Episode 27 Cowboy Trap

We're travelling all over the UK to meet the home owners forced to live with the grim consequences

of employing a cowboy builder.

His eyes were bulging and he was just so angry.

He was screaming and shouting at me and I was scared.

With their shoddy workmanship or downright lies, cowboy builders are unscrupulous villains

who not only destroy dreams, they wreck lives too.

-You were living here?

-Yeah.

-What was it like living as a family?

-I felt really angry.

In tears some of the time about it.

It looks like a part demolition job. It's not even been done well.

Lots of cables and sockets are exposed which, when you have small children, that's a risk to them.

We've got the good guys in our posse to help turn these houses from hell into heavenly homes.

As soon as you walk in through this door, it feels like a brand-new home.

That's because, looking around, it probably is.

-This is the first time you've seen it then?

-Look at this, Jaya!

-Whoa!

-That's all for you.

Great!

It's thought cowboy builders cost Britons over £700 million each year,

so if you think you know how to spot one, think again.

Make no mistake. The next 45 minutes could help keep you out of the Cowboy Trap.

'On today's Cowboy Trap, a family desperately needed a ground floor bedroom and wet room

'for their disabled daughter, but all they got was an absolute disaster zone.'

The room isn't done for her. Nothing's ready for her.

She's getting older now, she wants her independence and nothing is in place for her at all.

'And we revisit a family we rescued

'after a cowboy left them with a half-built extension to see how they're doing now.'

I can hear the boys playing away. Sounds like a happy household.

Yeah, and a very noisy one.

It is nice to see light at the end of the tunnel.

It's all very positive now, very, very positive, which is lovely.

Our first Cowboy Trap location is in Halesowen in the West Midlands.

Halesowen is home to a Norman church built around 1,000 years ago and still standing proud now.

And in the 1960s, another big local build took place

when the town centre was tastefully rebuilt,

but the intervening centuries weren't always happy for the local citizens.

Halesowen's history makes for pretty grim reading.

For hundreds of years, the main industry here was nail-making

which saw entire families toiling in sweltering heat and cramped conditions for negligible pay.

Today's Cowboy Trap is also a pretty harrowing tale.

What's more, I can only think that the builder responsible was himself as hard as nails.

His unlucky victims live in this three-bed semi.

It's home to Nina and Jagjeet Beghal who both work in their family-run off-licence

and their three children Puja, Amar and Jaya who has cerebral palsy.

Nina and Jagjeet have now been together for 15 years.

It was love at first sight when they met whilst Nina was working in a local department store.

She was amazing. We had so much in common.

We were totally different,

but yet we were so alike.

We both like the same things, the same films,

going to the same places, the same music,

so we gelled really well. It was an instant hit.

We were dating for four years and then, you know, I popped the question and we got married.

And soon after that wedding 11 years ago, Nina became pregnant.

Everything seemed to be going fine until she went into labour at 26 weeks.

Jaya was born and we rushed her straight to special care.

And I saw her the following... in the evening and it was just the scariest sight.

A tiny little baby, so small, you could see through her skin, hooked up to so many machines.

Jaya wasn't expected to survive until the morning, but she was a little fighter

and after months in hospital, she was well enough to come home.

As she gradually got older, you know, there was complications.

Her immune system was weak and then we went to a specialist

and had her checked out and we were told she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

After the initial shock of the diagnosis,

the Beghals dedicated themselves to helping Jaya lead as normal a life as possible.

They wanted her to have the same opportunities as her younger brother and sister.

I pushed her to learn the whole of the alphabet by the age of two and a half,

so I could prove to the council that she has got the ability to go to a normal mainstream school.

The couple's determination to do everything they could for their daughter didn't end there.

They decided to apply for a disability grant from the council,

so they could adapt their home to accommodate her needs.

A ground floor bedroom with an en-suite wet room with disabled facilities would mean

that as Jaya grew up, she could have a degree of independence,

but for that dream, Nina and Jagjeet would need to build an extension.

The Beghals remembered a builder who had fixed a sink for them and decided to ask his advice.

