Episode 21 Cowboy Trap

We're travelling the length and breadth of Britain

on a mission to rescue homeowners from the curse of the cowboy builder.

The builder has ruined everything.

It's not fair.

It's impossible to overestimate the damage these guys do.

Whether they're blatant amateurs or simply crooks,

cowboy builders not only mess up homes, they ruin lives, too.

-Did Building Control sign it off?

-No.

Building Control were too busy laughing to sign anything off.

We've rounded up the good guys

to help turn helpless homeowners into merry mortgagees.

You can see there's a very, very slight fall,

but a necessary one, which means all the water is going to flow that way.

I've got a safe room. That's all that matters to me.

Absolutely anyone can call themselves a builder,

which is why it's crucial to know how to spot a wrong 'un

and why the next 45 minutes could help keep you

out of the cowboy trap.

On today's Cowboy Trap,

a vanishing builder, who would end up in jail for his crimes,

and the extension he built, which became a monumental bodge.

It was a lot of money that we'd handed over

and we feel let down, betrayed.

He obviously didn't uphold his end of the contract.

And three years after we rescued her,

we catch up with a cowboy-builder victim in Dorset to see how she's doing now.

What an entrance! I'm thinking, "Dynasty! The Colbys!"

Our first cowboy-trap saga takes place in the historic city of York.

Back in the 19th century, York became famous as a railway hub

and as the epicentre for confectionary manufacture.

Now it's renowned for its top university.

Notable alumni include Greg Dyke, Harry Enfield

and the producer of this very programme.

Well, you can't get everything right!

But one thing the citizens of York did get spot on

is this architectural triumph.

York Minster is one of the world's most magnificent cathedrals.

A masterpiece in stone and stained glass,

it took an incredible 250 years to build.

It's so-called Lantern Tower is an amazing feat of 15th-century engineering.

Such a shame, then, that we're not here to marvel at that.

I'm on the trail of a cowboy builder

who is responsible for a distinctly unholy mess.

His unlucky victims

live in this three-bed 1960s detached bungalow.

It's home to sales advisor Az Ahmad,

his wife Clare and their children Kayden and Bethany.

Clare and Az met whilst working at Flamingo Land,

a theme park in North Yorkshire.

I spoke to Clare a couple of times. I didn't think she'd...

..that I had any chance at all.

It turns out different.

He'd come into the arcade to chat to my friend, who wasn't there,

so he'd end up chatting to me.

It just kind of happened from there.

Clare and Az married in 2008.

Before long, Kayden and Bethany arrived and Clare became a full-time mum.

But family life hasn't been easy.

Four-year-old Kayden was diagnosed with autism earlier this year.

We'd had him in for a hearing test

to see if it was hearing-related.

That came back fine

so we knew that there must be something else.

He doesn't talk yet. He makes the normal kiddy sounds

but he doesn't respond to his name, he has no concept of danger.

The house in which the Ahmads live used to belong to Clare's grandparents.

When they passed away in 2007, Clare's family thought it would be a perfect home for her,

and she and Az moved in.

Very quickly, however, the house became too small for Clare and Az.

First Kayden, then Bethany came along,

and Kayden's autism meant he simply had to have his own room,

so the couple decided they needed an extension.

We considered moving house,

but our finances wouldn't have permitted it.

Even if we borrowed money from family members,

we wouldn't have been able to get

the amount needed for the house that we wanted.

The Ahmads' dream was to replace their conservatory with an extension,

which would create space for an extra bedroom for Bethany and a playroom for Kayden.

Clare and Az looked in the phonebook and found three builders.

They liked one of them so much, they couldn't wait to get started.

He drew up some plans - "We like them. Can we come and see some of your work?"

He said, "Great. When?" "Now?"

So we drove over to Harrogate to have a look at his work.

Everything looked good. We were happy with what we'd seen.

Clare and Az were so impressed, they put him in touch with Clare's mum and dad,

who were thinking about installing a conservatory.

The Ahmads had one they didn't want,

so here was a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

The plan was for the builder to dismantle Clare and Az's conservatory

and rebuild it at her parents' house.

