Woodlands Holiday Village, New Quay
The peace and quiet of the West Wales coastline brings thousands of visitors flocking here every year. With its beautiful beach and stunning scenery, New Quay is one of the most popular areas. So it's little wonder that so many people have invested in holiday homes here.
John and Vicky Butler love this part of the world. Four years ago they signed up for a holiday chalet at the Woodlands Holiday Village in New Quay. They paid £13,000 for a ten year lease, plus around £2,500 a year for ground rent. But they felt it was worth it.
But the peace and quiet was shattered when, without warning, the Woodland Village began to look more like a building site than a holiday park.
John complained, 'we've got dumper trucks, tractors, diggers, lawnmowers, tractors flying around the site!'. And in recent months the building work around John and Vicky's chalet has increased. Hardly the relaxing holiday home they'd paid for!
But despite the noise and disruption, the Butlers have continued to pay their ground rent and council tax of £72 a month.
And it's not just Vicky and John who are unhappy. X-Ray have spoken to three other couples who lease chalets on the site. They too have complained about the disruption and the lack of communication from the site owner Paul Holloway who lives in Guernsey.
At the entrance to the holiday park, there is a sign warning visitors that they're entering a building site. Some chalet owners have had enough.
They say that some building work has being going on for the past eighteen months. Ceredigion Council granted planning permission for the current renovations three months ago. The plans are impressive, with new log cabins at up to £100,000 each. The work is due to finish in 2016 just as John and Vicky's lease expires!
John and Vicky decided to put the chalet up for sale, but they haven't received any interest in the property. They say they have asked the owners to buy them out, but they have refused and have been told that even if they just walked away they would still have to pay ground rent for the remainder of the lease time.
We showed John and Vicky's contract to property solicitor Rhodri Lewis to see if he thought the terms of their lease had been breached by the building work. He said that the landlord has contracted or agreed to allow them to enjoy their property quietly, known as the 'quiet enjoyment' covenant. Rhodri thinks they'd have a good case to argue that the landlord isn't allowing them to quietly enjoy their property, because of the nature and the extent of the building works carrying on at the moment.
Rhodri also thought that John and Vicky could have a case under a legal concept called 'derogation from grant'. He explained that in plain English it means the landlord can't give you something on the one hand and take it away with the other. So, in this case what Woodlands Holiday Village are doing is giving a lease which states that it is a tranquil place to get away from it all, but then taking away the peace and quiet.
Site owner Paul Holloway says he is within his rights to redevelop the site and only ever planned 10 weeks of work on the site this year, which he says is now finished and was detailed in a newsletter sent out to everyone. He accepts that the development work causes inconvenience and says he has apologised to the chalet owners, but is refusing to compensate anybody.
The Butlers maintain that they haven't been able to enjoy their property because of the extent of the building work. Mr Holloway has written to them personally and offered to meet in the presence of a solicitor that they are both happy with, but he says the Butlers will have to foot the bill.
In the meantime, Vicky and John and their daughters have had enough of Woodlands Holiday Village and have decided to go elsewhere on their holiday, despite still paying for their chalet.
If you have any comments on this story, please email us at x-ray@bbc.co.uk.