When Jagjeet said the extension needed disabled access, they found they had something in common.

He mentioned to us that his brother,

who was also disabled through a motorbike accident, was paralysed neck downwards.

He had worked on his brother's house and had the whole house adapted to disabled-friendly access.

The builder assured them that not only did he understand disabled people's needs,

but he had worked on extensions too.

I thought, "I know him, so I can trust him." We involved him in the process of getting the plans done.

The Beghals applied to the local council for a £30,000 disability grant.

And after a fairly lengthy process of toing and froing, it came through in April 2012.

Because the builder helped with the plans and Nina regarded him as a friend, she convinced Jagjeet

they should get him to do the work.

They didn't check out any extensions he had already built. Oh, dear!

Take my advice...

Only then, give him the green light.

The Beghals' builder quoted £36,200 for the work

and said the job would take 12 weeks to complete.

That was to build the extension with disabled access,

a bedroom with wet room for Jaya and wheelchair-friendly ramps to the front and rear of the house.

£6,200 was going to be paid by the Beghals on completion with the council covering the rest.

But soon after the builders started in June 2012,

Nina and Jagjeet found themselves forking out.

He'd come to me and say, "I can't afford this, I can't afford that.

"I can't afford the porch doors. Could you give the money up front?"

Worse still, the Beghals began to suspect the builder didn't have the range of skills

needed for such a big project. Everything he did looked really shoddy.

He left the site in an unsafe condition and the project soon fell behind schedule.

Despite working totally on his own, the builder assured the Beghals

the job would be completed within the agreed timescale,

but they began to realise that would never happen.

This is a bloke who rarely put in a full day's work and often didn't turn up at all.

The only thing he could be relied on for doing was demanding his money.

As well as regularly invoicing the council, the builder was constantly hassling Nina and Jagjeet for cash.

All the Beghals could see was their roof, their floors and their doors showing little sign of progress.

And all they could hear was a builder who sounded like a broken record.

"I can't afford these. I can't do this. I haven't got no money.

"My family's subbing me for money to pay for my children, this, that and the other.

"I've got no money at all. I can't work."

The Beghals' costs were mounting, but they couldn't see where their money was actually going.

Certain days he wouldn't come in because he said he had other work to finish off.

-We'd have to phone and chase him up.

-12 weeks rolled by and hardly anything was done.

We asked him if he'd be ready by Jaya's birthday which is September the 9th.

He said, "Yeah, I'll be ready, I'll do it all." He assured us he would do it all.

But he didn't do it all.

In fact, he hardly did any of it.

Jaya's birthday came and went.

So did October and so did November.

The council grant had a time limit of a year and as the months passed,

the Beghals started to fear the extension wouldn't be finished in time.

By now, it was nearly Christmas and the Beghals had finally had enough.

They figured the only way they'd get this job finished was to bring in someone else to complete it.

In desperation, Nina asked the builder to leave, but his response was to put the frighteners on her.

Classic cowboy tactics and it worked.

"If you get rid of me now and get another builder,

"you'll have to pay extra money to get the work done

"because I'm doing it as a favour to you, so I'm doing it cheaper."

Nina gave him a second chance, but did the builder up his game? No, he did not.

A month later, because the local council were part-financing the project,

the Beghals asked them to check that the work met their rigorous standards.

We called the council in. They weren't happy at all with what was done here.

The standard and the quality of the work, they were just appalled.

Nina told the cowboy to leave and not come back.

He didn't take it well.

His eyes were bulging and you could see he was just so angry.

He said, "What's going on? What are you doing now?"

He was screaming and shouting at me. I was scared. You know, I was by myself.

The builder was clearly distraught that the Beghal cash machine had stopped paying out.

"I did all this work for you. You can't get rid of me now.

"You wanted me as your builder. You were happy with all my work."

Happy with all his work? What planet was this guy on?!

Instead of an extension for Jaya, the heartless cowboy had built an incomplete disaster zone.

The room isn't done. Nothing's ready for her.

She's getting older, she wants her independence and nothing's in place for her at all.

