To worry that the gardener is going to do a runner with our money?

[RicktheBrick]

So we moved to a new house earlier this year and the garden is not safe for our 3 kids. We got some quotes and found a guy via Facebook, proper company, lovely pictures of his work. He was a really nice guy too and is able to give us what we want within our budget. It's a massive project, and we are also getting the driveway widened. We booked in for Easter holidays and paid half deposit upfront, said it would take 2 weeks, great we thought. Now I'm really starting to worry that it's either not going to get done at all or it's just going to just drag on and on and take months.

Day 1 - they turned up at half 9 with a mini digger and cracked on and ripped up all the slabs on the patio. But left before 3.

Day 2 - turned up before 9, and again cracked on, dug up the rest of the patio, and leveled it out ready for slabs. Left at about half 4.

Day 3 - simply did not turn up. No text to say they were not coming, and it was only when DH text him, he said he was sorry and his child had ended up in hospital (doubt that this is true now) and that they would be here the next day.

Day 4 - 1 lad turned up at half 8 (in the bosses car), did about 2 hours work cutting back some hedges and then left for the day. Whilst he was here he said the boss would be coming too but obviously he didn't turn up.

Then it was the long bank holiday weekend so they were off from Fri-Mon.

DH text on Monday night confirming they would be here all week, he said yes they would be on the job until complete now.

Day 5 - again, no show. At about half 11 DH text asking where they were. He said they were loading up the slabs and would be bringing them after. But, you guessed it, they didn't turn up.

Day 6 - turned up at about half 9, one of the lads started digging out part of a wall and he was grafting tbf, but the boss and other lad left for about 3 hours, and came back with 2 packs of slabs. They then bought 2 trailers of sand, dumped it on the driveway and clocked off at half 2 because of the rain. Said they would be here at half 8 today and would get cracking with laying the slabs.

Today - 4 of them turned up before half 8, so I had high hopes. BUT they all left again about 5 minutes later and have been gone over an hour now.

This isn't good is it? What do we do? DH has already had several conversations with him about communication and just letting us know what is going on, but they just turn up and leave when they please without a word, they don't even knock on first thing they just come straight round to the garden.

I'm worried that we've paid over £7k to this guy and that hes just not going to complete the job. The money we have remaining is all we have and won't be anywhere near enough to pay someone else to finish it. How on earth do people run businesses like this?

Brexit has exacerbated stuff like this ten-fold. We had some amazing Polish guys lay a patio and do other work, couldn’t have been more impressed with them, polite, punctual, worked all hours and did the work to a very high standard. They were never short of work (nor were they the cheapest).
Nowadays, it’s easy pickings for every chancer and they can name their price.

Where about are you based? We got ripped off by our gardener last year, terrible excuses and lies. We are in West Mids.

We are East Mids and I know he doesn't venture that far. But we
moved from the West Mids earlier this year so would be interested to know who your gardener is!

I won't say his name as I definitely do t want to be harassed by his family, they ended up involved too and that was an added headache. However, his company was named after him and he shares his name with former a member of TakeThat.
He caused lots of tears and anguish and I just wish he'd been upfront about being unable to complete the job. I had a new baby at the time and it was a nightmare.
I really hope all goes well for you and it's just a case of too many jobs at once for them!

If you pay for even part of the total amount via credit card then your credit card company will give you section 75 legal protection for the whole amount.

That's good to know, thanks for the tip!

Good to know in general but possibly unlikely that a dodgy garden contractor will be able to get approved to take credit card payments

Just has work done worth about half of your project. No deposit and 30 days to pay invoice. So it is done.

Yes, that's very true.

One of his lads has just turned up to "clean out the cement mixer", didn't knock on, just waltzed round to the garden. Very odd. DH wasn't best pleased and has text boss man.

They thankfully have laid some slabs and they do look very good so far so holding out hope for now.

Gosh how awful for you!! Did you get things sorted in the end?

Let me tell you about a dodgy contractor who, on his website, had a location map of "bridge street" that was in an affluent area of a big city, only for the written address details to bring up a "bridge street" on the outskirts of the same city that was a very dodgy area.

Also look out for obvious stuff like 24hr availability and only a mobile phone number listed.

I'd also agree with checking companies house and going to view local projects they've been involved in.

Hopefully your work will be finished to a good quality even if it will be late. I'd be tempted to switch builders and settle on a smaller balance for work already done. Aka ask for a majority refund and wait for the good company to be available.

I learnt from this in the past when the builder doing our bathroom went bust.

