Episode 4 Cowboy Trap

Over the years, I've seen some real cowboy bodge jobs.

The stuff of nightmares that would keep anybody awake at night.

-There was nothing in the kitchen, it was just a shell.

-Oh, yeah.

There was no sink, no running water. There was no toilet.

Today, I'm revisiting homeowners that got caught in the cowboy trap

by bungling builders who left them well and truly in the lurch.

-It is an awful thing.

-All right, love? It's all right.

It is an awful thing, yeah, seriously.

It's all right. Are you all right?

I can't wait to see how their homes and their lives have moved on

since we got them back on track, and along the way,

I'll be giving you some top hints and tips in the hope

it will prevent you from falling into the cowboy trap.

My quest to help homeowners who have fallen victim to unscrupulous

builders has taken me the length and breadth of the country,

and I'm amazed and disappointed by their cunning tactics.

Water was leaking downstairs and we discovered there was a hole,

and he had bunged it with toilet paper, and this was boarded up.

Today, I am looking back at some of the classic mistakes people make

when they fall into the cowboy trap.

-You paid him, what, the 3,000...

-Yeah.

-..on top of the nine?

-Yeah.

Oh, no, you didn't!

And I'll be visiting some scenes of cowboy crimes to see how people

have moved on since we helped get their builds back on track.

I think the first thing I would do is actually go and see

some work they have done for other people.

Later, I'll be catching up with a Tyneside couple who fell into

the cowboy trap when their builder made a shoddy job of a shower room.

This was just a shell, Clive. There was nothing there.

Just bare, breeze block wall.

But he kept their money

and didn't turn up when the courts ordered him to repay them.

So we attended. In actual fact, I took the holiday from work.

-I bet he didn't!

-He didn't go, no.

-No surprises there.

'But first, I'm heading to Ipswich to revisit a young couple

'who were in an awful state when I first met them,

'thanks to a cowboy builder who left them with an unhygienic kitchen...'

You're using the sink, it is going to a bucket.

'..unsecure access...'

So I could've flexed that doorframe back a little and slipped in.

'..and an utterly unsatisfactory finish.'

I can see you've got carrier bags all over the place.

-That's obviously, again, to stop the draught, is it?

-Yeah.

-And mice.

-And mice?!

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

I'm revisiting a lovely young couple called Barbara Lawer

and Lee Richards.

They've lived in their 1930s semi-detached property

for the last nine years.

They rented it for a while, but they loved it so much,

they decided to buy it.

30-year-old Barbara Lawer is a charity worker for young adults

with learning disabilities, and her 29-year-old partner,

Lee Richards, works as a postal administrator.

They're a couple in love with each other and their two-bed semi.

Got a nice-size garden, we've got our gym at the back,

we get on quite well with the people around us.

We don't get much trouble here.

Barbara and Lee had plenty to be excited about.

A young couple happy in their home,

their thoughts naturally turned to the future.

We wanted to buy the house, we could then start doing some work on it,

we could then sort of plan for a family, really.

But the original layout of this former council house wasn't right

for a young family.

The original bathroom, it was in the kitchen.

And the kitchen floor was freezing cold. It used to be freezing cold.

A bit of an inconvenient place to have a bathroom, you know,

having to go through the kitchen.

Also, just the layout as well. It was not a very efficient layout.

You had little nooks and crannies where it wasn't usable space.

Their dream was to build an extension

and turn the downstairs toilet into a shower room

and create a big kitchen/diner.

Once they had done that, they could think about starting a family.

Barbara and Lee saved hard for two years,

and then, armed with their plans, along with a £7,000 bank loan,

they decided to look for a builder, by turning to the internet.

We found a builder on a website where you can put the job you want done.

So, I posted our job on there, and then builders come back saying

if they are interested in giving you a quote.

There was about seven or eight builders who showed an interest.

Barbara and Lee picked their builder based on the reviews,

but they didn't take up any references, which was a big mistake.

The extension was to take six weeks at an initial cost of nine grand.

With additional work, the figure rose to a total of £12,000.

The couple felt they had made a good booking.

The builder seemed like a friendly, granddad figure,

a person they could trust.

But how wrong they were.

Even without any experience in the building trade,

Lee could see the work was being done in an illogical manner.

And the painfully slow progress was too obvious to ignore.

It was actually best described as leisurely.

He didn't seem to go that quickly.

Not what we expected. Not for the contract stated.

Barbara and Lee's builder wasn't just slow, he was dangerous too -

windows were unsecured, gaping holes were left in the walls,

and he reduced Barbara to cooking on a camping stove.