Not surprisingly, the stress of enduring this long, drawn-out building catastrophe

has had a profound emotional impact on the entire family and young Jaya in particular.

The Beghals are a close-knit family, but Nina's mistake in giving the cowboy builder a second chance

led to rows with Jagjeet and that had an impact on the kids.

I really don't like it when they argue about the room

because I don't like to see them argue about this stuff

and I feel like it's my fault.

But despite all the turmoil, Jaya is still hopeful

her wheelchair-friendly bedroom and wet room will be finished one day.

It's important for me because I don't have to get carried, I don't like it.

And it's exciting because I'll get to do what I want and whenever in my room.

It's a very sad story, but also one that makes you mad.

I don't know whether this guy simply didn't know what he was doing or he didn't have the financial resources

to undertake such a massive job.

What is clear is that he decided to muddle his way through it

which says to me he saw this family as little more than a meal ticket.

'And he left them with a catastrophic construction.

'The fact the extension's unfinished is clear to see, but what's the full extent of this bungled build?

'To find out, we asked independent building surveyor Paul Brown to inspect the work.

'He's been through it with a fine-tooth comb and he'll fill me in on what he found.

'First item on the agenda, the extension floor consisting of blocks that should be used on walls.'

They're Thermalite blocks laid down.

They are Thermalite blocks, lightweight blocks used

on the floor in flat style, just laid on top of the floor

to build the levels of the floor up.

What was required was a layer of insulation and a concrete surface to form the floor level.

These blocks have been just used to fill in the space.

Looking at these, they don't look new.

These look like they might have had a previous life as a wall.

One could speculate they came out of a skip. That's the way they look.

This looks like it's been built by The Borrowers or Stig of the Dump or a Womble.

It looks like a second-hand, almost jumble-type building project

where somebody has used whatever they can to make something work,

but it doesn't meet any of the requirements.

'The builder was just using anything he could get his hands on.

'This floor is totally uneven.'

You've actually got a step between the house and the extension which for disabled access is not great.

'It looks like this guy didn't care about disabled access or didn't have the wherewithal to create it

'and these walls have been dreadfully put together.'

Whoever did this work wasn't very adept at anything to do with flooring, brickwork and blockwork.

I think that's true. The standard of workmanship is poor, but that in itself is not the main issue.

The fact that it's a bit messy, OK, but they're the wrong materials in lots of cases.

'There's a theme developing here. The cowboy used porous internal blocks on the outside wall.

'That's bound to lead to water ingress.'

You're starting to get the feeling that there are some corners being cut

and maybe cost-saving issues here.

Throughout the whole thing,

the sense that he hasn't had sufficient money to be able to resource buying the correct materials

is evident as you walk through.

You can see the wrong materials used in lots of different locations.

'The damp-proof membrane is made of the wrong materials. This cowboy didn't seem to care

'that he was building much-needed rooms for a disabled girl. There are hazards everywhere.'

It looks like a part demolition job. It's not even been done well.

Lots of cables and sockets are exposed. When you have small children, that's a risk to them.

They're at low level. Children could put their fingers through those holes and be electrocuted.

-It doesn't bear thinking about.

-No.

'If all this wasn't bad enough, Paul has saved the most shocking photos till last.

'When the builder took a wall out and extended a flat roof over the extension, he left it unsafe.'

The flat roof joists have been extended across without any support.

They're not adequate to support the roof load over the span they now are.

We often talk about fit for purpose, but there's no way a building control officer would pass that.

Absolutely not. This is Section A of the Building Regulations because it's foremost in people's minds.

It's the essence of putting buildings up. They haven't got this right. It's fundamentally wrong.

'I think I know the answer, but it's make your mind up time for Paul.'

How would you mark this...effort, if you like, out of ten?

They've been left with something they cannot use in any way. It's structurally unsound.

It's unsafe for the children they have living in the house. I can't give this a mark. This is a zero.

'I can see why Paul's unimpressed -

'an unsupported, dangerous flat roof, external walls fitted with internal blockwork,

'a floor consisting of uneven blocks, non-existent wheelchair ramps,

'a dodgy damp-proof course, to be honest, too many faults to mention.'

