Hey guys. I've unfortunately been on the receiving end of being duped by an absolute cowboy builder that really and truly needs to be stopped before anyone gets hurt. Over the Christmas period, i was looking to have some work done to the house, namely a new bathroom, toilet and to refurbish the kitchen. I posted an advert on rated people, received a call from a builder who came over to view the job and priced it up. I took a little time to mull it over, even went to view work he was doing at the same and agreed to hire him a few days later. Deposit was initially paid with the remainder to be spread over the course of the job. Work was scheduled to start on the 28th December and was to take 8 days to complete. He did indeed turn up on the 28th, albeit late. At the end of the day, he asked for more moneyfor materials and some to tie him over and stupidly i handed over another £300. I should have realized he's received a large portion of money with next to no work done but i guess i was at the mercy of him as it started to go downhill from here. He became unreliable, showing up late, working for minimal hours and a lot of the time now showing up at all despite claiming I'll be there in 10 mins'. All at a time when we had family in and out of hospital and he knew full well this was the case and took advantage. There were times he showed up and i gave him the benefit of the doubt and transferred smaller amounts of money into his account in hope of him turning up the following day. I obviously want to claim back the money I've paid him as well as for the materials I've purchased that he installed at a very bad and albeit dangerous manner as I've not heard from him in over a week despite many calls and messages. (He must have over 100 missed calls and many messages over the weeks of me trying to get in touch with him) These are the issues with the work he HAS completed. There's a whole heap of other stuff he hasn't even begun Bathroom Tiling not completed Tiling is not straight or grouted correctly where it has been completed Removed shaver socket to tile and left wiring exposed Removed towel radiator electrics and wiring is exposed Did not cap of old central heating radiator and left dripping for 3 days causing damage to bathroom floor and kitchen ceiling Left light wiring exposed after installing fan New bath has not installed straight and holds water in the center Cut (not straight) my new basin vanity unit after he measured incorrectly to fit Left shower wiring exposed in channeled wall and not sealed Toilet Has not tiled the walls Wiring exposed for the light and new light not fitted Channeled holes in the walls Toilet not secured Door not hung The only damage he caused in the kitchen was the ceiling due to the bathroom leak. He never attempted any of the work that was due in the kitchen. I would say he's completed 20% of the work to a satisfactory standard but has 85% of the money. After the struggles of trying to get in touch with him, i searched for an alternative number and came across horror stories where he has duped many others. I have since reported him to Trading Standard and will be reporting him to Health and Safety tomorrow as well as he needs to be stopped. But at the same time i would like my money back to get in a reputable trader to rectify and complete. I have looked for advice online on how to pursue but it all seems to be geared towards giving him time to rectify, follow the initial letter with another and seems like a long fix. I wanted advise on the fastest route to put in a claim without jeopardising my position as the work has been left in a dangerous state and i obviously don't want anyone getting hurt. I've mentioned most of the above to him in messages, asked for my money back but not surprisingly he isn't willing to work anything out. Luckily every payment bar £250 was transferred from my account to his. Apologies for the long rant, i appreciate a lot may not get to the end of this post but for the ones that do, all advise would be greatly appreciated. Now breathe..!

