When the gated lifestyle dream collapses

Many developers promise prospective buyers ‘great lifestyle’ when marketing their yet-to-be developed housing estates. But as buyers in some of these estates quickly realise, not all that glitters is gold, writes KEVIN OGUOKO

On a drizzling Tuesday morning a fortnight ago, Sherry woke up to the sight of flooding water in her three-bedroom bungalow house. That would have been normal if it were just rainwater, but this was sewage. She had forgotten to open up the manhole at the back of her house so that the sewage could run through her garden instead of running into her house, as is the norm whenever it rains.