FAMILIES who have waited months to get the keys to their new homes on a Sutton housing estate have been told the developer cannot give them a definite completion date. Despite taking deposits from the buyers back in March, family-run Hazelmere Homes will

FAMILIES who have waited months to get the keys to their new homes on a Sutton housing estate have been told the developer cannot give them a definite completion date.

Despite taking deposits from the buyers back in March, family-run Hazelmere Homes will not name the moving in date.

It blames a catalogue of staffing and supplier problems for the fact that the 18 homes are still empty.

But angry buyers, whose lives are "on hold" because of the delay, have threatened to sue the Bedfordshire-based company for compensation.

First-time buyers, Kayur Padhiar, 25, his partner, Nicola Letch, 36, and their 10-year-old son, Billy, are waiting to move onto a two bedroom terraced house on the Blaydon Place estate from their rented home in Hertfordshire.

Nicola accepted a promotion to her company's Ely branch, but has been unable to take up the post because of the delay. Now she fears she may lose the new job.

Kayur said: "We are paying house insurance on the new property but we don't even own it. We can't cancel the policy because we keep thinking we might be moving in soon.

Jenny and Mark Farrow and their four-year-old daughter, Emily, claim they expected to be in their new three bedroom terraced home by March.

Emily has started at Sutton Primary School but the couple face a 40-mile round trip from Jenny's parents' home in Cambridge to get her to her classroom.

Hazelmere Homes chairman, Michael Phillips, said that the homes were due to be inspected on Tuesday by the National House Building Council.

But he added that he was not in a position to give a completion date. "We are late with these homes and I can't apologise enough for that," he said. "We are doing the very best we can to get our customers into their homes. But we are in the hands of other people and when they perform we will be able to deliver.