In short, a massive amount of work to do.

Because of the rules governing disabled facility grants, time was running out to do it.

Enter our good guys.

And here's head honcho Konrad Skubala leading his posse into the fray.

It's going to be a massive job.

To get this extension for Jaya right will take the combined financial might of the local council,

Cowboy Trap and the Beghals themselves.

The first job - building the wheelchair-friendly ramp the cowboy never got round to, brick by brick.

Inside the extension, it's out with the plaster... Get those walls nice and smooth, fellas!

Then it's up with the floor and once that's sorted, the extension roof will need fixing too.

Most of what the cowboy did ends up in the skip which is probably where it came from!

The epic rescue continues with the ceiling salvage operation swinging into action.

It's a great start, but can the good guys finally give Jaya back her dream?

Only time will tell.

I'm in Halesowen outside Birmingham where Nina and Jagjeet Beghal wanted an extension to their home,

so they could make life easier for their disabled daughter Jaya.

They got a grant from the council, but came unstuck when their builder turned out to be a cowboy.

Our good guys have now finished their work here, so let's see how the Beghals are getting on.

This looks pretty impressive, doesn't it?

It certainly does. Remember, the cowboy never seemed to get round to it.

But our good guys delivered it with aplomb,

with proper access space, hand rails and all the bells and whistles.

Result!

-Hi, Nina.

-Hello, Jonnie. How are you?

-Pretty good.

-Come in.

-I'm loving your ramp. It looks amazing.

-It's fantastic.

'While Nina puts the kettle on, I have a peek at our good guys' handiwork.

'Remember what Jaya's bedroom looked like before? The transformation is remarkable.

'And the wet room was a total mess.

'Now it's state of the art.

'Everywhere you look, the change from before to after is striking.

'Result!

'Time for a heart-to-heart with the Beghals.

'I want to know what it was like when the council inspectors said the work wasn't up to scratch.'

-Talk to me about how you felt at that time.

-I felt really angry and I felt...

In tears some of the time about it.

I love my wife dearly, but sometimes, you know...

Because she pushed for this builder, in a sense, I felt she went against me to go with this builder.

I understand you did say at one point, "Enough's enough. Tools down, get out!"

-Yes.

-But then he managed to get himself in here again. What happened?

He just said, "If you get somebody else in, you'll have to fork out an extra amount of money.

"Because I'm a family friend, I'm doing it at this rate for you.

"Anybody else would have charged you a serious amount of money."

'Well, I'd say £36,000 is pretty serious

'and I can't help wonder whether the Beghals could have escaped his clutches earlier.'

-Some people might think you had a few warning signs.

-Definitely.

Why didn't you act on 'em?

It's hard when you're caught up in the act, in the motion.

When somebody's already there

and they've literally demolished your home and, you know... they've got a hold over you.

'And that's how unscrupulous builders ensnare people in the cowboy trap,

'but all that is now ancient history.

'Time for me to take a close look at the good guys' handiwork

'and compare it to what the bad guys left behind.'

It's hard to imagine how this place looked before.

It's completely different. As soon as you walk in through this door, it feels like a brand-new home.

That's because, looking around, it probably is.

So, Jaya's room.

Well, what a difference!

There was some sort of shoddy stud partition wall over there. It was an absolute mess.

Now the only thing missing from this room is Jaya and whatever furniture she wants.

It's absolutely finished and ready. I love it.

'And it's all wheelchair-friendly too.'

Extra-wide doorway.

Sockets you can get to.

Looking around, I'm just flabbergasted how far they've come in such a little amount of time.

'It's incredible when you think about what this room looked like before. Right, into the wet room...'

The sheer scale of this room is amazing. You hear your voice echo. It's huge, but it needs to be big.

The idea for this wet room was to make life easier for all the family,

to make life much more bearable and it is.

'And again when you look closely, the level of finish is superb.

'And finally, how is the exterior looking now?'

That's different, isn't it?

If you remember, this was... Even the surveyor said it himself.

