A father-of-three has revealed how he locked himself inside a developer’s show home after his family spent years living with severe mould and damp at their newbuild.

Gary Prince, 33, and his wife bought their dream home for £178k in 2016, but they have spent years battling developer Persimmon Homes over the ‘inhabitable’ conditions they have been forced to live in alongside their three young girls.

The hotel manager said the stress of living at the grim newbuild in Yeovil, Somerset, has left all of his family with ‘medical and mental health challenges’ and nearly caused him and his wife to divorce.

He claims that on top of the mould, the house was plagued with inadequate fire safety measures and dangerous electrical systems. They have been unable to sell the two-bed house since having children and are therefore all cramped into a tiny home.

At breaking point, Mr Prince last month packed his bags and moved into the Persimmon Homes show home, locking the door behind him until someone agreed to take action after spending seven years trying to get help.

During his protest on February 28, Mr Prince highlighted his plight by sharing photos of the glossy showroom, decorated with high-end furniture and Louis Vuitton coffee table books, in comparison to the mould and fire safety issues in his house. 

Mr Prince found himself locked in a dramatic standoff with the developer, who sent their managing director to talk him out of leaving the show home before agreeing to inspect the house himself.

Mr Prince, who is temporarily living in a single room with his wife and three children at the hotel where he works, told MailOnline: ‘It’s been a gradual build up over the years, but on February 28, I was broken. I couldn’t put up with it anymore. 

Gary Prince, 33, and his wife bought their dream home for £178k in 2016, but they have spent years battling developer Persimmon Homes. They are pictured with their three young girls

MailOnline has been shown several pictures of black mould inside the newbuild in Yeovil 

The conditions became so bad that Mr Prince locked himself in a Permisson Homes show home (pictured inside)

Pictured is the Permisson Homes newbuild (left) that Mr Prince and his wife bought in 2016

‘I was just done with everything. I wasn’t sleeping at night. I was really struggling mentally. I just couldn’t cope with everything.

‘I didn’t even tell my wife I was going to the show home until the morning. She still didn’t believe me until I rang her when I was in the in the show home.’

Mr Prince says he warned Permisson Homes that he would stage this protest so when he didn’t hear back, he moved himself in.

It was here that on-site staff sympathised with his plight and offered him cups of tea and refreshments.

Around two-and-a-half hours later, the managing director showed up and Persimmon have finally launched an investigation into the house after years of Mr Price’s complaints. 

They say they are ‘sympathetic’ to the situation and ‘remain committed’ to assisting the family, but that Mr Prince has not agreed to a follow-up meeting, despite ‘multiple requests’.

Mr Prince said it was a ‘massive relief’ when the managing director inspected the house and saw the grim conditions, adding: ‘I’d been telling them this for years.’

He added: ‘The last year has been horrendous. 2024 was probably the hardest year I’ve ever encountered in my life. Relationship wise, health wise, my mental state.

‘I just wouldn’t want to go home. I’d even sit in my car for hours on end when I got home at night because I didn’t want to go in the house. All that made me feel was even more guilty for making my family live in that house.’

The family first moved into the house in 2016, but by the end of 2017 and early 2018, they were already experiencing several issues with mould. 

The furious homeowner shared photos of how the water pipe has multiple bends and is stuck to beams with duct tape

Mr Prince claims that he and his family’s health has deteriorated and believes the mould will have played a part

Mr Prince did not want to come home after work because there was damp and mould everywhere

He says that every time he tried to get help, nothing was done to sort the growing issues

A contractor came to treat the mould but did not look at the ‘root cause’, Mr Price claims, as the extraction fan stopped working and water was dripping out of it.

Mr Price claims that another contractor was reported as saying the home ‘should not have been signed off’ as the construction fan system had not been installed correctly.

The furious homeowner shared photos of how the water pipe has multiple bends and is stuck to beams with duct tape. He told how water would build up and spread across the bathroom ceiling, forming mould.

Mr Price claims it took eight months for someone to come and look at the house, but despite it allegedly being fixed, the same issues arose in 2019.

It wasn’t until 2020 that a Permisson Homes contractor came out again, all this time the house filled with mould and damp in multiple rooms.

The same year, Mr Price claims they were told that there were no records of fire cavity barriers being installed, which resulted in an inspection that led to even further problems.

The Princes say the ‘mould growth went crazy’, adding: ‘We were washing the walls every week, washing the ceilings to the point where we stripped back the paint off the ceiling off the walls.

‘It’s just incredible. We were complaining the whole time and it’s just so frustrating.’

In 2021, Permisson inspected the property to look at the mould and damp issues and repaired the extraction fan.

But year by year, Permisson would claim to have fixed problems but the house is still in disarray, according to Mr Prince.

When Mr Prince moved into the show home, on-site staff gave him cups of tea and biscuits

In November 2024, Mr Prince says he threatened to stop paying the mortgage as his daughter was hospitalised and his whole family’s health was deteriorating. 

Permisson sent someone to carry out a report of the house that month, but it was only returned to him three months later in February. 

After the report concluded there was serious mould and the moisture was over 20 per cent, Mr Prince emailed Permisson to say he would be protesting inside the show home until someone came around to sort everything out. 

Speaking about why he carried out the protest, Mr Prince said: ‘I want people to do what I did to get the attention of Persimmon Homes, because you spend your life savings, it’s your biggest investment you’ll make in your life.

‘You want to buy a safe and secure environment for your family to grow up in and it’s a place where your family should thrive. 

‘It’s a place that your family should have fun but I just didn’t want to go home at night. I would stay here at the hotel till late and then I’d get back as late as possible.

‘I didn’t like sitting there and watching TV because on the wall behind the TV was just coated in mould.

After the report concluded there was serious mould and the moisture was over 20 per cent, Mr Prince emailed Permisson to say he would be protesting inside the show home until someone came around to sort everything out

A dossier of photos shows the level of mould in different rooms, plus on the back of the sofas

‘Right next to my bed, the wall was all damp. The back of where the headboard was all damp, and above the bed was just thick mould growing off the ceiling. I just thought that’s what I’ve got to look forward to after 16-hour working days.’

Discussing the impact it’s had on his family, he said: ‘It’s caused huge relationship issues between me and my wife. Several times I couldn’t stay there due to the friction it caused between us.’

Mr Prince said he ‘felt like a broken father’ by February 28, explaining: ‘I was literally at the end of my patience with everything, so I just packed up a bag, took my laptop and my charger. 

‘I went down to the show room and I just locked the door.

‘I just called Permisson Homes in Exeter and I said, ‘Look, I’m in your show home in Agusta Park, I’m not moving from here until I speak to someone who’s actually going to do something about my house.’

Mr Prince said that he also threatened to move his family into the show home unless someone came to inspect the house.

‘They were obviously a bit shocked on the other end and within two-and-a-half hours, the managing director of the southwest came up and saw me.’

The family are now living in the hotel Mr Prince runs, which he says is losing the company £150 a night on a room for guests.

‘We’re here and it’s five of us in one room. Everything in our life has got dramatically worse in the hope that it gets a lot better.’

A spokesman for Permisson Homes said: ‘We have been actively engaging with the customer in recent weeks, conducting a thorough assessment of the property and providing advice, guidance, and an offer of assistance to help address the issues they are experiencing.

‘We are very sympathetic to the situation the homeowner is facing and remain committed to assisting them; however, a date for a follow-up meeting has not yet been provided by the customer, despite multiple requests and offers of our availability.

‘Our priority is to meet with the customer to assist them in understanding what is causing the issue at the property and examine any necessary work in consultation with them.’