The reason we're using this hob is because we haven't had a cooker

for about five months.

It would mean a lot to me to have a new kitchen.

I mean, you know,

what we'd saved up a lot of money for was to have something nice.

Just somewhere for when we have kids and we can sit down together

as a family, have a little dining table, just little things like that.

When I first met Barbara and Lee, they were at rock bottom.

Their builder had failed to deliver on his promises,

and he had also left with their hard-earned cash.

'And when things go bad, who are you going to call?' Hello!

-Hi!

-You must be Barbara?

-Yeah, nice to meet you.

-And you must be Lee? How are you, guys?

Yeah, all right, thanks.

And boy, was I in for a surprise!

Their builder had created carnage in this kitchen.

You're using the sink with no waste escape to the drain outside.

-It's going into a bucket underneath.

-Yeah.

The big problem with that is this - if that bucket gets knocked off

and knocked over, you're standing on the cable.

-Yeah.

-You've got extension leads all over the place.

Water and electricity, as I often say, do not make good bedfellows.

It's as simple as that.

What has gone on in here?

Basically, he's started little bits of everything but finished nothing.

You're telling me!

This bungling builder had even bodged the back door.

Initially, that was all exposed.

-We had about an inch gap either side, and...

-And the rest!

-Yeah.

And during that cold spell we had over winter,

it was absolutely freezing, and we had this massive draft

just going through here and out the extension in the front.

So, in order to stop that, I packed it up either side.

And also, you could actually bend the frame.

So I could've flexed that doorframe back just a little and slipped in?

And the side was no better.

He's put boarding up on the outside, but it's only temporary.

-That would have actually been me who put that board up.

-Ah!

So, what, it was just a...?

On the inside, it was just plasterboard.

Well, that offers no resistance to moisture whatsoever.

'Behind this curtain, more horrors.'

That plasterboard there, tell me what that's yielding.

-Did you have to put that up?

-I did that to prevent the draught we had.

And you put all the gaffer tape on it?

Yeah, and the bags behind there expanding foam between the cavities.

I can see you've got carrier bags all over the place.

-That's obviously, again, to stop draught, is it?

-Yeah.

-And mice.

-And mice?!

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

They've been coming in through the gaps and places, haven't they?

It's health and safety, the hygiene factor,

now you've got rodents coming into the property.

Barbara and Lee's home was a right house of horrors.

It needed walls built, insulation added,

windows, kitchen and bathroom fitted,

not to mention whole areas plastered, tiled and decorated.

But before we got stuck in to that,

I wanted to hear how they had ended up in such a mess.

When is the first real alarm bell that you think,

"Hang on a minute, that's not quite right."

Well, I suppose the alarm bells didn't go off until quite late.

Probably about nine, maybe ten weeks into it,

when he just wasn't showing up when he said he would.

Although, I was concerned that...

Hang on a minute, nine, ten weeks later?

No, no, no, this job was only going to take six. Where...

-Where has the extra come from?

-I'm quite a laid-back person,

so perhaps the weather wasn't quite in their favour, or...

-He'd use the weather a lot as an excuse, wouldn't he?

-Yeah.

This was Barbara and Lee's second big mistake.

They were far too laid-back about the pace of work. Take my tip...

..So make sure they can justify when work falls behind.

But make sure the timeframe is realistic,

and avoid using key events like Christmas or birthdays

as deadline dates.

The quality of this cowboy's work was poor, and he was soon demanding

more money to finish the job, then disappearing for days on end.

What is your feeling towards him right now?

Yeah, I feel angry with him for what he's done and how he's left us. Yeah.

He's sitting in his home,

I'm sure he's got his basic amenities and whatever else.

Personally, I feel they lose out more,

because they've got to sleep with their conscience.

-I go to bed and I can...

-He hasn't got one, though, has he?

Well played, Barbara.

I can see this guy is just way too nice - I'm sorry -

because they don't have a conscience, mate.

Their build was weeks behind schedule,

and they'd already handed over nine grand when they made yet another

massive money mistake.

The couple had always planned on fitting a kitchen themselves

once their builder finished, but the cowboy offered to do it for them.

The only catch was, they would have to pay another three grand.

-Hang on, whoa, whoa! You paid him, what, the 3,000...

-Yeah.

-..on top of the nine?!

-Yeah.

-Oh, no, you didn't!

-We did.

You know, I always hate it when good people like Barbara and Lee

get ripped off by dodgy tradesmen.

But I love it when we bring in the good guys

and put their build back on track.

