A MUM has had to put up with a "horrendous" raw sewage stench at her new build house for five years.
Virginia Hammond is at her wits' end with developer Barratt Homes after it said the smell was her responsibility and it wouldn't do anything to help.
The 78-year-old moved into the £187,000 property in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, in September 2016.
She said she first noticed the unpleasant within a year, and quickly believed it was coming from piping which leads to her kitchen.
Other homes were still being built on the estate at the time so Virginia repeatedly raised her concerns with the site manager, who blamed the pong on pipework under her sink and downstairs toilet.
But no action was taken, and, more than five years later, the smell is still soldiering on.
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Virginia told YorkshireLive: "It's a mystery because the smell is horrendous but then it vanishes as quick as it came.
"The smell of sewage gets horrendous in my kitchen.
"My family have been here when it's been bad and gone, 'Jeez, what's that?'
"Recently it's been really bad – sometimes for four days and nights at a time."
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Her son Martin added: "I've come here on a warm day and it's really unpleasant."
Virginia claims she contacted Barratt directly in 2019 when the stink got too much, but she was told the warranty on her property had expired so it would not look at her private drainage.
It also insisted there was no log of the complaints she had made to the site manager two years earlier.
"They just turned around and said it's my problem," Virginia said.
"I'm at a loss, I really am."
The mum had several experts come out to check her plumbing, all of whom agreed there was no smell from her drains.
They did, however, find stones, rubble and slime which appeared to have been left by the developers.
"I watched him and he was taking bricks and all sorts out," Virginia said.
"If that's just in mine, there might be rubble and a blockage in someone else's drain and they don't know about it."
I'm at a loss, I really am.
Yorkshire Water also got involved and, after a visit, theorised that the funk could stem from shared drainage between the houses, which would be the responsibility of the developers.
"Someone from Barratt came out and checked my drains but said they couldn't find anything, which I think is a good thing," Virginia added.
"It shows it's not my drains causing the smell.
"I think it's the pipes under the roads that need checking for a blockage.
"The smell is coming to my house from somewhere else. It's a real problem."
Martin, who works as a caretaker, even dismantled the internal plumbing and took the water boards up in the kitchen but also couldn't find the source.
"I'm furious with Barratt, it's really frustrating," he said.
A spokesperson for Barratt Developments Yorkshire East said: "There has been a complaint about a drainage problem from a local resident who lives close to our new development.
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"Our team has done several camera surveys to investigate this issue, and we have found no evidence of any issues with drains caused by our development.
"As a local housebuilder, we take complaints of this nature very seriously and we always look to find a solution for any issues in the local community."
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