Episode 6 Cowboy Trap

Demolishing your dreams while plundering your hard-earned cash,

cowboy builders are alive and well, and operating in Britain.

He seemed a nice fella, he seemed he'd do me a good job,

but it didn't work out that way.

We're travelling across Britain, hearing your stories

of barbaric builder botches.

It seemed to be cracking, and he said to me,

"No, it'll be OK when I put some paint on it."

But we've got the good guys in,

to turn these homes from hell into dream dwellings.

I never thought he'd do this to me.

So, stick with me, cos these next 30 minutes

could keep you out of the Cowboy Trap.

Today, Cowboy Trap is in the West Midlands,

in the town of Halesowen, about ten miles outside of Birmingham.

The town centre, which was almost completely rebuilt in the 1930s,

has a Norman church, a football ground,

home of the mighty Halesowen Town,

and a college of further education,

where Frank Skinner used to teach, before he turned to comedy.

Back in the 19th century,

Halesowen's wealth was mainly due to this little fella, the nail.

In fact, nail making was a cottage industry,

and all the family would get involved.

It was painful, long hours and with meagre pay.

In fact, the final nail-making factory closed back in the 1990s.

But we're here today

to nail a particularly loathsome cowboy builder.

A cowboy builder who caught unlucky Yvonne Thompson in his trap.

60-year-old Yvonne has lived in Halesowen all her life.

It's where, at the tender age of 15, she met her husband-to-be, Michael.

They fell in love and married in 1971.

It was a perfect wedding day.

I felt so happy. I've never felt so happy in all my life.

I loved my husband to bits.

He was the only one for me.

In 1982, Yvonne and Michael chanced upon

this three-bedroom Victorian end-terraced house,

which had recently come up for sale.

For Yvonne, it was love at first sight.

She was determined no-one else would beat them to it.

I made sure that we got this house.

I kept him up all night.

I wouldn't let him go to sleep.

And the next morning, we were outside,

waiting for the estate agent to open,

in case somebody else got there before us.

Yvonne and Michael got their dream home. These were happy days.

The pair filled the house with 1950s memorabilia,

and Michael, who was a mechanic,

used this spacious garage to run his business.

He loved old cars.

He'd see an old car for sale with something wrong with it,

he'd buy it, do it up,

but after it, he wouldn't want to part with it.

He'd want to keep it.

And as you can see, the cars are still here today.

Sadly, five years ago, Michael lost his long battle with emphysema,

and in the years following his death,

Yvonne's health also deteriorated.

She'd had to leave work doing her job looking after the elderly

because she'd been diagnosed with arthritis to the spine.

But in the years after Michael's death,

she also suffered minor strokes, which left her disabled.

Despite her deteriorating health

and her beloved Michael's untimely death,

Yvonne was determined to make the most out of life.

She and Michael had built up a small nest egg,

and Yvonne decided now was the time to spend it on renovating her home.

She got an architect to draw up plans,

taking into account wheelchair access,

because she was becoming increasingly immobile.

She got planning permission,

and then set about getting quotes from local builders.

But Yvonne made a fatal error.

A builder she found through an ad in the local paper

for a rendering job got wind of her extension plans.

He said, regardless of what quotes she got, he would undercut them.

Now, she was impressed with the work he'd done so far

and decided to throw caution to the wind and gave him the work.

After all, she trusted him,

and she never even bothered taking up references.

What a shame!

Take my advice.

Always get references from previous customers,

and go in person to see examples of their previous work,

similar to the job you need doing.

If the builder can't divvy up any similar projects, run a mile.

Yvonne's wish list included a kitchen extension,

some plastering, some rewiring,

a doorway widening for wheelchair access and new flooring.

The figure Yvonne and the builder agreed for the project

came to 16 and a half grand, and work soon got under way.

But within hours, Yvonne started to fear she'd chosen a bad 'un.

He came and asked me for £1,000, and I said to him,

"I can't give you money up front. You've only done a day.

"You've got to wait till you've done a bit more work,

"and then I'll give you some money."

This time, the builder took no for an answer,

but not for long.

After two or three days, when he'd been out, he asked me again,

and I did give him £1,000.