It might seem like they did all the right things,

and we do recommend you go and see previous work,

but that's only part of the research you do.

The Ahmads got carried away and were in too much of a rush to give the green light.

So take a tip from me...

Take your time over choosing the right contractor

and be prepared to wait for a reputable builder.

..or use an approved contractor,

if they operate such a scheme.

The builder quoted £34,750 for the whole job.

That included moving the existing conservatory,

building a single-storey extension with French doors

and constructing a covered walkway between the house and garage.

Work began on the Ahmads' extension in September 2010,

with the builder saying he would complete it within three months.

At first, things seemed to be going well.

We were happy with the guys that were doing the work.

They seemed to know what they were doing.

They were getting on with it, they were working hard,

they were cleaning up after themselves.

Well, the builder was definitely cleaning up.

Clare and Az found themselves regularly handing over £7,000 at a time.

Alarm bells only starting ringing when they returned from holiday

to find the floor in the extension was a different height to the floor in the house.

You what?!

When we came back, we realised that the floor level wasn't level.

It worked out to be about a three-and-a-half, four-inch drop.

The builder suggested a step.

With toddlers running around - not clever.

So he put a slope in instead, but it was much too steep.

I was like, "That's not good enough. We've got kids."

They ended up putting a smaller incline on the slope.

Because of errors like this, the project was running way behind schedule.

And there were other problems, too.

The bathroom wasn't the size Az and Clare had asked for

and the sunroom light switch was in the far corner,

so you had to walk in the dark to turn it on.

That is a schoolboy error.

So far, so bad.

A run-of-the-mill cowboy tale, I hear you say.

But here's the weird thing - within weeks, our builder simply vanished,

disappeared, along with his squad of sub-contractors.

And do you know what? It didn't matter what Clare and Az did -

phone calls, emails, getting people to pass on a message -

they never heard from him again.

He even left his tools in the garden and they're still there to this day.

It's not safe. I've stopped caring about the garden.

I used to spend hours out there,

and now it looks like this old abandoned bit of land

that a builder used to use.

The saddest thing about this story is that more than £30,000 later,

plans that were supposed to make life easier for this family

have ended up a millstone around their necks.

It was a lot of money that we'd handed over

and we feel let down and betrayed.

He obviously didn't uphold his end of the contract.

The builder has ruined everything.

It's just...

It's just not fair!

But things for the Ahmads were about to get worse. Much worse.

Soon after the builder did his disappearing act,

Az and Clare called in the local building inspector.

Straight away, he spotted problems with the electrics,

the ventilation and the insulation.

And that's not all.

The building inspector took one look and went, "No, that's wrong.

"Your roof's not strong enough. That door doesn't shut properly.

"There's no protection on the fire door."

It was like, "OK..."

What we thought was just a problem with the builder not finishing off

turned out to be a lot bigger problem.

Roof not strong enough? With kids around?

No wonder the building officer was worried.

And Clare's parents have suffered, too.

Remember, the conservatory was supposed to be dismantled

and reassembled at Clare's parents' house.

It got dismantled all right,

but it's still in pieces in Az and Clare's garden.

Trading Standards investigated

and found this cowboy had done a similar vanishing act on some other unlucky customers.

They successfully prosecuted him for false representation and poor workmanship

and he received a custodial sentence.

Quite right, too.

This guy's gone to prison for what he's done

after Trading Standards took up the case,

but that's little comfort for Clare and Az.

They're still left, as are Clare's mum and dad, in a right mess,

and the whole experience has put an intolerable strain upon the family.

But how big a mess are the Ahmads in?

After a cowboy builder's done his dirty work,

there are often unseen problems lurking beneath the surface.

To find out the true scale of the botched job,

we enlisted the services of independent building expert Colin Harrop

and asked him to inspect the extension.

Colin's made some exhaustive notes and is about to fill me in on what he found.

-Hey, Jonnie.

-Good to see you.

It's not the sort of thing that's designed to last any length of time.

First item on the agenda - that horrible corrugated plastic roof over the walkway,

between the extension and the garage.

The sort of corrugated plastic you've got on there

might be all right if you've got a bike you don't like very much and want to leave outside.