This was blockwork that shouldn't be used for external use.

Now, instead of the blockwork, you've got proper brickwork and nicely done as well which is good.

And elsewhere, it looks like they've managed to sort the issue out with the damp-proof course. Excellent.

'Yeah, the cowboy's damp-proofing would have been totally ineffective because he used the wrong materials.

'Our good guys though... It's no surprise. They knew what they were doing.

'Head honcho Konrad has come to talk me through the other challenges he faced.'

When you first turned up, what were your thoughts on what sight was before you, if you like?

It just felt like the builder had got into some sort of money trouble

and just started to cut corners left, right and centre,

using a cheap base for the ramp and for out the back,

breeze-block walls out the back instead of brick walls.

Every corner he could cut, he tried to do so.

'It goes without saying Konrad's main priority was making the extension structurally safe

'and he did just that, keeping local building control happy every step of the way.

'Before the tour with the Beghals, I want to hear their thoughts on the cowboy builder's version of events.'

We always give the cowboy builders a right to reply, to offer their side of the story, OK?

Now, your cowboy builder got rather angry with us when we approached him,

but in the end, he didn't really have a lot to say for himself.

His basic position was that he doesn't dispute our surveyor's findings,

but he said it was all completely your fault

because you kept changing your minds about what you wanted doing.

How can we change our minds if everything is already on the plans and that's approved by the council?

-The camera doesn't lie, as they say.

-He says from day one, working for you was like pulling teeth.

It makes me angry now listening to this, to be honest,

because as soon as he came in, I'd leave him to it.

I think it was probably my fault that I left him to it too much

and you don't question as often

because you think, you know, he's a professional.

Well, a so-called professional that knows what he's doing.

He says you couldn't even agree amongst yourselves what you wanted doing

and quite often contradicted one another.

That's just a farce, that is.

All we wanted was the room to be converted

and a utility with a downstairs toilet with a ramp at the front and a ramp at the back.

There's not much room really for getting this wrong.

I can't see how this could be translated in any other way or interpreted in any other way.

'Right, it's time to see if our fellas' work has changed the Beghals' lives for the better.'

So, how does it feel to have it all completed?

It feels fantastic.

It feels like a different house.

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

-Yeah.

-It's just a relief. It's a big weight off our shoulders.

It feels like a show home.

'You're not kidding! If you look at what the cowboy left behind

'and compare it to how our good guys transformed it,

'it's no surprise Nina and Jagjeet are delighted.

'Next, let's see what they think to what will be Jaya's bedroom.'

So, through our nice, big, wide door into Jaya's room.

This is what you wanted all that time ago. Now this is it, now you've got it.

-What does it mean to you?

-I feel so relieved and I feel...

just overjoyed, really.

'And I can see why. This ground floor was left in a state of absolute chaos.

'But our fellas have created an extension with perfectly built rooms all on one level,

'giving Jaya total independence in years to come.'

She's had to wait for Mum to be free to come and take her up the stairs, pick her up and take her upstairs.

Any time she wants her own space, her privacy, she can come straight in here and she's got it.

'And the en-suite, disabled access wet room will give Jaya independence too.'

Nobody really wants to be taken to the toilet, having somebody, you know, watch over you...

No. It's this one thing we keep coming down to and that is independence, isn't it?

We've talked about Jaya so much. I'm pretty keen on getting her angle on things.

I know you're probably thinking this is how her bedroom should be.

Let's see what the boss thinks. Let's go and get her.

'For Jaya, it's the world premiere of her new living quarters. I really hope she loves it.'

This is the first time you've seen it then?

-Whoa!

-That's all for you.

-Look at this!

-What do you think, Jaya?

-It's great.

-Yeah?

-Do you like it?

-Brilliant, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Have you got any posters of anyone to put up?

-I'm thinking of Michael Jackson posters.

-Michael Jackson!

-Oh, yes. Good taste!

-You like Michael Jackson, don't you?

-Yeah.

-You like Justin Bieber as well.

-One Direction.

-No.

Justin Bieber is so last week, Daddy! It's so embarrassing!

