Rip Off Britain (2009) s07e05 Episode Script
Series 7, Episode 5
1 We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling ripped off and you contacted us in your thousands.
You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.
If I walk in somewhere and they treat me badly, then I walk and I will never go in again.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges you say are unfair.
You've paid for a service and you expect it to be the service that you've paid for.
And when you've lost out but nobody else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
As a customer, you've got to be more savvy in terms of what you're buying and make sure that it's something that you want or need, and not something that they're trying to trick you into getting.
So, whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake, we're here to find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money.
This is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain where today, once again, we're going to be drilling right down into some of those stories and problems that you've sent us here in the office.
And in particular, we're going to be looking into some truly jaw-dropping examples of building work that's left some of you with a very expensive problem to fix.
As you well know, whatever the size of the project, renovating your home can be a very stressful and extremely pricey business, and I'm afraid even when you think that you've picked out the right person for the job, someone who, on the surface, had all the right credentials, things can still go wrong and you can find yourself feeling terribly frustrated and let down.
Of course, most traders you get in will do a decent job but surprise, surprise, we'll be hearing about the ones who don't, who have left some of you, through no fault of your own, worried about how you'll ever get your home back to normal.
And as we always try to do, we'll have plenty of advice on what action to take if something similar does end up happening to you.
Coming up -- from shoddy work to abusive phone messages, how this woman's experience with two builders turned nasty.
He said to listen very, very carefully because nobody gets away with not paying his bills, and I've felt nervous about leaving the house ever since.
And what is going on in this basement? Why the couple that live here are furious that they weren't warned about it before they moved in.
I feel let down by everyone -- by the seller, by the surveyor and I'm just really angry with them both.
Extending or improving your home is one way to add both space and value to where you live.
It can be an exciting project but also very stressful, too, especially if, as still happens far more often than it should, the job doesn't turn out the way it's supposed to, and that was certainly the case for a number of customers who employed one particular firm of builders.
They describe themselves as "magical".
Well, perhaps that's because of one particular trick they like to perform.
Not just once but time and time again.
It was over-promising and under-delivering.
It was smoke and mirrors.
Magical Kitchens & Builders can make your £20,000 disappear.
Rachel and Brian O'Shaughnessy, from Birmingham, had been pretty confident when they'd first found builder Scott Devlin and his firm, Magical Kitchens & Builders, based in the West Midlands, and not to be confused with other companies with a similar name.
But now, they say the only magical thing about Scott Devlin has been his vanishing act.
It feels heartbreaking to see this as it is now because it's been like this for six months and we really wanted our kitchen, our lovely new kitchen up and running by now so that we could enjoy it.
Rachel and Brian had moved into their home in early 2014 and although it was perfectly liveable, it did need a bit of work.
The extension work that we were looking for wasn't particularly tricky.
There would be some structural work with walls coming down and supporting, but we wanted to copy the oak frame of the existing property.
They'd found Scott Devlin and Magical Kitchens & Builders on a website called mybuilder.
com, which boasts that it interviews all the traders whose ads it runs to ensure they meet the site's high standards, and Rachel and Brian were very happy with what they saw.
We were really impressed with Magical Kitchens.
They had a very good, thorough website.
There were a lot of positive reviews on mybuilder.
com with the quote, "was extremely thorough.
" And the builder also offered an integrated kitchen service, so he could do the building work and do the kitchen fitting as well.
Rachel and Brian were quoted £84,500 for the work they wanted, which included the kitchen extension and a new garden room.
It wasn't the cheapest quote, but the couple really hoped that with Magical Kitchens & Builders, they'd pulled a rabbit out of a hat.
Magical Kitchens came to the property and the individual came across as a very decent, professional builder with a long line of previous work and recommendations.
The centrepiece of the extension included a rustic timber frame, which needed to match the rest of the property.
A specialist joiner from a separate firm could only build this after the foundations and walls had been completed by Magical Kitchens & Builders, which would take around 12 weeks.
Rachel and Brian had paid a £10,000 deposit and everything started smoothly.
So smoothly in fact, that they decided to ask the company to do some further renovations as well.
When we then employed him to fit the utility for us, he quoted us an additional £6,200.
We paid our deposit and the builder confirmed that he'd ordered the utility and the units would be fitted in advance of Christmas, so that was really key to us that we were making some progress.
By the end of November, the builders had completed the basic shell of the extension.
A joiner known to the builder quoted for the timber frame.
The couple were told it would cost £35,000 with a 50% deposit to be paid upfront via Magical Kitchens & Builders.
Up to that point, he had delivered exactly what he said he would deliver, so we had no reason not to think that paying him the deposit was going to cause any issue.
Whilst the couple knew that they'd have to wait for the roof frame to be made, by now, it was Christmas and the rest of the job had stalled.
But when they contacted the company, they got no response.
He hadn't responded to a number of texts and hadn't responded to a number of voicemails that I'd left for him.
Eventually, the builder did return, promising the build would start again but that didn't happen.
The sensible side of Rachel and I kept on saying, "He can't possibly be trying to rip us off.
"Why would you do that?" Increasingly anxious, Rachel and Brian began doing a bit of digging and, to their dismay, found that the very website that had helped convince them Scott Devlin was a man to be trusted, mybuilder.
com, had now removed him from their site following negative reviews.
It said that he'd been permanently restricted from using this website.
Not only that, but Scott Devlin had been declared bankrupt, so they'd forked out £47,500 and ended up with a half-built kitchen and a building firm that had gone bust.
And when they contacted the sub-contractor supposed to be making the timber frame, there was further bad news.
I said to him, "But we actually gave the builder £16,000 on the 12th of December," and he said, "He never gave it to me, Rachel, I'm really sorry.
" Desperate to get the work finished, Rachel and Brian contacted one of the other builders who'd initially quoted for the job and he soon identified another problem, one that the couple say Magical Kitchens & Builders had promised to sort out on their behalf.
The original extension plans hadn't even been approved by the local council.
We felt quite devastated that the loss of the oak money was difficult enough to deal with, to now be faced with the prospect that the whole of the extension would have to be taken down was just a nightmare.
We've heard of other homes in the area that Magical Kitchens & Builders has left similarly unfinished.
One of their customers who didn't want to be shown on camera took us on a video tour of what was left of his home.
Come through the front door.
This is what Magical Kitchen's Scott Devlin has left us -- a bombsite.
And Laura Burford employed Magical Kitchens in September 2014.
Magical Kitchens left us in a complete mess.
We were living on a building site.
We'd e-mailed him, we'd given him a few ultimatums and just heard absolutely nothing.
He just totally disappeared.
We tried to contact Magical Kitchens & Builders, but they didn't respond to our calls or e-mails.
We also got in touch with the website mybuilder.
com.
They told us that when Magical Kitchens held an account with them, it received 76 positive reviews, but the company was removed from mybuilder.
com when it .
.
to the site's satisfaction.
mybuilder.
com went on to say that it operates Tradesmen who do not meet these high standards are removed from the site.
So, what can you do to be sure you're choosing a reputable builder who won't let you down? Well, Brian Berry from the Federation of Master Builders has some pointers to minimise the risk.
If you want to avoid employing a cowboy builder, use one that belongs to a trade association, such as the Federation of Master Builders.
Next, have a contract and make sure it doesn't tie you in to paying all the money at once.
In that contract, you should have scheduled payments, so you only pay for the amount of work that has been completed to your satisfaction.
It's very dangerous to pay all the money upfront.
And finally, on a big job, think about getting specialist insurance that starts from around £75 but could cover you for up to ten years depending on the policy.
