Boiler in newbuild home blamed for family illnesses

A leaking boiler in a newbuild house has been condemned by a gas engineer after a family reported months of mystery illnesses.

Nikki Byrne said she and her children suffered from headaches and sleepiness after moving into the property in Blandford St Mary, Dorset.

Housing association Sovereign promised to fix the boiler after being contacted by the BBC, although it said builder Ashberry Homes, owned by Bellway, was responsible.

However, Bellway said its own engineer found no faults or carbon monoxide leaks.

Ms Byrne said she and her children, aged 10, 12 and 18, were lucky they had only used the boiler sparingly since moving to the new development in November 2023.

She said on Sunday 29 September she turned the boiler on to wash school uniforms and soon became ill.

She recalled: "My head hurt, I felt really sick, quite dizzy, not like I was in the room, my nose started running."

The following day the boiler was condemned and capped off due to a leak, gas firm SGN confirmed.

Ms Byrne said an engineer told her: "All the seals need replacing and the flue's not connected properly."

The 40-year-old said she began to connect previous symptoms with the fault.

She said work colleagues had told her she had been "staggering around like I’d been drinking".

Her daughter had suffered from fainting fits and her children missed so much school from sickness she was called in to meet teachers, she recalled.

However, she said a different engineer sent by Bellway found no issue with the boiler, although he left a "danger" sticker in place.

Ms Byrne said: "When you move into a newbuild, it's the last thing you think of that the boiler is going to have a problem.

"I'm quite shocked that we're all still alive to be honest after 10 months. And it's shocking that no-one has fixed it."

After the BBC approached Sovereign Network Group on Tuesday, the housing association said it would carry out an urgent repair.

In a statement, it said: ”As this boiler is within warranty, it is the responsibility of the original developer, and we have been working on our customer's behalf to get this fixed as soon as possible.

"Because we understand the difficulties the delay is causing for her and her family, we have contacted Ms Byrne, and our own teams will go out to complete a full repair."

Bellway said: "We have full documentation confirming that the boiler was installed in line with the manufacturer’s requirements by fully qualified heating engineers and was fully tested at the time of installation.

"Bellway was informed of a potential issue with the boiler on 3 October and our heating engineers attended the property on the same day, due to the seriousness of the matter.

"Following full tests, no faults or leaks were found with the boiler and no carbon monoxide was detected within the property."

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