Hi all! I have been reading through alot of threads to gain info. We have a problem with a builder, who was supposed to do approx £27k of work on our house. I will keep details sketchy as I don't want to identify ourselves. he was a cowboy, didn't do the work as he was contracted to do (we had no written contract, but the Surveyor had specified what needed to be done and how and the quote referred to "all works as detailed in the surveyor;s report). To cut a long story short, he has had two attempts to fix the roof, and has only made it worse both times, and it is now falling apart instead of renovated. We will have to completely re roof it now as its not viable to try to fix it anymore. There are other jobs that were done and also all wrong for varying reasons. We had taken legal advice, had the original surveyor in twice to assess the property and works and draw up a scotts schedule. The work he has done was considered as £0 value due to not being what was supposed to be done and shoddy work. The damages to our property soar at over £60,000, certified by both the FRICS surveyor and conservation. Including legal expenses and other fees the claim against him will be over £70,000. He has chased us with 3 debt collection companies so far, one whom sent out a Liverpool gangster to deliver a Statuatory demand against us to try to bankrupt us. I have proof of who he was, as for some reason when I explained what the builder had done to our house, he claimed to be a "surveyor" and told me he could survey the damages for us, and wrote his number and name down. When i googled him and found his image and name I found out who he really is. -none of the debt collectors have been told by him its a disputed debt. -The first debt agreed to wait until a certain date to get the scotts schedule and evidence, but before that date came around, the next was pursuing us vigorously. -The second debt collector refused to contact our solicitor despite being told to only converse via him and repeatedly texted us and phoned us saying they were going to bankrupt us. -Our solicitor tried to call them but his calls went unreturned and he had to email them to ask them to desist harrassing us and only converse via him. -Then they sent letters threatening SD against us, and when contacted AGAIN by our solicitor for continuing to ignore the direction to speak via our legal advisor, claimed they never received his "letter", (even though it was an email!) -We forced them to set aside the Statutory demand, by furnishing the evidence and he was dropped like a hot potato by the bulldog debt collectors and that was the last that we heard from anyone for approx 8 months, until we got a letter a few days ago, from yet another. -I have recording software on my phone so made sure i used it when I called this debt collection company. We haven't got the solicitor involved again as yet, as we don't want to part with yet another £500 to get rid of these guys. I had a list of qurestions which i calmly repeated: "has your client told you this is a disputed debt? -has your client told you that you are the third debt collector he has gotten on to us? -has he told you he issued a statutory demand against us which they had to set aside when the evidence was furnished -has he told you we have proof of a £70,000 AGAINST HIM? etc... She said she didn't have a record that he had told them it was a disputed debt but would get the case manager to call us back, which hasn't happened yet. -Also I'll mention the claim of monies owed started at around £15,000, and each time the amount has changed and risen and now he's claiming theres over £25,000 outstanding, which is absolute balshovic! He's just making up amounts and doesn't actually KNOW what the actual amount would have been had he done a satisfactory job. Our solicitor said should we take this to court we must be aware it will cost us at least : -£2500 filing fee with court -£10 - 15,000 of solicitor, barrister and court costs in the year it will take to get to court, and thats before the case is heard. The evidence is overwhelming and I feel we would blow him out of the water should we try the case, but our solicitor is concerned that we will get a win, but get no funds out of him as he doesn't really have company assets the tracing agent could identify, and the company has a £150,000 debt against it. ..The only upside is, he said the banks wouldn't let a builder run up such huge amounts of debt unless they had it secured against something , and we know he has a property worth at least £600,000 in his personal name, so should he not pay, we could seek a winding up order of his company, which couldn't happen until he repaid the banks , and if he didn't have the cash to pay the debt, they would force him to sell his home, so he most likely would then be forced to pay us to avoid losing his home. So we are not sure whether its worth losing yet more money trying to take him to court, but until we take him to court, how do you stop him constantly harrassing us with debt collector after debt collector? I feel he is just trying to be a nuisance and waste our money on solicitor fees endlessly as he knows he has no hope of getting any more money out of us. I called citizens advice bureau, but they said there is nothing they can do as its not a small claims case. Each time he does this, we have to answer to the debt collectors and waste more money-surely there is some way he can be stopped from doing this? He is purposely misleading debt collectors in order to get them to take his case by not disclosing the facts.

