Episode 5 Cowboy Trap


Episode 5

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Transcript


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Did you know that bodging builders, dodgy decorators and cheeky chippies

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cost UK home-owners tens of millions of pounds every year?

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They received an enormous amount of our money and they just took off.

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I'll show you some of the tricks these con men use to get their hands on your hard-earned cash.

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I didn't sleep for wondering whether they were going to put bricks through the windows.

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For a little while, I was really anxious about what was going to happen.

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My experts will put right the damage and give the people their homes back.

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-It's brilliant. Thank you.

-Jolly good.

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I'll be giving loads of advice and tons of tips to prevent YOU from falling into the cowboy trap.

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Today, we're in Tonbridge, Kent, with the Kitchens family.

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Despite their apt name, it wasn't a new kitchen they wanted. They dreamed of a luxury bathroom,

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complete with spa bath and a smart brick-built garage with secure store outside.

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What they've been left with is half-finished blockwork and an abandoned bathroom.

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Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.

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We bought this place to be a home and it's not really a home any more.

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It's just bricks and mortar.

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Michael and Susie are both Embassy staff,

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but there was nothing diplomatic about the way their cowboy builders left them.

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They pretended everything was fine.

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They didn't ever front up and say, "We're going to have to start this bit again"

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or "we've bought the wrong thing" or "we've cut your tiles all wrong".

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It was, "Everything's fine, we'll fix it," and then they just disappeared.

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And in Grimsby, we'll be paying a visit to student nurse and single mum Carla Siviter.

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We'll be much better behaved than the pretend plasterers

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who spread their mix on almost every surface imaginable, except the walls and ceiling they were booked to fix.

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They were just con men, really.

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They just slapped a bit of plaster on the wall

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and didn't know what they were doing.

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And we'll discover cowboys aren't only cack-handed, they can be con men and criminals, too.

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I was pregnant and really frightened. They said they would put the windows through and make us pay the money.

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I was petrified!

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But first up, we're in Tonbridge, Kent, with Michael and Susie Kitchens

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and their children Tamira and Tyson.

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They wanted to re-model the family home and rent it out

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because mum Susie has an exciting new posting at the British Embassy in Tanzania.

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They dreamed of building a luxury bathroom inside and a new garage and storeroom outside

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to keep their belongings safe.

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We started thinking about what we were going to do and putting in a nice bathroom.

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The old one was serviceable, but we wanted a bit of glamour and we knew we'd let the house out eventually

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and a nice bathroom is attractive to people.

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The bathroom was to be updated with a luxury spa bath with shower and screen.

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In the garden, the old garage was demolished,

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ready to be replaced with a modern brick-built structure

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to provide posh parking and a secure storeroom.

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We were going to have a concrete base, then a garage with a storage area built on at the back,

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so we can leave our furniture there and have the garage for our tenants.

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With only six months to complete the work before the big move,

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Susie and Michael had to call in the professionals.

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Michael spent a lot of time doing the research on it on the internet and talking to people.

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We got everything approved through the council that had to be done,

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found the builders, took up references on them

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and after a lot of delay, eventually got started.

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It wasn't without hiccup, but it was chugging along and then it all stopped.

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For a new garage, store and luxury family bathroom,

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Michael and Susie handed over £17,000 up front.

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Just two and a half weeks after work started, the cowboy con artists fled.

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I find it hard to believe that they were actually builders now.

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I think they were just fraudsters pretending to be real builders.

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They received an enormous amount of our money and they just took off.

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When the builders came, two of them in particular who were here most of the time,

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they seemed really nice, they talked about their kids, they chatted with my kids.

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Tamira made her first ever cup of tea for someone that wasn't family when she made tea for the builders,

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so I thought that they were working with us,

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and now, looking back, I can see they were working against us the whole time,

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just out to make money from us. And that is disappointing.

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Rogue tradespeople don't just hurt you in the pocket, they hurt you here, too. Here's a tip.

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Beware of builders who want to talk, not work.

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They may only be busy working out how to relieve YOU of your cash

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before THEY take to the hills.

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Three months after these cowboys disappeared into the sunset, time ran out for the Kitchens family.

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Susie had to start her new job at the British Embassy in Tanzania,

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so she, Tamira and Tyson had no option but to pack their bags and head off to Africa without Michael.

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Her mum describes how that felt.

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It was a lot of stress on them.

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Susie's got to start a new job in a new country,

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set up her house on her own

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and have two children and start them off at school and everything.

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She should've had her husband going out with her to help with all that,

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but he's had to sort out all this kerfuffle with the builders.

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Michael's been left behind to sort out the problems with the property

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while his wife and children have gone to another country.

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'Let's take a closer look at just what's caused all the heartache.'

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-Is it Michael?

-Yes.

-Hi, I'm Clive.

-Pleased to meet you.

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-I hear you've had some bad boy builders in town.

