Getting money back from cowboy builders

MatyMoo

KillerWatt wrote: »

Been off the forums for a bit for various reasons, but did get to see the show (quite surprised I ended up with a speaking part though).

Had a spare hour to kill so I've converted & uploaded it for those that want to download it.
It is a 460MB download, so those afflicted with an ISP that doesn't know the true meaning of the word "unlimited" may want to think twice before downloading.

You can get it >HERE<

PS
To the well wishers (you know who you are)....many thanks.

Princess Sparkles - Don't miss out - Download from here thanks to the amazing KillerWatt

psychopathbabble

I too have yet to send my email but I will do!!

Hope everyone is well x

miggy

Plenty to think about there Big Mac! I can see this has captured your imagination nearly as well as Dungeons and Dragons.

Big_Mac_TMMM wrote: »

It seems to me that this sort of thing is a "risk" and that there should be some sort of mandatory "insurance" to protect people from this "risk". Drivers have to have insurance that covers other people they might crash into. I think that builders carrying out major projects should have insurance to cover people that get left in the lurch if they go out of business or default on a job.

And I think that insurance alone, will not help, as cowboys will probably not take it out. So I think it needs to be compulsory insurance and it needs to be a criminal offence to start a big construction project without cover. Driving without insurance is an offence. I think it should be treated similar to that...

I also think that there needs to be a compensation fund to help out people who get stung by the people who are not covered.

Like ABTA, but you get your house back instead of a return flight from Cancun?
Nice idea. :T
I think it should also apply to plumbers, electricians, joiners and anyone else employed in the building trade.

Big_Mac_TMMM

miggy wrote: »

Plenty to think about there Big Mac! I can see this has captured your imagination nearly as well as Dungeons and Dragons.

Nothing can capture my imagination as well as Dungeons and Dragons! (I am not "top spammer" at a D&D forum for nowt.) :rotfl:

miggy wrote: »

Like ABTA, but you get your house back instead of a return flight from Cancun?
Nice idea. :T
I think it should also apply to plumbers, electricians, joiners and anyone else employed in the building trade.

Yep. It would be exactly like ABTA.

I would say it would apply to everyone in the building trade, but given the cost of covering things and dealing with claims, it may only be viable to cover work that is on the large scale (i.e. trying to regulate a plumber changing washers for £95.00 might be something that was logistically impossible, but trying to regulate a plumber that was installing a central heating system for £1,500 could be more viable). (I'd prefer a scheme with an excess*, rather than a policy limit**.)

* = For anyone who doesn't know, an excess is an initial amount of cash that you are not covered for. So maybe you have to pay the first £500.00 and the scheme pays the rest.

** = For anyone who doesn't know, a policy limit is the top amount you can claim. So maybe the scheme might only pay for costs up to £1,000,000.

The argument for an excess would be that if you let people claim for the tiniest things, the scheme would collapse under administration. The argument for a policy limit would be that rich people could afford to take out private insurance to cover really big building projects. An Underwriter would need to look at the scheme to work out the limits needed to make it work, but in principle, I think it is as viable as any other scheme that protects people.

The government dumped the Construction Industry Scheme on everyone in the building trade (to try to stop them from doing work for cash in hand IIRC), so they could quite easily apply something like this universally. The big question is do they really want to get rid of cowboy builders, or do they just want to sound like they are doing stuff, without actually doing stuff?

lisawaters

OK that's four days of my life reading this post! Good thoughts all of them. There's a 'yes but' to some of them. Lazy reply in capitals below...

Big_Mac_TMMM wrote: »

I've got a couple of unsolicited suggestions for Mike:

DIY SOS download: It is always hard to find posts in the middle of threads, as they vanish into the past. I would suggest that you go back to your first post in this thread, edit it and then add something like:

"EDIT: If you want to see the episode of DIY SOS, please see this post for details."

And you could either link to the post from the words "this post" or post the link to that post, after that sentence. (Just in case you have never noticed, every post number on the forum, is a link specifically to that exact post. This means that if you want to link to the post with the download from other places, like Facebook, you can click it and copy the address from your browser. If you really want to be clever, you can also right click the numbers, to grab the URL.)

Facebook: Maybe you could create a "Paul Bridle wrecked my house" page on Facebook, and post some of the photos of how bad your house was. That way, if anyone Google's his name, they might find your page* and avoid dealing with him. If there was a page like that, people could "Like" the page and "Suggest" the page to all of their UK friends.

