Episode 34 Cowboy Trap

We're crossing the country

on the hunt for Britain's worst building disasters.

We knew that we'd paid him £22,500 of our money and he was not going to finish that loft conversion for us.

Every day, innocent people are being lured in by cowboy builder tricks

and the next victim could be you.

Then he said, "Cos we know you, this is what I'm prepared to do for you, no extra charge."

And he laid it all out. It looked good. I thought, "Yeah, brilliant!"

We've got a terrific team of professionals on hand to put an end to these bad builder bodges.

Look up.

-Wow!

-Oh...

Oh, how big is that?

Have no fear though, if you arm yourself with my hints,

tips and advice, that should prevent you falling into the Cowboy Trap.

We're in Plymouth to hear one big story with a loud warning,

never to pay your builder before his work is done.

Today's family hit a cash crisis when their bungling builder wrecked their loft and left them in dreadful debt.

Month by month, we're paying legal fees

and still paying off for the emergency and remedial works.

Obviously, we have a big mortgage and it just shouldn't be like that.

This loft conversion was a washout.

There was water pouring through the roof and the bill for emergency builders went sky high.

It's money and not having the money to do things

does tend to cause arguments, and it upsets everyone

and, yeah, it's been a strain.

Today's Cowboy Trap comes from a city with a long naval tradition, Plymouth.

We're here to meet the Turner family.

They live in this three-bedroomed, end-terrace house.

Sam is a school administrator and ex-Navy man Roly is a deputy catering manager.

The couple have two teenage daughters, Amie, 16, and Beth, 14.

Mum, Sam, loves their house and imagines living here for many years to come.

This property is ideal for a lovely family home with two young daughters.

We've lived here for some years now and we envisage living here for

at least 10, 15, 20-plus years in the future, because it would be so lovely with more space.

Cos the girls, obviously, are getting older and we wanted

to give them an extra bathroom and a bit more living space, so they can get the friends over.

They can have sort of sleepovers.

It was two years ago when Sam and Roly finally decided

to take the plunge, even though it meant taking out a much bigger mortgage.

We'd remortgaged the previous summer in order to raise the funds for the loft conversion.

We'd remortgaged for £25,000, which we, at the time, presumed

would be enough money to cover an extra bedroom and a bathroom.

Dad, Roly, was really looking forward to having a bathroom he would only have to share with his wife.

I think anyone that's got three women in the house or two daughters

would understand that it was necessary to have an extra bathroom.

I get my five minutes and that's about it really.

It's a regimental regime in the morning.

There's banging on the doors in the morning and,

"Amie, get out the bathroom!

"You've been in there for 40 minutes."

We're always arguing.

Everyone's got their time slots and if we go over by a matter of seconds or minutes, there's...

Well, it's not pretty.

The Turner family knew exactly what they wanted from their loft conversion -

a new bedroom for Mum and Dad, and a big new family bathroom.

Now all they needed was a builder.

Sam and Roly knew of a local builder through their daughter's friend, so they got him in for a quote.

We had an acquaintance which was a friend of our youngest daughter and we got three people round.

They had a look round, gave us quotes, put the proper quotes in and it happened to be the middle quote.

As we felt that we knew him, we knew that he would do a good job for us.

He had some lovely ideas.

The builder was just starting his own business, but he showed Sam and Roly photos of work he said he'd done

and promised that some extra design features were included in his 24-grand quote.

He'd shown us his portfolio, which looked all great, and we decided to give him a go.

Converting the loft to create a bedroom and bathroom for Mum and Dad would take 12 weeks.

The Turners knew that they shouldn't let the builder start work until they had a signed contract.

The contract stated that the money owed would be paid in instalments.

We paid an initial deposit.

Then we paid two more instalments, quite hefty instalments, in cash.

The Turners handed over lots of money, almost ten grand as a deposit and another seven grand

on the first day of the job.

