Help!! Builder has done a runner with my money

[CamdenTownie]

Hey everyone,

Just after some advice really, we started a big project with a builder back at the end of February. We found him on my builder and he had good reviews etc met him a few times and had great discussions about our plans etc.

Anyway he started out ok with the footings etc we paid him 25% of the cost up front and had the ground works done, he asked for more money and we paid him, brick layers started and the work became very slow, we were both at work from very early until 7pm so didn't see anyone but could tell that not much was happening with regards to the work that was planned.

Basically he's had £110,000 from us ( that's not the whole amount we agreed at the start, but a huge chunk) and is now completely avoiding us and practically ghosting us, ignoring calls and messages, every time he's supposed to be here he has a family emergency or is away for a few days etc, he told us previously that he's paid for windows, internal and external doors roof lantern, roof tiles and all carpentry plus other stuff. The last few times he's asked for more money I've had to refuse and insist that he gets the current jobs completed first.

In the last month we've had about two half days of work done. He keeps promising that bricks are being delivered but they never show up.

He lives fairly local to us and I just can't understand why he would behave like this. I've since found out that he hasn't paid any of the tradesmen, brickies, groundwork's or carpenters, even though he's taken over £100000 from us. He gave break downs of where all the money was supposed to be going and I paid him by bank transfer.

He is registered at his home address as a limited company, and I'm terrified that this means that not only will I never get the building works completed but that I can't claim against him if he simply decides to fold the company.

At the moment we are living on a building site which is stressful enough, but the reason for the extension was because my husband has numerous health conditions and needs easy access accommodation with a wet room etc. I can't even let my dog out into the garden because it's not safe.

There's no way I can afford to get the work completed by someone else as I had to double my mortgage to get the money to pay for this work, equally I can't face living like this for the long term.

Does anyone have any advice, obviously I know in hind sight I shouldn't have handed over so much money, I trusted this guy because he seemed so professional and had good reviews on my builder but has since deleted his account with them.

I don't even know what I'd say to him if he did show up, I'm so upset and dh really doesn't need all this added stress as he has so much to deal with at the moment with his health.

If you've got this far thanks 🙏

I do think the building industry is scarily unregulated unless it’s business-to-business. I guess it’s part of our ‘buyer beware’ laissez-faire history.

I think I’d be making it quite clear that if he didn’t discuss this with me now he might find himself discussing it on his wedding day, in front of all his guests

The thing I'm finding difficult to accept is that say, for instance, he asked me for £5000 to buy internal doors, I pay him the money and he doesn't buy the doors but books himself a holiday with that money, how can that be ok? How is it that he as an individual who made that decision isn't accountable?

I can't even begin to explain how I'm feeling at the moment, no idea what's going to happen, especially as I've got a half built house at the moment and nowhere near the money I'll need to get it completed.

If you can prove he’s been deliberately fraudulent this article suggests that you can go after his personal assets and he can even be imprisoned. Please speak to your solicitor about it and if you don’t think the solicitor is knowledgeable enough don’t think twice about changing

www.realbusinessrescue.co.uk/articles/uk-company-law/understanding-phoenix-company-fraud-and-consequences-for-directors

I'm so sorry you are going through this. We've just been through this with a builder on a much smaller scale. It's awful ,not just from the financial aspect ,but also the emotional side of things. I feel like my home has been tainted and I can't even look at the things that were finished nicely without wishing we'd never got involved with him.

I hope you find a way to resolve this somehow.

Thanks bumblenut, I'm so grateful for the advice from this forum, I can't think of anything else at the moment and I'm trying to be strong for dh and the kids.

My daughter was excitedly chatting about her new bedroom this morning and I just didn't know what to say to her, how do I tell her that she probably won't get her own room and the nice man who was doing the work has left us high and dry?

I'm looking at the absolute dump that we are currently living in, the entire site is a complete state, can't use the garden at all because it's covered in rubble and building materials that have been discarded. I look out of my window onto a breeze block wall that's half complete.

I know I'm probably just feeling sorry for myself but I'm just gutted.

@AngelsWithSilverWings - that's just how I'm feeling, you know how you wish you'd never set eyes on someone and they've literally destroyed you. He knew the circumstances as to why we wanted the work done and he knows my dh is unwell, so selfish.

Life will go on I guess and worse things happen, but at the moment I'm at a loss and have no idea how I can trust any tradesman to do the wrk without turning me over x

Is he a member of the federation of master builders? If so I would contact them as well as they might be able to help.

