Episode 3 Cowboy Trap

Across the country, cowboy builders are causing chaos.

Our trust is well and truly gone.

And they could be coming to a town near you.

-Are you definitely sure that's sitting on a four-inch slab?

-Yeah.

Well, that's not good enough.

We've got top tradespeople on board to right the wrongs

and turn homeowners' stresses and strains into smiles.

Because you always think it's not going to happen to me.

You always think, "They must have been idiots

"to let someone just walk away with all that money."

Hey! And always remember to make notes of my hints and tips,

and that way we'll keep you safe and out of the cowboy trap.

Today, my cowboy quest has brought me

to the market town of Bracknell in the county of Berkshire.

This area has a long history dating back to the Roman period,

and the old town of Bracknell also played an important role

during mediaeval times.

Legend also has it Dick Turpin used to drink in the town's hostelries,

and even though the days of highway robbery may be long gone,

the good people of Bracknell

are still targeted by opportunist cowboys,

as the owners of this four-bed house discovered to their cost.

Francis and Colin Neale live here with their daughter Louise,

their son John, and their pet parrot, Orlando.

Francis and Colin met in 1978.

They married a year later, and moved into this house in 2006.

Sadly, Colin now suffers from fibromyalgia,

a chronic disorder that affects the nerves.

Very, very sensitive to pain,

and because I'm constantly in pain, it...

..it quadruples...what would be probably a little tooth ache to you,

really severe pain for me.

This condition, and a heart problem,

required a triple heart bypass ten years ago.

And meant Colin had to give up work, and Francis became his carer.

It's a responsibility she somehow manages to juggle

with her job as an administrator.

She's really been with me all the way through where I am now

with the illness,

because I had a bad time not coping with the fact that

I wouldn't be able to go back to work,

and I got really depressed over that.

I was ill over that.

She was still there after all the nonsense and everything.

Life isn't easy for Francis and Colin,

and that's plain to see.

But they're not just feeling sorry for themselves.

They're planning ahead for the future.

Colin's been told he'll eventually need a wheelchair,

making it hard to use the upstairs bathroom.

So the Neales decided to use his pension to pay

for some work on the house.

Their plan? To create a wet room downstairs,

where there was already a small toilet.

The wet room would be absolutely fantastic for his self-esteem

as well as helping me tremendously,

because I'm the one who has to,

you know, bend over him or help lift him, support him.

It would just be so good for him to be able to do some things himself.

Just before Christmas 2010, the Neales' son was

at a friend's house chatting about their situation

when his friend's dad said he was a builder

and he would be happy to quote for the work.

The Neales thought the family connection could be a good thing.

But for me, this sort of arrangement rings alarm bells.

I'm all for people keeping it in the family, and if you get

a good recommendation from a friend or relative, remember one thing -

do your research as if these guys were total strangers.

And the builder won't care,

but above all it'll give you peace of mind.

Francis and Colin met the builder to discuss the project.

The spec? A tiled wet room, including a shower, sink,

radiator and cabinet, as well as all the electrics.

The Neales told their builder up front they had £6,000 to do the job,

including materials, and he agreed he would work towards this sum.

Whoops! Here's a tip.

If you're asking a builder to quote for a job,

don't tell them how much you've got in your budget.

Just ask them to price up the job.

I'm always amazed at how many homeowners reveal

how much they can afford to pay.

Surprise, surprise,

the quote then comes back for almost exactly the same price.

D'oh!

A month after his initial quote, the Neales' builder suddenly said

he now wanted seven grand to do the job.

Francis and Colin were keen for work to begin,

so they accepted this new figure.

The builder said it would take six to seven weeks.

We trusted him completely, because it was somebody who knew my son,

and he seemed to know exactly what we want.

He was totally sympathetic to Colin's illness as well,

that he knew he needed this done quickly and the reasons why.

Francis handed over £2,400 upfront in cash,

and in late January 2011 the builder started work.

To begin with, everything seemed fine.

He was here when he said he was going to be here.

He started the work.

He seemed to be doing really well, getting it done quickly.

But, a week in, the builder asked

for another payment of £1,600 in cash.

Colin began to think he was all talk and no action.

The wet room was showing no sign of progress.

He spent a lot of time measuring up in there and saying

what he needed to get, what he needed to sort out.

But it was dawdling.

