Imagine opening the door to your brand new home only to discover it's uninhabitable and a health hazard.

Well that's exactly what happened to a group of new homeowners from Xindeng town in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Their newly-built villas have wires and cables running straight through the middle of them after village committee and utility companies had failed to coordinate their activities, reports The People's Daily Online.

Incovinience: Homeowners were shocked to found a bunch of cables running all the way through the house

Uninhabitable: The metal electric cables are visible through three rooms on one single floor in a new home

The electricity cables were built before the houses but after the plot was approved for residential development by a local committee.

Sadly the homeowners, most of whom spent their life savings on the villas, only realised the existence of the cables after the land was allocated to them.

They were left with no choice but to build the properties to fit with the cables, hoping the utility companies would remove the wires before the building works completed.

When the group of villagers moved into their new houses in July, they were surprised to see the cables were still existing and they run through the terraced row.

The metal cables run straight through the kitchens, corridors, staircases, the living room and the master bedrooms.

The wires are so thick - some with a diameter of six inches.

According to the report, when the village committee contacted the electricity company to complain and ask for the cables to be moved, they were told they needed to apply for permission.

If permission was granted, building work would be interrupted and they would also have to pay extra for electricians, which they would not be compensated for. As a result, they had left the cables where they were.

Crawl up the stairs: This man carefully climb the staircase on his hands and knees so he doesn't hit his head

Shen Guoyan is one of the homeowners, he said the situation is 'miserable,' as his home is tilted and it has wires running through it. The second floor of his house cannot be used and he is worried his family will injure themselves on the wires.

Shen's neighbour Hua Muying is in a worse similar situation. Hua's 83-year-old father has already tripped, hurting his back and hitting his head at the same time. He needed to go to the hospital which cost the family 3,000 Yuan (£300) in medical expenses.

Luo Liyuan, another householder said he wanted to refurbish to make it look, and maybe feel a bit better, but even after he decorated, he still felt depressed by his situation.

They have tried to reflect their problems in village committee meetings and get help, but so far nothing has worked.

Shocked: The cables run straight through the kitchens, corridors, the living room and the master bedrooms

A total of nine new buildings were constructed as part of the recent land redevelopment and repurposing scheme, all but three were fine.

There had been plans for more homes to be built, but the local committee has ordered a stop to building work while they investigate the problems with the cables on the housing estate.

According to Fang Kunlei, the local village party chief, the property developers have promised to remove the cables and restore normality but want payment of an extra fee of 20,000 RMB (£2,000).

However, none of the villagers have been willing to pay the money, and so renovations have been put on hold.