Hi, am looking for advice with how to deal with my builder. I signed a contract with a Loft company to build a new loft, good references, I met on of their previous clients and was happy to use them. They subcontracted the work to a builder who did a good quality job, however was very slow and indeed the project is still only 95% complete after 8 months. I'm not too concerned about this as I still have one final payment to make and believe the Loft Co will complete the work. On the back of this work I signed the builder to do a kitchen extension for us (for a good price of £32k). Foolishly I paid a large deposit for this work, and subsequently paid further amounts ahead of schedule and now estimate the builder has approx 20k of my money. I believe he is encountering serious cash-flow problems as none of his team appear, I've had people at the door trying to find him for outstanding payments and he repeatedly asks for more money. We had a frank conversation where he admitted the above and we worked out a plan whereby we would spread the remaining 10k of work to be spread over the remaining project. My idea being the more work he did the more I would recover the money I'd given him and would encourage him to continue working. My immediate concern is that while he is working, it is manual work requiring little in the way of materials, and that once he needs to have timbers/beams delivered etc he will have no money and will disappear. He promises me these materials have already been paid for but I have no faith in these promises. If I can establish that he has in fact paid for these materials can I approach the supplier directly and ask for these to be delivered? At least I can try and minimise my loss which I feel pretty sure will happen. I'm torn between continuing on our current plan in the ope that he will actually complete the work, or cutting our losses (approx 18k!!!) leaving us with half a kitchen and I'm not sure we can raise any more cash to complete this work. Any advice very gratefully received. Thanks

We have just finished (finally!) building works at out house. The price of the works exceeded £30k (we did not have a signed contract - lesson 1!). There were snags and damages that they attended to, but some were unable to be fixed, which leaves a balance of £308.00 on their invoice that I did not pay (which I explained to them) as I'm going to have to pay / have already paid for the following damages: damaged flooring (£180), decs for the replacement flooring (£100), broken window (£140), replacement of shower hose (£25), replacement of broom (£20). In addition, we now have a broken marble fireplace hearth, 2 light switches that are not working correctly, and we have to fix several issues on a desk that they reinstalled. There were also several other issues (including the boiler being put in the 'wrong' place) that I could raise a fuss over, but I'm not. The CCJ says that 'work was carried out as per Mr P's request and he has not paid us in full, i.e. non payment of our invoice'. If anything, I feel that he owes us money, but I've no interest in filing a counter claim - and I feel a bit petty causing such a stink over £300, but I do have to have things fixed, and they are going to cost more than £300 to do. What's the best way to go about this? Deny that I owe the money on the invoice due to damages? Should I be detailed in my explanation? Is there a benefit for submitting online vs registered mail? I really would appreciate any help that you can give. Kind regards, Mrs P

In Sepetemenr 2014 we had a water leak and damaged was casused, the Insurer appointed a loss adjuster and due to work commitments we appointed our own loss assessor, who provided a free service as long as we used their appointed Builders. xxx assessors appointed the builders xxxxxxx and work commenced, after they finished, they made me sign a document to confirm all the work was to a high standard, I agreed and provided this as all appeared to be ok. After 2 months we had noticed that the work they had completed was of a very poor standard, 1) THE kitchen tiling had not been completed under the appliances, old tiles were left in place and all the appliances were tile round, when we came to replace these we then found the defective work. 2) THE kick boards were not left in a good state and were falling off as they used the wrong connections. 3) the Toilet they fitted was defective and leaked. We contacted XXXX Loss assesors and after extensive denials they confirmed 5 months later in July 2015 that the Builders were liable and it was not their responsibility as our contract was with the builder! We then wrote to the Builder and sent pictures to them of the defective workmanship and confirmed that we were not now prepared to accept any work to be done and wanted a refund of the £1900 paid by the insurer to remove the tiles make good the floor and retile the floor, we heard nothing. On 20 July we wrote to XXXXX and the Builder indicating if the payment is not returned we will issue court proceedings to re cover the money paid by the insurer, as the work needed to be complete and redone and the floor retiled after levelling. On the 21 we received a text message indicating the following from the Builder!! "Contact was made through XXXXXX , and you have failed to materialise any evidence to our original response? So there's nothing else to say and I'm happy to see you in court where we will hear and see all evidence of schedules, my quote, original false allegations, fraudulent claims for fridges/appliances and the lies that where told and can be disproven, I've have texts from your husband and witnesses disproving many of your accusations/ lies. I was waiting to say nothing and wait for court! But I'm a decent, honest fair man and I'm letting you know today; XXXXXXXX has been deeply scared, upset and effected by this scandalous behaviour and is fully covered legally to seek counter claims for lost time, stress,stress to my family and work staff, false accusation, etc etc. I will not be making any further contact until I see you both face to face in court" We have written back denying his accusations and given him 7 days to refund the money so the work can now be done correctly!