It offers no protection, it offers no thermal insulation.

It looks grotty and it leaks.

It is the wrong product to choose in that situation.

You say it leaks.

There doesn't look like there's any fall on this.

There's moisture and muck gathering already, isn't there?

There is. Pretty much any water that drains into that

sits in a pool in the middle and finds its way through the joints.

You've got naff bits of timber underneath,

which are all getting saturated.

I don't think this thing was designed to last

-any more than it took for the builder to get away from the place, really.

-No.

That plastic roof is already failing.

The untreated timber will rot like nobody's business.

Colin is also unhappy about the roof of the conservatory itself.

When you put concrete-tile roofs on -

often people at home have older houses with slate-covered roofs

and replace those with concrete tiles -

one of the big problems is, concrete is an awful lot heavier than natural slate

so you do need to make sure that the roof is strong enough.

The Building Control officer was convinced it wasn't strong enough.

Perhaps that's why the cowboy created such a small loft hatch -

he wanted to make inspecting the roof nigh-on impossible.

But he didn't succeed.

And that's not the end of the Ahmads' worries.

The door going into, well, what is effectively a lean-to,

I mean, the fitting of that looks shocking.

The fitting's pretty poor.

It's a pretty cheap and nasty plastic door to start with,

but the door frame has been put straight onto the flooring

without any kind of step, without any building up,

so if you walk through the door,

you're treading on the frame, which is a thin piece of plastic.

With the door hanging as it is, there's grass growing underneath the door.

-There is.

-The door is effectively a plastic gate.

And not a very good plastic gate at that.

Plus, the windows of the extension are badly fitted,

the pointing is sloppy

and the patio doors at the rear are already on their last legs.

The hinges are already pointing downwards.

The doors are literally hanging off, aren't they?

The doors are badly fitting. They've dropped on their hinges

to the extent where opening and closing them requires brute force,

which it shouldn't do with a door set of that age.

When we go inside the extension, it doesn't get any better.

There's something of a ski slope going on here in the hallway.

There is. The floor is noticeably out of level on this one

so that you can definitely tell walking from old to new.

You're looking for a banister because it's pretty steep.

I don't know why that floor has been set out to such a bad level.

These days, with lasers, it's quite easy to get things level.

-But this isn't even level to the eye!

-No.

I can understand if a house is built in or out of a hillside, you might have to have a step,

but the garden is a similar level!

-This should've been dug out and levelled properly.

-It should've.

It's not level to the eye and there's no reason why it should be out of level.

No reason at all. But let's be frank,

there's not much on this job that is on the level.

Right, it's make-your-mind-up time for Colin.

From what you've seen, what would you mark this builder out of ten?

I struggled to give it more than a two out of ten.

The two is mainly for effort, but I can't...

..I'm afraid I can't give it any more than that.

Well, in a previous life I was a surveyor

and based on the photos Colin just showed me, I concur.

Check out the evidence -

a faulty door frame, a cataclysmic corrugated roof,

untreated timber, pitiful pointing,

a woeful window, dreadful doors, a roof that's structurally unsound,

a garden that resembles a building site

and a corridor that resembles the side of a Swiss mountain.

Oh, and I mustn't forget the inadequate ventilation in the bathroom.

What did the guy get right?

All this, and the Ahmads have handed over £33,000.

Time to bring in the good guys.

And here they jolly well are,

in the form of Neil Speakman and his band of building brothers.

Neil and his team waste no time swinging into action.

So much needs doing, the Ahmads are chipping in.

The extra space for their kids means the world to them.

The Speakman Squad sets about making the extension roof safe.

Then they descend on the doors, prepare the planks and erase the rubbish roof.

It's a great start, but can they get Az and Clare's dream back on track?

Only time will tell.

I'm in York,

where Clare and Az Ahmad shelled out over £30,000 for an extension

to make life easier for their autistic son Kayden.

But they were taken in by a cowboy builder

who left the house in such a mess, he went to prison for it.

But now our good-guy builders have finished their work,

so let's see how Clare and Az are getting on.

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Clare?

-Yes.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-And then Az.

-Yes.

-I'm Jonnie. Nice to meet you both.

