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‘Luxury’ flats are damp and rotting

Jun 28 2009 by Joanne Butcher, Sunday Sun

SHODDY workmanship has left a luxury quayside apartment block rotting and riddled with leaks.

The Ochre Yards development

The Ochre Yards development on Gateshead Quays was advertised as a “haven away from the crowds” when it was built - but residents say it is a living hell.

Water drips through the ceilings when it rains and the damp is so bad the walls swell up.

Residents fear their luxury pads - which set them back up to £250,000 each - will be rendered worthless as housing chiefs squabble over who is to blame.

The homeowners have compiled a catalogue of faults in the supposedly top-quality apartments near the Tyne Bridge, built by the UK’s fourth largest developer, Bellway.

But the housebuilder, and trade body the National Home Building Council, have both refused to fix the problems . . . claiming it is not their responsibility.

Paul Baston runs Ochre Yards Three Management Company, the resident-owned group which manages the five-year-old Fairway Court block.

He said an independent inspection discovered either bad design, bad workmanship or the wrong materials meant water was seeping into the timbers supporting the balconies, leaving them waterlogged.

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