Have you got legal cover with your home insurance that might be able to use?

(You did inform your insurers of the work, didn’t you?)

If he’s local and has recommendations it might not be as bad as you think - lazy/disorgsnised rather than outright their. Maybe a strongly worded letter from a knowledgeable solicitor outlining you will utilise all avenues to pursue him including criminal fraud punishable by imprisonment unless he refunds or completes the work might be enough to kick his arse into gear.

Take that sucker down CamdenTownie.

That's my next step bumblenut I've spoken to a solicitor and she's taking over correspondence from now on because he's basically ghosted us, initially sent texts emails and WhatsApp messages, as well as phone calls but contact over the last month has become non existent and he's now completely stopped answering calls or any kind of messages.

He probably knows he's untouchable and can get away with it so what's he got to lose? My guesstimate is the work he's done doesn't total any more than £25000 and I've paid him £110000, he hasn't paid any of the tradesmen and has repeatedly said that that there is a problem getting the specific bricks that we want which is why there has been a hold up, but I think it's more than likely that he hasn't paid his trade account and so can't get more from the original place.

Nightmare.

That's a horrible situation to be left in.

I hope you nail the bastard!

This happened to me too, also a builder that I found on mybuilder.co.uk . I don't have time to tell my story right now but wanted to post a few bits of advice in the few minutes I have.

1 Yeah it is a criminal matter. Gobsmacking that a PP on this thread isn't aware of the offence of fraud not to mention other consumer protection offences that this guy has probably committed. In my experience Trading Standards will be more useful than the police.

2 It isn't true that having a limited company means those behind the company can get away with this. Fraudulent trading is an offence and the directors of the company can be held personally liable for the company's debts if fraudulent trading is identified (typically by a liquidator).

3 You need legal advice. Check your home insurance to see if you have legal expenses cover. Are you a member of a trade union? Sometimes membership includes legal expenses cover. CAB may have useful advice. Also you could try your local law centre / similar services that offer free legal advice.

Our builder ripped off a whole load of people that found him on mybuilder.co.uk . Trading Standards, the police and HMRC are all pursuing him. His company is being wound up and I've provided all my evidence of his fraudulent trading to the Official Receiver. Given the amount he owes I'm not hopeful of recovering a penny but Trading Standards say he will go to prison.

Your situation might not be as bad as mine (although you're owed much more money than we were so it could be worse). I think the key thing is to act quickly, get decent legal advice and put pressure on him ASAP.

Subject to what your solicitor says I’d be collecting any evidence I could of his extravagant lifestyle - Facebook screenshots of cars, holidays etc if you have access to them. Once he knows you’re on to him he’s liable to shut his cyber footprint down.

A few more thoughts:

Our builder's excuse for the delay was the steelwork. With hindsight I wish I had asked him where he was getting the steel from and spoken to them directly (because it was all lies). Do you know where he is trying to get the bricks from? I would speak to them directly or just call some builder's merchants and find out for yourself if there's any truth in the delay.

Try asking mybuilder why his listing has been taken down. Another customer posted a review of our builder saying that he was a crook and explaining what was going on. We then got the listing taken down because we didn't want him to rip anyone else off.

Do you know any of his other customers? Speak to them to find out what's going on. Similarly his sub-contractors and builder's merchants. Our builder was ripping people off left right and centre including builder's merchants. Be careful about people offering to finish the work though - it's a known scam for related contractors to step in and rip off the victim for a second time.

It goes without saying but don't under any circumstances pay him any more money. Our builder kept lying to us and pressurising us into paying more and more - he always had a reason. All lies. You shouldn't pay up front for labour. Only pay for materials when they're required - not in advance. After what's happened to us I would buy all materials myself directly with builder's merchant. Has your builder delivered any of these materials you've paid for? Ours didn't.

I really feel for you, particularly when you mention about your daughter. We have three little children and we're still finishing our extension now. Explaining to them that our nice friendly builder was actually a bad guy who stole our money is horrible. We're in touch with 12 other victims of our builder all of whom lost tens of thousands of pounds.

Our builder is from Wiltshire and we're in Berkshire. If you think it could be the same guy PM me. I can't name him here while legal proceedings are ongoing but will be splashing his name everywhere once they're over!

All of this is very much secondary to the legal advice and action though. Do that ASAP now. Don't delay.

I forgot to say - I actually came on here to post on one of the Mumsnet sponsored posts about mybuilder.co.uk to tell people about my experience. I can't find them now and found your thread instead!