People are often spending several thousand pounds on improving their homes and it actually pays to have an insurance policy in place, and at least you're protected if the building company goes bust, or if there are problems in the future.
Meanwhile, Rachel and Brian do now have council approval for their plans and have been quoted a further £60,000 to amend and complete the job.
We worked desperately hard and to find another £50,000, you know, just leaves us in a very anxious state and I'm very disappointed.
Now, as you know, buying a house can be one of the most stressful things that you'll ever do in your life and whilst the vast majority of house sales go without a hitch, it's safe to say that not all of them will go according to plan, so the peace of mind that a survey can give before going ahead with the purchase really can be invaluable, provided, that is, that your survey picks up everything you hoped it would.
But, unfortunately, that's not always the case.
Location, tick.
Price, tick.
Layout, tick.
Just three of the key things most people consider when searching for that dream home.
And Alice Cook and her partner, Jonathan, were hoping they'd be able to tick all the boxes when they began looking for theirs.
It took me quite a while to find anything that was in my budget and in the area I wanted and, eventually, when I saw this one, I just knew it was perfect.
The house in Yorkshire had the added bonus of a basement where the extra space had been converted to a dining room.
I've lived in houses before with basements and I know they get damp, but it looked really good and it was really nicely done out.
Alice and Jonathan put in an offer, which was immediately accepted, and keen to take no chances, Alice opted for a full building survey, the most comprehensive survey you can get, at a cost of £300.
Now, although the survey threw up no major disasters, it did identify the need for some electrical work.
It also highlighted that the basement had not been fully waterproofed and in the future, there might be potential for damp, but it stated that there were no .
.
and that the basement was Although it recommended around £500 of work to improve the waterproofing and thought the true value of the house was slightly less than the asking price, the findings were enough to reassure Alice to go ahead.
The survey said that at the current time, there was no signs of damp and so we felt that was good enough for us, because that was our biggest worry.
Further reassurance on that point was provided on the property information form, the questionnaire that all sellers are obliged to complete about their home and which forms part of your contract.
Now, on that form, the seller clearly ticked a box to say that the property had never been flooded.
It came back that they'd never had any problems of this nature and we felt that was fine.
So, everyone signed on the dotted line and Alice moved into her new home in February 2013.
Just having our own house, somewhere that we could call our own and put our own mark on was fantastic.
A few months later, the couple took a week off work to redecorate.
But that same week, Yorkshire was hit with severe rainstorms, which caused the water course near to Alice's home to swell and flood.
Now, any properties in the area that weren't fully waterproofed were at risk of water getting in, but as Alice thought her property had never flooded before, she wasn't too worried -- until she went down to the basement.
The water was probably an inch or two deep when we found it.
We had tables and chairs down there.
We'd bought ourselves a new box for storage and everything in this box had become wet and anything we had down there had just become absolutely soaked.
As the couple searched for the cause of the flooding, they made a shocking discovery.
We heard, like, a pumping noise and had a bit of a further look and pulled up the lino and found this pump in the floor.
Alice had uncovered a sump pump under the floor.
They are usually installed in basements and cellars when there has been a risk of damp or flooding.
At that point, we were really worried, and then all of a sudden, the basement is full of water and we just started to panic as to how on earth we were going to be able to fix this.
And she soon found more to suggest that this might not have been the first time that the basement had flooded.
I pulled off the skirting board and I found just completely rotten wood and mouldy plasterboard.
I knew it had been coming in for quite a while, given the state of the wood that was behind the walls.
And a chat with her neighbours further confirmed her suspicions that this might be a long-standing problem.
We saw our neighbour and he told us that the previous owner had had a lot of problems with that before and he had previously tried to help her figure out what was going wrong and they hadn't been successful.
In desperation, Alice contacted the surveyors, who after all had not spotted the pump or indeed the damp.
But they said that -- as we have had on Rip-Off Britain before -- the survey was simply a visual inspection of the property, not an exhaustive or intrusive search where they would investigate under flooring, for example.
So they would not take responsibility for this not being picked up.
But Alice thinks that the signs of damp and flooding were really easy to spot without having to look too hard.
They lifted up the lino at the other end of the basement -- they should have known what they were looking for.
We asked surveyor Roger Southam to take a look at Alice's basement and to give his opinion on the extent of the problem.
This is a video I took and you can clearly see it pouring through the wall there.
Oh, wow.
And it is quite deep, as you can see.
Wow.
It's like a geezer.
Crikey, that is extraordinary.
And when he does his own inspection, Roger quickly sees something that he believes the surveyor should have spotted as well.
All of the floor would have been covered by lino -- the pump would not have been self-evident.
However, this green and yellow pipe is what appears outside and runs up the staircase.
That should have been something they were thinking about and going, "What on earth is that serving?" The lead that's supplying the electricity to the pump is actually plugged into the wall and switched on permanently.
He should have been thinking, "Where is that plug going to?" Why that wasn't mentioned in the report, I have no idea.
With the basement in its current state, it is not going to be an easy or cheap problem to fix.
To actually make the room habitable, it's going to take tanking.
It's the only way you're going to truly solve the problem and make sure that you're not going to get any water coming back into that basement.
To tank that room could be as much as £10,000.
Wow.
That is devastating.
With Alice unable to afford to fix the problem herself, Roger has some advice on what he thinks she should do next.
What I would be suggesting strongly to Alice is that she takes up with the surveyor his deficiencies in the report and asks him why they weren't addressed and makes a formal complaint to him.
If he doesn't reply, she can then resort to the RICS and she can resort through that to the ombudsman and they will act, effectively, as an arbitrator.
But when we contacted the company that carried out the survey, it told us that this was the first it had heard of Alice's complaint, but it would now be handling it in accordance with its own procedures.
And it said it didn't agree with Roger Southam's assessment, insisting that its report had And had even advised that the asking price for the property be reduced We also tried to contact the previous owner of the property to get their take on the situation, but I'm afraid, we had no response.
We have investigated similar situations before.
Back in 2013, we filmed with first-time buyers Jim and Cathy Alexander from Devon.
It was only after moving in that they uncovered some really unsafe building works that made their house uninhabitable.
But none of the work had been declared on the property information form.
They were left with a £35,000 bill to sort it out.
I just couldn't quite fathom out how this had happened.
You know, there have been tears, there's been a bit of shouting.
It's just been awful.
With so much at stake for buyers, is it right that they should have to rely so heavily on a questionnaire being honestly filled in by the seller? Roger says in circumstances like Alice's basement, a solicitor may be able to help.
You could look to your solicitor to look back to the person selling the property who has ticked a box saying there has never been any flooding.
There has clearly been a problem going on before you ever bought the house.
It is clear that you can't always assume that a survey will flag up even the biggest of problems and the fact that hers didn't, means that Alice is now left trying to find the money to put right something that, if she had known about it in advance, would most likely have stopped the sale from going ahead.
I feel let down by everyone -- by the seller, by the surveyor -- and I am just really angry with them both.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain -- a property investment gone badly wrong.
We join this flat owner on his first visit inside.
So, this space is your £48,000 investment? It is, yes.
Very, very disappointed, very angry.
For two days only, we brought the whole Rip-Off Britain team to one of the busiest shopping centres in Nottingham.
This is the fifth year we have run one of our pop-up shops.
Not only do we get the opportunity to meet you face-to-face, you have the chance for some instant advice.
Chris and Julie Roberts came for exactly that from Trading Standards expert Sylvia Rook.
They had a problem with a new washing machine that led to it being replaced.
But now, the new machine has developed exactly the same problem.
It just, right from the word go, it does its own thing.
You programme it on a boil wash and it is almost like it has done a cold wash -- all your stains are still in the clothes.
