Family homeless after builder abandons extension

Danielle Duffy is staying with her husband and three children at her mother in law's house

A couple who remortgaged their house to help pay for an extension have said they are "stuck without a home" after a builder left them with tens of thousands of pounds of unfinished work.

Danielle and Andrew Duffy and their three children moved out of their house in Rochdale a year ago.

They said they paid about £62,000 to Nuera Construction Ltd before the firm informed them it had gone into administration.

The BBC has contacted Nuera Construction for a response.

The Duffys have been told completing the extension on the three-bedroom house would require a further £45,000, instead of the £5,000 they had left to pay, due to the work not being completed to a high standard.

Ms Duffy, 37, told BBC Radio Manchester: ''We have already remortgaged the house. We can't do that again. Now we are scrimping and saving every single penny."

The family were left to clean up the garden

The extension was planned so the couple's daughters could have their own bedrooms.

''It's a hard pill to swallow," she said. "My eldest daughter is autistic, and her sister is suspected of having autism and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) so we felt it was important they had their own space."

'Easily trapped'

Ms Duffy said their eldest daughter blamed herself and was "crying herself to sleep most nights".

"She told us it was all her fault, if she wasn't autistic we wouldn't have needed to have the extension," she said.

Ms Duffy said the couple felt "really ashamed because we feel we've been taken for a fool, it's not like we've lost chump change".

''We've lost £62,000," she added.

The state of the family house currently

Ms Duffy said: ''People think they wouldn't fall for it, and think we are gullible, but it's so easy to get trapped.

''The amount of nights we've spent crying because we've worked so hard for what we've got. We saved up for this to be our forever home.''

Mould is growing in the house due to the unfinished work, the family said

The family had organised to stay at a relative's house while the work took place.

Ms Duffy said: ''Currently we are staying at my mother-in-law's, but she needs to move back in.

''So it will be me and my husband on the sofa, all the kids in one room, and my mother-in-law in her room because we have no other option''

''We can't afford to rent somewhere.''

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