-Yes.

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Would you show me the work they've done, or not, as the case may be?

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'The Kitchens wanted a new garage and furniture store built out the back.

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'Well, I can see something has been started, but it doesn't look good.'

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I tell you what, Michael. I am not loving that block wall at all. It looks terrible.

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Their work was really shoddy at best,

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but what was your original plan for this area here?

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This was supposed to be a storage room here

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and the front part was going to be the garage area.

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-Made of blockwork?

-That wasn't the original idea.

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The builder changed it to blockwork because he said it had more thermal value.

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'Here's the bad news. The cowboys didn't protect the blocks from the damp

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'and they'll have to be demolished,

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'but at least this eyesore is at the bottom of the garden.

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'Inside the house, the Kitchens also hoped for a glamorous new bathroom.

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'Let's see what they've been left with.'

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It's certainly compact and bijou in here. What was the plan and what have the builders done here so far?

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So far, as you can see, they completely stripped...

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-They've taken out everything that was here before.

-Yeah.

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-They've cut a soil pipe.

-Oh!

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Now, that's not good. That's the old cast-iron stack.

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-Does that feed...?

-To another toilet.

-OK, so that's actually live then.

-Yes.

-That's got traffic.

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'The soil pipe is the bit that carries all the waste from the toilet to the sewer.

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'It's sometimes known as a stench pipe and a potential stench is just what these jokers have left behind.

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'They've hacked through perfectly good cast-iron and patched the pipe with rubber hose.

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'Heaven knows why!'

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Even though that'll be boxed in, it's not the right way to do it.

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You could get smell coming back out of that, so that's not good.

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'Even though it's a tiny bathroom, these cowboys have managed to wreck almost everything.'

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-They're new tiles?

-Yes, they are new tiles.

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There's nothing right about it.

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Nothing at all. It looks very uneven, so they haven't prepped the wall beforehand.

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'There's no way these con artists had any intention of finishing this job.

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'Once they got Michael's cash, they fled.'

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Looking at the electrics, they've got your shower pull cord and your light pull cord behind the door.

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-What's happened there?

-Those are supposed to be relocated to outside the door.

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'Michael and Susie can never let their home in this state.

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'Our best chance of reuniting this family is to concentrate on the inside of the house.

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'That means our priority has to be sorting out this terrible bathroom.'

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-We've purchased the suite already, so the suite is on site.

-OK.

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All these tiles need to come off, so new tiles can go on correctly.

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Yes. It certainly needs levelling again, so that we can get a nice, even finish.

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And so you'd like it to be a bit of a dream bathroom to your original specification.

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-Would you like that?

-Excellent.

-OK.

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And here's another tip to help spot the cowboys.

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Be wary of contractors who start lots of jobs, but finish none.

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But we've got a top team on this job today

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and these good guys have got their work cut out to restore Michael's faith in the building trade.

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We must strip this room back to the bare walls,

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redo the plumbing, plaster, skim, re-tile

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and finally fit Michael's new suite, complete with luxury spa bath.

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If we can sort this family bathroom out,

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Michael stands a fighting chance of getting the rest of the house sorted

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and soon he'll be able to be reunited with his family in Africa.

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Coming up, how this cowboy con job turned into a family crisis

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and Susie had no choice but to leave the country.

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Here in Grimsby, we find Carla, a single mum, who employed builders

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who seemed to take the money and run and leave behind lots of damage.

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Single mum and student nurse Carla Siviter hoped she could transform the decor of her modest home

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into something you'd see in a glossy interiors magazine,

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but Carla's crinkly '70s style Artex ceiling and walls were far from her dream,

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so as soon as she'd saved up, she called in a team of plasterers to make her rooms silky smooth.

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We didn't really have a set budget. It was just as much as we could get done for as little as possible.

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I was pregnant as well at the time,

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so literally we had no money at all.

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When Carla started getting plasterers' quotes,

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she was disappointed to discover her budget wouldn't stretch as far as she'd hoped.

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To start with, we went through the Yellow Pages, but all those quotes were really expensive,

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so then we looked in the local paper for plasterers

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and we got three quotes from people that we found in the papers.

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Carla agreed the price and booked the plasterers.

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Back then, she was four months' pregnant, so she left her now ex-husband to oversee the work.

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I came back and the whole house was completely wrecked.

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We needed new carpets everywhere, we needed to re-decorate the whole house

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cos there was plaster all over the house.

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These cowboys failed to cover the floors and furniture to protect them from the work.

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Their carelessness cost Carla a small fortune to fix.

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We had to have all new flooring in the lounge, the hall, up the stairs.

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We've got a wooden floor in the bedroom and it was just caked,

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so we had to get a professional sander to re-sand it all down.

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Here's a tip.

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Good builders will ask you to clear your rooms before they start work

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and they'll cover your furnishings with large, clean dust sheets.

