House of horrors

The satisfaction of finally owning their dream home has turned into a nightmare for the Craigg family of Jackmans Development, St Michael.

Less than a year after moving into their two-storey home in 2009, it was flooded out during a torrential downpour.

It was then that the Craiggs discovered that the house was built on a watercourse and the almost 6 000 square feet of land which they bought from the National Housing Corporation (NHC) should never have been sold for construction purposes.

While the NHC has since accepted liability, it agreed only recently to pay the family $534 000 in compensation in respect of the house.

However, Grace Craigg, whose husband Ormond passed away in March, is upset at the length of time it is taking for her family to get out of the house. She said the NHC never responded to their request to place them in a rental property and the agency has said it does not have the money to compensate them at this time.

The SUNDAY SUN understands that the NHC has also halted the sale of lots on that section of the development. However, we were not able to ascertain if the agency has agreed to refund existing landowners.

Please read the full story in today’s SUNDAY SUN, or in the eNATION edition.