A Helston couple are claiming to have had their 'forever home' snatched away at the last minute after complaining about its fences not being as specified.

Kerry and Robert Minshull, who live in Helston, have accused Graceloft Ltd, owned by local house builder David Martin, of leaving them out of pocket after refusing to sell them the property.

The couple claim that they were told the garden fences of the property would be six foot tall but, after visiting the property on a Saturday, noticed that the fences were only four foot.

Having emailed the site manager to express their concerns, and receiving an email back stating that a solution would be found and the situation sorted, the couple then received an email on Wednesday from estate agents dealing with the property, Olivers Estate Agents, stating that they had taken instruction from their client not to sell the property to them.

Olivers have stressed, however, that the email confirmed an earlier telephone conversation. 

Kerry Minshull said: "I sent an email on Saturday because we were told our fencing would be about six foot around, but when we went up on Saturday and had a look and the fencing was four foot.

"So I sent an email to the site manager saying 'sorry to trouble you but we've just been up and we're not overly happy with the fencing' and they said 'don't worry, we'll find a solution and get it sorted."

"They came back to me on Wednesday to say, because we weren't happy with the fencing, they'd decided to pull the house from us and they'd be re-listing it at a higher price, and it's gone up for nearly £75,000 more."

The Minshulls claim this has left them and their daughters devastated as they had planned to be out of their current house on June 21, as well as having sold numerous appliances and furniture in anticipation of the move.

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"We paid the deposit to have the property in June last year and have been working with them for all this time to choose appliances and have the kitchen put it and making all the plans.

The Packet put the allegations to David Martin who said: "All I can say is we’ve built 20 houses on that site already, we didn’t have any problem with them and there's about eight or nine also pre sold and we’ve got no problems with them.

"It's gone up in price, quite dramatically, but so have several others there, but the deals have gone through, these things happen in these times.

"There’s over 20 houses already sold on the site that we didn't have any difference with them, we've got really satisfied customers and the properties are selling well up there.

"And yes the property has increased in value quite considerably.

"Seeing as I withdrew from it, I increased the price to sell it again, but that’s only business."

"I don’t feel I’ve done anything wrong and that’s all I can say."

Olivers Estate Agents, who were dealing with the property, said: "It was an unfortunate case on both sides, we can empathise on both sides of the coin.

"We were following our instructions, as we would any of our vendors.

"I spoke to them earlier that day to inform them that our vendor was no longer wanting to sell the property to them, for reasons between our vendor and Mr and Mrs Minshull, and that was followed up with an email confirming it."