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If you don't see dust sheets, do expect to see damage.

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Carla's so-called plasterers got more mix on the floors than they did on the walls,

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but for trashing her home,

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these cowboys had the cheek to demand a whopping 600 quid!

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I said I wasn't willing to pay what they had quoted us for because the finish was appalling as well,

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so they then started getting a bit mouthy with us and being really aggressive.

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Fast-forward four years and Carla's relationship has ended.

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Her daughter is a lively three-year-old and Carla is about to qualify as a midwife.

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But money remains tight and her dream for a glossy magazine-style interior is a distant memory.

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I went back to uni, so obviously money's been even tighter than it was before.

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Then me and my partner split up, so I have even less money now.

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I've literally just had no money to put right everything that was left.

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It's time for me to take a look at exactly what's gone wrong.

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-Hello.

-Hi.

-Are you Carla?

-I am.

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'Carla's cowboys rode out of town four years ago

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'and since then, she's been living in this mess, unable to afford to make right their wrongs.'

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So what was the plan in here, Carla?

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The plasterers were going to re-skim all the walls and the ceilings in here.

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-Were they a bit rough?

-Yeah.

-So you just wanted new, skimmed walls.

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-Yeah.

-And then...?

-And to get rid of the Artex on the ceilings.

-OK.

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I've just spotted something. I've stopped in my tracks.

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-Interesting.

-Yeah, they plastered straight on to the wood.

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-Why?

-Then it dried and cracked and fell off.

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Obviously, it will, because for a start, timber is a living, breathing thing.

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It's going to swell, shrink, move and, therefore, plaster doesn't stand a chance of hanging on to it.

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It's not something you would do and something that I wouldn't recommend,

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so just that little spot there tells me that they are pretty clueless.

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I wouldn't have thought that they were builders.

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What happened to the ceiling rose?

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I wasn't here, but when I came home, there was a hole in the ceiling where they removed the ceiling rose.

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'Carla's had more bad luck in the kitchen too.

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'No wonder she's lost faith in builders.'

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When we moved in, there'd been a new flat roof put on,

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then it started raining and water started coming through the ceiling.

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That ceiling's got a belly on it like mine. It's not very good.

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So that was like that when you moved in?

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The roof was there, then it started leaking.

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We started decorating the kitchen, but then we thought the ceiling might come down, so we stopped.

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'I can see why Carla is in no hurry to squander more

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'of her slender student nurse's wages on con artists,

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'so how can we convince her there are good guys out there?'

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What could we do for you now to put a smile back on your face?

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It would be amazing to get the plastering finished

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-and just to make it look normal.

-OK.

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'We're not just here to cover up cracks. Oh, no.

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'We're going to make good all the damage Carla's previous plasterers left behind.

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'We'll hack away at the loose stuff, smooth over the rough stuff and attend to the archway,

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're-fix the skirting boards and skim the ceilings,

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'then as an extra surprise, we plan to create that glossy magazine style look she dreamed of

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'before her nightmare began.'

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It's just this sort of cowboy builder that really does my head in.

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It's one of those snatch-and-grab jobs where they take your money and leave you in total devastation.

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It's time to get the good guys in and show how it should be done.

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We've got a crack team on the job today to show Carla just how good new plastering looks

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when it's done by the professionals.

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Coming up, Carla discovers the men she'd let into her home weren't who they claimed to be.

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We found out later that they'd given us false names

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and all the contact details and everything we had for them were all false.

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Back in Tonbridge, Kent, our team of good guys is hard at work, trying to rebuild a botched bathroom,

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so we can reunite a family.

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Mum Susie has an exciting new posting at the British Embassy in Tanzania

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and the whole family was supposed to go too. To help rent out their home while they were abroad,

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husband Michael planned a new garage and secure furniture store outside and luxury bathroom inside,

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but the cowboy con artists he hired fled with their cash.

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Now the family dream is in ruins and Mum and the kids are in Africa without their dad.

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Moving without Michael is doubly hard.

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I'm trying to be reassuring to the children because they're finding it very unsettling

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that we've got all this going on.

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And the financial stress because we've lost a lot of money.

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We know it's going to cost more than we'd anticipated to finish

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because we've got to go back to square one or even minus square one to put it right.

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With the new Embassy posting unable to wait,

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Susie, Tamira and Tyson have had to stick to their plan

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and board the flight to Africa.

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Michael was supposed to go too.

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In fact, he even handed in his notice, but with the house in such chaos, how could he possibly leave?

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You see this type of stuff on television or you read about it in the paper all the time

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and you say to yourself, "How can people be so dumb?

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"This would never happen to me. I would never put myself in a situation where that could happen."

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And yet here we are.

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'I don't like what I've seen at all,

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'but how does independent building inspector Duncan White rate it?'

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-What do you make of this blockwork?

-Not great. The blocks aren't level.