You put a woollen wash on and it boils them.
It was actually almost ripping clothes and also, when it's switched off, it crackles.
Did you buy it from a high street store or did you buy it online? We bought it from a high street store, but that store has now gone bust.
Right, so it's somewhere that has ceased trading.
- Correct.
- And how did you pay for your original one? On a debit card, and I took out an extended warranty.
After complaining to the warranty company, Chris and Julie were dismayed to be told that rather than replacing it again, the company would try and repair it.
But, after two years of washing catastrophes, they have had enough.
In October, the law changes and the Sale Of Goods Act goes and it's replaced by a piece of legislation called the Consumer Rights Act.
What that will say is that you can accept one repair and if the repair doesn't work, then you can reject the whole thing.
So, that will be good.
Obviously, it doesn't help you for this, but if you know a local washing machine repairer, I would suggest you contact them if they do a free call out and ask them to have a look and see what they think is wrong.
The next thing is to write to the warranty company, itemising exactly what has happened and saying what you are looking for, whether it is a replacement, whether it's a repair and whether it is compensation, giving them time limit to respond, so give them 14 days.
Make sure you send it recorded delivery, so that they have received it.
Good luck, I hope you manage to get some satisfaction.
- Yes, we will take your advice.
- Thank you very much, thanks for coming in.
Thank you very much.
Meanwhile, I was out and about in the rest of the centre to see if passing shoppers considered themselves to be particularly clued up.
Are you a sort of satisfied customer or if things go? No? - What's wrong? - Oh, a lot, but I make sure I complain.
How do you do it when you complain? E-mail, telephone, just general, sort of stick to the guns.
Are you somebody who knows your rights - when it comes to shopping, do you think? - About 50-50.
That's why I'm here to get some help today.
- Have you ever been caught out as a consumer? - No, not really.
You're a bit savvy, are you? Well, I was in business, so I have to be a bit careful.
I've had to be careful throughout my life, - so, yes, I was not caught out, no.
- I'm glad to hear it.
- You're looking very young.
- Oh! What a lovely way to start my day! And in our gripe corner, you were coming to tell us about all manner of things that really get you steaming.
I feel that car insurance for young drivers is a total rip-off.
They are making it very, very difficult for young drivers to get out and about on the road.
I think cookies are a rip-off because they are very nice, but sometimes they can cost way too much.
As you well know, the breakdown of a relationship is always tricky.
There are difficult or hard-to-handle conversations to be had and sometimes just trying to communicate, to have that conversation, can prove really difficult and the result is that nothing gets resolved.
Well, this is particularly frustrating when it comes to a client and their builder, because it can be a very fine line to tread, and with so much at stake, if it goes wrong, it can be very costly indeed.
On Rip-Off Britain, we are used to hearing your stories about work that has gone wrong and about altercations when things have not gone to plan.
But we haven't before heard a message quite like the one this woman was left by her builder.
And yet, the relationship between these two had started out so positively.
Based in Herefordshire, Susan Bookbinder is a journalist who, in the past, has done some work for the BBC.
But back in April 2012, having completed renovations of the inside of her 16th-century cottage, Susan turned her attention to the final piece of the jigsaw -- the garden.
So, having transformed the house, I also wanted to transform the garden into a beautiful space and a lovely patio for me to entertain my friends, and this was the dream.
A friend of a friend had recommended just the man for the job -- Dave Kirkwood, who claimed that he could sort Susan's dream garden for around 6,350.
Well, that was enough to persuade her to take him on without getting any other quotes or checking references.
But according to Susan, a job that should have taken a few months turned into a 12-month nightmare that ended up costing her more than double what had originally been agreed.
Suddenly, the penny dropped -- "I really have been had.
" I was £15,000 down, still couldn't use the garden.
So, Susan decided to cut her losses and look for another builder and her spirits were soon raised when she found a local landscaper ready to put the whole mess right.
His name was Mike Freeman and Susan was so impressed by him that she asked him to do some further work as well, raising the top terrace of the garden to create extra parking space.
The total she was quoted was £7,420, plus an additional 2,820 for materials.
I was relieved, grateful and, yeah, I felt, "Thank goodness.
"At last, we're going to get the garden for what's left of the summer.
" This time, though again, she didn't get any references, Susan did get other quotes, but they were twice as much as the figure she had had from Mike Freeman.
So, desperate to get the garden finished, Susan was very satisfied she had got the right man for the job.
Work began in July 2014.
Initially, Susan had been told that she only had to pay on completion of the job.
But he started asking for money for wages as he went along, saying that the job was going to cost more than he had initially thought.
And when she received a revised invoice, Susan said she was horrified to find that the price had more than doubled to £21,500.
I had already paid him 13,000.
The final invoice came and I was mortified, because I thought, "Where am I going to get this extra, near ten grand?" But things were happening and I was going to have my dream terrace, be able to drive in, etc, so I paid the money.
But after the job was finished, Susan began to have doubts about the quality of the work, so she arranged for an independent surveyor to come round and inspect it.
And it seems he wasn't impressed with the new raised terrace, questioning how secure it was and suggesting that it may even need to be rebuilt.
Susan immediately took that news to her builder, refusing to pay him the final balance and indeed suggesting he repay her to cover the cost of any necessary rebuilding.
I sent the survey to him and I wrote a letter saying, "What I'd like to do is offer you a final chance to resolve this.
"Give me £5,000 back, which is, I think, "extremely reasonable under the circumstances.
" And that is when things between Susan and her builder turned ugly.
I had two phone calls in the space of five minutes, which I deliberately didn't answer.
He said to listen very, very carefully, because nobody gets away with not paying his bills and I'm not going to get away with not paying my bill, and I've felt nervous about leaving the house ever since.
Of course, there are two sides to every story, but while Susan feels two builders have badly let her down, what particularly shocked her about the second one was the way in which he spoke to her in those calls.
So, she contacted us and we sent round professional landscaper Mark Gregory to see what he made of the workmanship in her garden.
This is very, very loose and this is actually meant to bring a car in.
This is not sufficient to support a car or stop a car actually moving and going over the edge.
Just by looking at the quality of finish here, I would really question whether this has actually been built professionally.
The only way to test it is to excavate it and find out what is going on underneath, but, you know, given what I am seeing there And basically this corner has unattached itself.
This is not a great job at all.
But when we put all of this to builder Mike Freeman, he told us that he was disturbed by Susan's version of events, many of which he claims are untrue.
He told us he'd felt sorry for Susan after seeing the previous builder's shoddy work, so had offered to take on the job to put things right.
But he says it soon became apparent that the job was much more extensive than he had originally quoted for, requiring more money upfront for additional plant hire, workmen and materials.
He says prices rose as a result of extra work requested by Susan, but that she was provided with "updates, quotations and invoices" throughout.
He said it was only when he asked Susan to settle the bill, months after the work was finished, that she first voiced her concerns.
And as for those irate voicemails, he put those down to sheer frustration at Susan refusing to make the final payment, or to let him complete the final snagging tasks, which he claimed would only take two days to complete.
The builder also insisted that none of his work is unsafe and that the hard standing, which our expert considered unsuitable for parking a vehicle, was constructed as .
.
and that this was clearly explained to Susan at the time.
And he was adamant that Susan still owes him upwards of £2,000.
He also said that her request for partial refund is an insult.
We also contacted Dave Kirkwood, the first builder Susan had employed, but he didn't respond.
In the end, whatever happened to sour things in this particular case, if you end up in a dispute with a trader you have employed, what can you do to resolve it without things turning unpleasant? Liz Male is from Trustmark, which is a government-backed scheme that accredits tradespeople and it has a clear procedure in place to deal with any disputes involving its members.