Yvonne soon twigged that this guy was in financial difficulty,

but rather than running a mile, she actually took pity on him

and decided to give him extra jobs just to keep him in work,

fitting an upstairs toilet, paving outside, replacing a damaged fence

and realigning some bad brickwork that was left by a previous builder.

In fact, the list goes on.

His regular demands for cash were bad enough, but before long,

Yvonne started to think he wasn't actually a very good builder.

The first thing she noticed

was problems with the first thing he'd done.

Just a few weeks after he'd rendered the front of her house,

cracks had begun to show.

I asked him what had gone wrong

with the rendering on the front of the house.

It seemed to be cracking, and he said to me,

"No, it'll be OK when I put some paint on it."

But when he put some paint on it, it was still the same.

And it wasn't just the render that was a worry.

Waste was being left in Yvonne's garden,

because the builder didn't hire a skip.

The floor tiles in the kitchen weren't in line,

he didn't complete the gravel boarding he'd started,

he didn't fix a leak in the upstairs toilet

and despite Yvonne specifically asking for it,

the back door wasn't wide enough for a wheelchair.

He'd ended up putting a very narrow back door on it,

and that back door isn't right. It's all buckled up.

Once again, she give him the benefit of the doubt. And here's why.

Yvonne felt that they'd kind of become friends.

So much so, she loaned him her van for a month or so,

because his had broken down,

and it was really nice to have a man about the house once again.

But, do you know what?

This character was still on the job two years after it started!

In addition to the original wish list,

the builder had also installed a lintel over an upstairs window,

replaced a flat roof with an apex roof

and he'd done extra bits and bobs inside and outside the house.

Oh, dear!

Oh, dear, oh, dear!

Take my advice.

Beware of your builder extending the job, and his fee,

beyond your original remit.

Have a clear plan of action for your building project, and stick to it.

Sure, there might be some minor adjustments here and there,

but if your shopping list runs wild, so will your overdraft.

Realising Yvonne's cash was running out,

the builder started to turn up less and less.

Then, one day, Yvonne got a shock.

I came back with my son and he was loading all his tools in his van,

and I said to my son, "He's going, he is."

Yvonne realised she'd been stitched up like a kipper.

I did think I could trust him.

He was here a long time

and it became like a friendship between me, him and my son.

I never thought he'd do this to me.

Not surprisingly,

this construction catastrophe has left Yvonne heartbroken.

It was a dream that I wanted completing, and I chose him...

He seemed a nice fella, he seemed he'd do me a good job,

but it didn't work out that way.

You know, this sort of story really gets me mad.

You've got a kind and trusting soul

who's been taken for a ride by a builder

who only sees her as a meal ticket.

I'm also concerned about the scale of the project as well,

and the mish-mash of jobs that's been going on,

and I'm m also concerned at exactly what we can do to help.

But I know one thing we can do,

and that is to give Yvonne peace of mind.

-Now, you must be the lovely Yvonne.

-I am, yes.

-Hello, I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap. You all right?

-I'm all right.

Now, I've got to say, this looks like the offending extension.

-It is, that's right.

-OK, well, I tell you what,

do you mind if I go and have a little look around it?

You go and rest your pins and I'll be in to have a chat with you.

-OK, lovely. Thank you.

-Thanks, Yvonne.

-Thank you.

Let's have a look.

They say you should never judge a book by the cover,

but I'm a firm believer that you CAN judge a builder by the building.

Let's check the windows out first of all.

OK, where they've masticked around the edge here, in the reveal,

there's a gap in there,

and that means you can get water ingress.

Of course, you can get things like bugs as well going in,

so, in general, it's not a brilliant finish.

And something else that catches my eye is down here,

where the bottle gully is.

Now, where this downspout is coming from the extension,

the part of the extension of the roof,

it comes down into an elbow there...

..and you'll notice that not only is it running flat,

it's actually running back on itself.

So, although you are going to get a good force of water,

if you get any silt or leaves built up in there,

it's going to block right on that corner.

I did notice this as well on the way in. Look at this!

I mean, any builder worth their salt

is never going to leave a dingle there.

Look at that, it's dangling.

That is pretty awful!

It's loose, it's not strapped to the wall like it should be,

it could blow about in the wind,

but worst of all, where that grey water's coming down,

where the surface water is coming off the roof, look at this.

It's going to nowhere but the path,

and that's why it's causing all of this grief around here.