* = Assuming that Facebook doesn't delete the page.

I DON'T USE FACEBOOK PERSONALLY SO DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS WORKABLE. THERE IS AN ISSUE AS TO WHETHER I SHOULD LEGALLY PREVENT HIM FROM CARRYING OUT HIS JOB. IT'S ALSO IN MY INTEREST AND IN THE OTHER CREDITORS' THAT HE WORKS AND HAS MONEY TO REPAY US, ALTHOUGH HE PROBABLY WOULDN'T. HE WON'T GO AWAY OR OTHERS LIKE HIM AND I THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER TO USE THIS AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU HAVE NO SUPPORT IF SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS.

Getting legal help: If you can't find lawyers to help, have you considered legal students? There are a number of universities where people go to study law, and if you can get someone to put an advert on the student's noticeboard, perhaps some students might get in touch with you. Just looking in London I see The City Law School and the School of Law at Queen Mary: University of London. There must be a ton of other legal schools in the South East. Every one is a place, where you might be able to find a friendly student. (Even if students can't afford to do things totally for free, you might be able to find some non-cash way to pay for their time. With student fees set to rise, you might even be able to rescue a trainee lawyer, who needs money saving help.)

I LIKE THIS IDEA, BUT I TRIED TO GET BUILDING APPRENTICES TO USE THE HOUSE TO PRACTICE ON. THE COLLEGES WOULDN'T PLAY BECAUSE OF HEALTH AND SAFETY RULES ON PREMISES. EVEN STUDENTS WOULD EXPECT TO BE PAID AND I AM SKINT. REALLY SKINT.

Teaming up with other people ripped off by Paul: You mentioned that Paul has at least one other CCJ and thought there were more. Have you considered trying to hook up with the other people Paul has ripped off? If you can locate these people, you can compare notes and see if any one of you can identify an angle that the rest of you can use to chase him.

For example, if your case is not the only occasion where Paul has "hidden behind his wife's skirts" you might be able to gather enough proof to start some sort of joint-action between everyone who is owed money and the pair of them. Maybe if one person with a CCJ can get her on the stand and ask her about the cash her husband has been paying her, that might help remove her future ability to claim that she is not involved with what he has been doing.

I HAVE SPOKEN TO SEVERAL OF THE OTHER PEOPLE WITH CCJS AND CHARGING ORDERS. ASSUMING HE HAS ONLY THE ASSETS WE KNOW OF, MOST HAVEN'T A CHANCE OF BEING PAID EVEN IF HE SELLS HIS HOUSE. THE TWO FIRST IN LINE CREDITORS WOULD SHARE PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE AMOUNT. THERE COULD ALSO BE VAT AND TAX CLAIMS AGAINST HIM. I CAN'T SAY ANY MORE ABOUT THIS SUGGESTION AS THERE WILL BE A FURTHER CASE SOON.


(I don't really look for this sort of thing in the press, but I wonder if your case was reported in the local papers in your area. And if it was, I wonder if other cases were reported in local papers in the areas where Paul was operating. Maybe someone on the MSE forums knows how to dig out old stories from newspaper archives.)

NOT ONE NEWSPAPER HAS NAMED HIM DESPITE THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF THE CCJ. THEY HAVE TO HAVE BEEN AT THE COURT HEARING IN PERSON TO REPORT IT AND CAN'T RELY ON ANYONE ELSE'S ACCOUNT. THE ONE SHOW IN FEBRUARY NAMED HIM AND GAVE HIM A RIGHT OF REPLY. APART FROM THAT HE CAN MAKE UP A COMPANY NAME AND USE THAT, SO NO-ONE NEED KNOW HIS REAL NAME.

Trading Standards: From what I could understand, Trading Standards refusing to pursue Paul was based on their belief that he had only ripped you off. But if he has several CCJs, then he has ripped off a number of other people too. Perhaps you could go back to Trading Standards with one or more of the others and show Trading Standards that he has moved into an area where they need to take action.

(I think one problem with Trading Standards is that they seem to be a local council service. So if Paul has been ripping off one person per county, that might not show up on their RADAR. But if you can add your support to a person ripped off in a different area, perhaps you can get another Trading Standards office to help them.)

