Owners catalogue snagging on Bellway homes in Cambridgeshire

BBC A woman, Kelly Heather, wearing a colourful top and standing in the doorway of her homeBBC
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Kelly Heather is one of the residents who has endured constant problems

“Our impeccable attention to detail is at the forefront of our build process,” declares the brochure for Bassingbourn Fields, a housing estate in Fordham, Cambridgeshire “and our high standards are reflected in our dedication to customer service”.

Tell that to the occupants of many of its 100 properties.

For some in this new build community, the name of the developer – Bellway – has become a dirty word.

“We call it Hellway,” one homeowner tells me, after what residents describe as more than two years of chaos and no end of snags – the industry term for defects.

Bellway says it is working on resolving outstanding issues. So what has gone wrong?

Two workers in orange hi-vis tops in a partially constructed playground. The play equipment is not finished and the ground is very muddy with large puddles. There is metal security fencing running along the front of the site to prevent entry.

For two years the children’s play area was a water-logged building site

“When you buy a new-build you expect some snags – a few cracks here and there,” says Jon Trevenna, 70, who moved into his house in early 2022, hoping for an easy retirement and more time with his grandchildren.

“You don’t expect three major leaks in your bathroom, a downstairs radiator to be plumbed into the upstairs and vice versa, the fence between you and your neighbour to look like a rollercoaster,” he adds.

“There were so many problems, most of the small stuff we had to fix ourselves.”

A rider on motorcycle heads towards the camera on an unmarked street in the Bassingbourn-Fields estate. New build houses with light brickwork and grey roofs line the street on either side and can be seen at the end of the road.

Bassingbourn Fields is a development of three, four and five-bedroom homes in Fordham, just north of Newmarket

At first glance, Bassingbourn Fields looks like a textbook modern development, surrounded by countryside.

But the residents we’ve spoken to tell a very different story.

A young woman, who didn’t want to be identified, tells me that within weeks of moving in, the entire staircase collapsed and her husband fell into the understairs cupboard.

“The contractor who came to fix it said there was only one screw in each step. There should have been 14,” she says.

“We’ll leave as soon as we can – too many bad memories here.”

Megan St Denis standing outside and looking down at her dog Teddy, who is sitting. The blurred background shows a residential street with vehicles parked on driveways.

Megan Saint-Denis with her dog Teddy

Megan Saint-Denis says she has been waiting three years for the builders to complete crucial repair work.

“We had really bad flooding in the back and they’ve only just come out to dig up the entire garden, which meant we lost all of our plants at a big cost to ourselves,” she says.

“We’ve taken time off work having to wait for people who don’t show up and it’s stressful having to chase them constantly.

“It’s our first house so it’s ruined the experience for us really.”

Bellway has won 5-star builder status for eight years running in the Home Builders Federation awards, and recently scooped the Large Housebuilder prize in another industry-led competition.

Last year its operating profit increased by more than 50% to just over £500m.

Housebuilder More than a dozen people on stage posing for a picture as they accept an award. The dress code is black tie. A phographer in a white shirt is standing in front of the stage with his camera raised and other guests are seated at tables in the foreground.Housebuilder

Bellway Homes won Large House Builder of the year 2023

Among Bellway’s recent customers, Stephen McIntyre, 54, paid £500,000 for his home but was so disappointed with the finish, he appointed solicitors.

“I could have bought a five-bedroom bungalow in Peebles,” he tells me.

But instead, he says he got:

  • a broken toilet
  • a cracked shower tray
  • a flooded back garden
  • an unsecure downstairs window
  • an unlevel patio
  • leaking sinks and radiators
  • unsupported floors
  • botched outdoor steps
  • out-of-place boundary fences

“In the past two and a half years my wife and I have taken 20 weeks off work and spent thousands of pounds getting everything sorted,” he says.

“We’ve felt like strangers in our own home. I just want Bellway to take responsibility for what they’ve done.”

Bellway has agreed to extend the warranty on Mr McIntyre’s home.

A composite showing two close-ups, one of cracked brickwork and another of mould in the corner of a room.

Mould and cracked brick work are just two of the many snags found at Stephen McIntyre’s house

Typically with new builds, the developer is obligated to fix any defects found within the first two years of buying the property.

But homeowners complain of an uphill battle to arrange repairs, which they claim are often inadequate and create even more problems.

Rebecca Fay, who needed her roof retiling, says she feels like her problems are “constantly pushed to the bottom of the pile” and “only people who shout the loudest get sorted”.

Kelly Heather, who moved to Bassingbourn Fields in January last year, says she had no choice but to effectively become a project manager during her maternity leave, chasing Bellway to fix more than 200 snags, including extensive damage to the downstairs flooring.

She says she is still waiting for a shower unit to be replaced.

“It’s been awful. It can take three weeks to get a reply to an email and sometimes we’re just ignored,” she says.

“I got an apology once from the managing director, but he didn’t answer my main question, which was ‘why is this happening?’.”

A sign reading "Danger Deep Water" and "No Swimming" is fixed to the top of a wooden post. It stands on vegetated land in front of a small body of water, with the land on the other side also visible.

The drainage system (SUDS) was not supposed to flood so contractors put up a safety sign

Kelly thinks Bellway rushed to sell the homes and take the money before the estate had been finished. Other residents blame a revolving door of inexperienced site managers.

Samantha Curling, chairwoman of the National Association of Professional Snagging Inspectors, says they are sadly not isolated cases and “most developers have at least one site they’re not proud of”.

“The supply chain has dwindled but the demand for new homes has increased so it’s a fighting battle to get skilled tradespeople to finish the job,” she says.

“Many have told me they won’t work on new-build sites because of the rates of pay and the pressure to do more than is humanly possible.”

A composite showing six different issues - a chipped door frame, a puddle in garden, a lopsided unit, a missed brick, a floor corner with lino missing and exposed cables in wall.

Hundreds of images of snagging issues on the estate have been shared with the BBC

We asked Bellway Homes to explain the chaos at Bassingbourn Fields.

In a statement, it said it was “aware of defects on the site” and wanted to “apologise to homeowners who may not have received the service expected”.

“A new home is a hand-built product, so defects do occur, and often only become apparent once homeowners move into their home,” the company continued.

“As a responsible developer, all of our homes are sold with the benefit of a 10-year Buildmark warranty, of which the first two years are covered by Bellway, whereby we will remediate any defects found in properties.”

While many hazards have been fixed, there are still cracked or overgrown pathways, a flooded drainage basin, and metal pipes or electrical wires protruding into the recently completed children’s play area.

Bellway said it was working on resolving these outstanding issues.

Last month it handed over responsibility for the site’s upkeep to a third-party management company.

Some residents have refused to pay their first bill.

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