May 2023 by Candice West
I've owned my Lagan Home (from new) for over 5 years now. Shortly after moving in, we experienced a leak around our en suite shower. Lagan quite quickly came round and re-did the mastic sealant around the base of the shower and around the panel where you turn the shower on - which hadn't been sealed in the first place! However, this didn't seem to solve the problem as after a year or so I noticed that whenever I stepped on the floor around the shower I could hear water squishing underneath the floor. Another Lagan homes guy came round and did the mastic again and said that the water under the floor would dry up. It never did and we ended up with a leak that showed up on the ground floor (my house is 3 storeys!). Someone came back from Lagan and replaced a few tiles in the shower and re-did the mastic and some of the grout but, as this was now year 3 of me owning the house, I was told not to contact Lagan about the problem again as it was my responsibility to maintain the mastic and the two-year guarantee period had passed. I'm no expert on DIY but I feel like mastic should last longer than 1 year. Well, the leak persisted and the flooring in the bedroom next to the en suite started to lift up. One day I stood on the floor and a load of water gushed up out of a gap in the floor planks. I contacted Lagan again but they said they wouldn't do anything about this because I hadn't raised the issue with them before and the two-year guarantee period was over. I pointed out that I had raised the issue but they claimed that the mastic problem that they'd "fixed" was a different problem. Clearly they're the same problem. So we decided to just pay for someone to sort the leak ourselves. This has involved removing the laminate flooring and skirting board in the bedroom and cutting away some of the wall. To my horror we've discovered that the bottom of the wooden struts of the stud wall are completely rotten and will need to be replaced along with ripping out the shower area and putting in a new shower tray. I'd let Lagan know about this but they refuse to be held accountable. My latest interaction with them was to ask which tiles had been used in the en suite as I now need to replace some of them but they couldn't even do that as the tiles they told me are the wrong size. I utterly despair! I share this story with you to advise that you do not purchase a home from Lagan. I certainly never will again. Awful workmanship and awful customer service.