The reason for the dawdling soon became apparent.

The builder said he had a cash flow problem

and needed more money for materials.

He then brought in an electrician to do all the wiring for the wet room.

The Neales thought his fee was part of the original quote.

But it wasn't.

We ended up paying the electrician a further £2,000.

Basically, he just kept like, "Can I have a bit here,

"can I have a bit there, cos I want to get this,

"I need to do that." And that's how it was going on.

But these additional, unexpected outlays weren't the only problem.

The builder made a half-hearted start

on the wet room's fixtures and fittings,

and then he vanished into thin air.

The builder went AWOL for a couple of weeks,

and he slowed the build right down,

made life very difficult for Colin, too,

because he'd left the toilet disconnected.

At the beginning of March, the builder called to say

he'd been stuck on another job but was now available again.

He came back, fixed the toilets,

and then said he needed another £1,600 to get all the materials

to finish the job.

Francis reluctantly agreed to pay the builder

the final instalment of £1,600.

But she suggested that Colin go along with him to the supplier

so he could choose the tiles that they wanted.

That way, she thought that the builder wouldn't

be disappearing with her money once again.

When they arrived at the tile shop,

Colin picked out the tiles they wanted.

The builder told him he could get the tiles cheaper elsewhere

and suggested he drop Colin back off at home

and he'd go and buy them.

That was the last they saw of him and their money.

So he had all that money, he had over £1,600, that last lot,

just to go and get tiling and a sink and things like that.

We never saw him after that.

As the Americans would say, let's do the math.

The Neales paid £6,550 to the builder,

£2,400 to an electrician,

and 150 quid to a plasterer,

coming to a whopping £9,100.

But the wet room is basically a shell with a toilet in the corner.

Flooring, tiling, shower and loo are all unfinished.

The builder disappeared with the Neales' money and left them

with a host of unanswered questions.

Why have you done this to us? And I trusted you so completely.

Why have you just took that money and left us to it?

At least just ring us and say,

"Look, I can't come and finish the work."

Or, "Look, I'm so ill, I can't finish."

At least then we would know. But to just leave us with nothing...

You know, this story sounds like it's been really stressful

for poor Francis and Colin, and they're concerned about the future,

particularly in light of Colin's deteriorating health.

And will that wet room ever get sorted?

Well, I'm hoping to have some answers to their problems.

So let's find out more from the people themselves.

-I love a bit of rat-a-tat-tat, me.

-Hello.

-You must be Francis.

-I am, yeah.

-And you must be Colin. How are you both?

-You all right?

-Fine.

-I'm Clive, by the way.

-Now, I hear you've had problems with cowboy builders.

-Yes.

Would you mind talking me through what the problems have been?

-No, not at all.

-Can I come in?

-Yeah, sure.

-Lovely.

Before I get the low-down on this doggone cowboy,

I want to take a look around for myself.

First, the wet room,

and I can already see a problem with the electrics.

That pull switch, if this is going to be a wet room,

that switch has got to go outside to an actual exterior light switch,

because that won't be protected from the moisture.

And I'm not happy with that floor slab,

or what may lurk beneath. Ugh!

It's not what we can see where cowboy builders are concerned,

it's what we can't see.

So I'm interested in what's going on, not only with the extension

but what's underground, too.

I think I'm going to need Francis to shed some light on this for me.

-Francis, do you mind coming in?

-Yep.

Just come in, just talk to me about this whole thing.

Right, now, I'm slightly confused, because I'm coming into this

absolutely clean, so I don't know anything about it.

Certainly, from my point of view from the outside,

-it looks like it's an extension that has been added to the property.

-That's right.

But in terms of... What was this room?

This was just a toilet. The toilet was over in that corner

and the rest of it was just dead space.

-You know, shoes would get stacked, bags would get stacked.

-OK.

And so we thought, well, we'll make use of the space

and have a wet room as we needed it,

so that's why we started on the work.

-So the toilet was here.

-Was there.

-And it's been moved to there.

-Yeah.

Now, do you know if your builder got in touch with building regs

or Building Control?

Because he'd need to if he was moving it.

-No, I haven't heard about that.

-What about change of use?

Because you're going to change it to a wet room.

-No, don't know anything about that.

-OK.

Oh, dear. We need to get Building Control out to have a look.

They need to check whether this entire extension is safe.

