A COUPLE who were made a promise by a housing developer have spoken out after facing a three-month wait for their money to be refunded.

Lisa Clyde and her partner Simon reserved a property on the Avant Homes development, Birkey Heights, in Acomb, at the beginning of June, but she said that due to their circumstances, they told the developer that they might need to cancel their reservation.

She said they were reassured that at worst, they would lose £100 of their £500 deposit.

However, after making the decision to pull out on June 8, Lisa said that until this week they had still been waiting for the right amount of their deposit to be refunded.

They said they were initially told, when signing the cancellation form, that they were only entitled to £250, leading Lisa to make contact with various members of the company before she was promised a full refund on June 18.

“Every time we have spoken to them since, they have said something like ‘you have just missed the cheque run’,” she said.

She said a cheque finally arrived in the post on Saturday, but only for the £250. However, after emailing the full board of directors she received the remaining amount on Tuesday. “The point is that we cancelled and had three months without getting our reservation fee back,” she said. “We don’t think that’s an appropriate way to deal with customers.

“It has just been so stressful sitting waiting on the money coming back, we were not in a position just to lose £500.”

An Avant Homes spokesman said: “Following an administration error, Ms Clyde’s reservation deposit refund was delayed. We regret that this situation occurred and as soon as it was brought to our attention we made a payment to her for the remainder of the deposit.”