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.
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.
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FunTranscript
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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