-Nice to meet you, too.

-It looks warm in there.

-It is.

-Can we try it out?

-Certainly.

-Go on, then!

-Thank you!

As soon as I cross the threshold, I can't resist a quick peek.

The transformation, from what the cowboy left behind

to what our good guys conjure up, is striking.

The garden's looking better, too.

From rubbish dump...

..to safe play area for the kids

in one fell swoop. Nice.

Before I take a closer look at the good guys' work,

I want to ask Az and Clare

about when they first realised they were caught in the cowboy trap.

-You went on holiday, I understand.

-Yep.

You came back. Then what happened?

He'd done things a different way round to how we thought.

We thought he would build the extension and then knock through,

once everything was finished and the walls were tight and secure.

That makes sense.

-He decided that while we weren't in the house...

-They'd knock through.

..it would be easier for them to knock through.

-So, this was contrary to the initial agreement?

-Yes.

There was also no agreement to have the extension on a different level to the rest of the house.

How far through the process were you

when you noticed the big slope?

It wasn't a slope, it was a step.

-To which you said what?

-"I'm not having a step."

"It's a bungalow. There's no steps in it."

-A bungalow with a step!

-I said, "I'm not having a step."

"I will fall down a step. The kids will fall down a step. You're putting a slope in."

-And then they put the slope in?

-And it was like that...

-And I went, "The kids will love that..."

-Yes.

"..but it's a little bit steep for me."

It's a little bit steep for me, too,

but a sloping corridor was the least of the Ahmads' problems

when a Building Control officer paid them a visit.

-Did Building Control sign it off?

-BOTH: No.

Building control were too busy laughing to sign anything off.

-Building Control failed to sign this off? They refused to sign this off?

-They refused.

So you're living in a house

with a structure that is deemed...

-Not safe.

-Yes.

-Yes?

Yes. Don't, I'll cry!

I don't want to upset you,

but I'm trying to understand what was going on at that moment of time.

That was your bedroom in the new extension, wasn't it?

Where we were with our little girl, as well.

-Things got to a pretty low ebb. You got to a low ebb.

-Yes.

Then what happened?

We decided to get in touch with Trading Standards because we thought, "It's not fair."

This guy, we knew, was working on another house.

-Doing the same, maybe, to someone else?

-Yes.

-Someone else's home.

-Yes.

What were you feeling when you found out he might be working somewhere else?

I'm thinking, "I don't want them to feel what I'm feeling."

We don't want anyone else to have to go through...

Nobody should have to go through that.

No, they shouldn't. And thanks to Trading Standards,

the cowboy got his comeuppance.

How did you feel when you found out

that this cowboy had been sent to prison?

We had a party! THEY LAUGH

-Did you really?

-Yep!

-Yes.

-We did.

Quite right, too. Now the good guys have been,

hopefully the Ahmads are in the party spirit again.

Time for me to take a close look at our fellas' handiwork.

This is better!

This, for me, was the biggest bodge job that I saw,

but this looks much better.

Do you remember before, there were bits of corrugated plastic overlapping here

and moisture gathering here?

Now it looks like there's one long sheet.

But more important than that, you've got this honeycomb plastic.

You've got an air gap between two pieces of plastic,

which has some form of thermal insulation, a bit like a conservatory roof,

whereas before, it was like putting Clingfilm over a bowl of salad, wasn't it?

It's been fitted properly. The timbers are painted and treated.

But here's the other thing - one of the reasons why the previous roof was failing

is because it was just flat.

A great example of what the good guy has done is, look,

you've got a finger's depth here one end,

and you can see there's a very, very slight fall,

but a necessary one, which means all the water is going to flow that way,

hopefully onto a gulley. Let's have a look.

Ah, there it is. Guttering with a downpipe,

getting all the water off that roof.

The good guys also removed all the building rubbish the cowboy left in the garden.

At Az and Clare's request, they've replaced the lawn with easy-to-maintain Astroturf.

This is brilliant!

It looks so different. It looks phenomenal. I love it!

But will I love the inside of the extension, too?

Now then, this is better, isn't it? Much bigger.

Remember the loft hatch? A child would struggle to get in.

