HOME, they say, is where the heart is, but for one Saltcoats homeowner it’s been nothing but heartache!

Derek Gilmour, a resident in Saltcoats’ Allandale development built by Stewart Milne Homes is dismayed over what he describes as ‘substandard’ house building after a series of problems have arisen internally and externally since moving in.

Derek contacted the Herald when he was shocked to hear the company had been awarded the contract to build 680 new houses in Barassie.

Mr Gilmour, 40, claims that plumbing and interior decor problems, as well as shoddy exterior design culminated in a huge portion of his roughcasting blowing off during the winter storms.

He also says the company has failed to fix problems with the drainage after most of his front lawn became a mudbath and insisted customer standards are not being met.

Mr Gilmour said: “We have had several issues since the house was first built.

"The main ones were the interior of the whole house needed to be painted as the quality was substandard.

“The plumbing is substandard and you have to flush the toilet twice to get rid if any ‘solid waste’ and the heating system and windows are barely adequate but meet ‘building standards’ and so are deemed acceptable.

“I raised these issues during the builder’s two years guarantee and foolishly believed I also had an NHBC 10 year guarantee, which turns out to only cover ‘snags’ that were raised to the builders during the first two years.

"The list is exhaustive but these main points are what I feel a new purchaser needs to be made aware of before they part with their hard earned money.” Mr Gilmour, a deputy manager with Tesco Extra, also described the damage that has been done to the front of his house, as well as his front garden, adding: “The roughcasting at the front of the house blew off in December and it had just been replaced to the ‘building regulations’ – but it’s a different colour from the rest of the house.

“Stewart Milne have advised they will only replace the turf that is damaged and have also hidden behind the excuse that it was the wettest winter in 100 years!

"It seems to us they are too quick to hide behind ‘building standards’ and not ‘customer standards’.

“The fact that the NHBC guarantee isn’t worth the paper it’s written on is especially worrying as we thought that any problem with the house in its first 10 years would be rectified, not just the few snags that were left to us to find during our first two years.” Jonathan Fair, managing director of Stewart Milne Homes said: “UK building regulations are of a very high standard and the National House Building Council (NHBC) ensure that builders meet those standards.

"As part of that commitment to high standards, NHBC inspectors visit and inspect our homes before they become available for sale.

“We are one of only 17 builders in the country to have a five star building status awarded by the NHBC for quality and customer care.

"We take any customer comment most seriously and we have been in regular contact with Mr Gilmour to remedy any outstanding issues he may have.

"We have a high customer satisfaction rate with 95 per cent of our customers happy to recommend us.”