We are absolutely devastated and heartbroken by our experience with Ultraframe/Hup! and their recommended installer, Michael Sullivan (trading as Eco Build Up Ltd / Eco Possibilities). What began as an exciting project to replace our old conservatory with a modern Hup! extension has turned into a financial and emotional nightmare. We’ve lost tens of thousands of pounds and been left with an unfinished, unsafe building site attached to our home — and a back garden that’s been destroyed.
We found Michael Sullivan through Hup!/ Ultraframe’s “Find an Installer” tool, whereby customers input their information and Hup/Ultraframe pass the details onto one of their installers. We trusted (as many would) that this meant he was vetted, reputable, and aligned with the promises made in Hup!’s marketing and social media such as: “local, reliable, Hup! approved” builders, watertight builds in five days, a seamless single-supplier model, and energy efficiency “five times better than the average home.”
The reality couldn’t have been more different.
From the start, Mr Sullivan was unreliable. His team was frequently absent and he ultimately vanished after being paid 90% of our total build costs. He mismeasured the build and then disappeared entirely — ignoring all contact, including legal letters. His former team told us he had changed address without informing us, and it appears he hasn’t even updated his company details and accounts with Companies House.
Despite Hup!/Ultraframe being fully aware that Mr Sullivan had abandoned the project — and that we had already paid him in full — we were shocked to receive a solicitor’s letter on their behalf stating that he hadn’t paid them for the Hup! materials. The very next working day, we contacted the solicitors to explain the situation. Regardless, within 4 days we were sent debt collectors to our home to demand payment — from us. Even though we had already paid.
Hup!/Ultraframe admitted that Michael Sullivan along with their other builders are not actually “approved” — and that they do not vet the installers they refer onto their customers on their website. This completely contradicts their advertising and public messaging. Throughout this ordeal, their support was minimal at best. It took two months for the technical team to amend the mis measurement issue. They referred us onto two other installers with minimal handover to the installer of the mis-measurement problem - one of whom did not respond and had little availability. The other installer they connected us with quoted £1,000 per day plus travel costs just to assess whether the existing materials were usable — a cost we simply could not afford, especially on top of what we’d already paid or to start again they wanted us to pay the same as the original build costs and that was with Hup/Ultraframe's supposed 'Preferential Discounts.'
Throughout dealing with them since April Hup!/Ultraframe refused to take accountability, and left us with no realistic or affordable way to finish the project.
Hup!/Ultraframe appear to be popping up on social media via glossy ads and have Laura Jane Clarke from BBC’s Your Home Made Perfect as a brand ambassador but when things go wrong, we just found there is no safety net, no accountability, and no real customer protection.
After nearly nine months with Hup! materials in our garden — ruining the grass underneath — we had no choice but to ask Hup!/Ultraframe to come and remove them, just to avoid having to pay even more to dispose of it ourselves.
I've tried to warn others by posting on their social media and outline our experience and seen it gets blocked which makes me wonder if others are out there having similar issues but being blocked as part of the companies way of controlling the narrative?
Ive sought legal advice but to go after the builder but there's so many issues with that as I've read from other posts.
This ordeal has had a such devastating impact on our finances, our health, and our family life. We’ve lost tens of thousands of pounds, had to take time off work due to stress, and pay for storage for a kitchen we still cannot install.
This Hup!/Ultraframe model — which involves referring customers to unvetted third-party installers while taking no responsibility when things go wrong — feels not only flawed, but potentially misleading under consumer protection regulations. I'm worried that there may be many more people falling into this trap?