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It's not straight. It's not a great piece of work.

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It's not. You're right there. You look at the mortar lines, they're all over the place.

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There's big gaps, small gaps.

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I did find a discarded spirit level down the back there, but I don't think they know how to use one.

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'The blockwork outside will have to be demolished, but what about the abandoned luxury bathroom inside?

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'The inspector doesn't like the look of that soil stack.'

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It's not great. They've used a rubber connector. That's not ideal here.

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It's not fixed properly, so it moves when you wobble it.

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They've cut the cast-iron and filled it full of silicone when they put the plastic pipe back in. It's not good.

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It's a real bodge there. So, overall, looking at what we've seen outside and then inside,

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if you were to give it a mark out of ten, what do you think it would be?

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-Probably between nought and one.

-I think that's generous.

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How about that? Nought or one out of ten? That's a disgrace!

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'To transform this abandoned bathroom from loser to luxury, our good guys have their work cut out.

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'We've got to sort out the soil pipe, tear down the tiles, re-site the electrics

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'and that's before we can even think about installing Michael's new spa bath and suite.'

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We maxed ourselves out just to buy the house. We've got a big mortgage.

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And we took out an extra loan to do the building work,

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thinking that we'd have the house to let when we went overseas and the income we'd get from that would help,

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but now we've got the debt, no house to let and Michael with no job.

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This is a big move to move your whole family out to another country like that.

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They started in good time, so that they should have had the house beautifully done

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and able to let before they went.

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All that's just gone up in the air and now Susie has to go on her own with the children.

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Michael has to stay here on his own and sort it out.

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Susie won't even see the house when it's been done, so it's not been a good start.

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But just how did they get into this mess in the first place?

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'In his search for a builder, Michael exceeded even my advice.'

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Now, I normally suggest that we get three quotes.

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But you went way further than that. How many quotes did you get?

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-At least 15.

-15 quotes. That was a lot to choose from.

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Why did you choose that particular one from 15?

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He wasn't the cheapest or the most expensive. He just seemed the most knowledgeable.

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And he had answers.

0:22:050:22:08

He articulated things a lot better than most of the guys that I saw.

0:22:080:22:13

Words are just words at the end of the day. You need to physically see what they can do.

0:22:130:22:18

Here's a tip. Be wary of builders with silver tongues

0:22:180:22:22

who are only after YOUR silver.

0:22:220:22:24

Talk is cheap, so don't rely on it.

0:22:240:22:27

Instead, go and see their work

0:22:270:22:29

and ask previous customers if they're happy.

0:22:290:22:32

Nine times out of ten, the cowboy builder is brilliant on dialogue,

0:22:320:22:37

brilliant on what they can give you, that dream, but normally, they can never give you that dream,

0:22:370:22:43

and in hindsight, was he as good as his word?

0:22:430:22:47

Not even close. Not even close.

0:22:470:22:50

For the garage and bathroom, the quote was how much?

0:22:500:22:53

Right under 22,000.

0:22:530:22:55

By the time he'd left site, how much of that 22,000 had he had?

0:22:550:22:59

-17.

-17 grand.

0:22:590:23:02

OK, 20-odd grand you were quoted. You've given him 17,000, nearly the maximum.

0:23:020:23:08

Do you think you got value for money? Do you think you got 17 grand's worth of good work?

0:23:080:23:14

No, I don't think I got £1,000-worth of good work.

0:23:140:23:18

How did that make you feel in terms of trust?

0:23:180:23:21

Um...I felt extremely disappointed.

0:23:220:23:25

Not only in him, but in myself.

0:23:250:23:27

I let my guard down. Even though I thought I did all the right things, I clearly didn't.

0:23:270:23:33

'To help restore Michael's faith in builders, our good guys, led by Cliff Williams, are hard at work,

0:23:330:23:40

'completely stripping back the bodged bathroom, ready to install the luxury new spa bath.

0:23:400:23:46

'It's just as well Michael called us in because the previous cowboys have covered up a leaky pipe.'

0:23:460:23:53

-A water leak.

-A water leak?

0:23:530:23:56

Yeah, above the ceiling line, which eventually would have come through

0:23:560:24:00

after about two or three months after we finished the job,

0:24:000:24:04

-so we'll cut that out and repair that as we go.

-Nice one.

0:24:040:24:08

These are the things you don't see.

0:24:080:24:10

'We're doing so much more than installing a bathroom.

0:24:100:24:14

'We're hoping to reunite the family.

0:24:140:24:17

'The building work was planned, so the house could be rented out while Mum Susie took a new job in Africa,

0:24:170:24:23

'but the cowboy builders have wrecked their home and their plans.

0:24:230:24:28

'They ran out of time and Michael was devastated when Susie, with her new job waiting,

0:24:280:24:34

'had to prepare to leave without him.'

0:24:340:24:37

I never imagined we'd come to this.