Now it's of a decent size

and, hopefully, there's a way to get up there.

Ahh! Look at that! A proper loft ladder!

Now, let's not forget that a family live in this house, they need storage space.

I'll be very interested to hear

what the builder has to say about what he found when he went up there.

What else have we got here?

These are brand new, a complete replacement,

which I know Clare and Az which will chuffed to bits about.

Remember the old ones? They were hanging off.

These aren't, are they?

They're hung properly, straight out onto the patio area.

This is the kids' room.

They can go straight out into a safe area that's fenced off from the rest of the garden.

Nice. Good Guy head honcho Neil has come to talk me through how it all went.

Neil, you turn up to this job, what were your first thoughts?

Unbelievable, to be honest. It, erm...

It beggars belief why somebody would try to use a 3-by-2 rafter

to support a roof that's four-metres long.

-That was your primary concern - the roof?

-Absolutely.

In place of the old and woefully inadequate roof-support structure,

Neil and the lads have installed a new system of timbers,

guaranteed to keep that roof over the Ahmads' heads.

-If your roof's not good, nothing's good.

-No.

That's the reason it didn't pass Building Control.

-Has that now been signed off?

-It has been signed off.

-Excellent.

That means if Clare and Az ever wanted to sell this house,

they'd have the certificate to prove this roof is safe and sound.

Neil and his team have certainly been busy.

Those plastic doors looked like they were hanging down.

Unfortunately, the patio doors had been fitted...

They weren't brilliant to start off with,

but they hadn't secured the glass correctly, so they were sagging.

Consequently, there was daylight coming through the top of the doors when they were closed.

I bet you were walking round, just everything you looked at like, "Not this!"

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable, indeed.

But now the doors are delightful, the hatch is accessible

and the bathroom ventilation is wonderful.

There were issues from the bathroom, weren't there?

Yes. The mechanical ventilation had just been put through the ceiling

and the condensated air was being blown straight into the loft,

rather than being ducted to the outside air.

Obviously that wasn't a good look, either!

-I can see there's a fan there now, so that's mechanically extracted out.

-That's right.

And the electrics?

-All up to scratch now, all certified and passed.

-Brilliant.

-Yes.

-It's now done.

-It is.

-It's now safe.

-Yes.

And you know what? Hopefully, this extension will be here in years to come,

-as opposed to maybe falling in in a few years.

-Yes.

Good stuff!

Good stuff, indeed.

Now, before I do the grand tour with Az and Clare,

I've got one last job to do.

We always give the cowboy builders their right to reply,

let them have the opportunity of giving us their side of things.

-This guy's in prison.

-Yes. He's at Her Majesty's pleasure!

-Did you manage to get in touch with him?

-Well...

-..it kind of puts a full stop after that statement, doesn't it?

-It does.

You've played your part in putting him there.

A little bit.

You've given evidence.

-Are you pleased with how you've acted?

-Yes, definitely.

Hopefully, he's had a chance to sit and think,

"Ooh, well, maybe I won't get away with it again."

-Well...

-Because I don't think for one minute he thought

that we would actually follow with the Trading Standards.

It's quite some warning shot over other cowboys, isn't it?

Someone's been stopped doing this

-and something's been put right.

-BOTH: Yes.

If you had to build another extension,

-I know you're not minded to at the moment...

-Not at the minute!

..but if you had to do this again, what would you do different?

I'd go straight to Trading Standards and say...

"Can we get the copy of vetted builders?" and use them.

If you saw the original cowboy,

currently at Her Majesty's pleasure,

-what would you say to him?

-I've got no words for him.

I just feel so let down. I thought I'd done enough research,

I thought I'd done what I needed to do

and I thought I'd found somebody that I could trust,

but he messed us around

and we're not going to take that lying down.

There was too much at stake.

Good for you. Because you didn't take it lying down,

it means other people might not have to come across him.

-Let's hope so. They certainly haven't done this past year.

-That's true.

It's thanks to the courage of Az and Clare getting the cowboy prosecuted,

and the skill of our good guys in putting a bodge-job right,

that this story has a happy ending.

It's time for the bit I've been waiting for -

the grand tour with the happy family.