I'm seriously considering suing a cowboy kitchen fitter for what he has done. I dont want to put too much detail here as there is a chance he will read it, who knows. He is a cowboy and he knows it. However, I keep hearing there is no point in suing someone if he doesnt have money. If this type of fitter is charging people say £200 per day then there is money coming in. As far as I'm aware he is self employed and the name he trades under is not a limited company. I'm in no doubt whatsoever that I would win the judgement, I have reams of proof and photographic evidence. My only concern is, given how devious he is, he must have a way to hide his income. Surely we do not live in a world where a halfwitted builder can outsmart the legal system?!! How would I overcome this? Advice appreciated.

...but I need to know what the statute of limitations is. He finished his shoddy work in December. Main thing he did was drill through the damp course all over the flat to put in new sockets. His wiring was also shocking - pun intended but true. There were sparks coming out of the wall and there was damp all round them. Highly dangerous. That set off a chain reaction and I fired him and got another builder in to fix his work and it cost me £10000. The whole flat needed to be done. I already paid him £6500. Apart from the money I also had the inconvenience of living in a building site for 3 months. What is the cut off period. How long do I have before I won't be able to sue him? Is it 6 months? One year? Please advise. Thank you.

My solicitor issued court proceedings against a builder. The builder did not acknowledge service so my solicitor applied for a default judgment. The Judge awarded a default judgment for an amount I overpaid the builder and made an order for a Schedule of Loss to be prepared and served on the court and the Defendant. The Defendant then had 14 days to respond to the Schedule of Loss otherwise the Judge ordered that the Defendant was de-barred from arguing any part of the Schedule or the amount. A date for a disposal hearing was also set. The Defendant did not respond to the Schedule of Loss. He then appointed another solicitor (he has been represented on and off in the last 18 months by 3 different solicitors) who asked for me to agree to set aside the first judgment. My solicitor refused and advised that if the Defendant was going to submit an application to have the first judgment set aside then this should be heard at the disposal hearing to save on costs. The Defendants solicitor waited until after office hours the evening before the Hearing and attempted to serve the Court and my Solicitor with a Defence, Counterclaim and Witness Statement. The Defendant failed to have the application stamped by the court and did not pay the court fee. However, a barrister was instructed by the Defendant. The Judge said he could not hear the Application to setaside the Judgment because the fee had not been paid and the documents had not been served properly. The Judge then ruled on a second Judgment in my favour. My barrister had to point out that a Part 36 offer had been put forward to the Defendant's then solicitor prior to court proceedings so the order was made plus costs. However, the Defendant's Barrister did not have any knowledge of the Part 36 offer and it was very clear that the Defendant's current solicitor had no idea either. Now I know that there is a possibility that the Defendant can submit an application to setaside both judgments. The first has a good chance of being granted because he is playing the failure to serve properly card (the court inputted the incorrect postcode on his papers - although the correct address). Obviously I can enforce judgment after 14 days but can only assume the Defendant will attempt to setaside both judgments in the meantime. I would like to know how the Part 36 will affect the outcome and if he applies to have the second judgment setaside what will happen. I have a copy of his documents and they are filled with lies many of which I can prove. What is also concerning is that the Solicitor has signed the Statement of Truth which I think is highly unusual. Any advice would be gratefully received if anyone has a similar experience.

I live in a shared ownership apartment, . The premises are 5 years old I was told after I moved into the apartment that the original builder had gone bankrupt. I was never advised of this by may solicator. Should the Housing Association have made us aware of this ?