You should give the tradesman the opportunity to put work right initially.
If that fails, then Trustmark has a system where you can escalate your complaint.
Even if your builder isn't Trustmark approved, from October 2015, a new European law comes into effect, giving homeowners and builders the opportunity to solve their disputes through an independent third party, provided both sides are willing to do that.
The law is there to help find a resolution to problems without you having to go to court, which can be very costly.
As for Susan, for the moment, her dispute remains unresolved.
It's depressing.
This has pushed me emotionally and financially over the edge and it just seems that I am expected to just swallow it and move on.
Issues with where you live can be especially difficult and upsetting.
That is certainly the case with our next story, which concerns a property investment that has gone horrendously wrong.
It has left the buyer who contacted us seriously out of pocket.
But that is not the whole story -- I have seen for myself just what he has ended up with for his money and as you will see, this is one of the most extraordinary property stories we have ever come across.
There are just under 50,000 students at Liverpool's three universities, which in recent years has made the city a very attractive proposition for anyone hoping to make money by investing in student property.
But we have been contacted by people around the world telling us that their investment dreams have turned sour and it is all because of one particular developer.
One of those who has lost out is Sashpal Randhawa from Bradford.
Looking for somewhere to invest as a nest egg for his children, he bought a room in a Liverpool development called Alexander Terrace.
What attracted me to the investment initially was the rental returns.
They were going to be executive student pods or apartments.
So, in other words, having paid the money in, you would then have a completely stress-free existence and you would be getting rent from it? Rent from it, yeah.
The student accommodation was being sold by a company called Middle England Developments Limited, owned by a man called Nigel Russell.
The company appeared to have a successful track record of developing several old buildings in Liverpool for student accommodation.
And did they show you pictures of glamorous-looking places? They did, yeah.
Yeah, all that for an artist's impression for Alexander Terrace and also an artist's impression on how the pod would look, how big and spacious.
A cut above your average student rental, each room would have a flatscreen TV and internet connection, plus, in many cases, an en-suite bathroom.
And shared facilities would include modern lounges with plasma TVs, a fully-equipped gym and a computer room.
100% occupancy levels expected, 10% returns.
You won't have to do anything -- they'll manage it for you.
They'll get the tenants and they'll be responsible for everything.
You just sit back and take the return.
So, in early 2011, Sashpal made the decision to invest in one of the flats in Alexander Terrace.
Executive studios, they are called.
They're almost £48,000.
And because of the sales pitch and the euphoria of investing, the returns, a second one came on the market from the same company and the sales pitch, "Well, you'd better get in quick, otherwise, "these are going to get snapped up straight away.
" In total, Sashpal bought three flats from the company -- one at Alexander Terrace and two on a completely separate development.
I thought, "Yeah, I've made a good investment here.
"It's stress-free and an income is coming in.
" But in early 2013, it all changed.
The rent just suddenly stopped.
Sashpal contacted the company at that point managing the properties -- Penlake Limited, owned by the same man behind the development company, Nigel Russell.
He was assured that the problems were a temporary glitch and the rents would restart again soon.
But that didn't happen, and worse was to come.
In April 2014, following a breakdown of the building's water system, the council declared it a hazardous environment and served a prohibition order, shutting it down.
And ever since, thanks to ongoing disagreements over who has responsibility for carrying out the repairs, the flats have remained empty, which for investors like Sashpal, has meant another 18 months without any income from rent.
Well, this place is meant to be absolutely buzzing with students, but, as you can see, it is looking suspiciously quiet and we are having to be let in by the facilities management company.
So, let's see.
This is the first time Sashpal has seen what his £48,000 investment has got him.
Once inside, we have a look at the communal areas first.
- That is a mattress on the floor.
Obviously somebody living here.
- Yeah.
Squatter's mattress, quite dirty as well.
First impressions are obviously that the place is a tip.
- Wow, look at this, Sash.
- It's completely kicked in.
'Things get no better as we move through the property.
' - Completely gutted, all carpets.
- Yes.
- Fire damage.
- Yeah.
- I think wrecked is the word, isn't it? - It is, yeah.
'Kicked in doors, squatters, fire damage -- it is all a far cry from 'the golden investment opportunity Sashpal thought he was getting.
'And his dismay turns to disbelief when, for the first time, 'he sees the actual room he spent £48,000 on.
' So, this space is your £48,000 investment.
It is, yes.
- What do you think? - Very, very disappointed.
Very angry.
It's going to need a lot of work on it.
What effect does it have when you see the state it is in and what effect has it had on you and your family? Erm quite quite a serious effect, because the rent money that was going to come from the pods, I was going to use that for children's future, maybe university .
.
college and weddings.
When we asked Nigel Russell about the state of the building, he pointed out that when his own business stopped managing the building in 2013, responsibility for repairs passed to the investors themselves, who appointed their own management company to run things day-to-day.
He says it was under that company's watch that Alexander Terrace fell into disrepair and squatters moved in.
But the management company disagree, insisting it did fulfil its duties while students were living there, but that in the brief period it was in charge, it was And indeed, had to take legal action just to gain access to the boiler.
It says any damage and use by squatters took place only after it stopped managing the building and suggests the continuing issues are down to what it calls an ongoing dispute between the leaseholders and the freeholder, JK Limited, of which Nigel Russell is the sole director.
I know you knew that it was bad, but did you know it was this bad? No, I didn't.
Over the period the flats have been empty, Sashpal and the other investors at Alexander Terrace have continued to receive demands for service charges from Nigel Russell of several hundred pounds per quarter, which at the time, they felt they had no choice but to pay.
So, this place has actually been costing you money - instead of paying you money? - Yeah.
But when you look at the building, it is not even being looked after -- it's in a debilitated state.
So, where the service charges are going, I have no idea.
So, Sash, if the developer was standing here with us now, what would you say to him? I would say to him, "Deliver on your promise.
"Finish the development and give us what we paid for.
" But when we contacted Nigel Russell, he painted a very different picture of the whole sorry saga, putting the lion's share of the blame onto the investor company formed by leaseholders themselves.
He says that when rent payments initially stopped, some leaseholders refused to accept that the market challenges they faced were real and that their attitude made it impossible for the developers to find a solution.
Over the following months and years, he is adamant that he and his company did all they were obliged to, and more, towards the upkeep of the building, but says that some leaseholders He says that has been made worse by the fact that only half the service fees he has asked for have been paid, while investors continue to demand more work to be done.
He maintains that if leaseholders are willing to accept responsibility for their properties, he is happy to work to achieve a reasonable solution that will help them realise future earnings.
But while clearly this isn't straightforward, Sashpal has not lost hope that in time he and the other investors will end up with the lucrative rents they were expecting.
I am trying to keep optimistic that, you know, we can get our investment up and running and see the return we were looking for.
That's what I'm hoping for.
Here at Rip-Off Britain, we are always ready to investigate more of your stories.
You can write to us at Or you can send us an e-mail to The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Well, as we've seen, when you are relying on other people to fulfil their part of a deal and they don't, it can be utterly devastating.
It leaves you not just out of pocket, but with a real problem of how to get things resolved.
And I don't know about you guys, but I think it is absolutely heartbreaking to see the state that some of those homes were left in, especially when you have trusted the person that you employed to do exactly what they said they would, and to be straight with you as, hopefully, you have been with them.
Totally.
But, you know, as we said earlier, builders who end up letting you down, thankfully, are the exception.
But if you are unlucky enough to have something similar happen to you, please, do let us know.
I'm quite sure it is a topic that we'll look back at again and again.
We'll be back with more of your stories very soon, so until then, thank you so much for your company and from all of us, bye-bye.
