- Houses on the Darwin Green estate in Cambridge have faulty foundations
- Neighbours now fear their houses will have to be demolished and rebuilt too
Neighbours living next to 36 new houses which are being demolished on an up-market estate have spoken of their fears that their homes might also have to be knocked down.
MailOnline told yesterday how builder Barratt David Wilson Homes was having to demolish and rebuild the houses, worth up to £850,000 each, due to them having faulty foundations.
The homes on the giant Darwin Green development in Cambridge are all unoccupied, but they include a number sold to buyers who were waiting to move in.
They are among 450 homes built so far on the former University playing fields site which will eventually have around 2,500 homes as well as a school and community facilities.
The problem which will cost millions of pounds to fix is said to have been caused by the ‘trench fill foundations’ for the affected houses being built without adequate ‘heave protection’ to combat subsidence.
Now owners of scores of houses built elsewhere by the same developer on the site are fearful that they could lose their houses if they are found to have similar problems.
Anxious residents told MailOnline how they have so far not been satisfied by assurances that their homes were built with a different style of foundations.
The locals who were disturbed by vibrations and noise from the latest batch of houses being built also said they were dismayed by the prospect of yet more disruption as the homes are demolished and rebuilt.
Software engineer Caner Altinbasak, 43, who has lived for early three years on the development with his with wife and two children in a £700,000 four bedroom house: ‘I thought that just one or two houses were affected.
‘But when I heard that 36 houses were being demolished, it was obvious that the same mistake had happened over and over again.
‘Of course, I am worried that the same design mistake might have happened to our house as well. It is worrying that these affected houses seem to have passed various tests until nearly the point when keys were going to be handed to owners.
‘That makes me worry that our house might have passed 100 per cent of checks during the building process, but could now be found faulty.
‘To be fair we have had no problems with our house so far apart from the usual snags
‘But I have no idea what could happen, or whose responsibility it would be to deal with any issue. Would it be the builder or the National House Building Council?
‘The builder is not being very transparent. They have not properly explained what the problem is with these houses. It has made it worse. They have damaged peoples’ confidence.’
A hospital consultant who lives with his doctor wife and their children, but asked not to be named, said: ‘I was shocked to hear about this issue. I am left wondering if there is a problem with our house. Will our home have to be demolished as well?
‘We are only a short distance away from these affected houses. The soil is not going to be very different.
‘When they were building the houses, there were vibrations which made our house shake. Now we are going to have to go through all that again.’
Software architect Eyal Lantzman, 42, who lives with his wife and three children said: ‘I am concerned about the impact on my property.
‘It would be a nightmare scenario if our house turned out to have the same issues, although we have insurance and I am sure we would be properly compensated.
‘I just want to make sure that our house is safe. It is a concern that it could affect house prices and put off buyers. We need to get proper reassurances.’
A home worker in a four bedroom house, said: ‘We have been told that the design of our house is different to the ones which are coming down and so there is no problem
‘But like everyone else, we just want our foundations re-checked to make sure our house was built properly.’
A 32-year-old research engineer living with his wife and six-year-old daughter who bought his two bedroom home under a shared ownership scheme, said: ‘We are concerned that it is such a waste having to knock down brand new houses.
‘We all work hard to help the environment as much as we can, and then this happens. But we are also worrying about our house. Is the quality OK? We thought Barratt was a builder to be trusted, but that does not always seem to be the case.’
Another software engineer aged in his 40s who lived with his wife, said: ‘I am pretty much happy with the quality of my house.
‘But the fact that these other houses have faulty foundations, and were built without proper checks, does introduce an element of doubt.
‘It’s surprising and disappointing that they are in such a bad way. At the moment I have got no reason to believe there is anything wrong with my house. But I suppose there is a risk.’
An IT company boss who also asked not be named said he had been in the process of buying one of the affected houses, and had already exchanged contracts when he learned it would have to be demolished.’
