Bad builder forum

Bad builder warning: – avoid at all costs.

Trades under the name of: - William Charles of Belmont

Actual name: Graham Farrelly

25 Station Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 6BX

Fail to follow instructions.
Produce substandard work.
Will use householders tools without asking.
Claims to do a low quote then will up it later on by ‘additions and extras’, he will cut corners. It will cost you more in having to redo his botched jobs.
He will treat your instructions & complaints with arrogance. Will act up, harass you, will accuse you of being a liar when substandard work is pointed out. Do not put your trust in this man.

He recently joined Checkatrade in December 2012. I would be careful even if you do use trades people from these websites.

Problem roofer: Liar, will let you down, damage your house and deny responsibility
Member of checkatrade number 153056 and on Rated people

SCM Roofing Ltd / SCM Roofing Limited
Name Mr Shaun McRonald (also known as Colin Shaun McRonald) - born 1966
Address location: 100 Wickham Avenue, Cheam, Sutton, Surrey SM3 8EA

Name: Mr Daniel Shaun McRonald (born 1994)
28 Lycoby Gardens Shirley Croydon CR07NT

SCM Roofing Ltd state that they are a member of the Confederation of Roofing Contractors

Company Registration no: 8480991 VAT Registration: 749652881
Registered office 266-268 Wickham Road, Croydon, England CR0 8BJ
Drives van licence plate SCM I and another SCM II

UTR (Unique Taxpayers Reference) number 22020 60756

SCM Roofing ordered in wrong coloured tiles and took delivery of order. Even when told it was not the right colour on delivery he still opened the pallets and used the tiles.
I was forced to accept the tiles when he implied he was going to walk off the job.

At the time he admitted his mistake when I spoke to him about the matter when he was asked to compare it to the tile sample. He then implied that he was going to walk off the job (his tirade was ‘It is turning out to be a job I don’t want to do ………. it is going to cost me £4,000 ………. I am going to end up with all these unwanted tiles in my back garden …….. they (suppliers) are not going to take them (tiles) back….. He later denied that the wrong coloured tiles was his fault, he blamed it on the suppliers. Even when he was given the actual tile sample to order, he was the one who made the order, took delivery of the order, even when informed it was not the right colour by me on seeing the delivery and it would have been possible to return the tiles. He insisted they were the right colour (his words were ‘it only looks like that because you are looking at the back of it …… it will look different on the roof!) and still went ahead and used the tiles!

Due to tight deadlines I was pressured into accepting the colour that I did not ask for. I did not have any tile coverage on my roof since SCM had stripped it all off. SCM denied their mistake afterwards; he blamed it all on the supplier.

SCM broke my telephone cable, he did not brother to inform me and left it up to me to find out why my landline was not working. I found the cable wrapped and tied to their scaffolding pole. When I asked them about it they denied it was their fault that it was hanging by the thread and came loose all by itself. Strange the landline was working perfectly before! I had to pay for BT to fit a new cable. SCM did not reimburse me.

SCM damaged my gutters which were only done 2 years ago.They were in goog working order. Even when we had almost a year of constant rain on a daily basis, there were no leaks. It only started leaking after SCM did their work. The damage became apparently when it rained and the gutter leaked badly, one was like a waterfall in heavy rain. After one attempt to fix damage caused by SCM they said it was not their fault but the fault of the previous contractors by not fixing enough brackets. Odd that was not leaking before SCM started their work. SCM also did not replace some of the brackets they ‘removed’ when they were doing the roofing works. My gutter still leaks after their so called fixing. They have refused to come back to fix their damage, saying that it was not their fault and they fixed it ‘free of charge’ once before! If they caused the damage in the first place they should rectify their damage! I have spoken to another contractor and they have informed me the brackets in place were standard fixing so what SCM said to me was not true about the previous contractors work in not putting enough brackets in place. SCM also claimed they came back out of goodwill! I had to carry out urgent repairs to the gutter due was moisture was seeping into the internal walls in the area where my new boiler was installed.

I have also noticed that one of the overhanging gutters were made too long when it was replaced by SCM (after they damaged the old one) and as it was not fixed properly it is now dropping down and eventually fell off.

SCM damaged the 80 year old yew hedge barrier, snapping the hedge trunks with the careless placing of their skip. The hedge was partly crushed under the skip. For some reason they also decided to hack away at part of it to add to the damage. SCM promised to neaten up their damage afterwards. They didn’t brother to come back to do this.

SCM also broke my garden paving by not placing supporting wood underneath the skip. They also damaged the paving by throwing rubble down as they did not use a rubbish chute. Now the front drive will have to be repair. I did not discover this until the rubbish they left behind was cleared.

SCM gave me a sob story to get me to pay him in full even when the work was not completed and there were snagging to resolve. He said his father died a week before of a heart attack and he was desperate for funds for the funeral. I felt sorry for him, I did not want to cause any undue hardship to him and paid him on the basis of trusting him to return to do the rest of the work that he gave me his word to do. He refused to let me hold on to a retainer, saying again and again that he ‘was a man of his word’ …. Afterwards when I tried to get hold of him he kept giving excuse after excuse on why he could not come to do the work. He gave me five appointment dates, each time it was a no show, and he did not brother to keep me informed either. It became harder and harder to get hold of him. In the end he would cut off my call or put the phone the down on me. On two occasions he deliberately cut me off twice mid conversation when I was trying to speak. It was difficult to hold any conversation as he would constantly talk over you. This went on from July to October 2013. The period where SCM claimed I did not inform them of any problems. My telephone/text records will show that I have contacted and tried to contact them over this period.