You're getting all of that silt build up,

and that can be quite slippy and dangerous, as well.

Particularly think about that in winter time. That's pretty awful.

And that's not the only thing. Check out the roof on the extension.

Not good.

Now, what's happened here with these clips on the tiles,

they bond together...

Now, here, they're not joined in at all,

and there, you can see they're broken,

they've got open gaps there of about so big,

and all sorts of moisture, bugs, whatever, can get inside there.

The guy who did this is clearly a drainage dunce.

You've heard of a square peg in a round hole.

Well, how about a square downspout into a round one?

Look at that. I mean it, WHO in their right mind would do that?!

That is, again, a poor fit.

Where that's overlapping,

that's going to send water flooding down this pathway.

And the other intriguing thing is this.

This is the render.

Now, you've got all fractures all over this render,

and I've got to be honest, it's not been put on right, and you tap it...

HOLLOW ECHO

Listen to that. That's hollow, and in the words of Michael Jackson,

if you were to take a hammer to that, it'd be off the wall.

And as the Bee Gees would say, this build is a...

# Tragedy. #

Inside, it goes from bad to worse.

Straight away, tell-tale signs.

As you look at the ceiling here, it's been boarded out,

it's been skimmed, but look at this,

it's already started to split apart

under the weight of the moisture ingress that's got in.

Am I surprised? No, I'm not, when you look at the state of the roof.

And, in fact, there's blotches of it all around this ceiling.

And it's not just blotches. This ceiling isn't flat.

It has a belly in the middle. Now, who does that remind me of?!

Anyway, I digress.

And although there's nothing dangerous about this,

check this out, the coving.

We've got one, two, three, four, five, six cuts in that length,

whereas there can only have needed to be one.

So, you got one full-length

and you've probably got a half or three-quarter length.

That's all it needs.

It looks like he's bought a load that have probably been damaged,

got them cheap, but he's had to cut them all.

That is a real botched job!

Ah, check this out, as well.

We've actually got... Here, we've got a loft hatch.

Now, this hatch takes us up to what, I think, is still the flat roof.

It's still there. if I just feel for the felt...

Yeah, the felt's on there. Now, there's the problem straight away.

Because they've left the flat roof on

and then they've put the roof on top of that,

you've got that moisture build-up

where the heat from inside the house meets the cold from outside,

moisture build-up, bad news.

Time for me to sit down for a cowboy powwow with unlucky Yvonne.

How are you feeling? How are you feeling personally?

I feel stressed right out with it.

I can't believe the poor workmanship he's left,

and how he's left it, the mess he's left me in.

Nothing's right with that kitchen. Everything I look at...

But that roof, it's horrendous.

It's a real emotional rollercoaster that you're on,

that you can't put a price on,

because there must have been times when you were going to bed at night

and just thinking, "How am I ever going to get out of it?"

Oh, it's worrying my life out.

There's a lot of nights I haven't slept,

and I didn't know which way to turn to get out of it, who to ask,

you know...how to solve this problem.

I couldn't leave it like that, but it's been left such a long time

and it's a problem that won't go away.

What he's done to you is bang out of order,

and what he's left you with.

But we're going to get the good guys in and put it right.

I want to get Yvonne a sign-off certificate

for the kitchen extension from local building control.

Without it, she'll have all sorts of problems

if she ever decides to sell up.

But it's a big job, so I've called in independent surveyor Nigel Mason

to give me a second opinion on the task in hand.

Just talk us through what you've found.

Yeah, obviously, there's an extension to a previous building

-which has come out probably one-and-a-half metres.

-Yeah.

And to try and get the roofs to match, on a pitched roof,

the design isn't particularly good, if I'm honest.

It's a bit of a recipe for potential problems with roof details

and flashings etc, and the quality of workmanship is also compounding

the fact that clearly we've got problems with the roof leaking.

I look at the original building that was here,

the original extension, and it looks like a flat roof.

Do you think they've actually built it on top of that?

Yeah, you can actually see - there's a little loft hatch -

and you can see through the roof space that the original flat roof

deck is still in place.

So they put the pitched roof on top of the flat roof.

Very little insulation in there.

And that's potentially going to cause condensation problems as well.

Now, in terms of the inside, problems we've got in there?

The quality of workmanship is quite poor.