I am probably one of many people on this forum who has experienced a cowboy builder but any views on how to pursue costs would be much appreciated A JCT small works contract (value £50k+) was signed personally with the builder with his home address in February 2014. In addition to this we had an offer of acceptance letter for his building company (Ltd). The company was registered in the wife's name. Unknown to us he had already registered a new phoenix company in January 2014. His company went into liquidation in April/May 2014. The new phoenix company carried on the work until we terminated his services in September 2014. We have had major delays and quality issues throughout the build. The builder was notified in August of the intention to pursue LDs. Build was technically completed in December 2014 and I am out of pocket due to structural repairs etc. Excluding LDs I could probably pursue via small claims. There is a track record of not paying suppliers or subcontractors, or paying late. This has happened to at least 3 other customers and many suppliers. The chances of recovering any money are very slim. My assumption is that he will continue to avoid my requests to discuss the final account and LDs. I have heard he will be closing the phoenix company soon to avoid associated liabilities. Can I pursue him personally based on the JCT signed or does the letter of acceptance mean the contract was with the company now in liquidation? I never had any contract (verbal or written) with regard to the phoenix company. We did make some payments to the new company in desperation to get the build progressed. Sorry for the long message but any feedback gratefully received!

Hi hoping someone can give advice. A couple of months ago we engaged a builder to do some work. We ended up with water ingress issues. The builder accepted liability and everything was going through the loss adjuster. However last week the adjuster informed us that the builder had decided that as we owe him money (we don't BTW) that the claim cannot move on, basically he is telling us that even if the insurance decided to pay out they would pay directly to the builder to cover his losses. Surely this cannot be right as ; 1. We don't owe him anything and even if we did surely that has to be dealt with separately. 2. The adjuster is also saying that the builder has to give the insurance the OK to pay the money - I thought once the builder had agreed liability then it was between us and the insurance nothing to do with the builder 3. Why is the insurance company saying that they cannot deal with me (won't even answer a question) they say everything has to go the adjuster. Help - advice would be appreciated

Hello all, what a great forum I have been reading through the subjects for hours but cant seem to find answers to my specific situation. Also I do hope this is in the right section. The basics : Building works quoted at £8k, Deposit paid £3k, I have refused to pay outstanding amount as work completed is not fit for purpose.Builder now completed online court claim of outstanding balance £5k. I have reports that state work needs to be demolished and rebuild and will cost £7.5k I have been advised by Citizens Advice to counter claim this amount. First question, and no doubt there will be many more to come, the Defence Form received from the court. Should I be writing a very detailed defence here and enclosing all evidence (photos, documents etc) to be returned asap or should this only have enough detail to explain the reason for disputing the claim and wait for further questions from the court to add the full detail? Hope this makes sense, all this legal wording is giving me a headache.

Paid a Builder £900 advance for a job that he quoted me £1200 for and he has only finished half the job and for the last two months keeps on saying he is waiting for the bricks which are out of stock. There are piles of old bricks in the back yard where the kids play so the tenant is now threatening me that in case something happens they will sue me. He isn't going to come back I am sure of that. What should/can I do? Shall I get the work completed by someone else and send him a legal notice for what the new guy charges me?

Hi, A builder/gardener did a job for us early 2013. The workmanship and meteials used was very poor. A job that was supposed to take 14-16 days took 2.5 months and still not finished before he walk off the job. After a few letters, etc we threatened to take him to the small claims court. He said he had replied to my last letter and should get it after a few days. After not receiving anything in the post, i emailed him and found that he had closed both his emails account down, changed his mobile number. Went to his address and found he had moved. I had tracked him down to another address but i am not 100% sure he is living there eventhough it showed in the electoral register that he is there. Is this enough for me to send the court summons to this address? I had read on the internet that i do not have to know for certain that he is living there, as long as i have "reasonable belief" he is there. Is this correct? would be grateful to hear from people who had experience of this or anyone who know where i stand legally? Thanks.

I have a builder who has almost finished an extension on the back of my house. The only remaining task was to build a soak away which was included in the original quote. However, we both came to an agreement to remove the soak away from the quoted list of works as it was no longer required but the only problem was that this item was not explicitly priced in the quote so there is some dispute over how much should be deducted. The builder is adamant that the soak away will cost £500 and is not willing to accept other quotes from other builders. I still owe him some money so where do I stand on this? Am I in my rights to deduct from what I owe him the cost of what other builders would quote for a soak away?

