A FRUSTRATED new house buyer has threatened to camp out on the doorstep of a development company until his new home is completed.

Paul Heptonstall is angry and frustrated over the delays in building his new home on the site of the former Ilkley College at Wells Road.

Mr Heptonstall said he was attracted to the planned houses when he attended a presentation by Bradford-based development company Magellan Land in March this year.

He reserved a plot for a house at Academy Court, a conversion from the former Victorian Annexe of the Wells House building.

After exchanging contracts in June, Mr Heptonstall said he was told by the company that the houses would be completed by August.

"They told us August, then September, then October, then late November. But they have still not confirmed a date," said Mr Heptonstall.

Mr Hetonstall told the Gazette that he had handed over £37,000 to Magellan as a ten per cent deposit on the house.

He said: "If it is not ready I will be camping out on their doorstep. They have messed us around.

"They keep saying it is late November but when I asked for a date in writing they said they could not give us a date."

Computer consultant Mr Heptonstall, 41, said he had been looking forward to moving into his new home with wife Janine and son, Joshua, eight.

They family had planned to have a housewarming party to coincide with Joshua's birthday on January 1 to which friends from America were to be invited.

But that has all had to be cancelled because they do not know whether they will be living there by then.

Even if they have moved in, they do not know whether they will have had the time to arrange items like carpets and curtains in time.

The couple have also sold their home in Burley but the family who have bought it are having to live with their parents in Ilkley until it is vacated.

The Heptonstalls are paying storage fees of £33-a-week for the buyer's furniture as a goodwill gesture to them because they are having to wait in the chain.

In the same boat as the Heptonstalls are Eric and Rosemary Stevenson, who are also waiting for their home in Academy Court to be completed.

Mr Stevenson, who is retired, said: "I parted with my first thousand pounds in January and that was on the understanding that work would begin in March and take between 12 and 14 weeks, and we might expect to take possession of the property in July."

Mr Stevenson, of Stockeld Way, Ilkley, said he then paid over a ten per cent deposit of £27,000 to Magellan.

"From then it has gone from bad to worse. July became September, September became October, then November 16, then the end of November.

Both Mr Heptonstall and Mr Stevenson have visited the site in the last few days and they said they were not confident that the deadline would be met.

Mr Heptonstall said: "I can't see it happening, I really can't. We have to organise our lives and we have a lot to do before we move in.

"They seemed to have overlooked that - we are very, very incensed about it.

"They gave us a completion date which is complete rubbish. It has just been a complete farce from start to finish

"Unless they work 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week with more people, they are not going to achieve it. They have never, ever said sorry."

Mr Heptonstall said he had been offered his money back by Magellan but he refused it because he still wants the house in Academy Court.

A spokesman for Magellan Land, Catherine Robinson, told the Gazette: "As a matter of policy we don't discuss individual sales with third parties - it is a breach of confidentiality."

She said that unexpected problems had arisen in the course of the refurbishment of the annexe which had caused building delays.

She added: "The company is making every effort to complete the work as soon as possible.

"I have not got a date I can give you."

Ms Robinson said that the builders were working to the current schedule and were doing everything they could to make the deadline.

She said it was common for building projects to experience some delays especially when unforeseen problems arose and that some of the properties in question had been upgraded in specification.

The estate agent acting for Magellan over the site, Dale Eddison, of The Grove, Ilkley, declined to comment about the delays.