The WC pan isn't even fixed to the floor in the upstairs toilet.

In terms of the work you've actually seen so far,

what sort of mark would you give that out of ten, Nigel?

-It's three out of ten for me, Clive.

-A three out of ten it shall be.

Your input is vital to us. Great to see you again.

-Thanks very much.

-I'll let you carry on. Thank you, Nigel.

So, three out of ten. Hmm...

Well, I don't mind telling you,

I've developed a soft spot for poor Yvonne.

Whether it's her tragic story,

her fantastic Black Country accent,

or just the terrible pickle she's in, I don't know.

But what I do know is I'm determined to convert that three out of ten

into a perfect ten.

I've seen quite enough.

Enough to know that I'm now declaring this a no-go zone.

Only myself and the good guys are allowed across that line.

Talking of which, I think they're here now.

Yeah, here they are, my knights in shining armour, led by David Evans.

They've got a lot on their plate here,

so Yvonne is chipping in to get the work done.

David's dynamic team wastes no time getting started.

But before I leave them to it,

I want a tete-a-tete with the main man himself.

Just talk us through what your plan is.

The initial plan is to get the property back into a standard

that's acceptable to the tenant after many, many years of frustration.

The second priority for us is to get the roof, get the leak stopped,

and the main point, as far as the tenant should be concerned,

is there's a number of problems that Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

require for this building to get a completion certificate on it.

That's what we're looking for.

-So, all of those jobs are going to be addressed?

-Absolutely correct.

I've already met the building control officer,

he's given me his three main points, those will be addressed,

and the completion certificate will be issued by Dudley Council.

Well, the future is so bright, builder Dave's got to wear shades.

But will he and his team be able to dazzle Yvonne with a

blindingly brilliant transformation of her shoddy extension?

Only time will tell.

I'm back in Halesowen, where Yvonne Thompson's dream of having

a nice big kitchen was dashed when she fell victim to a cowboy builder

who was riding the gravy train.

But luckily, Yvonne called us in, and I've come to find out

if our good guys have saved the day.

Before I talk it through with the lovely lady herself,

I want a sneaky peek.

Sun is out, sky is blue, not a cloud to spoil the view. Loving it!

Oh, first thing, straightaway,

outside these French doors, we've got a step.

So now, you don't have to sort of fall down there.

Next thing I see... Remember this?

The downspout was just absolutely...

All that rainwater was just washing down here, swilling down there,

that's gone. So let's see where that's going to.

Ha-ha! OK, so that's all now going into a nice, new bottle gully,

and all the waste has been sorted out.

(OK, lovely. Lovely-jubbly!)

So far, so good.

But what about the roof?

The ridge tiles have all been bedded on nicely.

The roof tiles have been changed. I was talking about those clips that were broken.

They've obviously been replaced and new.

We've actually got a dry valley now, as well, which is great.

And then up to the parapet at the top there,

I was saying that the lead upstand, the flashing, was not good.

That's all very, very nice. I know it's only a roof, but you know what?

I get carried away with them. I love roofs.

Time to check out the inside,

because that's where Yvonne wants to be cooking on gas.

This kitchen is now hot to trot.

HE LAUGHS

It's amazing, really.

Immediately, the first thing that hits me is the black-and-white contrasting paintwork.

But the next thing that hits me is we've got low-voltage downlighters,

we've got a flat ceiling. Remember, it had a belly in it.

A bit like mine. Well, not quite as big, but it was still there.

But, man, it looks so different.

And it looks like they've opened the kitchen out, which is great,

because Yvonne wanted more space.

And I'm loving the detail on those doors.

Really well painted, highly glossed doors,

and the hinges, they're a really ornate sort of hinge.

And I think it goes with...

I've got this thing about... With Yvonne, she loves her rock and roll.

And it's got that sort of '50s-diner feel about it.

The loft hatch has moved now as well,

so it was over there, difficult to access right by doors.

Of course, here, far easier.

The insulation has been done and the electrics, too.

The sign-off certificate has been sorted,

so if ever Yvonne does need to sell, that end of things is covered.

Nice work, guys!

It looks so different. Really does.

I notice, as well, we've got a new fuse board.

So, therefore, we're bang up-to-date.

17th edition regs, so the electrics have obviously been sorted, too.

It's just got a great feel about it. Hurrah!