It was added to the property before the Neales bought it,

but I need to investigate the quality of this build, too.

Time for a chat with Francis and Colin.

First up, the folly of paying so much cash upfront.

Imagine this. We're going in the pie and mash restaurant.

We sit down and they go, "Do you mind paying upfront for your meal?"

What are you going to say?

-No, I haven't had it yet.

-Exactly.

And if they turn to you and go,

"We need to go out and buy the pies and the mash,"

Do you know what I mean? It's nonsense. It's absolute nonsense.

It's only, we lose our heads when we have builders in,

because if they turn to you and say, "Well, I need it for materials..."

Well, if they are bona fide builders,

they will have accounts with builders' merchants.

Not one - they might have two or three, and they've got

a 30-day turnaround for that before they have to pay for it.

And yet you're paying for those materials upfront.

If you're having anything made bespoke or special,

I understand you're going to have to pay for that.

But not to pay upfront.

So these are things we're going to have to learn, because you're still

going to have other work done on this property

in the future, and we're going to nail it down before I leave.

We're going to nail everything down.

So that you never fall into the cowboy trap again.

But the problem wasn't just paying cash upfront for what turned out

to be a rubbish job.

There's been upset in the family because the Neales' son

realised he'd made a mistake recommending his friend's father.

He felt a lot of guilt about what was going on,

and we had no-one to blame but him,

cos he was the only one who was our link to it all, really.

So it was quite an upsetting time, and, you know,

there were a few angry words.

And my pain's got worse since all of this has...

Yeah, the stress of it has just been awful because

there was a stage when we didn't even have a toilet downstairs,

so Colin was stuck upstairs for two weeks.

When you think about the stress factor of having, well,

-building work, even with good builders, it's quite stressful.

-Mm.

How did you manage to cope with the stress of having a cowboy builder

in the property?

He was getting more and more depressed about, you know,

"I just can't speak to them,"

and then he'd get wound up and get annoyed.

It was a really difficult time.

Because I'm already stressed with pain, you know,

it's another level above where I should be.

So, the Neales had forked out over nine grand

and they were worse off than when they started,

with no downstairs toilet.

And their situation may be about to get worse.

At the moment, I'm going to tell you there's still tunnel at the end

of the light because I'm concerned about the actual building itself.

When Building Control come later, I'm going to need to talk with them.

So we're not out of the woods yet.

But I'm telling you something.

When we are out of the woods, if we do get the all clear,

we're going to get cracking with that.

Before I investigate the original extension,

I've asked independent surveyor Paul Morton to assess

the quality of the work in the wet room.

What have you seen that's not to your liking?

Well, this is an obvious one,

where they've got the pull cord

for the electric switch in what will be a wet room.

-Yeah.

-And whilst it's not necessarily dangerous,

it's not advisable.

In terms of the fact that they've moved the toilet,

we've got a breach of building regs going on there.

Yes, that's right, and I don't believe that

a building regulation consent application was provided, either.

-Yeah.

-So it's for the council to come out and have a look and verify

that the below-ground drainage is suitable, it doesn't leak.

OK.

Now, in terms of what you've seen

and the work that the guy has carried out,

what sort of mark out of ten would you deem to give them?

Provided that the drainage in the pipe work

that has been installed is satisfactory and doesn't leak

as soon as it's filled with water, I'd give this about a seven.

Seven, provided the drainage is satisfactory.

Well, that's the million dollar question.

If it ain't, that mark plummets.

Plus, what Paul doesn't know

is the builder disappeared with the Neales' cash.

I think that might have affected the score.

'Anyway, it's the moment of truth for Francis and Colin.'

-Here comes Gail Millard from Building Control.

-Hello, Clive.

-You must be Gail.

-Gail from Building Control.

I tell you what, you are really important

to this situation we've got here.

It's quite a sad story in the fact that they wanted a wet room, etc,

but what I've gleaned from Francis is,

and Colin, of course,

is that this particular extension here, before we talk about

anything else, didn't have... Well, I think it might fall under

permitted development anyway for its size,

but certainly they were in breach of building regs.

Can you, sort of, build upon that for us

-and tell us what's gone wrong?

-Yeah, yeah, sure.

We did have an application many years ago for a side extension,

but it wasn't carried out at the time.