Although we get told not to pay up front, when you've got small companies, they don't necessarily

have the cash flow that big companies do and it looked above board and normal, so we went ahead.

The Turners were right to insist on a written contract, but they made a common mistake

when they agreed to pay up front.

Take my tip...

The Turners paid up 70% of the money before work even started.

The first month of work went really well.

The builder that we had the contract with started immediately,

as soon as he had the keys, and he had two subcontractors working with him.

Everything was going really, really well. He kept turning up on time. The subcontractors were here.

Progress was as per the schedule.

The first big stage of the job was to push the roof out to form an extended box-like structure called a dormer.

Work got off to a good start and the dormer was erected in no time at all.

Once the dormer had gone up, the buildings regulations were happy

with the steels and the structure and then, after that, unfortunately,

the two subcontractors that the builder had had working with him weren't on site any more.

As soon as the dormer was up, the builder asked Sam and Roly for another five-and-a-half grand.

Now he'd been paid 95% of the money.

Paid the last payment when he said it was 50% complete

and we said, "What's still to do?" and he said, "I've just got to

"put the insulation up and we've got to put the stud walling up and that's it." And he ran through it

and he said, "That's only another two weeks' work and that's it pretty much done."

And now progress slowed down dramatically.

He wasn't at the property as much as he had been. Any work he was doing

was of a sub-standard and we began to be concerned about what was going on up there.

We kept getting fobbed off with, "Yeah, yeah, I've done this," or, "The plumber hasn't turned up,"

or, "The electrician hasn't turned up." And it just kept going on.

We're not professionals but we began to wonder how that was progressing and was it work of a good standard?

About 12, 14 weeks into it, we hadn't actually progressed since the dormer had gone up,

so for about five weeks there was nothing happening at all.

We couldn't see any improvement. Tried to get hold of him. At that point,

we realised something was seriously amiss and, once he'd had

that 95% payment, there's not really a lot we could have done.

Sam and Roly handed over 95% of the cash, 22-and-a-half grand,

but the builder had only done half the job.

It didn't look like he would ever finish.

By week 20, we knew that things weren't going to improve.

We realised, finally, that he wasn't going to complete our loft conversion.

He had no intention of doing so.

We had to give him notice of seven days to terminate the contract.

We were forced to do that and at that point it was heartbreaking because we knew that we had paid

him £22,500 of our money and he was not going to finish that loft conversion for us.

Sam and Roly paid their builder 22-and-a-half grand, mostly in cash.

He said the job would take just two more weeks but, finally, they knew it wasn't true.

They were left with a leaking roof, wet and mouldy plasterboard,

damaged insulation, half a bathroom and nowhere to call a bedroom.

The Turners finally sent the builder packing.

He then took his tools and he started moving the materials from the loft as well.

When we asked him why he was taking materials, he explained that we hadn't actually paid for them.

But their trouble was far from over.

The Turners were about to get a very nasty surprise.

The heavens opened and the true horror of this builder's work was revealed.

The rooflight leaked like a sieve.

The Turners filmed this video two years ago, just after the builder left.

Ah, another sleepless night!

The Turners had to fork out a further £6,000 on emergency remedial work to the leaky windows and walls

and to make sure it wasn't causing further damage anywhere in the home.

After paying to make their home watertight, the Turners were drowning in debt.

Coming up, an expert's damning verdict on this builder's abandoned work.

There are some things he seemingly has finished, but he's finished incorrectly.

So those things have to be taken out and done again.

In Plymouth, Sam, Roly and teenage daughters, Amie and Beth, dreamed of a new loft conversion.

There would be a new bedroom for Mum and Dad, and a new bathroom

to make mornings run more smoothly in the Turner household.

But after taking 95% of their money, the builder completed just half the job.

It's time to see just what the family was left with.

These are the lovely stairs coming up to the new loft conversion.

The job was supposed to take 12 weeks, but the builder abandoned it after week 20.

