we’d need a new washing machine.
“We had to spend £300 on a new washing machine and there was still waste coming out. What we also found out was that we had been washing our clothes in excrement.
“The pipes would back up with the human waste…not only ours but the next door neighbours as well…and would go back into the washing machine. Myself, my partner and my two children were walking around in clothes washed in waste water.
“We have two young children…we have lived in this house for 12 months, we have had raw sewage coming from the downstairs bathroom. Our children came home from school finding excrement all over our house. When we notify them we were told it’s not an emergency. It’s a disgrace.”
Daniel said he’d overheard contractors saying no land drains had been put in.
He said: “Our neighbour has had four different sets of workers in two weeks due to them walking off site due to the poor conditions.
“It appears what made ours especially bad was the fact that we are not only at the bottom of a hill, but no initial inspections of the ground were carried out.
“Having dug our neighbour’s garden up they found an old drain from the top of the site feeding water into four drains in our neighbour’s garden which in turn is fed into our garden, so water is pouring into our garden.”
A spokesman for Persimmon Homes South Midlands said: “We have been in contact with residents and studied the specification used for the land drains fitted in the rear of the properties.
“We are in the process of arranging a better specified system which we can then install in due course, dependent on the weather.”
