A mum-of-two says she has been in an ongoing battle with housing developers after sewage backed up through the sewers and filled the bath of her new-build home. Just six months after Carmen Laws moved into her new home with her family the drain started overflowing outside her property - and then started to overflow in her bathroom.
Carmen says she is stilling having problems four and a half years later. A Taylor Wimpey spokesperson told TeessideLive it "quickly responded to the issues raised after it was first reported" and remains committed to resolving the issue.
Pictures from Carmen's garden - which she said "smells to high heaven" - show drains that appear full and clogged with excrement and toilet paper. She said the problems cause sewage to "come back up into my home through every sink, toilet, bath, [and] shower."
The state of one of Carmen's drains outside (Image: Carmen Laws)
Last October, Carmen's 13-year-old daughter was in the bath when she decided to pull the plug out, causing "all of the water to come gushing in."
"The drain was so full that water has come gushing into the bath and it contained [faeces and urine] with water," she said. It happened again a few weeks ago, says the mum. She notified Taylor Wimpey - but claims they could not send anyone until two days later. She instead paid £240 for someone to fix the issue quicker - but said the developer has agreed to refund this.
Concerns have even been raised over the issue's potential impact on the health of her children, with Carmen saying that her little one is "always sick" and that it is "very coincidental that every time a major issue happens with these drains, she is sick."
At the start of June, Carmen carried out a bacteria test using a sample of the bathwater from the most recent incident. This test came back positive meaning the sample "may contain bacteria that are dangerous to your health."
Carmen plans to send the sample off for further testing to find out more.
The developer said that following an investigation in May to find the cause, a full program of works is planned for late July.
It also said that groundworkers carried out a full investigation of the drainage in March 2022.
A spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey said: “We are committed to providing homes and customer service to the very highest standard, and we apologise to the customer for falling short of our expectations on this occasion. As soon as we were made aware of the issue, we acted quickly to engage expert engineers and contractors to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the drainage system.
“The latest investigation was carried out in May 2023 to help identify the exact cause of the issue. Depending on the outcome of the findings into these investigations we are currently scheduled to undertake a full program of works in late July 2023. We are committed to resolving the issue at the earliest opportunity and remain in close contact with the customer. ”
The developer has arranged for engineers to unblock drains when required - and has offered to compensate for alternative accommodation in full if required while these works are carried out.
