What would you do?

Emmzi

I'd take it on the chin as my reward for employing tax evaders and employ a proper tradesman to put it right.

hollydays

Optimist wrote: »

Harsh but true...

Agreed.I guess you were expecting a lower cost job because he was moonlighting.

olias

Surely as a wheelchair user you must be aware that you can get grants to adapt your home for wheelchair accessability. You would also presumably have DLA, the mobility component of is provided for extra expense incurred due to your decreased mobility - such as paying a proper tradesman to do a proper job.

Bearing this in mind, if you chose to employ an unqualified and unexperienced benefit cheat to do the work, then you only have yourself to blame. Learn from your mistake and move on.

Olias

WhiteHorse

speedy2056 wrote: »

He's even working on boilers! [...] If they screw up a concrete drive, I dread to think what potential problems they can cause with boilers!

Bad workmanship on boilers kills people. Report him to Gas Safe at once.

Oh, and I would hope that your 'mate' is now an ex mate. He's a first class scumbag.

ukjoel

Concrete a drive for £300.

Thats the point at which I would have said no. If its too good to be true it usually is.

dexter_fan

We are currently getting our drive down at the mo. Our cheapest quality quote is £1700. You also need planning permission to install a drive, plus the cost to the Council to drop the curb. In addition, since Oct 08, all driveways etc need to be made of permeable materials to soak away rainwater. So on all counts, your driveway sounds illegal! This in addition to the comments above re: tax and benefit issues.

Sorry you've found out the hard way

Freddie_Snowbits

If the drive was perfect, would you say the friend has a wife and child and is claiming JSA?

I am afraid in this case, OP is part of their own downfall. They wanted it cheap and ...

speedy2056

KimYeovil wrote: »

You deliberately engaged the services of someone you knew to be a thief. You were prepared to knowingly pay money to a thief. You now turn round all innocent acting surprised that not only is he a thief but he is an incompetent worker.

It seems you would have been perfectly happy to be party to this corruption if the work was up to scratch. Why should anyone have sympathy for you?

Sympathy? No, I am asking for advice but not sympathy.

As for your word "thief", who are you referring to, exactly? "The boss"?

No, I never knew much about the guy and didn't "knowingly" engage in the services of a thief until the work was done and I got more information about him.

However, I have not pretended that I have not made a mistake, I fully admit this.

So what is your point?

As for his working while on JSA, ignorance is in our nature and we all don't normally involve ourselves in certain situations until they affect us individually.

Take Christopher Reeve, for example.

He did not give a damn about spinal injury patients until he had an accident involving an injured spine, himself, and only then did he decide to act in the best interests of himself and, supposedly, others in the same situation.

Yes, ignorance is very much in our nature.

His working on JSA is not my business, still actually isn't, but like any human being feeling normal emotions, I will turn that around on him and may get myself involved with that if they don't cough up.

I stress the word "may" because, as the last poster rightfully said, the cheap quote was my downfall and I may just simply leave it and learn from it.

I guess I'm lucky enough to have got half back but the reason for wanting all of it back is not just because of the screw up regarding my drive, it is also about the mess made on it, which is still there, I may add.

Anyway, "You pay cheap, you pay twice" as they say.

maxmycardagain

I love watching "cowboy builders" on TV with damien littlewood, heres the plot:-

family with a property want it doubled in size/value
said family get 3 or more quotes
said family always take lowest quote at about half the cost of the next dearest
said family hand over £10-£30K

builder puts scaffolding up.............and vanishes

shows builder does the work after protesting its impossible

woman presenter begs freebie furnishings off shops

family return to a much-improved and fully decorated/furnished property


its getting boring now though

oh, and damien has fun driving round looking for the (richer) builder

pmduk

His working whilst on JSA is everybody's business. Who do you think pays for his JSA?

Him stealing money from the benefit "pot" makes it more difficult for genuine claimants who get stuck with the scrounger label.