TRADING STANDARDS HAVE CRITERIA WHICH MUST BE MET BEFORE THEY GET INTERESTED, AND EVEN THEN THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. THIS IS ONE BUILDER AND A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE. IT'S NOT DRUG TRAFFICKING OR A BUSINESS RIPPING PEOPLE OFF. THEY WON'T HANDLE CASES ABOVE A CERTAIN VALUE AND THEY NEED TO HAVE LOTS OF COMPLAINTS AND EVIDENCE. CASH JOBS ARE LESS ACCEPTABLE TOO. THEY GENERALLY WILL WRITE TO A NAUGHTY COMPANY AND ASK THEM TO STOP, AT WHICH POINT THE COMPANY INVENTS A NEW NAME AND CARRIES ON.

Present/future victims: Another possiblity, is that there may be people out there, who have been ripped off, but have not yet got to the same stage as you. I am not sure how you would search for people like that, but if people could find them, then you could share your own experience and pass advice to them, that speeds up their case. (And it would be very interesting if Paul told another judge that he had one CCJ, but the person against him could list off the names of half a dozen of you and ask the judge to take that attempt to lie in court into account.)


DIFFICULT TO FIND THEM. ALSO PEOPLE WHO ARE CONNED GENERALLY WRITE IT OFF AND DON'T ADMIT THEY WERE HAD. I COULDN'T USE EVIDENCE IN A CASE UNLESS IT WAS A JOINT CASE AGAINST HIM. THE JUDGES MAY KNOW HE'S AN AXE MURDERER BUT UNLESS IT'S PART OF YOUR CASE, THAT'S NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. THE OTHER BIG PROBLEM IS THAT THIS TYPE OF ARGUMENT IS A CIVIL MATTER AND THE POLICE, TS AND COURTS AREN'T INTERESTED. THIS IS AN AREA THAT SHOULD BE CHANGED.


Stopping people getting caught: I may be mistaken, but you seem to be suggesting that you have seen Paul trying to rip off other people. And one of the posters seemed to be suggesting that they had a close shave with Paul. If Paul is trying to do this to other people, I wonder if it would be possible to find out where he is touting for business and bombard the area with "warning: cowboy builder working in your area" leaflets that can save others from getting ripped off.

THE INFORMATION IS ANECDOTAL UNLESS THE PEOPLE INVOLVED TAKE UP A CASE AGAINST THE BUILDER. PRODUCING LEAFLETS OR PICKETING HIS HOME OR WORKPLACE COULD BE ILLEGAL AND YOU ENTER THE AREA OF SLANDER AND LIBEL.

There is only so much that can fit onto a leaflet, but if you can get something online, you could perhaps encourage people to go there for more information. Someone with the skill to do it could perhaps put some clips form the DIY SOS episode onto YouTube, and people could see the mess he made of your house.

EVEN SITES SUCH AS CHECKMARK, MY HAMMER AND SO ON DON'T PUBLICISE THE COWBOYS, WHO KEEP AWAY FROM SUCH SITES. THEY PROMOTE TRADESMEN WHOSE CUSTOMERS APPROVE OF THEM. THE PERSON WHO RECOMMENDED BRIDLE DID SO IN GOOD FAITH BASED ON EXPERIENCE OVER SEVERAL YEARS, BUT COULD NOT KNOW THAT HE HAD FINANCIAL OR MENTAL PROBLEMS THAT MADE HIM START TAKING PAYMENTS WITHOUT DOING THE WORK. THE BEST BUILDER IN BRITAIN COULD GET INTO TROUBLE AND START BEING A COWBOY DAYS AFTER COMPLETING A PERFECTLY GOOD JOB.

The book idea: I know a couple of people have suggested a book. I'm not sure if this is something you fancy doing, but having spent ages reading this thread, I think that a summarisation of it could help show what a cowboy builder (in this case Paul) can do to someone's life (in this case your life). Now that you have got your house to be habitable, if you want to think about finding a way to help cowboy builders from doing this to other people, your story could actually be a very powerful tool. All this sort of stuff is very abstract. And when stuff is in courts, I think those sort of people just see you as some sheets of paper to be argued upon. But if you want to get people mobilised, your story shows clearly that the existing law does not work and that we need some sort of regulation to prevent other people getting shafted and left in the same sort of situation as you.

A PUBLISHER MIGHT BALK AT NAMING HIM. WRITING A BOOK SOUNDS EASY BUT WOULD TAKE A LOT OF WORK. SELF PUBLISHING MIGHT FEEL LIKE REVENGE, BUT I DON'T SEE MANY PUBLISHERS TAKING IT ON. I ALSO KEPT THE IDEA AT THE BACK OF MY MIND THAT THIS DIARY SHOULD CONTAIN ALL THE INFO IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, SO IT'S THERE SHOULD I OR ANYONE ELSE EVER FEEL LIKE REWRITING IT. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE IT APPEALING TO THE ENTIRE PUBLIC?