I can't even bear to be up here.

It's... It just... I don't come up...

I come up as little as possible.

It just upsets me too much to think of what we could have had and what we've now lost.

The Turners have had to pay for remedial work to make the roof structure more secure and watertight.

Here is going to be a storage space and a wardrobe at the front.

Then we would have our sleeping area here and all that would be is just a bed and two bedside tables.

We don't need anything else.

And then the big, nice family bathroom.

The state of this insulation proves the builder was clueless.

It's got marks in it, holes in it, tape over it.

Bits that don't fit properly and have been bodged together.

Scratches.

This guy couldn't even put up a simple internal wall.

He had put up a stud wall

to separate the bathroom from the bedroom, but you could push it and it would have fallen down,

so we had to have that removed

just because moving about up here, it would have fallen down anyway.

The job has transformed family life, but not in the way the Turners hoped.

We thought that within three months of going ahead,

we would be functional with a nice new bedroom, a nice new bathroom.

We immediately picked out new quilt covers and what coloured curtains we were going to have.

Sam and Roly have been camping out up here when relatives come and stay,

but soon they'll be closing it up to get through the winter.

We are using it to a certain degree at the moment but, come the winter,

we're going to have to shut it all down again and put a big board up here because the rest of the house

can't maintain losing its heat for an empty space that's just letting all the heat out.

It's two years since the builder dumped the family in this appalling mess.

He left them deep in debt and there's no easy way forward.

The Turners' hopes and dreams for a bigger family home

were left in despair when their cowboy builder ruined their loft conversion.

Time for me to meet them.

-Hello. You must be Sam. Mind if I come in?

-Absolutely. Come on through.

-Thank you.

Winter is just around the corner. I don't want Sam and Roly boarding up the loft again this year.

We don't have much time, but I hope we can help get them started on that long climb ahead.

What could we do for you in that short space of time

that would help you on the road to be able to live in that space?

Well, because of the fact that during the cold winter months

it had to all be blocked off and was just a dead space.

-To be able to have it insulated, plasterboarded...

-Just liveable.

..and just as a blank canvas would just make us ecstatic.

OK. Well, look,

let me see what I can do. I'd love to do something positive for you guys.

There's a big job ahead before the couple can move up here. The space is one big fridge-freezer in winter.

We've got to replace all the damaged insulation and that's just for starters.

A polythene-like vapour barrier must be installed to protect the insulation from damp

and make the space energy efficient. The electric cabling must be moved

into the right position. That's before we can even think about lining the timbers with plasterboard,

so it starts to look like a room.

You know, Sam and Roly could really do with some help in that loft,

so they can finally use some much-needed space.

So I think it's time to bring on the good guys.

But before the good guys get stuck in, I want to get

the verdict on this builder's work from an independent chartered surveyor.

There are some things he seemingly has finished,

but he's finished incorrectly.

So those things have to be taken out and done again and that's not good enough.

My main objection to him is the contract he entered into.

He said that... At least, I'm told he said,

that 95% of the money was due when 50% of the work was done and that was normal. Well, it's not normal.

The insulation hasn't been properly fitted.

It's not sealed. It's not taped. There's no vapour barrier.

The wiring's been run behind the insulation, which is going to compromise the vapour barrier.

The builder took almost all of the money for only half of the job, so what score does he deserve?

The insulation needs adjusting.

The wiring needs adjusting.

The plasterboard needs finishing.

And overall I would give it five out of ten.

Five out of ten!

In my opinion, that's way more than generous for this cowboy.

Coming up, the Turners' cowboy kicked them three times.

He took their money, messed up the job and cost them a fortune fixing his mistakes.

You've had to fork out then how much for remedial work?

-£6,000.

-On top of?

On top of the 22,500.

The Turner family wanted a loft conversion,

but when they hired a cowboy builder to do the job, they were left with water pouring through the roof.