0:24:380:24:40

We've been planning this trip for almost a year now

0:24:400:24:44

and all the plans we had for the house have been built around this.

0:24:440:24:50

After months of waiting, finally, the day has arrived and we're packing up.

0:24:540:25:00

Michael's going to stay here until it's all sorted.

0:25:010:25:05

'With the building work at a standstill,

0:25:050:25:08

'the family will be split across two continents for the next few months.'

0:25:080:25:13

I'm not exactly ready for it. I try to put on a brave face for them,

0:25:140:25:18

but deep down inside, it's tearing me apart.

0:25:180:25:22

I'm worrying about whether we've packed everything, how the kids are going to be.

0:25:220:25:28

I'm worried about Michael who's gone very quiet.

0:25:280:25:31

Everything was supposed to be ready.

0:25:350:25:38

We banked on it being ready financially and emotionally

0:25:380:25:42

and logistically for the family

0:25:420:25:44

and it's just been ripped to pieces.

0:25:440:25:47

'It beggars belief that what should have been a simple construction job

0:25:470:25:52

'has resulted in a dad saying goodbye to his wife and kids.'

0:25:520:25:56

HORN TOOTS

0:26:080:26:11

'Coming up, I hope our good guys' work can help restore Michael's faith in builders.'

0:26:200:26:26

Wow, I'm blown away! It's beautiful.

0:26:260:26:30

'Back in Grimsby, Carla Siviter dreamed of giving her modest home a magazine-style makeover

0:26:310:26:37

'to cover up her '70s style crinkly walls and ceilings,

0:26:370:26:42

'but instead, cowboys posing as plasterers took £600 of her cash and trashed her carpets and floors

0:26:420:26:48

'with the stuff they should have been applying to the walls.'

0:26:480:26:52

They just slapped a bit of plaster on the wall. They didn't seem to really know what they were doing.

0:26:520:26:58

They slapped it on the wall, took our money and left.

0:26:580:27:02

'When these cowboy builders rode into her home four years ago, Carla was four months' pregnant.'

0:27:020:27:07

We were upset that we were supposed to have everything nice for the baby coming,

0:27:070:27:12

then there were holes in the sides of the walls, the archway that's cracked and falling apart

0:27:120:27:18

and the rest of the plastering that wasn't completed.

0:27:180:27:21

'Carla and her husband have since divorced and she's bringing up her daughter on student nurse's wages.

0:27:210:27:28

'We're bringing in the good guys to make good the damage Carla can't afford to fix.

0:27:280:27:33

'We'll cover up that horrible Artex and give Carla the smooth, plastered walls she dreamed of.

0:27:330:27:39

'First, let's bring in building inspector Colin Harrop

0:27:390:27:43

'and hear his verdict on the previous plasterer.'

0:27:430:27:46

We've got a smear of plaster on a pretty thin piece of timber

0:27:460:27:50

and it's fallen off.

0:27:500:27:52

-I don't think there's anything that we can do, other than take it off and start again.

-That is the plan.

0:27:520:27:59

I didn't quite understand, when they took the ceiling rose down,

0:27:590:28:03

why that section of ceiling collapsed. That's unusual.

0:28:030:28:07

What I think has happened is this Artex ceiling finish has probably been on quite a long time

0:28:070:28:13

and it's leeched into the ceiling slightly.

0:28:130:28:16

I think they've tried to bodge in a piece of the ceiling with the result you'd expect.

0:28:160:28:21

It's fairly obvious that these chancers have done a pretty bad job.

0:28:210:28:26

If you were going to mark them out of ten, what sort of score would you give them?

0:28:260:28:32

I think we'd be looking at three out of ten, around about that level.

0:28:320:28:36

It's the kind of level that I'd expect someone to achieve who's doing DIY for the first time.

0:28:360:28:42

Three out of ten? I'd have given him one and that is being generous.

0:28:450:28:49

Carla has had a tough old time, but her problem is simple to solve.

0:28:490:28:53

The guy getting the plaster ready is a top bloke.

0:28:530:28:57

In fact, he's known as the Prince of Plasterers. Time to meet him.

0:28:570:29:01

-Sorry to disturb your work, Vic. How are you doing?

-All right.

0:29:010:29:05

-What did you think of the work carried out?

-Good, wasn't it(?)

0:29:050:29:09

-Bit shabby.

-A bit shabby?

-I've seen better.

-It was absolutely poor.

0:29:090:29:13

But what I'd like to know now is what the plan is to put it right.

0:29:130:29:18

We're just taking this timber off the side of here.

0:29:180:29:22

Basically, they'd skimmed over the timber, which you can't do.

0:29:220:29:26

So we've just taken the timber off and dabbed some plasterboard.

0:29:260:29:31

-On each reveal there.

-On each of the reveals, re-bead it and then skim it in.

-OK, cool.