YOU ARE CORRECT IN THE LAST SENTENCE - THE SYSTEM STINKS, BUT IN MANY WAYS THAT'S OUR OWN FAULT. WE HAVE A CULTURE OF PAYING IN ADVANCE FOR SOME WORK, OR PAYMENTS CALLED 'DEPOSITS'. MANY PEOPLE ALSO PAY CASH IN ORDER TO AVOID 20% VAT (THEORETICALLY). THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO AVOID LOSING MONEY BUT MOST BUILDERS WILL WALK AWAY UNLESS YOU PLAY BY THEIR RULES, AND IF YOU WANT YOUR SAFEGUARDS BUILT IN THE PRICE COULD DOUBLE. A £30K GARAGE EXTENSION MIGHT SUDDENLY BECOME £80K. PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS GO FOR THE CHEAPEST QUOTE OR THE BUILDER WHO CAN START EARLIEST, OR ONE WHO'S RECOMMENDED BY A FRIEND, OR EVEN IS A RELATIVE, BUT THAT IS NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE ANSWER IS, ALTHOUGH WHAT YOU SUGGEST SOUNDS WORKABLE. BUT TO MAKE THAT WORK AS AN INSURANCE BASED SYSTEM A BUILDER MIGHT HAVE TO PAY 40% OF THE COST TO A CENTRAL INSURER. COMMERCIAL BUILDERS HAVE SIMILAR SCHEMES IN PLACE AND THE NATIONAL HOUSEBUILDER SCHEME PROVIDED WITH NEW HOMES IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE, AND FEW PEOPLE WOULD SAY THAT'S PERFECT.

I'm not sure you intended to become famous, in fact you seemed like you didn't want to tell people your name a year back, but if your name and your story can become something you can use to get people to pay attention to how serious this is, you could help create a focus that other people can get behind.

(This might be pretty stressful, so you probably should think very very carefully before doing this.)

The law: It seems to me that you have tried every logical alternative. I could be wrong, but you seem pretty clued up on the situation and it seems to me that the law is broken. It is based on you using the courts against the person who ripped you off and does not do anything to help you get sorted out.

The entire situation is a chase, where you pay lawyers to chase the person who owes you cash and don't actually get your cash back unless they win.

It seems to me that this sort of thing is a "risk" and that there should be some sort of mandatory "insurance" to protect people from this "risk". Drivers have to have insurance that covers other people they might crash into. I think that builders carrying out major projects should have insurance to cover people that get left in the lurch if they go out of business or default on a job.

And I think that insurance alone, will not help, as cowboys will probably not take it out. So I think it needs to be compulsory insurance and it needs to be a criminal offence to start a big construction project without cover. Driving without insurance is an offence. I think it should be treated similar to that. (If you think about Paul has "crashed into your house" with his construction company. I don't know if he intended to rip you off, before he met you, or just got into trouble and decided to run away with your cash, but it doesn't really mater. If he "crashed into your house with a lorry", it would have been fixed by the insurance company.)

I also think that there needs to be a compensation fund to help out people who get stung by the people who are not covered. If we can have "no win no fee" companies that go out to make claims against people**, I don't see why the government could not have set up a Construction Disaster Fund, that would have paid for your house to be made habitable (if not decorated to DIY SOS quality) and then went after Paul later, to recover the costs from him (and help top up the fund for future times). I think that a fund, like that, would have allowed you to get on your feet quicker and (more importantly) be out working again faster and paying the tax you want to pay. It is kind of stupidity that the government has left it to the MSE crew and the BBC to fix you up. What the flip do we pay tax to the government for, if that government isn't there to rescue us when we need to be rescued? :mad:

** = And I think a lot of them are vultures, so don't really like them. But if someone could fix up your house and then recover the costs from the builder, you could take care of the smaller things, like painting and get on with your life.

I think that, as part of the same law, builders should need to be licensed (just like drivers) and that irresponsible builders should either loose their license or get points put onto it. If a cowboy is going around taking cash and then not doing the work, they should be banned from building. And if they continue to operate, without a license, they should go to prison. This might not stop someone stealing your cash and hiding the cash behind their wife's skirts, but I suspect that if they faced going to prison for five years, the cash might magically appear again.