The man who already lives on the estate said: ‘Our new house was due to be finished in September. All the walls had been built and it was just waiting for the roof to go on.
‘Then we heard they were having problems around three months ago. We were sent an email and the regional managing director came to see my wife and I.
‘He said that a company which came in to dig the foundations had suggested doing it a certain way. But they got it wrong because there was more clay compared to other areas.
‘They were carrying out all these checks to see if anything could be done. We had exchanged contracts and paid a deposit of £70,000. They gave us the option of pulling out and getting a full refund along with our legal fees, or wait to be sorted out.
‘But last week we got an email saying the house had to come down and be rebuilt again with a completion date estimated at December, 2024. We were not prepared to wait that long, so we pulled out.
‘There is not much on the market so we are sitting here until something pops up. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the house we are in. It seems to be just be an issue with the latest phase to be built.’
Biomedical engineer George Crawley, 56, the secretary of the Darwin Green Residents Association, said he was only the sixth person to move on to the development in 2019 when he took on his first floor flat.
He said: ‘It is a wonderful community. There are lots of professors, academics and lecturers. The joke is that the list of people without a PhD is shorter than those with one.
‘I am very concerned for people who were in the process of buying these houses. Some have bought furniture, and stopped leases on existing houses, to get ready to move in.
‘Now they have been let down. Some are hanging on another year for their houses to be ready while others are having to buy elsewhere.’
Simon Smith, a Labour councillor for the local Castle ward on Cambridge City Council, said he had been told that a total of 90 plots had been affected by the blunder.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, he said: ‘It looks like all these plots have faulty foundations. There are 36 fully or partially built houses which are coming down. It appears that other plots which have not yet been built on have foundations which are not adequate.
‘Ten houses in the phase which have different foundations have not been affected.
‘Residents who are already occupying other houses on the development are quite rightly questioning now whether their homes have been built properly. They deserve peace of mind and need to see evidence that their foundations are OK.
‘We have established that Barratt commissioned the NHBC as their approved inspector for building regulations.
‘But when the residents went to the NHBC, they were told that the responsibility rested with Barratt to prove they were built properly. The fact that residents cannot see this evidence is causing uncertainty and amplifying their anxiety.
‘Barratt have now said that they have appointed an engineer and they will report back in ten days. But some residents say they are concerned that they are marking their own homework.
‘People are asking whether they will be able to sell their houses. We believe it is incumbent on Barratt to appoint independent engineers so residents can get proper reassurances.
‘There is also the issue of all the noise and dust pollution which will be caused by the demolition of these house. It’s a very sorry state of affairs.’
Fellow Labour councillor Dr Antoinette Nestor said: ‘Many residents here have young families and are facing uncertainty not knowing where they stand.’
IT manager Mohammad Younes, 39, said: ‘I am renting a house here with my family, so I am don’t have the same issues as people who own their home.
‘This is a nice place to live and we want to be here a long time, but the noise of the demolition and rebuilding is going to be a little bit annoying.
‘Hopefully none of the other houses will have been affected. I was maybe thinking of buying here, but now I am not sure with this uncertainty.’
A spokesman for Barratt David Wilson Homes Cambridgeshire said: ‘As a five-star house builder we have an extensive quality assurance process and during inspections we found that a small number of unoccupied properties at our Darwin Green development did not meet our usual high standards.
‘Unfortunately, the most effective course of action at this stage is to demolish the properties and rebuild them.
‘We have apologised to the customers affected and understand their frustrations, but we are doing all that we can to lessen the impact of this for them.
‘The most important thing is that the homes we build for our customers are of the highest quality possible and this means spotting and mistakes and putting them right, which is what we are doing here.’
Cambridge city council said it was made aware of the problems last week but has yet to receive an application for the demolition work.
A council spokesperson said: ‘Officers will continue to work with the local community and site developer to ensure any impacts of the demolition works are appropriately controlled.’