0:29:310:29:36

And what's the score with the ceiling over the Artex?

0:29:360:29:41

Well, we've just PVA'd it, gave it a quick scrape, and then we're just going to skim over the top.

0:29:410:29:47

-OK.

-And see how it goes.

0:29:470:29:49

So, a finish skim over the top, give it a nice, smooth finish.

0:29:490:29:53

See you in a while. Cheers, boys.

0:29:530:29:55

'While our good guys get on with covering up the crimes of the cowboy plasterers,

0:29:560:30:01

'I want to find out what happened when Carla came home and confronted them four years ago.'

0:30:010:30:08

So you come in, you see it's all going wrong. What are you saying to 'em?

0:30:080:30:13

I stopped him. I said pretty much, "What are you doing?

0:30:130:30:17

"You've completely wrecked the house."

0:30:170:30:20

And that's when they started...

0:30:200:30:23

..being aggressive and abusing and threatening us.

0:30:240:30:29

They threatened to put our windows through if we didn't pay them.

0:30:290:30:33

They were going to get their friends round to threaten the money out of us.

0:30:330:30:38

So they got aggressive. How did you get them out of the property?

0:30:380:30:43

I rang my mum who got my dad to come round

0:30:430:30:47

and he kind of diffused the situation, really.

0:30:470:30:51

I didn't want to pay them anything. They wanted the full amount.

0:30:510:30:55

So it was kind of a compromise to...

0:30:550:30:58

-What was the compromise?

-£600.

0:30:580:31:01

Looking back now...

0:31:010:31:04

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

0:31:040:31:06

Would you have given them the £600?

0:31:070:31:10

No. But I was pregnant at the time and it's...

0:31:100:31:13

That sends your emotions, I would imagine, all over the place.

0:31:130:31:17

And it's just getting them out and getting them away.

0:31:170:31:21

We went to the police and made a statement against them in case anything did happen.

0:31:210:31:27

We found out later that they'd given us false names

0:31:270:31:30

and all the contact details we had for them were all false.

0:31:300:31:34

'So here's a tip.

0:31:350:31:38

'Make sure you have a real address and landline telephone number

0:31:380:31:41

'for any tradespeople you employ.

0:31:410:31:44

'Look them up online or in the phone directory.

0:31:440:31:47

'If things go wrong, at least you can trace them.

0:31:470:31:50

'Without these details, the police couldn't help Carla.

0:31:500:31:54

'She never managed to trace the builders, so there's no opportunity to contact them now either.

0:31:550:32:01

'Fortunately, our good guys are making right the damage

0:32:010:32:05

'and finally, Carla will see what the real professionals are capable of.

0:32:050:32:10

'I hope it will restore her faith.'

0:32:100:32:12

-Hey, dubbed the Prince of Plaster! Come down and have a chat with us. How are you?

-All right.

0:32:120:32:18

It looks like glass now.

0:32:180:32:20

Beautiful finish. That's what it's about, getting the professionals in.

0:32:200:32:25

-That looks a whole heap different now.

-A little different, yeah.

0:32:250:32:29

-I tell you what - she's had to suffer this for about four years.

-A long time.

0:32:290:32:34

I'm sure it's going to really please her when she looks at it.

0:32:340:32:37

'Well, I think we can all see I'm excited, but what about Carla?'

0:32:370:32:42

Come with me outside. I know it's a bit chilly-willy.

0:32:430:32:46

But at least it gets you out of the dust and everything going on in there.

0:32:460:32:51

So, on a scale of one to ten, how excited are you getting?

0:32:510:32:54

-Ten, definitely.

-Ten, I like it!

0:32:540:32:57

-It's a good opportunity to draw a line in the sand and move on.

-Yeah, get on with things.

-That's important.

0:32:570:33:04

'Coming up, I can't wait to see Carla's face

0:33:040:33:07

'when we reveal the glossy magazine look she always dreamed of.'

0:33:070:33:11

It's brilliant. Thank you!

0:33:110:33:14

'Back in Tonbridge, Kent, we're full steam ahead installing a new spa bath and suite,

0:33:140:33:20

'so Michael Kitchens can rent out the house and join the rest of his family in Tanzania

0:33:200:33:26

'where his wife has been posted to the British Embassy.

0:33:260:33:30

'Susie and Michael hoped creating a new luxury bathroom would help rent out the house.

0:33:300:33:36

'They paid cowboys £17,000 up front to do the work,

0:33:360:33:39

'including building a garage and furniture store outside,

0:33:390:33:43

'but after just two weeks, the cowboys scarpered with their cash.'

0:33:430:33:47

Maybe it's what they've always done.

0:33:470:33:49

My view of humanity is going to have to change

0:33:490:33:53

because it seems there are people

0:33:530:33:55

out there like that and I hoped there weren't.

