DWH (a company that cares)

[Rush]

David wilson homes (a company that cares) !

Here goes:

My wife and I have recently moved into a David Wilson home in St Helens, we have encountered the usual minor snags which are common when moving to a new-build property unfortunately we have also had some fairly major problems as well, these problems/snags seem to have all been resolved now and finally after 4 months we have managed to settle into and start enjoying our new home – we thought!

A problem had been found in the sewage/drainage system on the development or so I assume due to the pungent odour coming from the drains. During this week a number of contractors ranging from drainage and jetting specialists to CCTV operators and gulley suckers where on site, again I assume this was to rectify the problem of some sort of blockage which was causing the odour outside. It wasn’t until we noticed the smell coming from the drainage outlet into ‘our’ utility room and that air or ‘possibly more worrying’ - raw sewage was being surcharged back through the system and was causing this smell to come from the drainage outlet for the washing machine and causing bubbling and water rising in the toilet basin.
I checked the toilet and the outlet periodically to make sure there was no leakage and it seems that everything was back to normal after a few hours.

Thinking this problem had now been sorted and not being informed of any drainage problems by any site personnel we continued to use the toilet as usual, it is only since using the washing machine for the first time since this has all been going on that the major incident has occurred – we switched on the washing machine on it to run through the washing cycle, all was normal, my wife checked on the washing towards the end of the cycle to be confronted by a flood coming from the washing machine which had spread throughout the utility room into the reception hallway and partly into the kitchen doorway. On investigation the flood has been caused by the drainage pipe for the washing machine being unable to cope with the waste water either due to the drain being blocked or possibly an air pocket (as witnessed in the bubbling within the toilet), this in turn has caused the washing machine drain hose to be forced upwards and out of the drainage outlet (under some force of pressure) and enabling the washing machine wastewater to be discharged freely into the cupboard where the pipework is situated and therefore causing the flood to go unnoticed as it was contained within this cupboard for a time.

I believe that the cause of the discharge hose being forced out of the drainage outlet was solely caused by the personnel working on the drainage system outside and somehow forcing foul sewage and wastewater possibly by the jetting/rodding techniques used and causing the system to surcharge and consequentially causing my home to be partially flooded.

The damage has been substantial, the flooring to the utility room, reception hallway and partially the kitchen has had to be ‘ripped-up’, there is also damage to the bottom step of the stair carpet which I hasten to add is only two weeks old, there is also water damage to the cabinet plinths in the utility room as well as other possible long term damage to the woodwork i.e. skirting, door frames etc, not to mention the stress, anger and upset this has caused to me and my wife.

Basically after trying numerous times to get any sort of reaction or comment from DWH, they have said that this is nothing to do with them & that we have to claim on our insurance full stop.. end of conversation - this may be fair enough but floods dont just happen for no reason - and it all seems a bit of a coincidence that the flood happens at exactly the same time as DWH are messing about with the drains (come to your own conclusions).

Yep they really do care.

[Tony]

Hi Frank,

This does sound like too much of a coincidence and although I am loathed to say it and assuming your are covered the easiest and least stressful thing to do is to claim on your insurance. Of course, you should explain the situation and leave it up to the insurance company as to whether they try to recover costs from David Wilson Homes.

Kind regards,

Tony