And now, when I did some research regarding the wet room,

it appears that this extension didn't have building regulation

approval or inspections were not carried out at the time.

So, looking at it, when I looked outside, my main concern

-was if whoever built this breached building regulations anyway...

-Yep.

..what other corners have they cut?

Absolutely. That's why I'm here,

and we have had to have a regularisation application for this.

So I'm going to need bits of it exposed so we can see exactly

what's going on and whether it's safe

and whether it's going to do its job.

Here are the good guys, led by builder Mark Newman.

Now, usually they swing into action,

rebuilding the dreams of unfortunate homeowners.

But today their first job is to help uncover the full extent

of Francis and Colin's nightmare.

They get straight to work on the foundations

of the original extension to check if the drainage is kosher.

It's a nerve-wracking moment.

What's concerning you as you look at that, Gail?

Well, we've got a rainwater pipe coming down.

Does that go to surface water or foul?

The rodding eye, is it connected?

There's no caps on the rainwater pipe so we can't tell

whether the soil has already gone down the pipes,

whether we have a lintel, even, over the pipe.

I don't think there will be, I have to say.

-Oh, ye of little faith, but yes.

-I don't think there will.

'Soon the truth is revealed.'

Yeah, it's just a four-inch slab.

You're having a laugh, aren't you?

Well, it looks like... Are you definitely sure

-that's sitting on a four-inch slab?

-Yeah.

-All the way up to here as well?

-Yeah.

Well, that's not good enough.

A four-inch slab isn't suitable.

In surveyor speak, this extension is floating.

It needs a proper foundation putting in.

This is nothing to do with the builder we're concentrating on.

This is to do with the person that built this extension

back in whatever it was, 2002.

So this is before they purchased the property.

But as I have to say, there's no point in us

doing any work on this extension, either inside or outside,

until we know that it passes Building Control,

end of story.

'And it doesn't. To compound the issue,

'there's a broken clay pipe and water sitting underneath.

'It never rains, but it pours.'

But we on Cowboy Trap don't give up easily.

We're going to put this right.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love this job, but there are days

when I really hate it, and today's one of them.

When you consider all they wanted was a wet room,

they brought a builder on board

that really all he wanted to do was take their money.

And yet we find that the extension that he was doing the wet room in

is actually illegal in itself.

OK, permitted development, we'll give it that.

But it was a breach of building regulations,

and of course, we've had Gail along from the local council

and she's told us exactly what she wants doing,

but we've just uncovered more and more problems all the time.

When you consider now we've got to underpin this extension.

But I'll tell you one thing -

I'm not going to leave this couple in a mess.

We're going to make sure that we get the job done,

and we get it done right.

But for the cowboy builders that have been on this property

doing this, the extension and the work within it most recently,

I say to them, I realise you've got no conscience,

but it's such a shame that you do it

to so many good people in this country.

But we're going to put it right.

Mark and his team have a lot on their plate.

Can he satisfy Building Control, solve all the building regs problems

and create the wet room of the Neales' dreams?

Only time will tell.

I'm back in Bracknell,

where Frances and Colin Neale's dream

was to have a beautiful downstairs wet room,

so that they could prepare for Colin's advancing disability,

but it was left dead in the water by a cowboy builder.

Our good guys have now finished their work,

and the great news is, building regulations have all been met.

Before I talk it through with Frances and Colin,

I can't resist taking a look around.

Now, first of all, straightaway...

..here, although we can't see anything,

I know what's gone on under there.

It's all been underpinned, cos remember,

this end wall here was actually floating on nothing at all.

So that's all been sorted,

cos it's important now that we get Building Control sign-off.

All the flags have gone down,

and I'm hoping that everything's hunky dory with the waste,

and of course the surface water as well, so looking good.

But to me, it's what's gone on behind here.

Now, because this is obscure glass,

I can't get a sneaky peek inside it, so let's go in.

I can't wait to see this wet room.

Ooh, baby!

HE LAUGHS

Now then, that's what I'm talking about. So different.

Remember, we had loads of problems,

particularly with the floor and of course,

with the drainage as well. It was all over the place.

Problems with the electrics, the walls were a mess,

we had to expose the lintels, and they were just

teetering on the edge, really, supporting all that was above it.

That's all been tended to now.

Brilliant shower, we've got the fan in place,

toilet's all been beautifully boxed in.

And I have to say, the tiles look superb.