Our good guys went to work and transformed Barbara and Lee's

shabby, shambolic shell of a house into a picture-perfect palace

ready to call home.

The camping stove and shoddy kitchen of the past

was turned into a fabulous kitchen/diner,

and the endless exposed cables and dodgy electrics were made safe.

In the shower room, the plastic bags and rascal rodents were obliterated.

In its place, a Moroccan shower fit for a king and queen.

I couldn't wait to show Barbara and Lee.

Just a million times better than anything we could've thought of,

let alone what it was.

Lee, what's the best thing for you in here?

Aside from not having to empty the bucket, it's got to be the tiles.

I do love the way they've come together.

The good guys certainly put this lovely couple back on track,

but they still had plenty of hard work ahead if they wanted to

transform the house into the family home of their dreams.

I tell you what, it's great to be back in Ipswich,

and I can't wait to meet Barbara and Lee again.

I know one thing for sure -

work has definitely developed since the last time I was here.

Can't wait to find out more. Come on.

It's been over a year since I saw this fab couple

who had been having such a hard time.

-Hello.

-It's great to be back in Ipswich! Barbara, how are you?

-Yeah, good.

-Good to see you again.

-Lee, and you.

-And oh, my goodness!

-Yeah.

-Tell me - how far gone?

-30 weeks.

-30 weeks?

-So, ten more to go.

-Exciting times.

-Yeah.

-Exciting times.

Well, look, I've really come to not just look at your bump,

which is magnificent, I've actually come to look around the house

and see how you've progressed since we were last here.

When I had last saw this,

the extension was just breeze block and scaffolding.

But look at it now!

Barbara and Lee have finished the job.

Talk me through what has changed out here.

Well, the first thing that went in was the front door.

-Who did the rendering?

-It was a friend of the family.

-OK, well, they've done a great job.

We'll have it patched up, cos it's quite old, but once it's done,

we're going to paint the whole thing one colour and tie it all together.

It might look great outside,

but wait till you see what Barbara has done inside.

With her modern use of colours,

a fantastic new chocolate carpet and a light touch in decoration,

the couple have created a real wow factor.

Tell us what you've done here.

-Erm, well, we knocked out the old front door, which was here...

-Yeah.

..front door, window area,

which has let a lot more light in since we had this door put in,

which is obviously a big, massive side panel which we wanted to...

Cos the light comes round the front of the house in the day, it's lovely.

We've obviously had all this plastered out.

-And who did the tiles?

-Lee actually did that.

-Did he?!

Yeah, yeah, he did. And yeah, it's just...a home now.

It's changed so much. It's really, really impressive, I've got to say.

Just a year ago, it was a hellhole caused by a dastardly cowboy.

Now, it's a thing of beauty and will soon be a family home.

'But what have Barbara and Lee learned from their Cowboy Trap experience?'

We were quite naive to begin with.

When someone tells you that, "We can do this for you and it'll

"all be fantastic, you don't need to worry," you know, I believed it.

Yeah. Well, I actually worry when people do that,

because this is the whole thing, you know, that they come in

and they say they can do everything.

That's not always the case. Which brings me on to the question -

what would you do differently next time?

Well, I think the first thing I would have done, what I would do,

is to actually go and see someone that they've done for other people.

Something of the same scale that we're proposing to get done.

And get references from those that he has done work for,

because I think that's really important.

Wow, these guys are really cooking on gas.

They've listened to my top tip, the three Rs -

research, research, research.

Now they can feel safe as they wait for their biggest home improvement yet.

It's something we wanted for a long time,

but it was part of the reason for wanting to get the house done.

So, when all that was going on,

-it was something we couldn't even think about, isn't it?

-No.

But we're just really excited, and can't wait.

I want to wish you all the very best for the future.

I hope everything goes super well.

-Thank you.

-Thanks very much for everything you've done for us.

Listen, pleasure. You know, we're so glad that we could help you out.

It's been great to catch up with Barbara and Lee again

and also realise that the work we did has enabled them to use it

as a springboard to carry on with the good work

to turn their house of horrors into a beautiful home.

I tell you something else as well -

I love the idea that they've got their own extension going on, too.

Wonder if they'll ever call it Clive? You never know!

For years, I've helped homeowners across Great Britain

battle their building blues.

From towns to cities to villages,

I've been everywhere righting the wrongs of cowboy builders.

It's as good as done.

Next, I'm back in one of my favourite cities - Newcastle,

under the shadow of the mighty Angel of the North.