We had a complete refurbishment on our flat. We had underfloor heating installed but it has never worked. The tilers the builder supplied had to rip up the element and they relaid it due to having to relay badly laid tiles. An electrician came and said it was broken. We have tried to contact the builder but he ignores us. We have sent letters but they are being ignored. What do I do next?

Can this be moved to relevant forum please. A builder has spoofed my parent of their savings by building an un-certifiable new build house and doing a bunk with the money. I live about 300 miles away so was unaware of the problem but now find they have no money left and the house is not really fit to live in. On top of this the builder has had goods delivered to my parents address using their name and not paid for them. The company that supplied the goods has it on record that the builder ordered these goods (drain pipes soffits etc.) for their house but they have not been fitted and are the wrong colour and fitting for the building. I'm unsure what to do, legally it's nothing to do with me but my parents are old and now are very, very ill because of this business. What can I do legally and what do I need to do to get things rolling. I am completely new to dealing with this sort of behaviour. 1 Detailed bills from suppliers show goods not used at this house build ordered and invoiced to this job. 2. Number of defect around build resulting in no completion certificate not address. 3. General poor/shoddy workmanship around building not repaired. 4. Ground workers labourers and other contractors showing up with bills despite main builder being paid for this work. I/my parent have meticulous records of all bank/card payment for goods from suppliers so proving wrong doing hopefully wont be to difficult. BIG QUSTION IS WHERE DO I START (HAVE MY OWN IDEA BUT THAT MAT NOT BE LEGAL). Any info or advise would be very welcome.

Hello all, I was hoping to get some advice from the good people on the forum. My partner and I purchased a home in March 2011, a new build property, signed sealed etc etc. However, a month later, the builders decided to put a walkway going through to a main road to give access. This adversely affects my property. My questions are as follows: 1) As it was not on the final plans when we signed the contract, and we received no notice of this walkway is this a breach of contract? 2) The walkway is not on the FINAL plans lodged with the council. Although when i rang the Council planning office, i was told that the builders had been told to put this walkway in to the development. Should this not have been picked up by solicitors doing a local search? Ultimately, we would never have bought this house if we has knew about the walkway. The information has been, we feel, deliberately withheld and has ruined what was our first home together. We would like to go to a solicitor, but can't afford it at this moment in time. I was wandering if anyone had any suggestions/comments? Kind Regards, McBirnie25

Hi everyone. I'm having an extension built at the rear of my property, which includes a zinc roof. We obtained a quote from local builders, and shortlisted, went to view his work, and spoke to his customers - all spoke well of him. The build progressed well up to roof level, at which point the builder mentioned the contractor he had included within his quote to supply the zinc roofing had gone under. He proceeded to identify a zinc supplier himself, order the sheets, and fit them. The finish didn't look correct (as I'd been looking on-line at finished projects), so I questioned him on the finish, and he stated it was fitted correctly. Still not happy I brought in a few zinc installers who have all stated its been incorrectly specified and fitted with problems including incorrect type of zinc, wrong size nails in the zinc clips (could result in the sheets coming loose), sheets being too short, not watertight - and the list goes on. When I gave him the news, his answer was - "you asked for zinc, you got zinc". He's been aggressive in his communication and is threatening legal action against me as he doesn't want the cost of correcting this using experienced and trained contractors. In a nutshell, he's tried to increase his profit by doing the job himself, has purchased £2k worth of zinc that looks as though it cannot be used, and he's been told to do the job correctly is going to cost between £4-6k. He'd already left site as we were waiting for windows and doors to be manufactured and fitted, but in all honesty I don't want him back. This work hasn't been done with a contract, just on the back of a hand-shake. I'd appreciate some advice on how to proceed, as I need to understand where I stand with regard to formally ending his involvement and bringing in trades to complete the work. There's also the £2k of zinc that I've paid for and cannot be used, and he's also retained structural steelwork that I've paid for and will need to finish the work. Many Thanks.