Again, I'm loving the colourway,

and I'm certainly loving the glitzy border.

It really looks cool. It's another one of them for me

that's like a magazine piece, really.

It just looks fantastic.

What a difference when you get the good guys in.

What a difference indeed.

Before I discuss it with Frances and Colin,

I want a pow-wow about their cowboy builder.

We tried to find out his side of the story and put it to them,

but he's proved impossible to track down.

We've hunted high and low, let's say,

and we've tried various telephone numbers as well,

but we've had no success whatsoever.

So really, he's missed out on the opportunity

to be able to have a right of reply to go, you know,

as they often do these days, "I'm not a cowboy builder,

"everything I do is great,"

but sadly, I have nothing to report.

Having said that, it's important to realise that

we need to give them that opportunity.

He just hasn't taken it. What do you think?

What can we say? Last time Frances spoke to him,

he was being genuine about that he was going to pay us back

if he wasn't well enough to finish the work,

so I just suppose it's just the way he is, sadly.

I just thought that it was us that he just wasn't, you know,

replying to us, but if you're not able to get hold of him, it just...

well, I don't know where he's gone, then.

So, the cowboy behind this building bodge has done a vanishing act,

just like he did with Frances and Colin's cash.

Funny, that.

Anyway, at long last, the Neales can put it all behind them.

Time for the grand tour of the good guys' work.

HE CHUCKLES

Come on, then, first thoughts?

-God. I just can't believe what it was.

-What a difference.

Oh, what a difference.

-Oh, it's lovely.

-Is this...?

-Yeah, it's lovely.

It looks like a showroom now. It's like a show-off wet room.

Well, it's a proper floor, just sink, everything. It's just...

I don't know what to say, to be honest.

-Oh, it's so good.

-It's so different.

I'll be so glad to have people coming round

and not having to make sure that the door is shut

so that you don't see in this room.

I'll say, "Have a look at my bathroom," first!

-It's a show-off piece, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It is.

-It is.

-It's lovely.

-It's terrific.

It is magic.

How much of a difference is this going to make,

not just to your life, Colin, but to your life, Frances?

Cos obviously you have to look after him

when he's getting in the bath upstairs.

How much easier is this going to make it?

It's just going to be safer, for a start,

a safer environment for me and for him,

and also it's just going to make life so much easier,

we won't have to struggle with getting in and out of the bath

and the balancing and the pulling and the tugging and the rest of it.

-This is just going to be so good.

-And wrecking stuff.

And wrecking stuff! Yeah, we don't want you wrecking stuff.

I'm loving the colourways as well, by the way, in here, guys,

in terms of the tiling and everything else.

It's just superb.

It really is a show-off wet room for me. Fantastic.

Now, the other thing is, this is the bright, this is the fantastic,

but outside we've got something more important, of course,

that went on with the original extension,

because we needed to make sure the foundations were clear

and so you can get Building Control sign-off,

which is really important, because when you first bought the house,

this didn't have any building regs at all or any permission.

And without the paperwork from Building Control,

you've got real problems when it comes to selling your house,

but thanks to our good guys, that's not an issue here.

OK, now this is not as exciting, I have to say,

because to all intents and purposes,

it looks like what it looked like before, but you know the score.

Underneath we had loads of problems.

For me, anyway, this end wall

-was just floating in the middle of nowhere.

-Yeah.

And of course, the most important thing was, there was never

any permission for this extension even before you bought it.

But now it's all been secured.

All the waste has been done properly,

the flags have been put down again,

so what's been going on there now

is that this extension is properly supported,

not only from the inside but from the outside as well.

So it now meets building regulations.

-How do you feel about that?

-Good, good.

A lot safer for us, I think.

Well, we didn't know anything about this or anything,

it didn't have permission, so if you hadn't been here,

we would have gone on living not knowing

that we didn't have permission and they couldn't have had it

in the first place, but you've truly made it legal and above board.

Clearly, it would have been an expensive shock

for Frances and Colin when they came to sell the house

if our good guys hadn't have got involved.

What a result! Colin has got his much-needed wet room after all,

and we've managed to deal with those colossal problems

with the extension itself, and more importantly,

we've got Building Control sign-off.

I love this job, and it's another one-up for the good guys.

And as for those cowboys out there, remember one thing -

we are on your trail.

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