Bovis buyers who became victims of the rush to build: Homeowners left with wonky walls, unfinished drives and no power

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When Kelly Terry and her husband reserved a £315,000 three-bedroom new-build in Maidstone, Kent, last April, it was the culmination of four years of careful saving.

Their builders said they would be in their first home by Christmas — and they couldn't wait.

But as soon as the Terrys opened the door on December 23, all their hard work started to unravel.

They found the construction firm, Bovis, had left dented plasterboard, sagging floors, unfinished tiling, hallways that needed repainting and no guttering on the garage.

Let down: Kelly Terry, 28, at her Maidstone home where she found dented plasterboard, sagging floors, unfinished tiling, hallways that needed repainting and no guttering on the garage

The bricks on the garage didn't match with those on the house and, worst of all, the property was being powered by a diesel generator because it hadn't yet been hooked up to the electricity grid.

Kelly, 28, a primary school teacher, had to light candles to put on her make-up before work because the power kept cutting out.

'It's heart-breaking,' she says. 'Bovis sold us a dream and you get this idea of how everything will look... but we have been massively let down.'

Hundreds of buyers have flooded internet forums and social media sites with stories just like Kelly's.

Today Money Mail can reveal that Bovis has finally launched an inquiry into allegations it is selling homes that aren't fit to live in.

The firm has set up a dedicated team led by a senior director to review complaints and pay any 'reasonable' costs incurred by the owners as a result of its failings.

Complaints about Bovis began to mount towards the end of the last year.

Roughly 600 people have joined the Bovis Homes Victims Group on Facebook since reports in January it had bribed homebuyers to move into unfinished properties. 

In some cases, they were offered £3,000 in cash if they agreed to complete before Christmas.

The group now has more than 1,200 members and its spokesman, Marc Holden, says victims are considering joint legal action.

Angry: Robert Elmes, left, and an unfinished Bovis property. He was offered £3,000 to complete on the £320,000 three-bed Worcestershire home before December 23 last year

Industry insiders say the bribes were a desperate final ploy to hit ambitious targets.

In 2014, former Bovis chief executive David Ritchie announced the firm planned to build 6,000 homes a year.

It missed the target — but has nearly doubled the number of houses it builds each year.

A former site manager, who left Bovis last September, says the company put profits above the quality of its properties.

'I was scared to go to work at times because I was worried I'd find out someone had been hurt [due to poor workmanship],' he told Money Mail on condition of anonymity.

Paula Higgins, of the Home Owners Alliance campaign group, says other housebuilders are making similar errors as they strive to hit targets.

'These companies are being driven by their shareholders, and the quality of homes suffers as a result,' she says.

'We often hear from customers who are ignored once they move in because the developer has moved on to the next project.'

The pressure on housebuilders is mounting: the Government wants more homes built more quickly. In a paper this week, it says developers could lose planning permission if they fail to complete work within certain time frames.

Bovis should by now be aware of the risk of poor workmanship after receiving so many complaints.  

The toilet didn't work, no turf on the garden and a flooded kitchen

Sarah Ramsey and her partner Lewis Mortimer moved into a three-bedroom terraced home in Apsley, Hertfordshire, last summer. But when they arrived on July 7 they found a team of builders still working on the £385,000 property.

The toilet didn't work, there was no turf on the garden and a major leak had flooded the kitchen. 

The couple, furious they had not been warned, told Bovis to complete all the work by the time they returned from a two-week holiday in Tenerife at the end of August.

Even then, the house still had large holes in the kitchen panels and not all of the windows had been sealed. 

Screws were wedged under the kitchen units to keep them level and there were three badly patched holes in the ceiling.

The drainage system was so poor that every time it rained, the grass became a bog.

Six months later, Sarah is still waiting for Bovis Homes to finish the job. The 32-year-old recruitment manager, says: 'I'm worried whether I'm ever going to be able to sell the house at this rate.

'They've started building homes across the road before helping us. It's like they ignore you and hope you'll go away.'

A spokesman for Bovis says: 'We fully recognise our customer service has to improve. The leadership of the organisation is absolutely committed to getting this right.'

p.thomas@dailymail.co.uk

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