- Goodbye.
- Bye.
You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.
If I walk in somewhere and they treat me badly, then I walk and I will never go in again.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges you say are unfair.
You've paid for a service and you expect it to be the service that you've paid for.
And when you've lost out but nobody else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
As a customer, you've got to be more savvy in terms of what you're buying and make sure that it's something that you want or need, and not something that they're trying to trick you into getting.
So, whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake, we're here to find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money.
This is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain where today, once again, we're going to be drilling right down into some of those stories and problems that you've sent us here in the office.
And in particular, we're going to be looking into some truly jaw-dropping examples of building work that's left some of you with a very expensive problem to fix.
As you well know, whatever the size of the project, renovating your home can be a very stressful and extremely pricey business, and I'm afraid even when you think that you've picked out the right person for the job, someone who, on the surface, had all the right credentials, things can still go wrong and you can find yourself feeling terribly frustrated and let down.
Of course, most traders you get in will do a decent job but surprise, surprise, we'll be hearing about the ones who don't, who have left some of you, through no fault of your own, worried about how you'll ever get your home back to normal.
And as we always try to do, we'll have plenty of advice on what action to take if something similar does end up happening to you.
Coming up -- from shoddy work to abusive phone messages, how this woman's experience with two builders turned nasty.
He said to listen very, very carefully because nobody gets away with not paying his bills, and I've felt nervous about leaving the house ever since.
And what is going on in this basement? Why the couple that live here are furious that they weren't warned about it before they moved in.
I feel let down by everyone -- by the seller, by the surveyor and I'm just really angry with them both.
Extending or improving your home is one way to add both space and value to where you live.
It can be an exciting project but also very stressful, too, especially if, as still happens far more often than it should, the job doesn't turn out the way it's supposed to, and that was certainly the case for a number of customers who employed one particular firm of builders.
They describe themselves as "magical".
Well, perhaps that's because of one particular trick they like to perform.
Not just once but time and time again.
It was over-promising and under-delivering.
It was smoke and mirrors.
Magical Kitchens & Builders can make your £20,000 disappear.
Rachel and Brian O'Shaughnessy, from Birmingham, had been pretty confident when they'd first found builder Scott Devlin and his firm, Magical Kitchens & Builders, based in the West Midlands, and not to be confused with other companies with a similar name.
But now, they say the only magical thing about Scott Devlin has been his vanishing act.
It feels heartbreaking to see this as it is now because it's been like this for six months and we really wanted our kitchen, our lovely new kitchen up and running by now so that we could enjoy it.
Rachel and Brian had moved into their home in early 2014 and although it was perfectly liveable, it did need a bit of work.
The extension work that we were looking for wasn't particularly tricky.
There would be some structural work with walls coming down and supporting, but we wanted to copy the oak frame of the existing property.
They'd found Scott Devlin and Magical Kitchens & Builders on a website called mybuilder.
com, which boasts that it interviews all the traders whose ads it runs to ensure they meet the site's high standards, and Rachel and Brian were very happy with what they saw.
We were really impressed with Magical Kitchens.
They had a very good, thorough website.
There were a lot of positive reviews on mybuilder.
com with the quote, "was extremely thorough.
" And the builder also offered an integrated kitchen service, so he could do the building work and do the kitchen fitting as well.
Rachel and Brian were quoted £84,500 for the work they wanted, which included the kitchen extension and a new garden room.
It wasn't the cheapest quote, but the couple really hoped that with Magical Kitchens & Builders, they'd pulled a rabbit out of a hat.
Magical Kitchens came to the property and the individual came across as a very decent, professional builder with a long line of previous work and recommendations.
The centrepiece of the extension included a rustic timber frame, which needed to match the rest of the property.
A specialist joiner from a separate firm could only build this after the foundations and walls had been completed by Magical Kitchens & Builders, which would take around 12 weeks.
Rachel and Brian had paid a £10,000 deposit and everything started smoothly.
So smoothly in fact, that they decided to ask the company to do some further renovations as well.
When we then employed him to fit the utility for us, he quoted us an additional £6,200.
We paid our deposit and the builder confirmed that he'd ordered the utility and the units would be fitted in advance of Christmas, so that was really key to us that we were making some progress.
By the end of November, the builders had completed the basic shell of the extension.
A joiner known to the builder quoted for the timber frame.
The couple were told it would cost £35,000 with a 50% deposit to be paid upfront via Magical Kitchens & Builders.
Up to that point, he had delivered exactly what he said he would deliver, so we had no reason not to think that paying him the deposit was going to cause any issue.
Whilst the couple knew that they'd have to wait for the roof frame to be made, by now, it was Christmas and the rest of the job had stalled.
But when they contacted the company, they got no response.
He hadn't responded to a number of texts and hadn't responded to a number of voicemails that I'd left for him.
Eventually, the builder did return, promising the build would start again but that didn't happen.
The sensible side of Rachel and I kept on saying, "He can't possibly be trying to rip us off.
"Why would you do that?" Increasingly anxious, Rachel and Brian began doing a bit of digging and, to their dismay, found that the very website that had helped convince them Scott Devlin was a man to be trusted, mybuilder.
com, had now removed him from their site following negative reviews.
It said that he'd been permanently restricted from using this website.
Not only that, but Scott Devlin had been declared bankrupt, so they'd forked out £47,500 and ended up with a half-built kitchen and a building firm that had gone bust.
And when they contacted the sub-contractor supposed to be making the timber frame, there was further bad news.
I said to him, "But we actually gave the builder £16,000 on the 12th of December," and he said, "He never gave it to me, Rachel, I'm really sorry.
" Desperate to get the work finished, Rachel and Brian contacted one of the other builders who'd initially quoted for the job and he soon identified another problem, one that the couple say Magical Kitchens & Builders had promised to sort out on their behalf.
The original extension plans hadn't even been approved by the local council.
We felt quite devastated that the loss of the oak money was difficult enough to deal with, to now be faced with the prospect that the whole of the extension would have to be taken down was just a nightmare.
We've heard of other homes in the area that Magical Kitchens & Builders has left similarly unfinished.
One of their customers who didn't want to be shown on camera took us on a video tour of what was left of his home.
Come through the front door.
This is what Magical Kitchen's Scott Devlin has left us -- a bombsite.
And Laura Burford employed Magical Kitchens in September 2014.
Magical Kitchens left us in a complete mess.
We were living on a building site.
We'd e-mailed him, we'd given him a few ultimatums and just heard absolutely nothing.
He just totally disappeared.
We tried to contact Magical Kitchens & Builders, but they didn't respond to our calls or e-mails.
We also got in touch with the website mybuilder.
com.
They told us that when Magical Kitchens held an account with them, it received 76 positive reviews, but the company was removed from mybuilder.
com when it .
.
to the site's satisfaction.
mybuilder.
com went on to say that it operates Tradesmen who do not meet these high standards are removed from the site.
So, what can you do to be sure you're choosing a reputable builder who won't let you down? Well, Brian Berry from the Federation of Master Builders has some pointers to minimise the risk.
If you want to avoid employing a cowboy builder, use one that belongs to a trade association, such as the Federation of Master Builders.
Next, have a contract and make sure it doesn't tie you in to paying all the money at once.
In that contract, you should have scheduled payments, so you only pay for the amount of work that has been completed to your satisfaction.
It's very dangerous to pay all the money upfront.
And finally, on a big job, think about getting specialist insurance that starts from around £75 but could cover you for up to ten years depending on the policy.
People are often spending several thousand pounds on improving their homes and it actually pays to have an insurance policy in place, and at least you're protected if the building company goes bust, or if there are problems in the future.
