Stress and anger over leaking houses at Harron Homes site

Angry residents who live on a development by Harron Homes say that problems with leaks and other issues are unresolved after months of complaining to the developer.

Gary Simmonds and Diane Gilfillan both bought brand new houses on the Farriers Croft estate, which is in the sought-after Huddersfield suburb of Lindley.

Mr Simmonds says he has had a number of problems with his property but the main one is the leaking uPVC porch roof over the rear French doors.

He says it is poorly designed and fitted, which has led to water ingress causing water marks on the walls and damage to windows.

He adds that he and other homeowners on the estate have contacted Harron Homes numerous times about leaks from the porch and the bay window and the issues have not been resolved.

He is also concerned that the same porch roof is still being fitted on other Harron Homes developments.

“I started complaining in January and I still have a house that is leaking. Harron have been back to my house with different contractors on several occasions and that has made the situation worse,” says Mr Simmonds.

Diane Gilfillan moved into her property in July last year and has been complaining about the leaks since December 2018.

“The water has caused damp and has damaged the ceiling and skirting boards,” she says.

She adds that her garden wall also fell down in January and is not safe.

“Harron Homes sent someone to fix the wall, it fell down again and last month they built half of it and have not been back since

“The other issue is that our kitchen floor was not fit to lay flooring on as it is uneven with holes in it. This has also led to damp and black mould. Nothing has been done to rectify this either.”

Both she and Gary Simmonds, say that the defects and the dealings with Harron Homes have caused stress.

They claim that communication from the developer is poor, with emails going unanswered and promises from the customer service department to return phone calls regularly broken.

A spokesperson for Harron Homes said: “We see these as isolated incidents, which are not a true reflection of the strong values we hold as a housebuilder. All of our products are manufactured and fitted in accordance with local building authority guidelines and comply with current British Standards.

“We utilise the same uPVC bay designs across all of our housing developments and see this as being an isolated incident, partly due to the development being in an exposed location whereby high winds and driving rain are a common occurrence.

“Upon being made aware of the problem it was noted that Mr Simmonds had commissioned some external electrical works to his property whereby during the process some damage had taken place to the lead flashing, which in part has contributed to the problem with water ingress.

“Harron Homes cannot be held responsible for extreme weather conditions and while we fully empathise with our homeowners in regards to the damage caused by storm Gareth earlier on in the year, we have and will continue to aim to rectify any issues as swiftly as possible.”

Gary Simmonds contests the statement: “We had electrical work done but my contractor never touched the flashing or the roof. The poorly-fitted roof and poorly-fitted lead flashing has caused the leaks.

“While I agree that Harron Homes is not in control of the weather, a house should withstand rain and wind.”

Harron Homes is based in Yorkshire and was founded by brothers Paul and Stephen Harrison in 1992. It has expanded rapidly in recent years and its latest set of accounts show that Harron Group had a turnover of £146.6m in the year ending 31 December 31, 2018. The pre-tax profit was £18m.