0:33:550:33:58

'Susie has left for her new posting, taking the kids, but leaving Michael behind to finish the work

0:33:580:34:04

'and try and get their savings back, so he doesn't want us to phone his builder today.'

0:34:040:34:09

I've taken legal proceedings against the individual involved.

0:34:090:34:14

It would be detrimental to my case

0:34:140:34:17

if this individual was to become knowledgeable

0:34:170:34:20

that he was being chased out there.

0:34:200:34:23

He'd just close up shop and move on.

0:34:230:34:25

Yes, you don't want to give him the heads up, if you like, and I think that's a wise decision.

0:34:250:34:31

'Michael has sufficient details to pursue legal action

0:34:310:34:35

'because he kept a careful note of all the dealings with the builder.

0:34:350:34:39

'So here's a tip. Keep notes on all correspondence and phone calls.

0:34:390:34:43

'Accurate records will help you if there is a dispute.

0:34:430:34:47

'The whole experience has been an expensive lesson for Michael, so what has he learned?'

0:34:470:34:52

Number one, not to be so trusting. Do your homework.

0:34:520:34:56

Just do your homework, which I thought I did.

0:34:560:35:00

I didn't go deep enough. Now I know that in hindsight.

0:35:000:35:04

'I hope that now Michael is about to see the work the professionals do,

0:35:040:35:08

'it will restore his confidence and allow him to move on.

0:35:080:35:12

'Our good guys have done a cracking job creating the luxury bathroom the family had dreamed about.'

0:35:120:35:18

I can't wait to show you this.

0:35:180:35:21

But before I do show you the bathroom, just describe to me what it was like before we arrived.

0:35:210:35:27

It was just an ugly shell of a room, not attractive at all.

0:35:270:35:31

OK, now what are you hoping for?

0:35:310:35:33

-Just a functioning facility.

-Are you ready to have a look at your functioning facility?

0:35:330:35:39

-Yes.

-Let's go.

0:35:390:35:41

Wow! It's incredible.

0:35:450:35:47

-I'm blown away. It's beautiful.

-It is amazing, isn't it?

0:35:490:35:53

It's more than I expected. It seems a lot bigger and a lot lighter.

0:35:530:35:58

It's better than nice. It's extremely nice.

0:35:580:36:01

'The good guys have transformed Michael's former shell of a room into a luxury bathroom.

0:36:010:36:07

'We've removed all the badly fitting tiles, levelled the walls,

0:36:070:36:11

're-tiled with this elegant, new, colour-coordinated finish

0:36:110:36:15

'to perfectly set off the gleaming white suite.

0:36:150:36:19

'We've fitted a new, shiny, chrome, heated towel rail

0:36:190:36:22

'and polished off the accessories with a nice, large, contemporary mirror.

0:36:220:36:28

'The spa bath should help soak away some of the painful memories

0:36:280:36:32

'left behind by the previous cowboys.

0:36:320:36:35

'And there's a shower and screen over the bath.

0:36:350:36:38

'Finally, there's no sign of that horrible soil pipe

0:36:380:36:41

'which has been replaced and hidden away behind some sleek boxing in.

0:36:410:36:45

'This is the kind of finish you expect when you bring the professionals in.'

0:36:450:36:51

-Are you happy with it?

-I'm ecstatic. I'm blown away by it.

-I'm pleased you're pleased.

0:36:510:36:57

'Hopefully, Michael can get on with fixing the other problems left by the cowboys

0:36:570:37:02

'and get on a plane to join the rest of his family.

0:37:020:37:06

'Let's see if we can play happy families in Grimsby too, shall we?

0:37:080:37:13

'Cowboy plasterers left Carla Siviter's house in a right old state,

0:37:130:37:17

'so our good guys have been hard at work giving her bumpy walls and ceilings

0:37:170:37:23

'a reviving coat of plaster and paint.

0:37:230:37:26

'We're not neglecting the woodwork either because we want Carla to have a finish she can be proud of.'

0:37:260:37:32

Before you drill any more, just talk me through what you're doing.

0:37:320:37:37

The last time I saw this door, it was hanging off.

0:37:370:37:41

Basically, the door had been hung so many times

0:37:410:37:44

with wall plugs.

0:37:440:37:46

And that isn't the way to go about it, basically.

0:37:460:37:50

The best way of going about it is to re-chop a set of hinges away from where the old ones were.

0:37:500:37:56

-There were two old ones before.

-So I've gone right up here and right down there.

0:37:560:38:02

They're the two main points of the door for weight.

0:38:020:38:05

-It's almost like a great weight balance.

-Yes, it is.

0:38:050:38:09

You're supposed to chop in seven inches from the top of the rebate and nine inches from the bottom.

0:38:090:38:15

Top tip. Remember that. Seven inches from the top and nine inches from the bottom.

0:38:150:38:20

-Brilliant job.

-Thank you. Cheers. Bye.