Now, this is the children's room, right?

-Yes.

-It is, yes.

The first thing I noticed,

with two children running around the place,

it looked fairly tidy, it was empty of stuff,

but you've now got storage space above here, haven't you?

At long last!

You didn't even have a loft because you couldn't get into it.

Practicality-wise, you've got storage, of course,

but I know the builder's been up there

-and done allsorts of work.

-Yes.

Now you've got all these building works signed off.

I've got a safe room. That's all that matters to me.

We're never going to sell it.

It's just knowing that the room's not going to collapse on us in there, or the kids in here.

Your family home...

-I mean, that must be a huge peace of mind.

-Yes.

Now, this is obviously the children's room,

but they are able to spill out onto the garden.

-I've noticed these - they're new right?

-They are.

-It's boiling in here, isn't it? Absolutely roasting!

-It is so nice.

-No draught. It's just wonderful.

-It's wonderful.

-Then again, these are simple things you shouldn't have to look out for.

-I know.

-But...

-It opens!

-It opens.

-Before, you must've been...

-"Quick! Hold the kids!"

It shuts without actually needing to tug at it, push it...

Lift it up and pull it.

Being able to shut a door without it becoming a tug of war,

nice, that!

Right, time to hear what they think of their new lawn.

It's been too cold for the kids to play outside,

but some things are worth waiting for, eh?

Now then, outside is fairly new to you guys,

-or to some members of the family.

-To the kids, yes.

They've not really seen it during the day.

This is someone else's house, isn't it?!

No, apparently it's actually ours.

Looking around, it looks pretty child-proof.

-It is.

-Yes.

-Pretty much!

-We're secured on that side.

-Secure that side.

-That way, as well.

When you think the size of the garden we've still got with the extension, as well,

it's just fantastic.

I'm going to let you enjoy your garden.

Well, before you guys go, thank you, Cowboy Trap.

It's the builders that have done the good work.

-Hopefully, it's restored your faith in builders.

-BOTH: It has.

-And in the nicest possible way, I'll hopefully never see you again!

-I hope so, too!

-See you guys later!

-Thanks.

-All the best.

-Bye!

What a lovely note to end on -

a thrilled family, and a safe one, too.

I'm chuffed to bits we were able to help

Clare, Az and the children out of the mess they were left in.

Plus, they've got that all-important Building Control sign-off, too,

which is clearly a weight off their mind.

It's good to remember, there are plenty of good builders out there,

you've just got to go through the right process to find them.

Now we're off to revisit someone we first met in 2010.

This cowboy-trap story revolved around a builder

who had the cheek to charge an exorbitant amount of money

for an exorable excuse of a job.

Three years ago, Dorset teacher Ann had just become a grandmother

and wanted to create extra space in her bungalow for when her family came to stay.

Her loft had already been converted, so just needed a dormer window and staircase.

And she thought get a downstairs shower room and new kitchen done, too.

She knew it would cost a lot but thought it was well worth it,

so commissioned an architect to draw up designs.

When he did, she liked what she saw.

With plans in place and a £50,000 mortgage to pay for the work,

Ann set about finding a builder.

This being a big old job, you'd think she be scrupulous about checking his credentials.

Unfortunately, this was one test the school teacher failed by a mile.

Ann found a builder through Yellow Pages.

When he came round to quote, first impressions were positive.

He was very, very reassuring.

He'd put his arm around me -

"Everything's fine. Don't worry about it."

The builder came up with a quote of £50,000.

Ann gave him the green light and work commenced.

The job was so extensive, she had to move out whilst it was going on.

When she came back to check up on progress, she was worried about the sheer shoddiness of the work.

And that wasn't the only thing.

There were also big question marks about his devotion to duty.

A couple of neighbours said, "They're not arriving till ten and they're leaving at three."

Oh, and I arrived and they had a barbeque going!

A crowd of workmen had a barbeque on the garden going

and they'd broken the back gate getting in.

Barbeque? Broken back gate? What kind of builders were these?

OK, you know the show - no need to answer that.

I like a piece of chargrilled meat as much as the next man,

but to spark up a barbeque in a client's garden,

well, that's takes real sauce.

