Our newbuild nightmare! Couple say moving into brand-new £419,000 home that is 'riddled with mould' is 'the biggest regret of our lives'

A couple whose new build home was 'riddled with mould' from the moment they moved in say purchasing the property is 'the biggest regret of our lives'.

Leo and Fiona Maguire, 38 and 36, have been locked in a year long battle with Linden Homes to sort out the damp and mould issues in their £419,000 home in Axminster, Devon.

The couple moved into the property after it was completed in May last year but were forced to return to their previous home just three months later after finding mould behind the skirting boards in every room.

They say there are numerous examples of 'poor workmanship' throughout the home and the pair are yet to return to the building until all these issues are fixed.

Leo says the required work is likely to take another year to complete, as the house has now been stripped back to a bare shelf with no kitchen or bathrooms and all the plumbing and electrics removed.

He claims Linden Homes' customer service has been 'awful' and is now trying to get the developer to buy the property back off him and his wife.

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Leo said: 'We are distraught, livid and frustrated about the whole thing and that's probably an understatement. You probably can't put into words how incompetent they've been as a business.

'There's been a catalog of errors from start to finish, and I keep telling them communication is the easiest thing to send an email, even if you got no update. Just tell us we're onto it.

'It's been an absolute disaster and the biggest regret of our lives. Their communication and customer service has been abysmal and that would be overrating it.'

The Maguires said they first noticed the mould issues within the first couple of weeks, after spotting it on their kitchen cupboards and around the skirting boards.

It then became visible in other rooms in the house - as the mould grew around the corners of their carpets, cracked their wallpaper and ruined their clothes.

Leo said: 'We had damp and mould within the first couple of weeks of moving in. We noticed it in the kitchen cupboards and underneath the kitchen. We removed the plinth from the kitchen and the skirting boards were absolutely riddled with mould.

'You could see it trying to get out the top. Where the paint has cracked at the top of the skirting board, you could see it wanting to get out. We also had mould growing all around the edge of our carpets in our bedroom.

'It was going on our clothes as well. We had trainers lent up against a skirting board because we didn't have any wardrobe yet, and it was all on the back of the trainers.'

Leo then decided to remove every skirting board in the house and found that every room that was against a brick wall had been covered in mould.

'It was absolutely riddle with mould, so we ended up taking all the skirting boards off in the whole house and every skirting board that was against a brick external wall. Every room that was against a brick was affected,' he said.

Leo claims the developer wouldn't 'acknowledge the issue', meaning the couple lived in the house without the skirting boards on for 3 weeks whilst they were 'exposed to mould'.

Linden Homes eventually sent an independent surveyor to the property - who confirmed that the bricks were damp and the home would need to go through an intense drying procedure.

This procedure would last four weeks, meaning the Maguires were moved back into their original home.

'That was only because we were applying pressure,' Leo claimed. 'I said I'm going to take my skirting board down and I'm going to come to your head office down Exeter. I had to do that to get a manager to come up and see me about it.

'Some of the furniture we had against walls, or even just beds in the middle of the room, there was mould on the bottom of them when we ended up moving out.'

A month later, the couple were given a report of the surveyor saying they were happy for the pair to move back in, but Leo says he 'smelt a rat' and decided to get his own report done.

He said: 'We got a report off the surveyor after 4 weeks, saying I'm happy for you to move back in start remedial works. He said there was one room that wasn't quite dry, but he stuck a dehumidifier in there. That's when we smelt a bit of a rat and thought we're gonna get our own damp and mould survey done.

'We got an independent person to come in and do a report and he said "Your cavities are soaking wet. This is not fit to move back into".'

The couple have never moved back in to their new home and a 'toxic relationship' with Linden Homes has been growing ever since as they have found more examples of 'poor workmanship' throughout the property.

Leo said: 'They started ignoring us. We put underfloor heating in when we moved in, and the screed on top of the concrete floor was cracked really badly because it was laid far too wet.

'The tarmac to the driveway will have to be relayed because it is puddling and there is a roof on the bay window that will have to be replaced. There is also issues with mortar being left in the gaps between the cavity wall ties - which may need the outside wall to be taken down to sort.'

Leo and Fiona are still in the previous house with 'enough stuff to go camping with' - having first been told they would be in there for no longer than a month.

The rest of their belongings sits in storage in Exeter while their new house is currently stripped back to the bare walls.

Leo said: 'We're back in our old house, paying twice as much mortgage on a new house that we can't live in. We are almost getting towards a year that we have been out of it and it's probably going to be another year before we move back into it, if we decide to do so.

'We've come from like a great big garden to like a postage stamp garden that's just got patio slapped, and I've got three dogs. That proves very difficult to facilitate letting them out at times. But they [Linden Homes] are not interested.'

The couple say the are battling with the developers to correct all of the issues in the house, which Leo believes could take up to another year to fix.

Failing that, the pair want the company to buy the property back off them for an amount they are happy with.

He added: 'I don't think they'll buy it back off us, because they won't want to pay the money, so I think we will end up having the battle with them.

'But it's absolute rubbish, you know. No one makes a decision. Their customer service is awful. They all pass a buck to a different director.'

In a statement, a spokesperson for Linden Homes said: 'We are aware of this issue and are doing everything we can to resolve the situation as quickly as possible with the Maguires.

'As a responsible developer, customer service is our priority and we are working hard to agree the best way forward for everyone.'