The bills for emergency work came flooding in and left the family drowning in debt.

Two years on, the roof is fixed, but the loft lies abandoned.

We've got the good guys here now to try and get the family back on track.

Bill is leading our team.

Now, Bill, what's your plan?

What are you going to do here for Sam and Roly?

We're going to finish off the insulation that's not been done,

build a stud wall to form a cupboard area, put a vapour barrier up,

plasterboard all the walls and ceilings in this area and skim plaster finish it.

So how long do you think this job is going to take you to do?

I'm looking at sort of round about the eight days to be finished.

OK. Well, look, I'll do a bit of a catch-up with you later on. But for now, Bill,

-thank you.

-Thanks, Clive.

While the good guys get stuck in insulating the loft against the coming winter, I want to track back

with Sam and Roly and find out how their build went bad.

At what stage do we get to, when the first alarm bell rings?

I think it was literally after the dormer went up and the subcontractors,

who we later found out were the ones that done all the work,

left site and it was left with the main builder and just then everything dried up, didn't it?

What about building inspectors?

Did building inspectors come and have a look?

Yeah, when the dormer went up, the building inspector was so impressed with the work.

It was really professional, everything was above board and he was quite happy just to go ahead

and next time it would be virtually to sign it off, wouldn't it?

It was when we got him back after we sort of got rid of the builder

that everything that was done after that was so substandard

that he was getting quite concerned of other bits that had been done.

He now realises, as you rightly say, Roly,

he's not competent to actually complete that work and he's now getting caught out.

-You decide that you don't want him back any further. Is this what we're saying?

-That's right.

Yeah, he put his final invoice in after that...well, before that...

and asked for another £4,500 on top.

-We asked could we have the reasons why...

-A breakdown.

Yeah, a breakdown of your costs, which was very sketchy.

We wanted to know where this money was going. If he could justify it, yeah, fine.

But he was charging us for his own labour to come in and work weekends.

Now he was the one that gave us the quote for his work,

so he couldn't really ask us for any more money for his overtime.

Not a chance! But he was going to chance his arm though, because you were prepared to do things

like pay money up front and probably turn a blind eye occasionally

to work that might've been substandard, but you're hoping to get the job finished and completed.

Was it your decision?

Did you make that decision to say, "You're not coming back"?

-We did, didn't we?

-Yeah.

Sam and Roly did everything by the book.

There's a right way to terminate a contract and a wrong way.

Take my advice, don't just throw your bad builder off the job.

Sam and Roly gave their bad builder seven days' notice to complete or quit. He gave them

another week of misery. He hacked a hole in the roof and fitted a skylight. The heavy rain

was final proof his work was no good.

The Velux window that was fitted virtually just before termination of contract,

you could see daylight all the way around it.

At the end of the seven days' notice, the builder came back one final time to collect his tools.

He started removing the materials from the loft as well.

When we asked him why he was taking materials, he explained that we hadn't actually paid for them.

The builder had even more surprises in store. He hadn't bothered

to fit any roof tiles to the dormer and the rain poured in there, too.

We had to get an emergency roofer in as well to come and do that.

Fortunately, the scaffolding company contacted us the day that we terminated the contract

just to double check that the work hadn't been finished

because they got contacted and got told to remove all the scaffolding.

The cowboy was taking his revenge everywhere.

The bath that he said he'd actually installed, we used twice

and then realised that the plumbing wasn't plumbed in

and we found that out when all the water come out on to the landing.

The builder even told the firm of electricians to refund him

the money he'd charged the Turners to do the wiring.

We did the first fix as he requested.

Obviously, we were then meant to call back

to do a second fix at a later date.

This never materialised and some six months later

I actually had a phone call to come and do the second fix on the house.

When I arrived the house was in uproar. I mean, everything, as you saw it, was in a terrible mess.

There were no ceilings, no plaster, no walls.

