Cowboy Builders - Website created to name and shame!

149mainroad

We too have been victims of cowboy builders after retiring this year to the quiet rural Essex village Great Yeldham and its friendly community - in a new build by a cowboy builder with a worthless guarantee from NHBC, which only applies to the first buyer from new and is not transferrable even if you sold it next day.
More recent is a local builder in the next village mistakenly recommended to us whereupon I employed him to convert half our garage into a utility room for our washing machine, drier, freezer and a sink, as his initial quotes were very reasonable.
It's true I allowed myself to be persuaded to let him do the job his way rather than how I originally wanted it; but the cost was now escalating to a final £6.500, well over what I expected for a garage utility room which many people spend only a few hundred on; and I thought his way might lower his final cost.
Initially impressed with his first two stages of the work - two doors and a partition at £300 each; I gradually became unimpressed with his work but foolishly allowed him to complete the job rather than leaving it half done; since as was in my mind right from my first disappointment, I would eventually redo the job the way I originally wanted. This of course upset him. Among his untidy work and snags, all of which I ignored, I just asked him to correct the most obvious crooked wall reveal, which would be painful for my arthritic hands. I also asked him to help negotiate with his plumber to make some amends to me for plumbing leaks. He did not respond to email or phone messages, and seemingly changed his contact details.
The builder had sub contracted the plumbing. Again, it is true that I reluctantly allowed myself to be persuaded for the plumbing to be done not as I wanted.
All the plumbing and the tumble drier spiral flexible plastic duct, which I would never have used in my plumbing days, was buried round tight bends in cavity walls and across the ceiling; when it would have been sensible and cheaper in a garage/utility room where supplies were in the same room and could have run behind kitchen units as is usual domestic or catering industry practice.
He initially connected our expensive new Miele washing machine to the hot water when it only had a cold water inlet. It also had a sediment filter which requires a downward orientation to be effective, but he aligned it horizontally! He returned to swap it to the cold water, but left the filter still incorrectly horizontal, which would invalidate Miele's generous guarantee.
He also rather oddly took the hot water from along the garage utility room ceiling void where the pipes went into the house; when it would have been taken from the hot water supply cylinder in the utility room along from behind the sink unit cabinet.
A leak from the cold water main to the sink and washing machine spread under the whole flooring to both ends. After making five unsuccessful attempts to correct this leak, including not shutting off a tap in the shower room upstairs when turning the main back on and which flooded down to electrical fittings on the ceiling below; I told him that I would redo all the plumbing myself on the surface under the sink unit and merely asked him to pay the cost of only the extra fittings and pipe necessary to correct that fitted by him.
He left to get these fittings but phoned from the suppliers that it was too expensive and that he would rather come back yet again to fix the leak. I said that there was no point trying to fix the leak yet again and that I would do it all myself.
Neither the builder nor his plumber were good enough or even man enough to respond to my reasonable requests to resolve these two issues - crooked reveal and plumbing leak, even with my unrealistic threat to take the issues to small claims court, as they probably realised that the small amount for a few plumbing fittings would obviously not be worth my cost, even though I would win.
So I let the matter rest and did the plumbing myself and rearranged the utility room the way I originally wanted it.
It would normally be very difficult to con me as I started work in 1959 as an apprenticed electrician on building sites in the bombed out East End of London. In those days we all took great pride in our work
I mistakenly trusted builders who were members of trade organisations such as FMB (Federation of Master Builders) and NHBC (National House Building Council), who in my opinion are just clubs for cowboy builders - what's that about the piper and his tune - pay a subscription, supply three references - mother, cousin, and that nice lady up the road, and you can display their impressive logo on your van and paperwork and con lots of people.
We have been caught well and truly. NHBC mostly seem to side with their builder member - something about the piper and the tune?
Trouble is that unlike gas and electrics, builders in UK are completely unregulated. In Australia and NZ, for example, you have to be registered by law, and like a UK doctor with the BMA, you are struck off after complaints and not allowed to be a builder.
Indeed, Gas Safe (CORGI) and Part P 17th Edition for plumbers and electricians, only came about when large DIY stores became mainstream and these trades were losing business; they lobbied parliament to put rules in place that you had to be certificated. But this does nothing for customers. Unlike a faulty radio or rotten tin of beans, a newly built house is not covered by the Sale or Goods and Services Act and you have absolutely no protection under any law.
We desperately need a campaign to pressurise for seriously tight regulation in this country to cut cowboy builders out of being able to trade.
Postscript: The plumber has knocked on our door ranting and raving about naming and shaming him and the builder in this post on a site for naming and shaming cowboy builders, and threatened me to remove this post in two days. My initial response was: "fine", if the forum moderator, the site owner, or the complainant's lawyer can show that I have done something illegal, I will completely remove this post. However, it is only because he has frightened my wife that I have edited their names out.
With cowboy builders getting the most complaints and hopefully the first to fall foul of an unsustainable socio-economic climate, they are shivering.
But I hope my post will help others see what can happen even to an experienced and principled construction worker. Please refer to the advice how to avoid being caught by cowboys.
I have been an independent journalist for the past 32 years and if anyone near Great Yeldham here wants to know the builder' and plumber's names more please private message me.