I'm back on Tyneside to revisit a couple whose dream

of the perfect extension was left in ruins by bungling builders

when they fell into the cowboy trap.

Foster parents Carol and George Young

have lived here for the last 34 years.

Hoping to foster children with special needs,

they looked for a builder to create a kitchen extension,

a downstairs toilet and shower room with disabled access.

We had two children, the twins, Ryan and Rebecca, still at home then.

We had two foster children here.

So, you had set times to get into the bathroom upstairs.

We decided it would be nice to have a downstairs toilet and shower room.

In the mornings, you know, could have two showers going if needed,

or a shower and a bath going upstairs.

We want a calm house kind of thing, you know,

because that's part of fostering.

If you've got challenging behaviours, a child with a problem,

things have got to be calm in the home, you know.

The Youngs asked around family and friends, and they thought they had

found the perfect builder through one of George's work colleagues.

Who I've worked with for some time, nice lads, and I happened to mention

we had our plans passed and were looking for a builder.

And one of the lads said,

"Oh, my dad's a builder, he does quite a lot of work, good work."

He says, "Would you want him to give you a price?"

I says, "That'll be fine, yeah."

The first thing the builder did was to try and big up his part

by offering to take on lots of extra jobs as well as the brickwork

the Youngs had in mind.

At first I said, "Well, can you just do the brickwork?"

He says, "I'd rather give you a price for doing the whole extension,

"because I have my own roofers, who are excellent,

"I have my own window fitter, who's top quality.

"These people are what I class as tried, tested by me."

And I thought, "Well, if he uses them on all his jobs,

"we'll just go with that."

The Youngs' builder promised them a brick extension complete with

French doors and windows,

plasterboarded walls and a shower room.

All for a quoted price of 8,640 quid.

He made good progress with the brickwork,

but then things slowed right down, and the excuses came thick and fast.

He couldn't contact his plasterer,

the window-making machine was broken, fitter wasn't answering...

You get the picture.

Half the time we didn't know if he was coming or going.

So by this time I started to think,

"Hang on here, I mean, there's people not turning up."

So, basically, what we had was a shell with a roof on

and a big empty room with no windows in.

Carol and George made the mistake of taking a friend's recommendation

without first getting references or going to see the builder's work,

or even getting more quotes to make sure they were getting good value.

The Youngs' cowboy builder made off with their hard-earned cash,

but left them without windows, plastered walls

and no shower or toilet.

I mean, it was cold.

You had no windows in and no insulation,

and in September, you know.

And just thinking, "Well, you know, what do we do?"

'When I first met this lovely couple, my heart went out to them.

'Before I could put this bodged work right,

'I wanted to get a sense of just how big a mess they were in.'

Now, in terms of your wet room, what was going on in here?

This was just a shell, Clive, there was nothing there.

Just a bare, breeze block wall.

There was nothing at all finished off inside.

Take my advice -

recommendations are fine,

but you must still check out the builder's work.

It's vital to have a contract with a builder outlining

a schedule of works and how much it'll all cost.

This is the cloakroom, Clive.

'Abandoned by their cowboy,

'Carol and George had to find an extra £5,500

'on top of the money they had already shelled out to make the house secure,

'fit windows, finish the plastering, plumbing and electrics.

'With money in short supply,

'George made endless calls to the builder before turning to a lawyer.'

So we went to Newcastle Crown Court, because we had never been in

this situation, and they said there's a litigation department

where you can both meet up and come to some sort of agreement.

So we attended. In actual fact, I took the holiday from work.

-I bet he didn't.

-He didn't go, no.

-No surprises there.

Foster parents Carol and George are trusting folk,

and they always want to see the best in people.

And they certainly gave their builder the benefit of the doubt,

but sadly, there was more doom in the Toon.

A judge ordered the builder to repay the Youngs £3,520,

but they only received 370 quid, a fraction of their money.

'I wanted to find out how Carol and George felt

'when their dreams fell apart.'

I-I was really low.

Really, really low, because we had gone through the building part of it, hadn't we?

Did you feel you had any anywhere to turn, anyone to turn to,

apart from George, of course?

Well, no, just family, you know.

They couldn't do anything about it, you know, I mean...

-It is an awful thing.

-All right, love? It's all right.

It is an awful thing, yeah, seriously.

It's all right, it's over with now, right?

It is a dreadful...

You know, it's important, it's really important, Carol,

at this stage, to know that... for people to understand

that this is the sort of disruption and the hurt that these guys cause.

And with your help, OK, and with you telling us your story,

you are helping others.