(There are also the type of builders who claim people need work that they don't need and they are also a danger to the public. While some of that might be a mistake, a lot of those guys need an instant ban.)

From the other side of the coin, there are builders, who go out of business and did not intend to rip customers off. So I think that this is where the procedure of bankruptcy needs to be changed, so that companies that fold are kept going until the work can get finished or handed onto someone else.

The main thing is that, people should not be left in the lurch while lawyers shuffle around bits of paper. There should be a fast response (to do things like make buildings watertight). And there should be a slightly slower response (to work out exactly how much*** of the rest of the work is covered).

*** = If, for example, you paid a builder to install a solid-gold toilet, I'd say that you could "put up with" having a normal toilet instead. But I think that this is an area where people would need to work out where the line is drawn.

(Again, I'm not sure if you would want to stick your head up for this, or if you just need some peace and quite for a while. But you seem eager to give Paul - and maybe people like him - a well deserved kick up the Khyber. And if that is the case, maybe you could use your name for this sort of push, get it called "Mike's Law" by the press and then be the "living proof" that this is needed.)

I don't know if any of these suggestions are useful, or desirable, but feel free to use any that you want and ignore any that you don't want.

(Obviously, I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. Your mileage may vary. Contents may settle in transit. And...this poser may contain nuts. :rotfl: )

YOU'RE BEING TACTICAL HERE WITHOUT HAVING DETERMINED THE STRATEGY. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE ANSWER IS, BUT GIVEN THAT IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE CONNED, YOU HAVE TO PLAY YOUR PART BY PAYING IN ADVANCE, NOT GETTING QUOTES, USING PEOPLE WHO ARE RECOMMENDED ETC. INCREASINGLY, THE POLICE AND COURTS WILL NOT GET INVOLVED IN CIVIL MATTERS SUCH AS THIS. THERE WILL DEVELOP A NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS, ALTHOUGH THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SUFFICENT PEOPLE WILLING TO PAY CASH FOR A CHEAP JOB TO MAKE ROGUE BUILDERS ABLE TO OPERATE. THE BLACK MARKET WILL ALWAYS BE THERE. ABOVE A CERTAIN PRICE LEVEL THOUGH I CAN SEE THAT LOCAL AUTHORITIES HAVE ACCESS TO A LOT OF USEFUL INFORMATION. THEY ARE ALREADY INVOLVED IN TERMS O PLANNING AND BUILDING REGULATIONS. I THINK THE ANSWER IS FOR THEM TO SUGGEST BUILDERS WHO MAY WISH TO BE ASKED TO QUOTE. THEY COULD ALSO HOLD THE PAYMENTS IN ESCROW AND MANAGE THE BUILDER'S PERFORMANCE AND RELEASE PAYMENTS. OBVIOUSLY THIS WOULD ALL BE PAID FOR BY THE CUSTOMER.

ANY JOB REQUIRING PLANNING APPROVAL OR BUILDERS REGS (WHICH IS PRETTY WELL ALL THE BIG STUFF) WOULD THEREFORE HAVE A PROJECT MANAGER CONTROLLING THE BUILD, ALMOST ON A COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION BASIS. THIS WOULD BE GOOD FOR CONTROLLING BAD BUILDERS AND WOULD ALLOW THE COUNCIL TO NOT RECOMMEND BUILDERS WHO ARE ON THE SKIDS. AS A CUSTOMER, YOU'D GET YOUR PLANS APPROVED AND EVERYTHING WOULD BE PROJCT MANAGED OR YOU.

WHETHER YOU THINK YOU'D LIKE TO HAND CONTROL OF YOUR EXTENSION CONSTRUCTION TO AN ORGANISATION WHICH CAN'T EVEN EMPTY YOUR BINS ON THE RIGHT DAY IS ANOTHER MATTER. MAYBE THE SERVICE COULD BE OUTSOURCED. BUT CLEARLY SOLVING THE PROBLEM THIS WAY WOULD BE EXPENSIVE AFTER EVERYONE HAD THEIR CUT. BUT IT WOULD WORK. MAYBE THE IDEA OF GETTING SOME BLOKE WITH A TRANSIT AND A BUCKET OUT OF YELLOW PAGES TO REPAIR OR EXTEND YOUR PROPERTY HAS HAD ITS DAY... BUT SAY HELLO TO PAYING THE COUNCIL £10,000 FOR THE BUILDING AND ANOTHER £10,000 TO MANAGE THE WORK. WHAT EFFECT WOULD THIS HAVE ON RENTAL COSTS AND THE LONG TERM CONDITION OF HOUSING STOCK?