Meanwhile, Rachel and Brian do now have council approval for their plans and have been quoted a further £60,000 to amend and complete the job.
We worked desperately hard and to find another £50,000, you know, just leaves us in a very anxious state and I'm very disappointed.
Now, as you know, buying a house can be one of the most stressful things that you'll ever do in your life and whilst the vast majority of house sales go without a hitch, it's safe to say that not all of them will go according to plan, so the peace of mind that a survey can give before going ahead with the purchase really can be invaluable, provided, that is, that your survey picks up everything you hoped it would.
But, unfortunately, that's not always the case.
Location, tick.
Price, tick.
Layout, tick.
Just three of the key things most people consider when searching for that dream home.
And Alice Cook and her partner, Jonathan, were hoping they'd be able to tick all the boxes when they began looking for theirs.
It took me quite a while to find anything that was in my budget and in the area I wanted and, eventually, when I saw this one, I just knew it was perfect.
The house in Yorkshire had the added bonus of a basement where the extra space had been converted to a dining room.
I've lived in houses before with basements and I know they get damp, but it looked really good and it was really nicely done out.
Alice and Jonathan put in an offer, which was immediately accepted, and keen to take no chances, Alice opted for a full building survey, the most comprehensive survey you can get, at a cost of £300.
Now, although the survey threw up no major disasters, it did identify the need for some electrical work.
It also highlighted that the basement had not been fully waterproofed and in the future, there might be potential for damp, but it stated that there were no .
.
and that the basement was Although it recommended around £500 of work to improve the waterproofing and thought the true value of the house was slightly less than the asking price, the findings were enough to reassure Alice to go ahead.
The survey said that at the current time, there was no signs of damp and so we felt that was good enough for us, because that was our biggest worry.
Further reassurance on that point was provided on the property information form, the questionnaire that all sellers are obliged to complete about their home and which forms part of your contract.
Now, on that form, the seller clearly ticked a box to say that the property had never been flooded.
It came back that they'd never had any problems of this nature and we felt that was fine.
So, everyone signed on the dotted line and Alice moved into her new home in February 2013.
Just having our own house, somewhere that we could call our own and put our own mark on was fantastic.
A few months later, the couple took a week off work to redecorate.
But that same week, Yorkshire was hit with severe rainstorms, which caused the water course near to Alice's home to swell and flood.
Now, any properties in the area that weren't fully waterproofed were at risk of water getting in, but as Alice thought her property had never flooded before, she wasn't too worried -- until she went down to the basement.
The water was probably an inch or two deep when we found it.
We had tables and chairs down there.
We'd bought ourselves a new box for storage and everything in this box had become wet and anything we had down there had just become absolutely soaked.
As the couple searched for the cause of the flooding, they made a shocking discovery.
We heard, like, a pumping noise and had a bit of a further look and pulled up the lino and found this pump in the floor.
Alice had uncovered a sump pump under the floor.
They are usually installed in basements and cellars when there has been a risk of damp or flooding.
At that point, we were really worried, and then all of a sudden, the basement is full of water and we just started to panic as to how on earth we were going to be able to fix this.
And she soon found more to suggest that this might not have been the first time that the basement had flooded.
I pulled off the skirting board and I found just completely rotten wood and mouldy plasterboard.
I knew it had been coming in for quite a while, given the state of the wood that was behind the walls.
And a chat with her neighbours further confirmed her suspicions that this might be a long-standing problem.
We saw our neighbour and he told us that the previous owner had had a lot of problems with that before and he had previously tried to help her figure out what was going wrong and they hadn't been successful.
In desperation, Alice contacted the surveyors, who after all had not spotted the pump or indeed the damp.
But they said that -- as we have had on Rip-Off Britain before -- the survey was simply a visual inspection of the property, not an exhaustive or intrusive search where they would investigate under flooring, for example.
So they would not take responsibility for this not being picked up.
But Alice thinks that the signs of damp and flooding were really easy to spot without having to look too hard.
They lifted up the lino at the other end of the basement -- they should have known what they were looking for.
We asked surveyor Roger Southam to take a look at Alice's basement and to give his opinion on the extent of the problem.
This is a video I took and you can clearly see it pouring through the wall there.
Oh, wow.
And it is quite deep, as you can see.
Wow.
It's like a geezer.
Crikey, that is extraordinary.
And when he does his own inspection, Roger quickly sees something that he believes the surveyor should have spotted as well.
All of the floor would have been covered by lino -- the pump would not have been self-evident.
However, this green and yellow pipe is what appears outside and runs up the staircase.
That should have been something they were thinking about and going, "What on earth is that serving?" The lead that's supplying the electricity to the pump is actually plugged into the wall and switched on permanently.
He should have been thinking, "Where is that plug going to?" Why that wasn't mentioned in the report, I have no idea.
With the basement in its current state, it is not going to be an easy or cheap problem to fix.
To actually make the room habitable, it's going to take tanking.
It's the only way you're going to truly solve the problem and make sure that you're not going to get any water coming back into that basement.
To tank that room could be as much as £10,000.
Wow.
That is devastating.
With Alice unable to afford to fix the problem herself, Roger has some advice on what he thinks she should do next.
What I would be suggesting strongly to Alice is that she takes up with the surveyor his deficiencies in the report and asks him why they weren't addressed and makes a formal complaint to him.
If he doesn't reply, she can then resort to the RICS and she can resort through that to the ombudsman and they will act, effectively, as an arbitrator.
But when we contacted the company that carried out the survey, it told us that this was the first it had heard of Alice's complaint, but it would now be handling it in accordance with its own procedures.
And it said it didn't agree with Roger Southam's assessment, insisting that its report had And had even advised that the asking price for the property be reduced We also tried to contact the previous owner of the property to get their take on the situation, but I'm afraid, we had no response.
We have investigated similar situations before.
Back in 2013, we filmed with first-time buyers Jim and Cathy Alexander from Devon.
It was only after moving in that they uncovered some really unsafe building works that made their house uninhabitable.
But none of the work had been declared on the property information form.
They were left with a £35,000 bill to sort it out.
I just couldn't quite fathom out how this had happened.
You know, there have been tears, there's been a bit of shouting.
It's just been awful.
With so much at stake for buyers, is it right that they should have to rely so heavily on a questionnaire being honestly filled in by the seller? Roger says in circumstances like Alice's basement, a solicitor may be able to help.
You could look to your solicitor to look back to the person selling the property who has ticked a box saying there has never been any flooding.
There has clearly been a problem going on before you ever bought the house.
It is clear that you can't always assume that a survey will flag up even the biggest of problems and the fact that hers didn't, means that Alice is now left trying to find the money to put right something that, if she had known about it in advance, would most likely have stopped the sale from going ahead.
I feel let down by everyone -- by the seller, by the surveyor -- and I am just really angry with them both.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain -- a property investment gone badly wrong.
We join this flat owner on his first visit inside.
So, this space is your £48,000 investment? It is, yes.
Very, very disappointed, very angry.
For two days only, we brought the whole Rip-Off Britain team to one of the busiest shopping centres in Nottingham.
This is the fifth year we have run one of our pop-up shops.
Not only do we get the opportunity to meet you face-to-face, you have the chance for some instant advice.
Chris and Julie Roberts came for exactly that from Trading Standards expert Sylvia Rook.
They had a problem with a new washing machine that led to it being replaced.
But now, the new machine has developed exactly the same problem.
It just, right from the word go, it does its own thing.
You programme it on a boil wash and it is almost like it has done a cold wash -- all your stains are still in the clothes.
You put a woollen wash on and it boils them.
