Couple's £320k new build home destroyed by mould and beetles

SWNS

A couple say their new build home dream has turned into a "nightmare" and has been plagued by problems - including an infestation of beetles.  Diane Jackson, 61, and partner Mark, 59, bought the £320k four-bed near Darwen, Lancs., after selling their old property to their daughter.  They were looking forward to the next stage of their lives - but have faced nothing but issues instead, they claim.  The pair say they have discovered damp and mould alongside the insects and, as it stands, the home is unliveable.

Transcript

00:00 We thought we'd found our dream home here and then about three weeks after getting the

00:09 keys we started noticing on the, around the window, on the window ledges, little black,

00:16 what looked like little black dots and we'd wipe them away and then they'd just reappear

00:21 very quickly and we couldn't figure out what it was.

00:28 Eventually I got my phone and I sort of photographed one and enlarged it and it turns out it was

00:34 a tiny little, what I thought was a mite, which turned out to be a plaster beetle.

00:44 Two to three weeks later we had a huge infestation of plaster beetles.

00:50 They were all over the floors, they were all over the windows, they were all around the

00:53 house, every room.

00:56 We also found that the only way to kill them was through a heat treatment process, which

01:00 is quite expensive.

01:01 Luckily for us the developers agreed to pay for that, which achieved the goal of removing

01:09 the infestation.

01:10 The only problem was, was that it was, there was a good chance it would come back because

01:15 the beetles live and feed off mould and fungus.

01:21 So we decided we'd remove some skirting boards to see what was behind and found that they

01:26 were covering mould.

01:35 We've had various reports done, we've had cavity wall specialists in who have drilled

01:41 into the wall and found that the cavity wall insulation, which is like a rock wool, mineral

01:49 wool type system, is wet through and that is where the problem has come from.

01:58 So unless we can dry that out we're never going to be able to cure this problem.

02:06 The developers, Applethwaite's, have washed their hands of it, basically blaming us, saying

02:11 that because we didn't move in right away and run the central heating, that's what's

02:16 caused this, but every building report we've had done has said that's not the case.

02:22 We've even brought NHBC in who have also confirmed that that's not the case and it is down to

02:27 the developer and they should be putting it right, but they refuse to.

02:30 So the NHBC have said that they'll cover the cost to do the repair and then deal with it

02:37 with the developers.

02:38 Hopefully, within the next couple of months, we'll be able to move in properly.

02:43 [End of Audio] Duration: 2 minutes and 30 seconds

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