The cables had been all cut and damaged. And at that time,

the builder was here and, obviously, there had been a fall-out between him and the clients downstairs.

He then asked us not to come back and do the second fix,

but in fact to give him some money back, which, as we had a contract with him, we had to do so.

The builder wreaked havoc wherever he could,

even though he was once a family friend. He'd had 22-and-a-half grand, but the Turners' bill kept on rising.

Well, unfortunately, we discovered that the dormer cheeks had been left exposed to the elements

during a very wet summer for the whole time that the dormer had been up

to the time when we terminated the contract - a total of 13 weeks.

So, of course, water was penetrating into the house

and we had to have emergency works done...

There was no waterproof membrane installed.

The insulation was put in at such poor standard, you could put your hand through it

-between the gaps.

-Yeah.

-It wasn't even worth having.

-No.

We were fortunate that we had a sound structure, but everything thereafter had something wrong.

There wasn't one completed job.

The insulation wasn't complete. The plasterboard that had been used

was mouldy because it had been left outside for so long.

You've had to fork out then how much for the remedial work?

-£6,000.

-On top of?

-On top of the 22,500.

-This is what people have to realise. It's the cost of repairing the work these guys do.

-Absolutely. Yeah.

How was it for you guys when you realised he's not coming back,

you've got to fork out another six grand for remedial works,

you're looking around the debris that's up in that loft space? What is your reaction?

We went down and saw Citizens Advice. We went to a mediation service, didn't we,

to try and keep all the lines open? Try to keep him on side, just to get the money back to finish the job.

The money we forked out on emergency works, we were quite happy to let that go just to get the job done.

-Cos getting the job done was the main priority, but we had no joy at all, did we?

-No.

Emotionally, we were heartbroken, drained, just devastated.

Could not believe that anyone could do this to us when we'd thought that nothing could go wrong,

that he was an acquaintance that promised us the earth and just didn't deliver.

Coming up, now deep in debt, the Turners decide it's payback time for their bad builder.

We decided that actually the builder had taken our money and we wanted it back.

We're in Plymouth helping the Turner family put their bad builder behind them.

Two years ago, they had their loft converted. Water poured into the house

when the builder failed to fix the roof tiles and rain ruined all the plasterboard. But our team

of good guys is on the job now. We need to strip out the wet and mouldy

insulation material, re-lay the electric cables and re-insulate the walls and ceilings

to comply with building regulations.

Then we need to line the walls with new plasterboard.

We're going to build a small stud wall to separate the area under the eaves into a big storage cupboard.

Bill and Joe are measuring up. Stud walls are a quick way of separating

interior spaces and relatively easy to build.

Now, Joe, look, you're doing for Sam and Roly, segregating a room off with a stud wall.

Explain what a stud wall is and what it does.

-Well, basically, what you'll do... This is your header plate.

-Yep.

This is your base plate down here.

This will be nailed to the ceiling, that one nailed to the floor,

-with these nailed in-between...

-Yep.

-..which you'd plasterboard to.

To provide stability, you put these noggins in the middle,

which would stop the wall from flexing. Then you plasterboard

-over the top and you've got your separation.

-Fantastic!

While Joe gets the new stud wall installed inside the loft,

it's time to find out what Sam and Roly did after their builder left.

After terminating the contract, we realised that the emergency works and the remedial works

were going to cost some money and we were forced to take out an additional loan, in addition

to the remortgaging that we'd done. So we had to take out a loan for £6,000.

The bills just kept on piling up.

The cowboy hit them not once, not twice, but three times.

He took all their mortgage money, wrecked their home and, when they were down,

he through them deep into debt to pay for his damage.

It was spiralling out of control, cos it was one thing and another.

We'd managed to make the roof watertight, or the loft watertight,

but it still wasn't useable. There was no membranes inside, there was no insulation.

It was coming up for wintertime and all we could do was block it off

with some insulation and leave it until the spring.