It was actually almost ripping clothes and also, when it's switched off, it crackles.
Did you buy it from a high street store or did you buy it online? We bought it from a high street store, but that store has now gone bust.
Right, so it's somewhere that has ceased trading.
- Correct.
- And how did you pay for your original one? On a debit card, and I took out an extended warranty.
After complaining to the warranty company, Chris and Julie were dismayed to be told that rather than replacing it again, the company would try and repair it.
But, after two years of washing catastrophes, they have had enough.
In October, the law changes and the Sale Of Goods Act goes and it's replaced by a piece of legislation called the Consumer Rights Act.
What that will say is that you can accept one repair and if the repair doesn't work, then you can reject the whole thing.
So, that will be good.
Obviously, it doesn't help you for this, but if you know a local washing machine repairer, I would suggest you contact them if they do a free call out and ask them to have a look and see what they think is wrong.
The next thing is to write to the warranty company, itemising exactly what has happened and saying what you are looking for, whether it is a replacement, whether it's a repair and whether it is compensation, giving them time limit to respond, so give them 14 days.
Make sure you send it recorded delivery, so that they have received it.
Good luck, I hope you manage to get some satisfaction.
- Yes, we will take your advice.
- Thank you very much, thanks for coming in.
Thank you very much.
Meanwhile, I was out and about in the rest of the centre to see if passing shoppers considered themselves to be particularly clued up.
Are you a sort of satisfied customer or if things go? No? - What's wrong? - Oh, a lot, but I make sure I complain.
How do you do it when you complain? E-mail, telephone, just general, sort of stick to the guns.
Are you somebody who knows your rights - when it comes to shopping, do you think? - About 50-50.
That's why I'm here to get some help today.
- Have you ever been caught out as a consumer? - No, not really.
You're a bit savvy, are you? Well, I was in business, so I have to be a bit careful.
I've had to be careful throughout my life, - so, yes, I was not caught out, no.
- I'm glad to hear it.
- You're looking very young.
- Oh! What a lovely way to start my day! And in our gripe corner, you were coming to tell us about all manner of things that really get you steaming.
I feel that car insurance for young drivers is a total rip-off.
They are making it very, very difficult for young drivers to get out and about on the road.
I think cookies are a rip-off because they are very nice, but sometimes they can cost way too much.
As you well know, the breakdown of a relationship is always tricky.
There are difficult or hard-to-handle conversations to be had and sometimes just trying to communicate, to have that conversation, can prove really difficult and the result is that nothing gets resolved.
Well, this is particularly frustrating when it comes to a client and their builder, because it can be a very fine line to tread, and with so much at stake, if it goes wrong, it can be very costly indeed.
On Rip-Off Britain, we are used to hearing your stories about work that has gone wrong and about altercations when things have not gone to plan.
But we haven't before heard a message quite like the one this woman was left by her builder.
And yet, the relationship between these two had started out so positively.
Based in Herefordshire, Susan Bookbinder is a journalist who, in the past, has done some work for the BBC.
But back in April 2012, having completed renovations of the inside of her 16th-century cottage, Susan turned her attention to the final piece of the jigsaw -- the garden.
So, having transformed the house, I also wanted to transform the garden into a beautiful space and a lovely patio for me to entertain my friends, and this was the dream.
A friend of a friend had recommended just the man for the job -- Dave Kirkwood, who claimed that he could sort Susan's dream garden for around 6,350.
Well, that was enough to persuade her to take him on without getting any other quotes or checking references.
But according to Susan, a job that should have taken a few months turned into a 12-month nightmare that ended up costing her more than double what had originally been agreed.
Suddenly, the penny dropped -- "I really have been had.
" I was £15,000 down, still couldn't use the garden.
So, Susan decided to cut her losses and look for another builder and her spirits were soon raised when she found a local landscaper ready to put the whole mess right.
His name was Mike Freeman and Susan was so impressed by him that she asked him to do some further work as well, raising the top terrace of the garden to create extra parking space.
The total she was quoted was £7,420, plus an additional 2,820 for materials.
I was relieved, grateful and, yeah, I felt, "Thank goodness.
"At last, we're going to get the garden for what's left of the summer.
" This time, though again, she didn't get any references, Susan did get other quotes, but they were twice as much as the figure she had had from Mike Freeman.
So, desperate to get the garden finished, Susan was very satisfied she had got the right man for the job.
Work began in July 2014.
Initially, Susan had been told that she only had to pay on completion of the job.
But he started asking for money for wages as he went along, saying that the job was going to cost more than he had initially thought.
And when she received a revised invoice, Susan said she was horrified to find that the price had more than doubled to £21,500.
I had already paid him 13,000.
The final invoice came and I was mortified, because I thought, "Where am I going to get this extra, near ten grand?" But things were happening and I was going to have my dream terrace, be able to drive in, etc, so I paid the money.
But after the job was finished, Susan began to have doubts about the quality of the work, so she arranged for an independent surveyor to come round and inspect it.
And it seems he wasn't impressed with the new raised terrace, questioning how secure it was and suggesting that it may even need to be rebuilt.
Susan immediately took that news to her builder, refusing to pay him the final balance and indeed suggesting he repay her to cover the cost of any necessary rebuilding.
I sent the survey to him and I wrote a letter saying, "What I'd like to do is offer you a final chance to resolve this.
"Give me £5,000 back, which is, I think, "extremely reasonable under the circumstances.
" And that is when things between Susan and her builder turned ugly.
I had two phone calls in the space of five minutes, which I deliberately didn't answer.
He said to listen very, very carefully, because nobody gets away with not paying his bills and I'm not going to get away with not paying my bill, and I've felt nervous about leaving the house ever since.
Of course, there are two sides to every story, but while Susan feels two builders have badly let her down, what particularly shocked her about the second one was the way in which he spoke to her in those calls.
So, she contacted us and we sent round professional landscaper Mark Gregory to see what he made of the workmanship in her garden.
This is very, very loose and this is actually meant to bring a car in.
This is not sufficient to support a car or stop a car actually moving and going over the edge.
Just by looking at the quality of finish here, I would really question whether this has actually been built professionally.
The only way to test it is to excavate it and find out what is going on underneath, but, you know, given what I am seeing there And basically this corner has unattached itself.
This is not a great job at all.
But when we put all of this to builder Mike Freeman, he told us that he was disturbed by Susan's version of events, many of which he claims are untrue.
He told us he'd felt sorry for Susan after seeing the previous builder's shoddy work, so had offered to take on the job to put things right.
But he says it soon became apparent that the job was much more extensive than he had originally quoted for, requiring more money upfront for additional plant hire, workmen and materials.
He says prices rose as a result of extra work requested by Susan, but that she was provided with "updates, quotations and invoices" throughout.
He said it was only when he asked Susan to settle the bill, months after the work was finished, that she first voiced her concerns.
And as for those irate voicemails, he put those down to sheer frustration at Susan refusing to make the final payment, or to let him complete the final snagging tasks, which he claimed would only take two days to complete.
The builder also insisted that none of his work is unsafe and that the hard standing, which our expert considered unsuitable for parking a vehicle, was constructed as .
.
and that this was clearly explained to Susan at the time.
And he was adamant that Susan still owes him upwards of £2,000.
He also said that her request for partial refund is an insult.
We also contacted Dave Kirkwood, the first builder Susan had employed, but he didn't respond.
In the end, whatever happened to sour things in this particular case, if you end up in a dispute with a trader you have employed, what can you do to resolve it without things turning unpleasant? Liz Male is from Trustmark, which is a government-backed scheme that accredits tradespeople and it has a clear procedure in place to deal with any disputes involving its members.
You should give the tradesman the opportunity to put work right initially.