Well, this transformation has made my day, I can tell you!

Now, before I talk it through with Yvonne, I want a word about

the cowboy builder who took two years and 26 grand of her money

but left her in such a mess.

We've been in touch with him to hear his side of the story,

and I want to find out what she has to say about his version of events.

First of all, he says he admits that you gave him a lot of work

and he really appreciated it.

-So we started off on the right foot.

-Yes.

-How do you feel about that?

That was correct. I did find him a lot of work.

I knew he was in trouble,

but I didn't think he was in that much trouble moneywise.

Now, on the drains point,

he said that as far as he was concerned, you've had someone in

to do those drains, and it's made them, in his words, "twice as bad".

Therefore, he's recognising they were bad in the first place.

But he claims, because you've had other people in to do it,

it's made it twice as bad.

I don't agree with that.

I had to do something with it,

because he just left pipes coming out the walls of the kitchen

to the other side of the garden, and I kept falling over these pipes.

So, I had to call somebody in to do a temporary job -

not a permanent job -

just to settle the pipes down so I wouldn't keep falling over them.

Now, he says, on a legal standpoint, that he's been declared bankrupt,

and therefore he doesn't have to come back to do the work.

But...

he's also saying that he's not a cowboy.

-But what do you think? Do you think he was a cowboy?

-I do, yes.

You know, how he left everything, and the jobs were unfinished

and the amount of money he had to do the jobs. I mean, he had time.

He had plenty of time to complete the work.

It is possible the builder did such a shoddy job

because he was going through a difficult time,

but all the evidence points to cowboy behaviour. Yee-ha!

Yeah, you guessed it, I'm feeling a bit giddy,

because it's time for my favourite bit - the grand tour.

Yvonne has seen the work going on around her,

but she's about to see the finished result in all its glory.

Come on, Yvonne, come and have a look at this.

-Oh, wow!

-Fantastic, isn't it?

-I can't believe it!

Really beautiful, isn't it? Now, you wanted a big kitchen, didn't you?

This is everything I wanted.

Everything all wrapped up in one.

-It's immaculate.

-It looks great, doesn't it?

This is now a big dance floor. You can do a bit of jiving.

-Oh, yeah, I'll have a rock and roll disco in here!

-Hey, perfect!

The lighting looks great...

I'm loving the black and white. I was saying it's like rock and roll.

-I do, I love the colour.

-It's just superb.

Just what I wanted, this is. I love it. I love it.

-I love every bit.

-Yeah. Now, there's one other interesting factor.

Interesting to me, but important to you, and that's the electrics.

-You've had a new fuse board installed up there.

-Oh, lovely.

And all the electrics have been sorted out for you as well, so they're nice and safe. Safety first.

-That's nice to know.

-Yeah?

Nice to know? Yes, indeedy!

And what's also nice to know is the kitchen is now safe from flooding,

thanks to the good guys' work on the roof and drains.

Can't wait to show Yvonne.

Come outside. There's a lovely roof up there!

Come and have a look!

I know it's only a roof, but I get excited by it.

-Do you remember the problems we had before?

-I do, yeah.

I mean, we'd got cracked tiles,

a little deflection in the roof as well.

-There was all sorts of problems with moisture getting in.

-Yeah.

They've replaced over 200 of those tiles up there,

and they've reseated just about every other one. And, of course,

the copers at the top there as well have been done, and where the

lead flashing is as well, and the dry gully, that has been replaced.

-It just looks fantastic now.

-I couldn't agree more. It's perfect.

Doesn't end there.

I have some documentation right here that tells you, first of all,

from Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council,

that's a completion certificate for the building work that has gone on.

So that means if ever you want to sell this house, legally, you can.

So you've got your completion certificate, take that.

I didn't think I'd ever have these certificates.

You know, I didn't think the day would come when I would see them,

when I'd actually hold them in my hand.

I am really, really happy with what has been done.

And quite right, too! Yvonne can now banish those cowboy blues for ever.

Result!

Well, thanks once again to the good guys,

Yvonne's got the kitchen she always dreamed of.

It's nice and big, she can cook a meal in there,

but she can also do a little bit of twist and shout, too.

But hopefully, she won't take any more jive from cowboy builders.

Talking of which, I've got a message for 'em -

it's high noon, and we're coming to get you!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd