When Victoria Baker and her husband opened the door to their brand new £380,000 five bedroom home in Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, they were thrilled to finally move into what they thought would be their perfect home.

Instead they say they were confronted by a catalogue of issues that has left them stressed and put a strain on their marriage. “It’s been horrific,” admits Baker, 36, who moved into their Charles Church home with Gavin, 35, and their two children in June.

“We noticed leaks straight away as we were putting things away under the sink – there was a pool of water under the sink in the kitchen.” They say a stream of further leaks – the downstairs toilet, the sink in their en suite, and the shower in the main bathroom – also appeared.

It wasn’t just the plumbing that was a problem. The day after they moved in, the couple say their lounge window cracked; later the couple say they encountered about 15 windows with scratches and a hole under the carpet in the lounge.

A window in Victoria Baker’s home. Photograph: Victoria Baker

“At first when it was a couple of things, we laughed about it and said, ‘bloody hell, this is bad luck kind of thing’ but then it was like, ‘what have we bought?’” says Baker, an occupational therapist.

“We were dealing with customer service going backwards and forwards to get stuff done, they’d never answer the phone, there’d always be calls back. It was really stressful. It was a massive strain on the marriage. Me and Gavin could have split over it. It’s driven us to that point. Our world was consumed by the house and we were panicking over whether it would get sorted.”

Baker is just one of a number of Charles Church homeowners who claim to have experienced problems with their brand new homes. On Facebook, groups run by some of those who say they live on Charles Church estates often feature complaints about poor workmanship, and one group is named “Charles Church (Persimmon) Homes From Hell”.

Charles Church is the “premium” brand of Britain’s biggest builder, Persimmon, which reported pretax profits of £516.3m for the six months to 30 June, up from £457.4m the year before. Meanwhile, earlier this year its chief executive, Jeff Fairburn, was awarded a £75m bonus – although this was cut from £100m following a shareholder revolt. Fairburn left Persimmon earlier this month “at the company’s request”.

The Hugheses’ bathroom. Photograph: Rebecca Hughes

When Rebecca Hughes, 34, and her family moved into her £350,000 detached home, which had been used as a show house, on Charles Church’s Hatchell Grange estate in Doncaster, she says a long sequence of problems began to unfold.

“The garage had been the office and I was expecting all the sockets to be there but literally they’d gone and cut the electrics off at the wire and nails were sticking out,” says Rebecca, a secondary school teacher, who lives with her husband Paul, 35, and son Oliver, three. When they headed upstairs to the family bathroom, they say they found the toilet unfitted on the floor. Frustrated, the couple began blogging about their experiences with the housebuilder. This prompted action from Charles Church, but Rebecca and Paul say their frustrations continued.

Paul and Rebecca Hughes and their son. Photograph: Rebecca Hughes

“They’d say the right things [when you had a problem], but then nothing happened,” says Paul, a senior digital communications manager. “It’s frustrating. Then you’d call them again ... It was like a loop. It wears you down.”

Two years after they moved in they claim there are still issues to be resolved, with lights in the kitchen not working and cement splattered on their back door. “You think ‘what’s the point?’ We paid a hell of a lot of money for a house like this.”

David and Susan Birch should be enjoying their retirement in their new £265,000 property in Wymondham in Norfolk but the couple say they have been left feeling angry and stressed after a number of problems emerged. As soon as the couple moved into their home in June they spotted mould in the kitchen. “We moved in on the Monday and by the Friday it had risen by two to three feet,” recalls David, 69. “They took the dry lining off the walls and replaced it but we had to endure seven days with infrared heating – in the hot summer – and a dehumidifier to dry it out.”

Later they discovered mould under the stairs. They handed Charles Church a snagging list featuring 63 issues. Three months in and they’re still waiting for things to be fixed. “We’re so fed up of it,” says David. “It doesn’t even feel like home. We haven’t settled in. We don’t want to be wasting what we have got left getting the house straight.”

Mould in the Birches’ kitchen. Photograph: David Birch

A Charles Church spokesman says: “All of our new homes are sold with a two-year Charles Church warranty in addition to a 10-year insurance-backed structural warranty, providing reassurance to customers that any substantive defects will be addressed. Customer satisfaction is of primary importance and our after sales teams make every effort to resolve concerns amicably. The regional management teams will continue to deal directly with individual customers to address their issues.”

Stories about poor quality are far from uncommon with buyers of new homes in Britain. Just over half (51%) of new home owners have experienced major problems with their properties including issues with construction, unfinished fittings and faults with utilities, according to housing charity Shelter.

Currently, all new homes must come with a warranty from an accredited provider. About 80% have a 10-year warranty from the NHBC, an insurance company that says it inspects “every home” registered with them. During the first two years of the policy, the NHBC says the builder is responsible for fixing any defects which do not comply with its technical standards. During years three to 10, the NHBC provides direct insurance cover for damage caused by defects in specific areas of the home.

The NHBC paid out £84.8m in claims between 2016-17.

Campaign group HomeOwners Alliance says the current system does not allow for quality of workmanship and fittings. “Although work is meant to be inspected independently at key stages, the inspection regime is currently failing homebuyers,” says its chief executive Paula Higgins. Instead, she argues, there needs to be a higher body policing the sector.

“We’ve been calling for a new homes ombudsman for a long time now as we’re inundated with calls from our members about shoddy workmanship and flawed properties yet there is currently no one holding these developers to account,” she says. “These firms are under pressure to build and with a shortage of skills in the sector corners get cut.”

A spokesman for Home Builders Federation says: “Inevitably when you are building hundreds of thousands of any product, in a field in all weathers there will be some, usually very minor issues in a small number of cases. In these instances it is the builders’ responsibility to correct those issues to the satisfaction of the customer.”