Sam dreads the arrival of winter because it's another painful reminder of their lack of progress.

It's absolutely tragic at the end of each summer to have to block it off for the winter because, of course,

it's not insulated so it's an unusable space completely.

The financial burden has been a big strain on family life.

No holidays since then, not even sort of weekend breaks or anything.

We just piled everything into trying to get as much work done as possible.

It's caused lots of arguments and there's times where like Mum and Dad have been upset

for days because we've had like a phone call saying something's gone wrong, or just everything really.

There's been no ups, it's all been downs.

But the Turners did strike back. Once the emergency work was done, they decided on their next move.

Once we had exhausted all possibilities of finding finances to be able to complete the loft,

we decided that actually the builder had taken our money

and we wanted it back, so we sought legal advice

and went ahead to try and reclaim our money through the legal process.

Sam and Roly were advised by the Citizens Advice Bureau to contact

the National Mediation Helpline, which they did.

Going to mediation can provide a very successful alternative to taking your builder to court.

Mediators bring the parties together to discuss their dispute on neutral ground.

It enables both parties to express their feelings,

their views, their opinions in a controlled environment

where a mediator will actually police the opening statements

and encourage both sides to reply but stop people interrupting each other.

So it should be a reasonably calm exchange. Sometimes it can become

heated and then there's always the option of splitting the parties.

And the mediator discusses the issues then individually with each party

and tries to encourage them to come to a common agreement.

If you're in dispute and can't communicate with your builder,

try what Sam and Roly did and attempt to go down the mediation route.

There are lots of advantages over going straight to court.

Here's my Clive's five top tips on how to enter into mediation with your builder.

Over 80% of mediations are successful.

And the process has impressive results.

Each party gets to express their view

and the mediator helps them find common ground.

In certain circumstances, mediation can be free.

..rather than take up court time.

If you do have to pay, you and your builder go 50-50.

Mediation fees start at around £500.

The agreement you reach can be enforceable by law.

If you can't get your builder to go to mediation, your only option is to take them to court.

If you did nothing, you may not get your costs, even if you win the case.

The National Mediation Service contacted Sam and Roly's bad builder on their behalf,

but he didn't want to know.

They were left with no option but to take him to court.

Coming up, what would Sam and Roly like to say to their builder now?

Why did he feel the need to do to us what he did?

What did we do to him that made him feel that way about us?

In Plymouth, we're helping a family who fell deep into debt

after their builder bodged their loft conversion. They used credit cards

and loans to call in emergency roofers,

scaffolders and plumbers to make their home watertight. Two years on,

and they can't afford to get the conversion looking anything like

the bedroom and bathroom they'd planned. Sam and Roly

tried everything to get their builder to carry on talking but, in the end, they had to take him to court.

And so it had cost you £6,000 on the remedial works. How much did it cost you to go to court?

The solicitors and the court fees, to date, are approximately £8,000.

We've done a lot of paying month by month so far.

-We're still 3,000... We're paying in monthly instalments.

-Wow!

-You're now looking at £14,000 over the top of what you've already paid.

-That's right.

-That is such a lot of money.

-I know.

-But your joy is in the fact that the judge said he awards you how much?

Just over £20,000. That was to cover the money that the builder had taken initially,

but for having only done half the job,

-the legal and the court fees...

-Emergency repairs.

-..and the emergency and remedial works.

Have you seen any money from that and has anybody done a structure of how he's going to pay you back the money?

We haven't seen any money to date.

It was deemed that he was now unemployed and so was not going to be able to pay the £20,000.

So he went to court again to present his assets

and he was told that he could pay us £5 a week.

-We still haven't seen that.

-I think it was a 14-day deadline, wasn't it,

to pay the full amount, which came and went.

And then it was left up to us again to do something about it.

And we chose to get him into court to show his assets, which cost us, again.

So they served him with that. He didn't turn up and then it was left in our court again.