I was horrified seeing the effect

the cowboy builder had on the Youngs.

But I knew once our good guys got stuck in,

they would feel a whole lot better.

One man went beyond the call of duty - Eric the tiler.

It looks fantastic.

What have you been up to?

Well, preparation has been 90% of it, to create the folds

for the wet room.

The tiling is actually a piece of cake. I do it every day.

-Yes. You're the professional. This is what we want.

-Best of the best.

This hapless washroom was just a pipedream before we started.

The walls, bare plasterboard,

the whole room just looked like the builder bolted halfway through.

We transformed it into a toilet you'd be desperate to use.

And this shower room was something out of a horror film.

We gave it some five-star hotel appeal.

It was fresh, funky and family-friendly.

But my favourite moment was showing the Youngs that after all

they had been through, their dream came true.

Oh, God!

CAROL LAUGHS

It's a different...

God, you wouldn't think it was part of the house, would you?

Oh, it's lovely.

The good guys did a wonderful job, and if that wasn't enough,

our boys gave them an added extra surprise to keep them snug and cosy

on those cold Newcastle mornings.

There's a little secret hidden in here as well - underfloor heating.

Oh!

-Oh, that's just...

-So it's a thumbs up for that, is it?

-Oh, yes!

-Grand, grand!

We put the Youngs back on track,

but they still had lots to do to make their home family-friendly.

Hard to believe it's been two years.

Now, I'm back on Tyneside.

I can't wait to see how Carol and George have been getting on,

so let's find out.

Wey-aye! It's great to be back in Newcastle. How are you, Carol?

-How are you, George?

-Nice to see you, Clive.

Tell you what, it's great to be back, but I'd like to find out

how things have developed since the last time I was here, if you don't mind?

-Quite well. Quite well.

-Do you mind if I come in?

-No.

Great, let's go and have a chat.

Can't wait to find out.

Carol and George have used our help as a springboard to soup up their

tired-looking kitchen.

They've fitted new worktops and units,

and what about those smart, vintage tiles?

They look like the work of a real pro.

Same tiler that did the floor and the wall.

-And that was Eric, the guy we brought in?

-Yeah. Yeah.

-Brilliant.

It's nice to know that you can use them any time now, can't you?

Without a doubt. We wouldn't use anybody else.

That's more like it! The Youngs have followed one of my top tips -

if you find a good tradesman, don't let him go.

The kitchen fitter, we got recommendations

and work that he'd done, we'd seen,

so we weren't going down the same avenue that we did the last time.

The garden isn't finished, but we'll get there.

-But everything we've done, we've learnt from Cowboy Trap, haven't we, Carol?

-Yes.

'Glad to hear it! Now, what about the extension?

'What have they done down here?'

We've got wall tiles up.

-I'm loving the wall tiles by the way.

-Yeah, I know, we love them.

It just makes the room much bigger.

-It's got a sort of Victorian feel about it as well, hasn't it, the shapes of the tiles?

-Yeah.

So, although you can still tell it's a bit of work in progress,

the work is progressing.

-That's the key.

-Definitely.

-Now, I want to see if that wet room

and downstairs toilet have stood the test of the last two years.

-It does.

-Good, let's go and have a look.

-There you go.

-Now, then.

Now, this does bring back loads of memories,

and looking at it, it's quality.

-Still as nice as the day it was done.

-It is.

-Yeah.

-You're not wrong!

-I tell you what, that is a cracking job.

-Mm-hm.

The whole room, you know, when you are in there,

it's so spacious, you know, you want to sing!

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

The look of the house isn't the only thing that's new.

Carol's job has also changed.

After falling into the cowboy trap, she had to put her dream

of fostering children with special needs on hold.

A little birdie tells me that you've got a new job.

Yes, yes. I'm going to be working for the NHS.

It's on the rapid response team and discharge team.

I'm so happy. The Youngs have more than turned the corner -

they've climbed the mountain!

They've removed all traces of the cowboy builder

from their suburban ranch.

Well, it's been great. Thanks for letting us back in for a revisit.

-Thank you for everything you've done.

-Lovely to see you.

-Thank you.

-And it's gorgeous to see you, Carol, me lovely.

-Thank you.

It's been great coming back to visit Carol and George

and seeing how they've progressed with their lovely home.

And to see just how they bounced back from their brush with a cowboy builder.

And remember -

however bad things may seem,

there is a way to get your home build back on track

so that you don't end up in the same situation as Carol and George.

And that's by taking on board all my advice, hints and top tips,

and that way, you won't fall into the cowboy trap in the first place.

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