My Wilcon Homes Death Trap

November 1999 Moved in to our Wilcon Homes four bedroomed detached house on the Swallows Rise Estate in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
January 2000 Had SKY fitted. Wilcon's electricians had forgotten to fit a power socket in the loft. Wilcon fitted a socket. We noticed there was condensation in the loft. We notified the site manager (Neil Harvey), he fobbed us off and said it would eventually dry out and go away.
July 2001 Started to have problems with the shower, the water temperature was sharply fluctuating intermittently. We notified Wilcon and Wilcons plumber checked out the boiler and shower and couldn't find a fault, so he left.
July 2001 Continued to have problems with the shower, the water temperature was still sharply fluctuating intermittently. We notified Wilcon and Wilcon sent the same plumber. He checked out the boiler and shower again and found there was a part fitted incorrectly on the shower. He would order the incorrectly fitted part and phone us to arrange a date to fit. He did say that the hot water should be permanently left on.
August 2001 Having not heard anything from Wilcons plumber, we rang Wilcon to ask them when the plumber was returning to fit the part for the shower that he had ordered. Wilcon said they would get back to us, they didn't. We have rang Wilcon several times since, and over eight months later the shower is still faulty.
January 2002 Two years on, we went into our loft and noticed it still had lots of condensation. We contacted Wilcon customer care at Wilcon Homes North West Reginal head office, they sent their same plumber contractors as they did two years ago. This time the plumber discovered the boiler flu (outlet) was not connected to the outlet in the roof, but was connected to where the boiler inlet should have been connected, and the inlet pipe was connected to the outlet in the roof. Essentially for the last two years the boiler fumes were being pumped into our loft and not being extracted. Obviously this could of potentially been fatal. Clearly Wilcon's contractors made a mistake and Wilcons quality systems were flawed when Wilcon sold us the house without detecting this. The plumber promptly switch the inlet and outlet and ever since there has been no condensation.
February 2002 We heard a dripping noise coming from below he kitchen sink. We opened the kitchen unit below sink and discovered a leak coming from the mains water valve. Fortunately all of the sponges and things under the sink absorbed most of the water. Unfortunately all of the kitchen unit under the sink was damaged by the water. We did a temporary fix and called Wilcon customer care at Wilcon Homes North West Reginal head office. After a week Wilcon sent their plumbers to asses the damage. The plumber changed a pipe/value from under the sink and sent a report to Wilcon.
March 2002 We had heard nothing from Wilcon about the damaged kitchen units, as we wanted Wilcon to replace them as the faulty parts they had fitted under the sink caused te damage. We rang Wilcon customer care at Wilcon Homes North West Reginal head office a couple of times, they fobbed us off saying the person we needed to talk to (Mr.Hinchliffe) was not in the office. Eventually we spoke to Mr.Hinchliffe and he said that Wilcon would not pay for the damaged kitchen unit to be replaced, and that we should claim off our house insurance. Why should we claim off our house insurance when Wilcon's poor workmanship was clearly at fault?

 

Previously we owned a new Beezer home, we had a few teething problems for six months but Beezer happily came and fixed the minor outstanding problems. We have had our Wilcon home for two years and problems have been on going all the time.

We would never buy another home from Wilcon Homes

Published: March 2002