So we had to pay again to serve notice on him again and he never turned up again.

And then, I think it was the third time... And I think it was £100 a time to have this done.

I think he actually turned up on the third account.

-But that was like three, four months after the case was finished.

-Mm.

Do you believe, looking back, that the law itself

sort of weighs in the favour of the bad guy

-as opposed to the good guy with the way that it's all turned out for you?

-Absolutely.

The law is toothless, cos they can award you this money but then you've got nothing to back it up with.

And they don't pursue it.

It definitely favours the criminal because he's walked away with all of our money.

He's managed to get rid of it all somehow,

claiming to be unemployed and we're left with nothing and worse.

Yeah, any other business that would be theft.

The Turners paid their builder 22-and-a-half grand.

They spent another six grand on emergency repairs

And then eight grand more on legal fees.

They've spent £36,500 on a loft conversion that isn't even finished.

The builder is paying them nothing, but they're paying off their legal bill at £100 a month.

Sam and Roly's solicitor says they may get the money back one day.

You have six years from the date of the judgment to enforce that.

Although he may not have any money at the moment,

or have any money or means of paying the judgment at the moment,

that's not to say he won't be able to pay it in the future

and that judgment will remain valid for six years.

And at a later date, if they wanted to take a range for enforcement options like bailiffs

or a charging order over his property, then that's a possibility.

Sam and Roly's best friends have supported them through the ordeal.

They can't believe the court can do so little to bring the builder to justice. He's only supposed to pay

£5 a week, yet they lost thousands.

They're going to be 85 by the time he would repaid them the money.

-What a pointless situation that is.

-Yeah.

You just find it hard to believe that they paid thousands of pounds in legal costs to get him to court

and get a decision and then to find out that that all meant nothing.

And, OK, they were going to get paid like for however many years

but they were never ever going to get that original work done and they were left with a huge bill,

and solicitors' fees and they couldn't afford to put right the mess that he'd made.

It's not justice, is it? I wonder what Sam and Roly would like to say to their builder now?

Sam, Roly, normally at this stage we would be talking about phoning the builder,

but in your case it's gone a little bit further than that, because you've taken him to court.

If you had an opportunity to speak to him, even if he was sitting opposite us right now,

what are the questions - say, for instance, you've got one main one each -

what are the questions you'd like to put to him?

-Why?

-I would say, why did he feel the need to do to us what he did?

What did we do to him that made him feel that way about us that he had no intention

of finishing our loft conversion and had every intention of taking our money in the process?

What about you, Roly?

Just why or how he can actually...

well, sleep at night really knowing that he's done this to us? If he's done it to anyone else.

If he has, I really feel sorry for them.

I would always recommend that everyone does a lot of background stuff before they get engrossed

in the euphoria of knowing what they hope they're going to achieve in the future.

So don't get carried along on, "Yes, we're going to have this lovely extension or loft conversion!"

or whatever it may be. Make sure that, you know,

everything, all the groundwork, is done first way before any of that excitement.

Sam and Roly have shared a very valuable

and hard-won lesson. They hope their story can help others.

Coming up, I can't wait to show them there are good guys out there.

Look up.

-Wow!

-Oh!

Oh, how big is that?

Our work is almost done in Plymouth. It's been a tough two years in the Turner family home.

No holidays, no family treats, just debts, after their cowboy builder crushed their dreams.

The loft conversion was bare rafters and damaged insulation when we arrived a week ago.

Our team has been hard at work getting as much done as possible,

so Sam and Roly don't have to board up the entrance again this winter.

There's just time for me to have a sneak preview of the surprise we've got in store for them.

I tell you what, Bill, what a difference this has made.

It's amazing what a bit of timber and studwork can do. Just talk us through exactly what you've done.

We've been putting insulation in the walls and ceilings.

We've been putting a vapour barrier around the exterior of the property.