Hi I had a cowboy builder in and he took £3,000 from me and wrecked my home/didnt do any work he was paid for. I obviously want my money back but: a. Trading standards cannot help as its the only case against him, so they issued a warning for fraud. He told me his company was registered and it was actually disolved in 2010. b. Police refused to do anything about the nails he stole, as my word against his. (Nails cost £100 so expensive theft), but I have an incident number (fat lot of good that is) c. Companies House wont do anything as he was no longer registered with them. SO>>>> I have been told I can go small claims court and will definately win as I have lots of evidence, including pics of him working, taking delivery of materials, contract, emails, texts, receipts etc. That is good...but the problems that I have: He has sent back my letters asking for payment. 'Not known at this address'. It is where he lives with his partner and children and I have proof of this. (think he is hiding somehting there!) and he isnt on the electorial register, but she is. If I take it to the small claims and he doesnt admit to being at that address, then what? If I win the small claims I know he doesnt have any assets. How will I get my money back? Is using a Debt Collecting agency the best way? How hard will they try and being that he is avoidant and appears to have nothing, what will I actually get? Will this just end up costing me more money? What is they best way forward please? I dont mind how long it takes, but I want all of my money back, and then will sue him for the distress and damage he caused. (he left me with a massive hole in my roof and every time it rained for 10 weeks my house flooded and it caused considerable damage as it was impossible to cover the hole. It was most distressing for all of us as we tried to stop the rain, we also lost electricity as well as other damage. He cut the main support joists and broke the tiles and batons so had nothing to secure the roof). It is a mess, so please can anyone help me with suggestions of the best way forward. End of the day, he lied to me, took my money, wrecked my home and then disappeared with my money. I know who he is and where he lives, even if he denies it. But seems like the law will only assist him to get away with it....so what can I do? Thank you

In February I employed a builder to fit my new bathroom suite, do some electrical work and some tiling. We agreed a fixed price of , which was agreed by both parties in writing. To cut a long story short 100% of the work he did was substandard, and the electrical work was dangerous (despite claiming he was Part P registered). This resulted in having to buy the majority of materials again, and employing someone else to undo the damage he had caused and to start the job again. He also sent me threatening emails and the police were called. Both tradesmen who put right the work provided me with written reports of the substandard work, and the electrician confirmed the electrical work the builder had left was both a fire hazard and posed a risk of electrocution. I contacted CAB who advised me to write to the builder (who IS a Ltd co with comapnies house) and send via recorded delivery. The builder is refusing to accept the letters and they just keep getting sent back to me. Since this incident, he has changed his registered address with Companies House 3 times. I have calculated that the damage he caused cost me £2,227.81. Any advice on what on earth I should do? I'm beginning to give up hope.

had some urgent work done in my bathroom due to a leak .paid the builder £745.00 cash no receipt .quick to collect cash very difficult indeed to get him to do the work.he fitted the toilet not seated right not secured wobbles all over.fitted the bath but found it did not fit so he decided to saw about 4ins of the top and the bottom of the bath so it would fit.told bath is useless as him doing this weakened the bath .left my sink on the floor unfitted never replaced the door frame he was paid to do .failed to mend my leaking roof .failed to wood clad the walls and ceilings in the bathroom he has took the money and vanished ignoring all recorded delivery letters .he has not been back for 3 months .he has left live wires hanging out of the walls .our jaccuzzi bath he has left exstension leads running from the bathroom to enable us to use the bath.i find consumer direct useless indeed feels there protecting the builders not the consumer every time i ring north east lincs council trading standards i get consumer direct so i feel im just wasting my time here .any one advise me here on my situation .please can you tell me if cutting the bath at both ends renders the bath as dangerous .

Hi Guys, Looking for some advice regarding snagging, certificates & BC at the end of a building project. The majority of the works were completed in Feb (3 months late), the builder is now ignoring our letters, calls and emails requesting their return to complete the snagging list. We're holding a retainer for the snagging which should just cover the outstanding work but any certificates & warranties are all held by the builder. We would like to get a new builder in to finish the snagging but are worried that we would then struggle to get final sign of by building control and would have no warranties for things like windows & boilers. Can anyone offer any advice? We have tried every option of solving this amicably with the builder but I guess they have now decided the cost to them of rectifying the problems is greater than we owe. Thanks,