'Dads, eh? Right, I wonder what Jaya thinks to her new wet room.'

Now then, in we come.

Look at this, Jaya.

-Look at your shower there.

-Wow!

-Look at that.

-That's your favourite colour on the floor, blue.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

I don't know how big your towels are...

-But...

-LAUGHTER

That's a big towel rail!

There's going to be a lot of towels on there.

Don't climb on it, OK?

'Jaya is clearly thrilled.

'With the help of our good guys, the Beghal family's dreams have come true.'

I'll leave all of you to it to maybe get used to what we've seen so far.

You can get designing.

-Remember, blue is better than pink, all right?

-Yeah.

-And keep your brother and sister out of here.

-No!

-LAUGHTER

'No chance of that. What a wonderful family!

'Time for me to leave them to enjoy their perfect new home.'

I think this is probably one of the most important jobs we've seen on Cowboy Trap,

which makes it all the more galling when you see a job like this done so badly and it took so long.

But then the good guys come along and they nail it, smash it and blitz this job in a matter of weeks.

And what a job they've done! You can see the finish is absolutely flawless.

My favourite thing overall?

The look on young Jaya's face when she saw her room for the first time.

Priceless.

For our next Cowboy Trap saga, we revisit a family in Essex we first met in 2012.

As with Nina and Jagjeet, this story revolves around a cowboy builder who bit off more than he could chew,

leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

His unwitting victims were Peter and Vicky Norcott,

their children Teddy, Liam and Jack and family dog Max.

When we first met them, Peter and Vicky were looking to extend their home.

With a growing family, they realised it was simply too small.

We've got three boys.

They were all in one bedroom with two sets of bunk beds.

They get on well, but boys being boys and siblings being siblings, they have their moments when they argue,

so we decided they would be better to have their own bedrooms and we thought we'd do an extension.

The Norcotts wanted two new bedrooms for the boys, a utility room and an extra bathroom.

To create the space for all of this, in February 2011, they decided to commission a two-storey extension.

Their ambitious plan included access from the living room to the garage where the boys parked their bikes

and a new front door to the carport.

The access downstairs into the hallway

is an idea that we had where we could get into the new bathroom, the utility room,

but more importantly to get access to the front of the house,

so when we came in with the car, we could get into the carport,

get the kids out, it's raining, we avoid getting wet.

Peter and Vicky hired an architect

who had done some work for them in the past and got him to draw up the design.

After some compromises to keep the neighbours onside, planning permission was granted.

The Norcotts were ready to go and they didn't even have to look for a builder because he came to them.

The couple received unsolicited approaches from contractors

as a result of their planning application.

They went through them and settled on the one they liked the most. Big mistake.

Take my advice...

Be wary of anyone who approaches you.

Your address and proposed works will be there for anyone to see.

The builder who approached the Norcotts quoted £32,000 for the two-storey extension,

including two bedrooms, a utility room and a shower room.

It was a big financial stretch, but they were desperate for their dream.

Peter checked out the builder's references which appeared positive, so they gave him the green light.

When they found out how he wanted paying, alarm bells started to ring.

The builder said the work would take three months and a payment plan was agreed,

but the deal was that the Norcotts would transfer the money into the account of the builder's daughter.

Effectively, this was a cash deal, so the builder could avoid paying VAT and even income tax.

As with all cash deals, there was no paperwork, no invoices, no receipts and no contract,

a tell-tale sign they were dealing with a cowboy builder.

And surprise, surprise, when work started, the Norcotts ran into problems with their neighbours

because of the rubbish the builders were leaving behind.

I was clearing up the rear garden, their mess.

The neighbours were coming in with bits of wood and brick that had fallen into their garden.

The strained situation went from bad to worse when the builder put scaffolding up.

He erected it much too close to the neighbour's property.

In my letter to him, from day one, I was very clear.

He needed to build from the inside

and he would not be allowed to put any kind of scaffolding anywhere around the neighbour's areas.

Peter and Vicky's neighbours called out health and safety inspectors

who said the scaffolding was dangerous. It needed moving and the project fell behind schedule.

