Hi all,
Currently in a very stressful position with an exploitative cowboy builder and looking for any advice and help possible.
Some months ago, my vulnerable elderly parents foolishly rushed into a renovation project on a house in London. They hired a builder who made a verbal agreement to perform all the labour and materials for the project for a total sum of £185k which my parents have already paid in full.
A few months down the line, my father passed away (3 weeks ago). My widowed mother has been left to take on the project, but she is completely clueless and susceptible to exploitation. Since the passing of my father, the cowboy builder, is now demanding exorbitantly high amounts of extra money despite having failed to fulfil a bare minimum of what he agreed to within the original £185k budget.
Furthermore, the builder agreed in writing in the initial contract to deal with all planning permission and other administrative matters and costs as part of the fee. However, he has failed to pay for a £1.5k administrative charge from the council and has instead billed it to my mothers address. My mother is now receiving threats and fines from the bailiffs over the unpaid charge and she is scared and fearful about this. This was only discovered by chance as keeping it hidden from my mother.
At every opportunity the builder finds an excuse to demand more money from my bereaved mother whilst threatening to stop work on the house. My mother - who has been a housewife all her life and does not even understand how to perform online banking - is having her vulnerability exploited by this extortionist builder. My mother is also effectively homeless until her house is built - something which the builder knowingly takes advantage of.
Despite all the exploitative cowboy behaviour of this builder my mother feels scared and unable to stand up to him and the situation continues to get worse. I am trying to help my mother but I need help and advice on how to deal with this fraudulent builder.