We've then put plasterboard on the walls, skimmed the walls

and given it a couple of coats of paint to make it look pretty.

-It's top job and, I'll tell you now, they'll definitely appreciate it, mate. Well, played, Bill.

-Thanks.

While the guys carry on with the final touches,

fitting the skirting boards and storage cupboard door,

I want to find out what Sam and Roly will take away from their experience.

Now, in terms of having this painful bite from the cowboy builder,

what have you learned? What lessons have you learned?

I think research is the main thing. Don't take them for granted.

Don't just look at their portfolio. Go knocking on the doors, get references.

Just go and check them out and see what they've actually done is what they've actually done

and they've not just borrowed it off somebody else.

And also don't just rely on the fact that you think that you know them, because you don't always know them.

Now, before we take a look at what the good guys have done...

This is always the bit that really excites me, especially after all the bad news.

..just remind me about what it was like before we arrived.

It was an empty, bare, cold shell. There was mouldy plasterboard up in places.

There was very little insulation.

-It looked cold and dank and very unfinished.

-Just unusable, unsafe.

-Yeah.

What are you hoping for?

Just a usable space. Just a living space, so we can get back to normal

-and start doing the stuff that we're supposed to have been doing.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

A blank canvas that's going to be insulated and warm so that we can carry on.

-So my next question is, are you ready?

-Yes!

-Definitely.

-Shall we go?

-Yes.

-Come on, follow me.

'There's been a big transformation up here since Sam showed us around

'a week ago. I can't wait to see their reaction.'

Now then, look up.

-Wow!

-Oh!

Oh, how big is that and how fresh?

Look, the mirror's up and everything.

-Storage.

-Oh, look at that.

Door's on.

-Oh, that is fantastic. Look at that. Oh...

-Have a look.

Don't go locking her in though!

-What was that like?

-Oh, that's fantastic.

-Do you remember all what that was like?

It was just open...open beams, wasn't it? There was nothing.

There wasn't anything. You can't describe what it was like.

There was nothing there and now look at it. Oh, it's fabulous.

You've also got the electrics sorted, so you've got a new RCD fuse board been put in,

all the second fixes have been done, sockets. You've got your

zone one lighting up there as well, which is steam resistant and moisture resistant.

-Your mirror, as you rightly say, is on.

-I love it!

-Your Hollywood mirror.

-Yeah!

You've also got a smoke alarm system that's been put in, too, which has to been done

when you're doing conversions or any extensions like that, so it meets the regulations.

It's been a huge job to transform this loft

from bare rafters into bedroom and bathroom.

There is some more work required to completely separate the two areas,

but now the loft is fully insulated and warm and Sam and Roly

can finally sleep up here.

There are some very important things that can't be seen. The vapour barrier

is in place to prevent damp and the electrics have all been second fixed.

Our team built a low stud wall to separate off the area under the eaves to create valuable storage.

At a later date, a second stud wall will be required to separate the bedroom from the bathroom.

The bathroom is fully functioning, the toilet cistern boxed in

and a smart new mirror fixed above the basin. After that,

it's all in the finish. The plasterboard has been skimmed,

skirtings fitted and then all the walls and ceiling have been decorated.

It's a total transformation, even better than the blank canvas Sam and Roly hoped for.

-What sort of difference is this going to make to your life?

-Oh, unbelievable.

Unbelievable. It's going to be warm. It's going to be a space that we can use.

-It's usable.

-Yeah. It means that we...

-I can have a bath!

..we move out the way and the girls can grow up and move into spaces that they should have had.

Are you pleased? Are you guys pleased?

-Oh, more than...

-I can't say how brilliant this is.

-Superb.

-Thank you.

The Turners really have been through the mill with this loft conversion,

but we've lent a helping hand and now, finally, they can use that lovely space.

Remember to always consider the cost implications of taking your cowboy builder to court.

But, hopefully, you won't get caught in the cowboy trap.

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