And as for that broken back gate,

sadly, it wasn't the only thing this builder's blundering team damaged.

Ann popped in to see him one day and couldn't believe what he said.

"One of my builders fell though the ceiling

"so I've got to replaster the ceiling in here.

"And I had to have the building regs people out

"and I've had to move a beam..." one of the beams that he put in,

and he said, "The price is going to have to go up by £9,000."

I said, "I can't afford £9,000! I told you, I'm on my limit."

Well, by this point, I'd have been well beyond mine!

Ann's garden looked like a disaster zone.

The bathroom was in a state of chaos,

and the builder saying she was liable for the damage caused by one of his team

was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Take my advice...

Unfortunately, Ann didn't know that at the time and promptly forked out.

Nightmare.

With the builder's demands for more money, Ann's funds were soon spent.

But the build was far from finished.

This cowboy knew he had her over a barrel

and had no qualms about using allsorts of threats

to force her to borrow money.

The builder sat Ann down

and, well, there's no nice way to put this, he basically blackmailed her.

He said, "Look, you've got to think about this realistically.

"This house is not saleable, other than a piece of land.

"It is rubble. I'm a leading mason, you're not going to get another builder in.

"You're going to have to find that money."

And guess what, Ann was so terrified

she borrowed even more cash as a result of his demands.

She'd handed over £5,000,

with an agreement to pay another 4,000 when the work was complete.

But days before she was due to move back in

things reached crisis point.

There was still no kitchen, and when Ann raised that rather significant point

the builder demanded even more money.

He said, "I need another few thousand off you for the carpenter."

I said, "What? I told you, I'm not paying."

He said, "Well, if you're not paying, we're pulling out."

And he did, but not before adding further insult

to the severe injury he'd inflicted on Ann's finances.

I drove off in tears.

I just drove round the block. I thought, "I've got to go back!"

I came back and they were just loading everything onto the vans.

They were taking the radiators off the walls,

they were stripping the house off.

He said, "You either give me my money or I'm stripping the house out."

Crikey! How low was this guy willing to go?

Ann contacted the police and her solicitor, but they said they couldn't help,

despite the fact that she'd handed over £55,000

and had no kitchen or bathroom to show for it.

And her water and electricity had been disconnected, too.

Truly appalling.

But you know the plot. Just when Ann was at her lowest ebb,

the cavalry arrived in the shape of our good guys.

It was too big a botch for them to fix everything,

so it was time to prioritise.

Every house needs a functioning bathroom.

You can always buy takeaways but you do need to wash.

They set about their task with gusto,

first up, putting right that terrible tiling.

And, of course, that sink needed sorting, too.

The final product - a bathroom to die for,

a super sink, terrific tiling

and stupendous shower.

Plus, they fixed the water supply and drainage, too.

When you compare the cowboys' bodges...

..to the good guys' brilliance,

there's no comparison, is there?

There was still much to do, but Ann's dream was back on track.

Now it was over to her.

Would she use this as a springboard to go on and complete the rest of her ideal home?

Only time would tell.

It's been three years since we last saw Ann

and we helped get her back on track by fixing that botched bathroom.

Now, there was loads of work still to be done,

so let's see how she's got on.

I do hope Ann's life is back on track.

It must've been awful being taken for all that money.

-Hello, Ann. How are you?

-I'm well. Hello, Jonnie. Come on in.

-I've brought the weather with me!

-It's beautiful! Come and see what I've done.

Crikey! What an incredible sight as soon as I step foot in the house.

This is a pretty impressive hallway.

Remember what it looked like before?

The transformation is remarkable.

-Things, I would say, have moved on.

-Yes, I'm delighted with it.

What an entrance! I'm thinking, "Dynasty! The Colbys!"

No, this was the key to the design. I like light.

-I wanted light in the house.

-You've certainly got that.

It's a very impressive entrance hall.

Well, that's great news. I'm loving the layout of the pictures.

The whole area is so light and welcoming.

And the use of colour - Ann's clearly got great taste.

What are your guests like when they come in here?

Your first impression is, "Wow!" isn't it?

-It looks beautiful.

-I'm really pleased with it.