-Catch you later.

0:38:200:38:25

'And while Andy is re-hanging the door,

0:38:250:38:27

'the decorators are giving the others a smart new coat of paint.'

0:38:270:38:32

Look at that brush action! That is fantastic brush action, Geoff.

0:38:320:38:36

-I've got a lot of years practising that.

-That's total professionalism.

0:38:360:38:40

That's what we need round here, from the jobs we've had before.

0:38:400:38:44

You've got three of your guys here, four including you, and things have moved on a real pace.

0:38:440:38:50

Pick up on what you've done so far.

0:38:500:38:53

We started by doing all the filling, preparation work, rubbing down.

0:38:530:38:57

-Anywhere where there's joints, fill it with a flexible filler.

-Yeah.

0:38:570:39:01

Anywhere where there's any black lines showing from gaps, we fill those to give a nice, clean line.

0:39:010:39:07

-For decorators, preparation is everything.

-Without preparation, you're wasting your time.

-Brilliant.

0:39:070:39:14

-Carry on with that door.

-Thank you.

0:39:140:39:16

'If only Carla's original builders had been as meticulous as our good guys.'

0:39:160:39:21

Now this is the bit I absolutely love.

0:39:210:39:25

We've got four decorators beavering away, doing a cracking job,

0:39:250:39:29

and Andy's woodworking skills are second to none.

0:39:290:39:32

In a couple of hours, we'll show Carla what we've done and I can't wait.

0:39:320:39:37

'But after living with the damage for four years,

0:39:370:39:41

'what has she learned from her bad experience?'

0:39:410:39:44

What advice would you have?

0:39:440:39:46

I'd say check them out, make sure they were reputable,

0:39:460:39:50

get references, go see their work.

0:39:500:39:53

Try and get someone that's certified

0:39:530:39:56

because then at least there'd be a body to complain to if something did go wrong.

0:39:560:40:01

We cannot allow these guys who pretend to be professionals to get away with it.

0:40:010:40:06

'Here's a tip.

0:40:060:40:08

'Using certified tradespeople may give extra reassurance

0:40:080:40:11

'and somewhere else to turn to if things go wrong.

0:40:110:40:15

'And remember, not all tradespeople are cowboys.

0:40:150:40:18

'Our team of good guys have worked wonders to transform Carla's interior from bodged to beautiful,

0:40:180:40:25

'but how does she remember it?'

0:40:250:40:28

Give us a picture of what it was like in there before we arrived.

0:40:280:40:32

There was a patched-up hole in the ceiling, it was all Artex.

0:40:320:40:37

There was plaster falling off the walls.

0:40:370:40:41

I just want it to be neat and tidy.

0:40:410:40:44

-That's a basic, really. Just neat and tidy and a good job done.

-Yeah.

-I'm hoping that we've done that.

0:40:440:40:50

-Are you ready to go in and take your first glimpse?

-I think so.

0:40:500:40:55

Let's find out what you think.

0:40:550:40:57

Oh!

0:40:580:41:00

That's really good!

0:41:000:41:02

-It's completely different, isn't it?

-That is so much better.

0:41:020:41:07

-So much brighter as well.

-It is. It's neat. We've had some real top-class decorators in as well.

-Yeah.

0:41:070:41:13

'This is what's possible when the good guys get to work.

0:41:130:41:16

'We've banished all signs of that crinkly '70s Artex

0:41:160:41:20

'and given the living room ceiling a sleek, modern finish.

0:41:200:41:24

'The crumbling plaster is a thing of the past and so are the wonky skirting boards,

0:41:240:41:30

'but we've gone the extra mile here.

0:41:300:41:32

'We've re-hung that unhinged door and given the living room a fresh decor,

0:41:320:41:37

'definitely worthy of a spread in a glossy magazine.'

0:41:370:41:41

And, of course, your kitchen ceiling too is now nice and flat.

0:41:410:41:45

No belly in it like mine.

0:41:450:41:48

'We didn't stop there. Our guys' paint, rollers and brushes have swept through the entire downstairs.

0:41:480:41:54

'Carla can put the long wait and a lot of regret behind her and finally look to the future.

0:41:540:42:00

'Even Carla's mum has arrived to help celebrate the transformation.'

0:42:000:42:05

Oh, wow! Oh, crikey, that is so different!

0:42:050:42:08

-Do you like it?

-I can't believe it.

0:42:080:42:11

-Do you like it even?

-That is amazing.

0:42:110:42:14

'Carla and the Kitchens both fell headlong into the cowboy trap,

0:42:140:42:18

'but I hope sharing their stories will make life tougher for all the cowboys everywhere.'

0:42:180:42:25

You know who you are and now we know who you are

0:42:250:42:28

and by exposing your cons and tricks, we're preventing others from falling into the cowboy trap.

0:42:280:42:33

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2010

0:42:570:43:00

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