Hi,
A friend of mine hired builders who were working for another friend of his but this friend of mine did not satisfy himself with the quality of work they are doing and hired them to build a porch and fit kitchen just on hearsay. He gave the builders £8000 advance and sent these builders to me to build my porch and toilet.
I also did not see what they have done at my friend's place and thinking that they are reliable and good builders gave them the advance of £3500 against a contract worth £6500.
Then these builders did not appear to be reliable and after digging the foundation of my friend's porch, they left the muck lying around with no skip to take it away.
After the builders left my friend in lurch, then he was worried as to be the genuineness of the builders. My friend visited the Builder's address in Gloucester to talk to the builders why they are delaying his project? Then, the builders brought in some blocks and material for him and that was it.
These builders have put two others known to my friend in the same situation and they have paid the builders sums of £40,000 each.
Hearing all these stories, I became suspicious of the builders and when they sent a team of three on Saturday, 6th August to dig my foundation without any skip to put the dug out material, I told the workers that I do not want a mess in front of my house and they should bring the construction material and the skip before starting the job as the advance was paid against the materials, skip, etc.
They promised to bring in material last Monday/Tuesday 15/16 August but nothing so far and they promised to finish my job within 5 weeks of 27 July.
Now, the builders have disconnected their telephone line that used to have a fax as well and there is no way we can contact them and it seems the address is of a rented house. Mobile phones are not answered. I sent them a Special Delivery Letter on 04 August, 05 demanding my money back but no reply or telephone call.
Now, the facts of the case in a nutshell are:-
The Company is a sole trader and is owned by a person who never visits the sites or signs the contracts but sends workers. The persons representing his company do not have any business cards that they are authorised to sign the contracts and these two representatives are taking money in the name of a private person who claims to be an employee of the company. The signatures of the person signing the contract are also dubious. For example, our cheque was taken in his name on 27 July and presented the very day to be cashed next day from my Abbey National Bank. I did contact this person on his mobile and asked him when would he bring the materials but he made false promises and refused to give his private address saying that he is just an employee of the company/sole trader.
To me the whole thing is a scam and I would like your advise what course of action should I take to recover my money please? How could I find the private address of this private person to sue him for the money please? I have written to the Police of Gloucester but so far I have not heard from them.
This Builder has done no work at my place but in the other cases, he just dug his teeth in to argue his case. Total money involved is around £91,500. The other three being in a deeper waters rang some solicitors in Gloucester for assistance but they claim to be already acting for this Builder.
Trading Standards Officer of Gloucester has been informed for assistance but he says, we should forget about recovering our money. The employees of the Builder who have collected the money already stress that they have not committed any crime and Police cannot touch them.
Rajinder Nijjhar