One of the things I've learnt about mybuilder.co.uk since I used them is that our dodgy builder's wife wrote a review on mybuilder.co.uk about her family's construction company - that's how much you can trust the reviews on there. Our builder had a load of good reviews. I imagine they're written by friends and family.

Their advertising should be more honest about how little protection they offer to people using their site. Their "vetting" process is next to worthless and they offer no guarantee/insurance/protection of any kind.

The way the reviews work means that people who have had a bad experience don't often leave bad reviews. The builder I used has ripped off at least a dozen other mybuilder.co.uk customers and only ONE of them had left a negative review. One of them was suing him for £45k and still hadn't left a bad review!!!

The truth is it's a crapshoot as to whether you get a "trusted tradesperson" or not.

I am sorry you have been a victim of fraud. It has happened to many of us and we kick ourselves afterwards for being so trusting. Problem is that we build up a relationship with these people and do not dream that they are planning to steal large amounts of money from us!
To be honest I don't trust any of these "find a great builder" sites and the worst one - the one that crops up over and over again unfortunately is "My Builder". Ultimately they are all money making advertising sites.
The only one I will use is Trusted Trader. They are run by Which magazine and thoroughly vetted.
I wish you strength and luck in getting some justice.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5787628

Is ‘checkatrade’ a decent website for finding good tradespeople, or is it a dodgy one?

Sorry, read some of the link provided which seems to think chrckatrade is ok, but not as thorough as trustedtrader for vetting people.

I think you are taking a walk into the unknown with any of these sites. It's just luck! But trusted trader is thoroughly vetted so stand a much better chance (they are more expensive though as they are proper professionals with all the relevant docs/insurances etc).

Bumblenut - my understanding of checkatrade is that the trader themselves vet their own reviews - that's why they're all so well rated on there!! Ridiculous.

Key things my awful experience has taught me:

• Use someone local - it's a huge red flag when people on these sites are travelling a long way to your job. Ask yourself why?

• Don't use any of these website - get recommendations of local builders. If you can't get recommendations from friends and family ask colleagues. Best of all - do you know anyone in the trade? If you know a roofer, ask him to recommend a builder etc. They will know who the good guys are.

• Get references from the builder and actually go and speak to the people and see the work so that you know it is real (or at least have more of a chance of discovering this).

• Ask to go and see a site they're currently working on and speak to those people.

• Carry out a Companies House search on them - both their company name and their own name as a director. Have they been a director of any companies previously? If so, what happened to them. Our dodgy builder had done this before with previous limited companies which you could see had been wound up by suppliers/customers etc. This is all free on the Companies House beta site.

• Carry out a search against them personally for any CCJs and against their previous addresses too. Really easy to do online for a small cost. I can't remember the website at the moment but use the official one.

• Do not, I repeat DO NOT, pay lots of money up front. Offer to buy the materials yourself directly from the builder's merchant. If you have to pay a deposit, make sure it is just for materials and make sure those materials are delivered to site.

• Agree a payment schedule at the outset that does not involve paying for labour up-front. Labour should be paid for once complete.

Don't let them bullsit and pressurise you into departing from the payment schedule to pay more money because "x" wants paying or he needs to buy "y". This is what our guy did literally within days of agreeing the payment schedule.

• Ask loads of questions. If something doesn't feel right, don't let it go. Speak to suppliers directly - preferably face to face.

We found some really nice local tradespeople to finish our extension. They all said that our mistake was in paying up-front. Just never pay up-front. Pay as the work goes along. That is the normal way of doing things. People who ask for loads of money up front are sometimes/often crooked.

Definitely talk to local trading standards about the builder and ask for advice.

Not sure if you mentioned about whether or not yourhouse insurance includes legal insurance but if it does - use them for free advice and letters etc too.

Definitely go and stand up at the wedding when they do the bit about 'anyone having any reason why these two shouldn't get married' to say that they have stolen your money to pay for the wedding instead of building the building they were paid to build, left the place a dangerous building site which is appalling to live in for kids and your ill husband and that as they are evil cheats they shouldn't be allowed to get married.

Also love the idea of ringing up any suppliers that you know of saying that you are trying to get hold of them as they owe you so much money and that if they have money to pay for the wedding then they need to pay you back first or alternatively if they haven't yet been paid they need to protect themselves.

How are you doing OP? Hope you're ok

This is the sort of thread you actually want the Daily Mail to find.