Hi All, New on here, but need your help already! Have you had a bad experience with a Builder who is based in the Basingstoke/Hampshire borders area? I can't be more specific for obvious reasons, but suffice to say I have had a very, VERY bad experience with a builder who is based in that area, although he has also worked in other areas of the country too, often in cahoots with a plumber who is also somewhat suspect in his workmanship. For it to be taken seriously by the authorities and something be done about him, I need to try and find others who've been a victim of his shoddy workmanship and the fraudulent acquisition of their money. There's a world of difference between a one off contract gone bad and a pattern of behaviour going back years where his guilt is clear and unequivocal. I've been left with a home that is far from finished and have lost A LOT of money that I couldn't afford to lose and cannot do without. If you've had problems can you post or message me please? I hope against hope that with a bit of group effort we could stop this guy, and if along the way we manage to stop a few others and link up cases it's all to the good! Strikes me that there is a real need for a specific bad builder forum/site or confidential helpline reporting service where victims of bad building can convene at a central point and join the dots to others ripped off by the same firm/person. From what I've seen so far in trying to get help and support (and there is precious little out there unless you've got very deep pockets), everyone wants to know about other cases, but the means of finding those other cases is severely limited unless you turn private eye... but last I heard, stalking someone is not an entirely legal pastime! Bottom line, it seems Trading Standards seem to no longer have the manpower or resources to fully investigate cases from scratch and make the required links between them because of budget cuts, and the crime rate just keeps on rising. Those in a position to offer help and support only get excited if you can hand them everything on a plate, documented and evidenced, tied up with a bow and sealed with a kiss. This puts the onus of being a detective onto the homeowner...bizarre, but true. My one consolation through the frustration of trying to find other victims over the last few months, (without resorting to a public post on a forum), is the belief that leopards don't change their spots, and if a builder is prepared to rip off one person in such a detrimental and far reaching way, it's a pretty safe bet he's done it to other people. I just can't find them... Please help if you can, and in doing so perhaps it will help you with your case too. Thank you Donebybuilder PS.I don't expect anyone to post names etc on the forum, I wouldn't do that either! My forlorn hope was that if someone did have something to share, that this would be a means of making initial contact with eachother. I figured the details would happen either by private message or off the site completely. I don't want to get anyone (or myself) into trouble...but I am desperate. He has left us in a very big mess that without help, we can't fix...

A builder did many jobs for me over a 9 month period. All of which I paid him for and I came to trust him. Each time his quotes were verbal and each time I paid him cash. There were no written records. I even recommended him to my neighbours and he did some work for them. Then in June of 2009 he started work on a wardrobe. We are not talking about anything special. The whole thing is made of materials from any high street DIY store. It incorporates a couple of flat pack chest of drawers. There are no expensive materials used. It didn’t take long to put together. Because of the size of the chest of drawers compared to the doors, the drawers cannot be accessed fully, but this was never a problem, because it was agreed to be done for a reasonable amount of money as all other work had been done for. Anyway, two years later, here I am with a massive bill for an average DIY wardorbe (over £6,500) and two invoices for work I don’t recognise that he did and can and will if necessary produce statements for from the people who did it. Ok, I have been very naive and stupid to have trusted someone that much, but I did and here I am. I have written to him asking for receipts, saying that I can produce statements and saying that I don't think it is a fair or reasonable amount for the work. I have explained why it is not reasonable and made an offer to settle the matter. He even says on the website he publicly advertises on that his charges are reasonable. I have offered £1600 in total and £400 of this I have not yet paid. I have said that is what I am offering in full and final settlement and to pursue the matter through the courts if my offer is not acceptable to him. I keep getting emails from him saying I haven't replied to his correspondence. I have replied he just doesn't like or accept the fact that I am not going to pay him what he is demanding. There is never anything from his side offering any kind of compromise to try and settle the matter. Anyway, I just wish he would go to court. At least then I would be in a process with an end. I just feel like I am being bullied and harassed by him. Is there anything I can do to sort this out that doesn't involve me paying an outrageously over the top charges. Happy to pay a fair and reasonable amount and have throughout this matter... and still am. All help greatly appreciated.