We didn't have a high credit card limit, but the next time we had work done we paid upto the limit of the card, paid that off immediately, then paid upto the limit again. We did this however many times it was until we'd covered the initial charges, then when work was completed, the full cost.

As long as any credit card payment is over £100, even if it's a part payment, then you are covered under the credit card guarantee. Thankfully our second lot of work went without a hitch, but I would never have work done again and pay any other way.

Fingers crossed the job gets completed properly, and doesn't take too long. 💐

It just sounds like English tradesmen tbh. More than one job on the go. They'll finish the other job, you'll see a lot of progress on yours, then when they're nearly done, they'll tail off with you whilst they start on another job.
Frustrating!!
We've had a lot of work completed on our house in and out, a lot of the English tradesmen we've had have more than one job on the go, and they don't work long days (9-2 with a lunch break 😂) we had some men in from Europe, and they were here at 7am and we had to ask them to leave at 7pm to put our kids to bed!

Agree it sounds like they are juggling a few jobs and jsut being a bit crap on the timings. You've paid 7k and I wouldn't give any more until you've seen good progress - idk it's usual for everything I've had done to pay in stages for materials and the like and leave a decent balancing payment at the end to ensure that there are not issues?

How can you pay on a credit card when they want bank transfers is it possible? We've got work coming up and I'd like to do that

God I wish I had that problem, my garden would be nearly done by now 🤣 haha

I know the feeling took 8 weeks to remove rubble (not even to dig it up was a pile) level out the sand and lay Astro on top and peg it down 🤦🏼‍♀️ there was no digging or laying type 1 as it was a concrete base and took 8 long ass weeks!

I literally think these builders take on too much work and rather than giving it their all for 1-7 days (or how long the job will take) they will do small bits at each job to keep customers happy! But literally I would of rather waited and for him to complete it in 1/2 days as what it should of, it’s just bizarre how they think that’s sufficient but in the end we had a great result!

I would call and ask him to sit down with you and let him know his plans and next steps and make him aware we’re coming into the warmer months you want to use the garden, let us know the result!

That is exactly what I think they're doing. They're turning up in the morning to show their faces, then dipping off to do other stuff, then coming back here to do a bit more.

They turned up at 8 this morning, dropped off a wacker plate and a cement mixer as the one they were using yesterday broke apparently. Said they were going to get some hardcore. Came back an hour later, dumped the hard core, shovelled a load of sand into the back of their van and then fucked off again, clearly to another job. That was nearly 2.5 hours ago now.

Getting a bit fed up of it now. DH has had numerous conversations with him about the slow progress and the showing up as and when they want and leaving for hours on end with no communication, and he keeps saying the same thing, "we"ll be on this job now until it's done" etc etc. Literally don't know what else we can do to move things along quicker.

Don't understand why you'd not just get all your equipment and materials delivered on site so all this back and forth is not necessary. It's taking hours and hours of the day. It's been 4.5 hours since they first turned up this morning. They could have laid half the patio in that time. But all they've done is dump a couple of wheelbarrows of hardcore down.

Get pictures of all their car/van registration plates.

I remember reading that it was good to have them, lest you employ a cowboy.

You can use the registration to report them to Trading Standards.

So many of these characters are so dishonest and slippery.

That's a good shout, thank you. My ring doorbell has recorded all the vehicles they've come in so I'll make sure to save the videos.

Please put a stop to them buggering off with your materials - the sand etc. It is yours, you have paid in advance for it and it should stay until needed, not 'borrowed' stolen for use on other sites!

Also is the mini digger theirs or is it hired? If it's hired then you are paying for it and it stays with you for the duration it is required, block it in if you have to! That might hopefully focus their attention on your job a bit more.

Good luck OP, I hope you get your lovely new garden, and sooner rather than later.

Thought this was our guy for a minute before you said your location. Our gardener worked for a new build company and between 3 of them got through a crate of cider a day (in the blistering heat), had a post lunch nap in their car (pretty sure they were also doing coke) and took about 3 weeks in between other jobs. However, they were completely sound blokes and we were really pleased. Though with the amount of alcohol in their system I have no idea how our patio was laid so beautifully and evenly 😂

Yes, I am a bit annoyed at them keep taking the sand, as they will obviously need to go and get more for here which is more wasted time. I'm thinking that he hasn't even got all the materials at this point.

They did come back and worked hard tbf, they've made some good progress with the patio. I'm happy with how it looks so far so fingers crossed 🤞

The lowest quote is rarely from the company /individual with the hardest laborers or the highest ethics. Asking for half as a deposit prior to any work being begun is a red flag also. They’ll probably get it done for you, it just won’t be the path of least headaches.