AT PRESENT, PROPERTY OWNERS AND LANDLORDS PAY A GUY £300 TO DO THE JOB. IF HE MESSES AROUND HE EITHER DOESN'T GET ANY MORE WORK, OR HE WAKES UP ONE MORNING AND CAN'T FIND HIS KNEE CAPS.

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE CHARGE OF PREDETERMINED FRAUD USEABLE AGAINST BUILDERS WHO BECOME EMBROILED IN PROBLEMS, RATHER THAN IT BEING A CIVIL MATTER. THAT MIGHT MEAN THE BUILDER HAD TO PROVE HIS INNOCENCE AND THAT HIS WORK AND TRADING PRACTICES STAND UP TO INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT.

THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF WAYS TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM, BUT FEW WOULD BE POPULAR WITH THE CUSTOMERS AND THE SERVICE PROVIDERS.

Tigger1000

Facebook DOESN'T allow Pages which attack individuals, so a "Paul Bridle wrecked my house" page would be taken down at the first complaint.

I like the book idea - but it's too soon. "Rags to riches" tales often do quite well, and with the TV tie-in, and the Forum, could be good. You need to have exhausted all legal angles first.

Part of what really makes this thread fascinating is the humour (just been re-reading parts of the old thread, and am still giggling over "Poo on the lawn is never a good thing.....:D" #2093 and the surrounding posts).

Another thing that is fascinating is the way you have come from rock-bottom to where you are now, having dealt with debts, successfully appealing your benefits case, got the builder named and shamed on national TV, and had your house made-over. That's quite a feat in less than a year. :beer:

Don't underestimate yourself - you are a star. :T:T:T Your depression may tell you otherwise, but you don't have to listen to it, however loudly it shouts. With your ability to write prose, a book is not beyond you, just not yet.

Tigger1000

Knew there was something else I meant to say! Forget my head next .... :D

The thought of letting my local council oversee any building work - no thanks! Some in our Planning dept are OK - but some of the others are a bit of a jobsworth. And it isn't unknown for them to cancel meetings at the last minute (like, as you pull into the car park :mad:), which would cause havoc on a building site!

lisawaters

Tigger1000 wrote: »

Facebook DOESN'T allow Pages which attack individuals, so a "Paul Bridle wrecked my house" page would be taken down at the first complaint.

I like the book idea - but it's too soon. "Rags to riches" tales often do quite well, and with the TV tie-in, and the Forum, could be good. You need to have exhausted all legal angles first.

Part of what really makes this thread fascinating is the humour (just been re-reading parts of the old thread, and am still giggling over "Poo on the lawn is never a good thing.....:D" #2093 and the surrounding posts).

Another thing that is fascinating is the way you have come from rock-bottom to where you are now, having dealt with debts, successfully appealing your benefits case, got the builder named and shamed on national TV, and had your house made-over. That's quite a feat in less than a year. :beer:

Don't underestimate yourself - you are a star. :T:T:T Your depression may tell you otherwise, but you don't have to listen to it, however loudly it shouts. With your ability to write prose, a book is not beyond you, just not yet.

Awww, aren't you lovely!

I have written three books, but they're about publishing and guides for directors and stuff. I know what goes into a book, and at the moment I'm not ready to commit to anything like that. Maybe one day.

You've made my day.

x

lisawaters

Tigger1000 wrote: »

Knew there was something else I meant to say! Forget my head next .... :D

The thought of letting my local council oversee any building work - no thanks! Some in our Planning dept are OK - but some of the others are a bit of a jobsworth. And it isn't unknown for them to cancel meetings at the last minute (like, as you pull into the car park :mad:), which would cause havoc on a building site!

They'd have to outsource it, but they have the clout to get things done. Could bring in a fair whack for them too.

Butti

Tigger1000 wrote: »

Knew there was something else I meant to say! Forget my head next .... :D

The thought of letting my local council oversee any building work - no thanks! Some in our Planning dept are OK - but some of the others are a bit of a jobsworth. And it isn't unknown for them to cancel meetings at the last minute (like, as you pull into the car park :mad:), which would cause havoc on a building site!

Maybe if you made sure you had a camera crew on site. I always knew they would send their most competent person to do Mike's house - can't afford to screw up on TV. But don't tar them all with the same brush. Some are good, some bad, maybe take advice from someone who's already dealt with them and go for a named person.

B