If that fails, then Trustmark has a system where you can escalate your complaint.
Even if your builder isn't Trustmark approved, from October 2015, a new European law comes into effect, giving homeowners and builders the opportunity to solve their disputes through an independent third party, provided both sides are willing to do that.
The law is there to help find a resolution to problems without you having to go to court, which can be very costly.
As for Susan, for the moment, her dispute remains unresolved.
It's depressing.
This has pushed me emotionally and financially over the edge and it just seems that I am expected to just swallow it and move on.
Issues with where you live can be especially difficult and upsetting.
That is certainly the case with our next story, which concerns a property investment that has gone horrendously wrong.
It has left the buyer who contacted us seriously out of pocket.
But that is not the whole story -- I have seen for myself just what he has ended up with for his money and as you will see, this is one of the most extraordinary property stories we have ever come across.
There are just under 50,000 students at Liverpool's three universities, which in recent years has made the city a very attractive proposition for anyone hoping to make money by investing in student property.
But we have been contacted by people around the world telling us that their investment dreams have turned sour and it is all because of one particular developer.
One of those who has lost out is Sashpal Randhawa from Bradford.
Looking for somewhere to invest as a nest egg for his children, he bought a room in a Liverpool development called Alexander Terrace.
What attracted me to the investment initially was the rental returns.
They were going to be executive student pods or apartments.
So, in other words, having paid the money in, you would then have a completely stress-free existence and you would be getting rent from it? Rent from it, yeah.
The student accommodation was being sold by a company called Middle England Developments Limited, owned by a man called Nigel Russell.
The company appeared to have a successful track record of developing several old buildings in Liverpool for student accommodation.
And did they show you pictures of glamorous-looking places? They did, yeah.
Yeah, all that for an artist's impression for Alexander Terrace and also an artist's impression on how the pod would look, how big and spacious.
A cut above your average student rental, each room would have a flatscreen TV and internet connection, plus, in many cases, an en-suite bathroom.
And shared facilities would include modern lounges with plasma TVs, a fully-equipped gym and a computer room.
100% occupancy levels expected, 10% returns.
You won't have to do anything -- they'll manage it for you.
They'll get the tenants and they'll be responsible for everything.
You just sit back and take the return.
So, in early 2011, Sashpal made the decision to invest in one of the flats in Alexander Terrace.
Executive studios, they are called.
They're almost £48,000.
And because of the sales pitch and the euphoria of investing, the returns, a second one came on the market from the same company and the sales pitch, "Well, you'd better get in quick, otherwise, "these are going to get snapped up straight away.
" In total, Sashpal bought three flats from the company -- one at Alexander Terrace and two on a completely separate development.
I thought, "Yeah, I've made a good investment here.
"It's stress-free and an income is coming in.
" But in early 2013, it all changed.
The rent just suddenly stopped.
Sashpal contacted the company at that point managing the properties -- Penlake Limited, owned by the same man behind the development company, Nigel Russell.
He was assured that the problems were a temporary glitch and the rents would restart again soon.
But that didn't happen, and worse was to come.
In April 2014, following a breakdown of the building's water system, the council declared it a hazardous environment and served a prohibition order, shutting it down.
And ever since, thanks to ongoing disagreements over who has responsibility for carrying out the repairs, the flats have remained empty, which for investors like Sashpal, has meant another 18 months without any income from rent.
Well, this place is meant to be absolutely buzzing with students, but, as you can see, it is looking suspiciously quiet and we are having to be let in by the facilities management company.
So, let's see.
This is the first time Sashpal has seen what his £48,000 investment has got him.
Once inside, we have a look at the communal areas first.
- That is a mattress on the floor.
Obviously somebody living here.
- Yeah.
Squatter's mattress, quite dirty as well.
First impressions are obviously that the place is a tip.
- Wow, look at this, Sash.
- It's completely kicked in.
'Things get no better as we move through the property.
' - Completely gutted, all carpets.
- Yes.
- Fire damage.
- Yeah.
- I think wrecked is the word, isn't it? - It is, yeah.
'Kicked in doors, squatters, fire damage -- it is all a far cry from 'the golden investment opportunity Sashpal thought he was getting.
'And his dismay turns to disbelief when, for the first time, 'he sees the actual room he spent £48,000 on.
' So, this space is your £48,000 investment.
It is, yes.
- What do you think? - Very, very disappointed.
Very angry.
It's going to need a lot of work on it.
What effect does it have when you see the state it is in and what effect has it had on you and your family? Erm quite quite a serious effect, because the rent money that was going to come from the pods, I was going to use that for children's future, maybe university .
.
college and weddings.
When we asked Nigel Russell about the state of the building, he pointed out that when his own business stopped managing the building in 2013, responsibility for repairs passed to the investors themselves, who appointed their own management company to run things day-to-day.
He says it was under that company's watch that Alexander Terrace fell into disrepair and squatters moved in.
But the management company disagree, insisting it did fulfil its duties while students were living there, but that in the brief period it was in charge, it was And indeed, had to take legal action just to gain access to the boiler.
It says any damage and use by squatters took place only after it stopped managing the building and suggests the continuing issues are down to what it calls an ongoing dispute between the leaseholders and the freeholder, JK Limited, of which Nigel Russell is the sole director.
I know you knew that it was bad, but did you know it was this bad? No, I didn't.
Over the period the flats have been empty, Sashpal and the other investors at Alexander Terrace have continued to receive demands for service charges from Nigel Russell of several hundred pounds per quarter, which at the time, they felt they had no choice but to pay.
So, this place has actually been costing you money - instead of paying you money? - Yeah.
But when you look at the building, it is not even being looked after -- it's in a debilitated state.
So, where the service charges are going, I have no idea.
So, Sash, if the developer was standing here with us now, what would you say to him? I would say to him, "Deliver on your promise.
"Finish the development and give us what we paid for.
" But when we contacted Nigel Russell, he painted a very different picture of the whole sorry saga, putting the lion's share of the blame onto the investor company formed by leaseholders themselves.
He says that when rent payments initially stopped, some leaseholders refused to accept that the market challenges they faced were real and that their attitude made it impossible for the developers to find a solution.
Over the following months and years, he is adamant that he and his company did all they were obliged to, and more, towards the upkeep of the building, but says that some leaseholders He says that has been made worse by the fact that only half the service fees he has asked for have been paid, while investors continue to demand more work to be done.
He maintains that if leaseholders are willing to accept responsibility for their properties, he is happy to work to achieve a reasonable solution that will help them realise future earnings.
But while clearly this isn't straightforward, Sashpal has not lost hope that in time he and the other investors will end up with the lucrative rents they were expecting.
I am trying to keep optimistic that, you know, we can get our investment up and running and see the return we were looking for.
That's what I'm hoping for.
Here at Rip-Off Britain, we are always ready to investigate more of your stories.
You can write to us at Or you can send us an e-mail to The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Well, as we've seen, when you are relying on other people to fulfil their part of a deal and they don't, it can be utterly devastating.
It leaves you not just out of pocket, but with a real problem of how to get things resolved.
And I don't know about you guys, but I think it is absolutely heartbreaking to see the state that some of those homes were left in, especially when you have trusted the person that you employed to do exactly what they said they would, and to be straight with you as, hopefully, you have been with them.
Totally.
But, you know, as we said earlier, builders who end up letting you down, thankfully, are the exception.
But if you are unlucky enough to have something similar happen to you, please, do let us know.
I'm quite sure it is a topic that we'll look back at again and again.
We'll be back with more of your stories very soon, so until then, thank you so much for your company and from all of us, bye-bye.
- Goodbye.
- Bye.