-It's how I wanted it to look.

-It is.

I thought I would never get there after I was so badly ripped off.

Well, got there you did.

That's amazing, bearing in mind the disaster zone the bad guys left her with.

Remember what the bathroom looked like when the cowboy walked out?

Wouldn't fancy washing in here, would you?

After our good guys left, the bathroom looked like this...

And here it is today, tastefully decked out.

Well, what would you expect from Ann?

-It's been some time now. It's stood up well, hasn't it?

-Oh, it's wonderful.

I'm really pleased with it.

It gets a lot of use. Two grandchildren sleep downstairs, they shower and use the loo.

I love that it's tiled everywhere. It makes it much more practical.

This is the room, once it was done,

I'm not sure it was a light at the end of the tunnel,

but this was part of your jigsaw,

the first piece that was laid down properly, wasn't it?

It was hope that I would actually get there,

because I thought I had been destroyed.

The house had been destroyed and I thought I'd never get there.

It was a big project to take on and I knew it would be a challenge,

but when the rogue builder left, I wasn't sure that I was going to survive.

Well, Ann survived so well, I think Gloria Gaynor would be proud of her.

Check out this new open-plan kitchen

compared to what it looked like before.

It's a very light and social space, with that big entrance hall, big flow, isn't there?

Light was a big drive in my design.

The architects were very good at making sure I got maximum light.

That was the whole thing - you had the design years ago.

It was the people to put that design into practice

-that let you down, wasn't it?

-It was! It was!

When you compare what the cowboy left Ann with

to how she's transformed it,

you can see why she's on cloud nine.

Now it just looks... It's finished.

-Your home inside, it's all done, isn't it?

-It is.

The decoration's mine, the colour scheme and everything.

You're clearly proud of it

-now you've put your stamp on it.

-That's what I wanted to do.

Did you ever think you'd get to this stage before?

Ooh... I'd lost hope, to be fair.

Until the show came in and restarted me,

I had lost hope, I must say.

Ann has done a simply staggering job bringing this house to life.

Right, time for a heart-to-heart with the good lady herself.

I want to hear what she learned from her Cowboy Trap experience.

How did you find this builder?

-You went through some standard protocol, didn't you?

-I did.

I had three quotes.

When I say I went with the cheapest, I think there was £2,000 difference.

The thing that really appealed to me was that he could start immediately.

And looking back, I should've known that wasn't good.

But the other builders, the quotes were very similar,

they couldn't start for four, five months, and I didn't want to wait!

I'd got the money ready! I should've known.

And another thing, you know how you get hindsight and you look back?

He said, "Give me £5,000 deposit and book to go away

"but I'll start after the August holiday. I'm taking my family away."

So I gave him £5,000 two weeks before he even started work.

-To go on holiday with.

-Yes!

Oh, Ann!

Well, they do say hindsight is a wonderful thing.

But at least she's been much wiser in her dealings with builders ever since.

The good builders that I've had have come in,

talked through what they're going to do and booked me a time in.

-Yes.

-I've learnt an awful lot.

Did you pay big deposits up front with the good builders?

No, not at all. I paid when they finished.

That's more like it. Strategies like that

help you avoid nightmares like this...

-How do you feel about him now?

-Furious.

-You're still angry, aren't you?

-I am.

I've got his advertising board underneath my dustbin

and every time I go to the bin, I stamp on it.

Still!

And who can blame her?

But the good news for Ann is, all's well that ends well.

Since our good-guy builders have left,

you've universally, comprehensively done this house.

I've got the building regs cleared, I've got all the solid work done

and I've done the decoration, the bits I wanted to do.

You think of a renovation project, and it's a paint brush,

-well, I've done the paint brush bit!

-Well done. Good for you.

-Thank you.

Good for Ann, indeed. Time for me to bid her a fond farewell.

It's fantastic to see first-hand just how much Ann has achieved here.

You can see for yourself.

She's got her confidence back when it comes to dealing with builders

and she's learnt a thing or two along the way.

Three years later, since we fixed that botched-up bathroom,

she's now achieved what she set out to.

She's got this dream home

but her family are here, enjoying it with her.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd