THEY say home is where the heart is - but a fed up group of residents today claimed buying new property on an Ipswich estate has left them wishing they had never bothered. All 16 homeowners in Cranberry Square, Ravenswood, have levelled an angry blast at Bellway, criticising the developer for failing to deliver the dream home they say they were promised.

Well it seems Crest have now changed their minds. They phoned to confirm our completion date yesterday for 5th October 2006. But when I mentioned snagging they said it was against policy and I should not have been told it was ok. After talking with 2 different people on the matter they have completely ruled out us having a snagging inspection carried out before we move in.

In summer 2005 I moved into my present flat. It is a so called new build, built by a well-known company, that, for arguments sake, we shall call Barratt. I am neither advising people to stay away from such properties, nor advocating them, but here is one of the problems I've had with this developer.

The brochure described it as a gently-sloping back garden. But when Alan and Jackie Carter prepared to move into their newly-completed four-bedroom Bellway house, they were horrified to discover what could only be described as a cliff towering above it.

The lack of communication and excuses are adding to sheer frustration and I if I could I would withdraw from this property. There is no commitment from the builders at all, they don't work weekends even though they are dramatically behind.

We purchased a 2 bed flat from DWH in May 2003. We only went to look at the Development with no intention to buy and came away determined to purchase one of the flats. The deposit was down within a week. The flat was near complete and had only the kitchen, sanitary ware, skirting etc to fit.

When the Gallimores from Rhoose Point bought their £200,000 house, they discovered a unique water feature that they could do without. Most new houses, when bought, have a few snags which need correcting but weeks after buying a new house in Rhoose Point in the Vale of Glamorgan, Paul and Karen Gallimore faced a rather more pressing problem.

Moved in June 2004 with a combined snag list of over 200 items. At present we still have no floor coverings upstairs due to unlevel floors. We are facing a bill of ?3000 to pay for someone else to fix the floors. Redrow are ignoring our phone calls and are refusing to pay for floors to be fixed properly.

This article has been compiled from the mass of e-mails we receive from Fairford Leys residents concerning the problems of buying a new home in this development and we hope it will be helpful to anyone considering buying a property here.