After I complained on Checkatrade (unfortunately I was only given limited space I was only able to summarise my complaint) SCM lied saying that I happily paid him in full after 5 weeks of completing the roof!

This is a lie as he invoiced me a day after laying the final tile. I have evidence and witnesses can testify to this, I have had two neighbours asking me whether I was aware there was a patch bare of tiles on my roof!

I asked him politely time and time again to do the snaggings, he kept making appointments but did not show up each time, this happened on five occasions.

He invoiced me and asked for money after one day of putting the last tiles on my roof, which was left bare as he said he was waiting for more tiles to come. This can be confirmed by my neighbours and witnesses. He lied and denied he ordered in the wrong coloured tiles and blamed on the supplier. The letter from the supplier states SCM was also at fault for the incorrect order. He conveniently left out that he would walk off the job if I did not take the tiles as it was.

He lied and claimed the gutter damage was due to the lack of sufficient gutter brackets by the previous contractors. This was shown to be a lie after checking with another contractor. He lied and claimed he was being helpful and that he was fixing the gutter free of charge on two occasions! He turned up only once, without any warning, it was only by chance that I was at home. The gutter and hedge damage was caused by him so he should fix the damage he was responsible for. He lied about laying my insulation free of charge; he did not do it as a favour to me! It was part of the roofing works that was agreed.

The work done by SCM was ok the main thing is that it did not leak apart from the gutter … to date. There are many nails that can be seen sticking out from the underside of the roof where they have missed the roof beam. There were minor damages to the roofing beams. They left rubbish behind which I had to clear up.

SCM was given three full cans and a half a can of five litres of Cuprinol 5 star complete wood treatment for treating the roof timber. I found out afterwards they only splashed the half can around and took the other three cans away.

Do not trust what SCM claims and tell you. Do not pay up in full to SCM unless you have all works done and snaggings rectified regardless of whatever sob story they tell you. Make sure you leave a sufficient period after checking before making full payment. As I did not find out about the damage to my gutters until it rained.

Terrible builders and even worse people!! Buyer Beware! I bought a brand new house that cost best part of £300k from Yateley Construction 2 weeks ago and what a horrible experience! The moment we moved in we had issues – the finish on the house was awful and the after sales service non-existent – once they got their money, Sally Trendal from Yateley Construction hid behind the Estate Agent an her tone was rude, obnoxious and behaved in the most unprofessional manner I have ever experienced – worse than a dodgy second hand car dealer! Day 1 – The boiler was not working in the house Day 3 – Got the boiler working with no help from Yateley Construction only to have a shower and s deluge of water flooded into the lounge Things got worse from there – I am married and have a small child – some of the following will shock you as how Cowboy Builders like this get away with cutting corners – an employee of theirs even told me that Yateley Construction is notorious for cutting corners - issues like 1. The oven had not been screwed in and was loose – when we pulled the door open the whole oven nearly collapsed on my wife! 2. The extractor fan in the kitchen makes a noise as if there is something stuck in it – its brand new so can’t imagine what is rattling around inside 3. Washing machine is very noisy, the rubber band inside the machine is where the noise is coming from and the whole thing shakes violently when in use - the whole kitchen moves when the machine is on spin and the doors are getting loose! 4. The Sealant around the bath tub is almost none existent and where there is sealant it does not do the job its supposed too – it’s very bad in there 5. Where the deluge of water came down from the shower tray last week it has stained the walls and some of it needs to be repainted 6. Big area not painted around the smoke alarm on the ceiling on the first floor – it’s just been left 7. Again the sealant around the kitchen sink and work top area is non-existent or badly done and water is leaking and impeding the wood - the laminate on top of the wood is lifting because of the water and air that has got underneath the worktop - worktop is already damaged after only 4 days of use!! 8. Fan in the downstairs toilet does not work – I have tried to change fuses but still doesn’t work There seems to be an issue with the sealant in the whole house – all bathrooms and kitchen have been done very badly and as a result water is leaking everywhere – its causing water leakage and damage throughout the property! 1. Gas was not getting to the hobs – I had British Gas come to house and turn on the gas from the mains behind the oven – the British Gas engineer noticed the oven was not screwed in and said that’s very dangerous 2. The Washing machine plug was left behind the units – we had to fish the plug out in order to get it to work 3. Although the water pipes to the washing machine and dishwasher were attached they were not tightened resulting in water leakage in the kitchen. 4. The ladder going up to the loft – the bolts were not fastened and actually came loose as I walked up the ladders – I nearly fell to the side and would have ended up falling down the stairs had I not got my balance I complained through the estate agent and Sally Trendell's response basically consisted off - So what if there are issues, talk to our lawyers! Yateley Construction have claimed that I had plenty of time to raise these issues however without having a shower and washing clothes and cooking food in there before moving in I wouldn't have known these things. After spending all that money with them - all they had to do was send someone round for half a day to fix the issues but they didn't want to do that!! I learnt a lot of lessons by buying this house from Yateley Construction - please do not make the same mistake that I did - its a lot of money to play Russian roulette with!!!

Hello All,
Just to let you know of two terrible builders that call themselves Chic Construction(31 Pollton Cottages,Lasswade, Edinburgh,EH181JT).
I thought that by emplying two females that I would get a better standard of work. Totally wrong in every way. They turn up late, leave early. The standard of work is really really poor.
They are also dishonest,take ages to give a quote. Then when you do get a quote they add extra on at the end because they forgot about the extras.
They also lie about everything even thought they have been caught in the act of doing something wrong.
My advice stay well clear of this cowgirl outfit.

warning. Ultimate tradesmen Ltd in Edinburgh are an awful company.