catlover13

Please reply if had any work carried out by a company called
M Bros Property Services, (text removed by MSE forum Team) they live in the Croydon area and did work in Ewell, Kingston upon Thames.
Thanks

Ardent1000

Avoid WeatherAll (NE) like the plague.

The company operates in the Ponteland/Newcastle/Northumberland and Durham areas. :mad:

The owner and Director (text removed by MSE forum Team) is a real piece of work and his companies workmanship is terrible. :mad:

WeatherAll (NE) are among the worst builders I have come across. The owner (text removed by MSE forum Team) ended up trying to intimidate my dad who is in his 70's after making the worst jobs I have ever seen in my life. His company even walked off the job once they had taken a sufficient amount of my parents money on 28th July 2014, leaving an awful unfinished dangerous mess.

We later found out from Trading Standards that he wasn't even VAT registered yet he charged us 20% VAT.

The only time you see (text removed by MSE forum Team) is when he is trying to extract money out of people.

In terms of my parents job he just used cheap subcontractors, cheap materials and cheap hired equipment, whilst I have never actually witnessed him getting his own hands dirty. My poor parents are now having to pay a reputable builder to repair the original poor work, so are having to pay twice. The reputable builder even stated that it was the worst work he had seen in all his years in the trade, as did a second builder we also had take a look and give us an estimate. Indeed he was so horrified he even offered to write a report with regard to the poor workmanship, poor materials and numerous faults.

Trading Standards told both his salesman (verbally) and owner (text removed by MSE forum Team) (via letter) to give my parents their money back including £1,376 VAT, whilst the police who came out to visit my parents agreed that what he had done constituted Fraud and I should imagine the VAT people will be wanting their money back from numerous other previous jobs which by all accounts run in to many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Furthermore most of his transactions are on a cash basis, which makes me wonder if he hasn't paid VAT since his present company was set up on the 11th June 2013, does this man even keep reliable books in relation to income tax, VAT and National Insurance.

Every time you mention this man and his companies to the authorities, the first thing they say is that he's well known to us. Indeed the Director of the company has previous unpaid CCJ's if you care to check on-line.

Luckily my dad is one of five brothers and my mum also comes from a large family so the word has been spread far and wide. My Dad has also spread the word at the local Golf Club and across the area I live in. My sister was also horrified by the mes left by WeatherAll as was her husband as well as other family members.

Take my advice and steer well clear of WeatherAll and (text removed by MSE forum Team) who is total cowboy, who drives around in his girlfriends black range rover but has very little in the way of assets himself according to Trading Standards.

You will know (text removed by MSE forum Team) if you see him, as he's a smarmy and slimy type of individual, he also sometimes employs a fat salesman called (text removed by MSE forum Team).

