A MUM concerned her house is falling down just over two years after it was built said she was horrified at being told she’d have to pay £1,000 before anyone would even come to look at it.

Emma Davies was terrified when she heard a loud crashing sound in her house last Wednesday as she has three young children.

She went searching for what caused the noise and eventually discovered that a hole of about one foot square had appeared in her gable wall, just under the roof line.

Brickwork had fallen to the ground below, while breeze blocks forming the inner part of the wall had fallen inwards into her loft space, clattering onto the timber boards laid along the roof trusses below.

She does not know what caused it to fall at that moment, but says she has been told by a council building inspector that substandard brickwork is to blame.

“If we hadn’t boarded our loft out for storage, that would have come straight through the ceiling,” said Emma, 31, of Regency Road, Brampton Bierlow.

“Our bed is directly below where it came down. Our heads could have been directly under it, and we have our 15-month old daughter in the room with us.

“I just couldn’t believe it. I was in total shock. We paid £135,000 for this property and it’s falling to bits.

“Persimmon Homes built the estate just over two years ago but they are refusing any liability. It’s unbelievable.”

Emma and husband Ashley, 27, moved into their three-story end-terrace home two years and four months ago.

Emma said Persimmon would have been responsible had the problem showed up in the first two years, but now out of that period she has instead been told to contact warranty provider LABC.

“They said they wouldn’t come out until we paid the £1,000 excess. We just haven’t got it. I’ve only just gone back to work after being on maternity leave.

“I was absolutely devastated.”

After receiving the blow, Emma decided to contact the council’s building control department and an inspector came to inspect the damage.

“They’ve told me it’s due to weak mortar and it crumbles to the touch, and there’s no ties between the bricks. The wall is unstable basically.”

Emma and Ashley have been sleeping on the sofa since the incident but have been told by the inspector they can stay in the property as large sections are not expected to collapse, and the boarded-out loft protects them from smaller falling pieces.

Emma said she is shocked that Persimmon ‘does not seem interested’ in hearing about the problem. She is considering a claim on her home insurance policy but will still be forced to pay an excess, and is concerned she may also run the risk of jeopardising any future warranty claim.

Wayne Gradwell, managing director at Persimmon Homes West Yorkshire, said: “It is extremely important to us that our customers are happy in the homes that we build and we are looking into the concerns raised by Emma Davies.

“Movement of block work in a house that is just two years old is very rare and we are keen to establish the cause.”