Ripped off By Builder

V8Tej

Hello,

New here so here is a quick explanation of what has happened.

I had a drop kerb installed and driveway block paved by a company named Sharmac Construction. The owner (John Sharkey) will tell you he is authorised to carry out drop kerbs by the council (slough in this case). It appears he is not and has resulted in me being £4000 out of pocket. John Sharkey now doesn't answer my calls and just hangs up if I phone from another phone. I now have a driveway that I can't use and the council chasing me for money I don't have as paid it to Sharmac.

What is worse about this situation is that the council's Highways chap actually saw Sharmac doing the work and let them continue after 'some discussion'. I was at work so didn't see this first hand but my wife did. The council are now saying that our chap did not authorise anything so pay up. My word against his. I would not be that foolish to just ignore them and spend all this money. 4 weeks after the work was completed the council returned and reversed the drop kerb. This wouldn't be as much of an issue but the kerb is a double one so I can not even drive over it to get to my driveway. I get on with my neighbour so have some access from their kerb but it's not ideal.

I am worried that I will be taken to court and have been involved in various correspondence with the council trying to explain the situation. They want £1800 to cover the work to reverse it and then a further £1800 if I want it re-installed.

Has anyone had anything similar and do I have a leg to stand on?:(

maninthestreet

Did you submit one of these applications to the council? :

http://www.slough.gov.uk/documents/VehicularCrossingApplic.pdf

V8Tej

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

I initially applied for this crossing in 2009. I was then fed all sorts of excuses as to why I couldn't have a drop kerb (from the council) and I challenged their generally irrelevant excuses right away. After arguing with them for about 6 months they finally agreed that I could suddenly have a drop kerb installed and that it would cost me £1800. We were in the middle of other projects and then my wife fell pregnant and so this driveway project of mine came to a halt. One of my neighbours (who had also been fed strange excuses as to why he could not have a drop kerb installed) informed me of a construction firm who deals with the council and can do the work. He had his kerb dropped (which still stands today) and driveway paved which looked really good. I then contacted the firm in question (Sharmac) and the owner of the company came to visit me in April this year and explained I had nothing to worry about regarding the council and he could do the work. I asked him on several occasions about the council issue and everytime he assured me there was nothing to worry about.

While he was doing the work to the kerb (driveway was now block paved) members of Slough council turned up with their own contractor and demanded to know what was going on. They spoke with Sharmac, who they had stopped from working further initially, and then left after some discussion. One of the employees from the council told Sharmac that although they can not do the work normally, they should install the kerb stones and then the council contractor would return later on the day and lay the tarmac to finish the job. The owner of Sharmac was on the phone to me at the time and informed of all this in real time. I assumed this was so that there would be some record of my drop kerb at the council office due to their 'official' contractor being involved in the job. My thoughts were confirmed a few weeks ago when I spoke with one of the council engineers who agreed with me but also said that due to lack of communication at their end, the turd has hit the fan. What really happened is that no one from the council's contractor arrived and after a few days Sharmac returned and said he will do the job as there seems to be some confusion with the council. By this point I knew the council had seen the work in progress and possibly they gave Sharmac a 'ticking off' (I assume) but the work was allowed to progress so I thought nothing of it.

I was happily using my driveway for over 4 weeks when one day my wife phones me at work to inform me that the council's contractor is reversing the work!!! Her car was on the drive at the time and she was delayed taking our 3 month old baby for her jabs (but that's another story).

Since then (about middle of June) I have been arguing with the council about the situation but am now getting fed up. They keep on saying that our chap didn't authorise anything, he simply told Sharmac to make the area safe and that the council's contractor would deal with it. The complaint has now what they call 'level 3' and is being dealt with by various directors at the council. The story doesn't add up as why would the council (and their contractor) leave the site when they rushed there quickly as a result of a report from a neighbour. Why would they just leave Sharmac doing the work? Surely if it was illegal they would have wanted to rectify it there and then, especially if their own work force was present? This is the point I am arguing with the council as this is what points to their employee giving Sharmac the go ahead. They want £1800 for the reversal work (threatening with debt collectors etc.) and then another £1800 if I want it reinstated. I had to apply for a quotation again in order for the kerb to be lowered again, and this time had to fill in the form that appears in your link above, but didn't have to last time as it's apparently a new procedure. I also paid £65 for this service and received the quotation. It does say at the end of the quotation that only Slough Enterprise (their contractor) is authorised to do the work and this was apparently on any previous quotations that I would have been sent in 2009.

I then thought that I would go ahead with the kerb being lowered again and would dispute the other sum for reversal as that will take time. It then occurred to me that the council will probably use my £1800 for the payment I am disputing as it goes to the same account. Can they do that? I asked them this question a few weeks ago by e-mail but received no response which made me suspicious.

browneyedbazzi

It does sound like this wasn't handled particularly well by the council (in my opinion, rather than re-instating the original kerb then giving you the offer to pay again to have it dropped, they should have dug up the wrong drop kerb and put it right, leaving you with a correct vehicle crossing and only one charge - although that might have been more than £1800 depending on what damage the builder caused).

That being said, I think you should be pursuing the builder who knowingly installed the illegal drop kerb, perhaps with the help of trading standards because he's committed a fraud if he told you he was authorised to work on the highway when he wasn't.

I know a lot of people think that council rules about who can install drop kerbs etc are daft but there are really good reasons why the rules are in place. Incorrectly installed vehicle crossings (or people bumping up a kerb and driving over a footpath that doesn't have a proper crossing) can cause real damage to the service that run under it. Proper crossings are done to a recognised standard that includes reinforcement to protect the services that are underneath. A regular footpath or a dodgy tarmac job from a builder really isn't fit to withstand the stress of vehicles driving over.

V8Tej

The work that was done to the kerb by Sharmac construction was actually very good. It wasn't done in a cowboy fashion (I am an automotive engineer and generally do most of the work on my house myself) so I had no issues with that.

If anything, the council's contractor doesn't do as good a job from all the crossings I've seen them install. My builder also showed me how there had to be certain heights/standards that had to be adhered to which the council themselves are just ignoring! So basically I had no issue with the quality of the work.

The footpath infront of my house is already of a tarmac design and has nothing under it that will be damaged by a car crossing it. I know that when/if the council install the kerb they will not be altering the footpath at all. This was a question I raised with one of the council engineers when he came to my house.

But you are correct that it was handled badly by the council.

The contractor I used is now saying that the council authorised me to do the work so any 'beef' I have should be with the council and not him!!