Previous companies owned by this individual include WeatherAll Home Improvements at (text removed by MSE forum Team), North East Home Improvements at (text removed by MSE forum Team), North East Building Solutions which has an address at (text removed by MSE forum Team) based BSG, and his latest company WeatherAll (NE) which is (text removed by MSE forum Team) based.

(Text removed by MSE forum Team) companies have a nasty habit of going belly up after a year or two and he constantly tries to get more money up front out of customers.

Whilst (text removed by MSE forum Team) both have a history and were both Directors at BSG Contractors Limited with (text removed by MSE forum Team) having further building companies in relation to Angel Home Developments Limited which a month after being dissolved became Angel Home Improvements Limited before itself later being dissolved.

WeatherAll are currently Ponteland based and operate in Northumberland and the North East of England.

(text removed by MSE forum Team)

You have been warned.

Any complaints about (text removed by MSE forum Team) WeatherAll or their subcontractors should be made straight to Northumberland Trading Standards, Northumbria Police/Durham Constabulary, HMRC and other such authorities.


:mad:

iso_exposed

Good for you l have done one also on the cowboys that we had a terrible experience with can't get the webs site names here being new ! but if you in put the two together you will come with the web address .iso-property-developers-Worcester.com/

Pobby

Another cowboy, this time operating in Plymouth. James Harris operating as Pilgrim Property Maintenance. We responded to a leaflet drop. Muggins here was taken in by all his claims of past work.

We paid out well over £1,000 for roofing repairs. Bit hard to check out the quality of work . Just been told that a cheap temporary repair has been made. Anyway, like fools we gave him money for a front door, a back door and 2 windows. Subsequently we found out that the front door order had his signature on the purchase order but no money had been paid. He had fobbed us off that the late delivery of the door was due to the original had to be sent back and reordered.

He also conned us out of some up front labour charges. Yes, very silly of me, however I did it.

It all came clear when he failed to show for a number of days. Mobile went to messages. I then found out about the door. Called at his false address.

In tracking down a former employer of his I was told that there had been a number of complaints that deposits had been paid with nothing to show for it. Indeed, his employer sacked him for poor work.

The police and trading standards are aware.

Pobby

Take your point regarding whether these accusations are true or not. For my part they are totally true. However, having reported this to both the police and trading standards, they have not been back in touch.

Don`t want to pull the sickness card but I am going to. I retired early due to poor mental health, thank the Lord it has much improved. 2 major ops this year and the bloke new this by conversation.

The time has come to pull the " old age pensioners conned out of money " card with the local press. We can take the hit but imagine that he does this to others that can`t.

canbo123

Gerimurphy, you call the plumber useless but then rant on about the builder instead. If this is the (text removed by MSE forum Team) plumber (Pilkington Plumbers) I've used and recommended to others, I completely disagree with you. Everyone I know who has used his services has found him helpful, considerate, professional and entirely trustworthy. His prices are reasonable, he hasn't charged call-outs, and he is prompt, quick and good. He comes back quickly if the problem is not resolved straight away and if it is outside his expertise (e.g. a manufacturer) he hasn't charged us and has refers us to someone who can. I do not believe your sweeping statement is reasonable and am going to carry on using him and recommending him to others.

mickaveli2001

Website isn't working for me. Is it down?

149mainroad

This being a forum to name and shame cowboy traders, have any users found themselves threatened by the trader they posted about?
I ask because this has happened to us.
I come from London's East End, where the door man at the snooker club would ask if you are carrying any weapons, if you said no he would ask do you want a gun or a knife! So I don't feel threatened. But my wife felt frightened, so I removed the names from my post.
But on a forum to name and shame cowboy builders and in a country that screams freedom and democracy at you from the rooftops and praises freedom of speech, unless you slander someone; I wonder what legal experiences fellow users have had with this?

Neil2015_2

Essex, be aware of (text removed by MSE forum Team), Marks Tey. He is just a dishonest bully
House-and-Home-Improvements/1587664508120452?ref=br_rs

Address: Clear Cut Conservatories

(Text removed by MSE forum Team)