And there was no indication they were going to catch up.

There was weeks where the builders didn't turn up. You trust him to do this job you're paying him to do,

but on the same hand, he wasn't turning up.

On the rare occasions he did turn up, this cowboy had a habit

of demanding money for ever more outlandish reasons.

One time, it was because he had crashed his van,

another because his wife had run off and taken all of his cash.

Like the fools that we were, we felt sorry for him

and we felt that we were in here, we were so far down the road with the build,

to turn it off now would be difficult.

I think the most frustrating thing is that we actually believe now that these were all lies.

It wasn't just the blatant untruths that dismayed the Norcotts.

It was the sheer incompetence of the little work the builder had actually done.

I had to protect the rear garage roof which had no protection.

The plastering was done upstairs and it was open to the elements

for probably at least six weeks.

It got so depressing to come home every night to it.

Six months after the work started, the builder vanished into thin air

and then there was another unexpected development.

Peter received an email from the builder's email address purporting to come from a friend.

It said the builder had been under so much pressure, he'd got drunk,

decided the world would be better off without him and taken a load of pills.

The friend had found him just in time. For the Norcotts, this was the final straw.

At that point, me and the wife discussed it and we thought, "We've got to let go of this builder."

It was just ripping us apart.

It caused for me and Pete to snap at each other.

D'you know what I mean? You'd say, "Why ain't they here?"

But I'd be blaming Pete because Pete was sorting it out.

The cowboy builder had clearly left the Norcotts in a right state

and they had forked out £32,000. Ouch!

But you know the plot. Our good guys swung into action.

So much needed doing, the Norcotts asked them to focus on a passage for Peter and the kids,

a doorway into the house and, most important, making the extension secure.

Cement mixed, screws drilled and joists joisted,

the difference from before to after was impressive.

Bearing in mind what the good guys were faced with,

they certainly did a good job getting the Norcotts back on track,

but there was clearly still work to do.

Our fellas had got Peter and Vicky out of a hole,

but would they be inspired to restart a building project that had gone stone-dead?

Only time would tell.

It's been less than a year since we last saw the Norcotts,

but what a difference a year has made to this family!

When we first met them, Peter and Vicky had hit rock-bottom.

They couldn't see any way out of the black hole in which they found themselves

and all that stress had taken its toll on this once happy family.

But now things are different apparently and I can't wait to meet them.

'Hopefully, our fellas' efforts made a difference to this hard-working family's quality of life.'

-Hello. Vicky?

-Hello.

-I'm Jonnie. You must be Peter.

-Nice to meet you.

-How are you both doing?

-Not too bad. Would you like to come in?

-Thank you very much.

'As soon as I enter the extension, it's clear this passageway is really working for the family.'

-This is one of the best things that's happened to this home.

-It is.

-It's just a hallway, but you can get from the front to the back.

-Yeah.

-Or rather the lads can.

-You are warm and peaceful in that room next door, aren't you?

-Yeah.

Even for myself, at the weekend, I was washing the car.

The hose was coming through here, the cables from the extension.

This door was shut. We wasn't losing any heat. It was perfect.

'And "perfect" isn't a word you could have applied when the cowboy rode out of town.

'Now the Norcotts have a corridor that's totally fit for purpose.

'Check out this new utility room. It's clear this building project is now back on track.

'The extension is coming into its own.' The fridge is in here.

-That's all nice and plastered. You're going to raise the floor up?

-Yeah, once all the drainage is done.

-That was another big problem.

-Yeah.

-The drainage was a right old mess.

'"Mess" is putting it kindly. The cowboy left this place in a state of disarray.

'But our good guys came to the rescue.

'Before, there was no doorway into this house.

'Now the extension is totally accessible which is the whole point of it, isn't it?'

The way you were left by the cowboys, they had done a bungling job of your extension.

But you couldn't even get into your extension. It was just an add-on to your house.

You had to go outside to get in. It was just ridiculous.

It wasn't safe, it wasn't secure. Obviously, now, it's all secure which is a big thing for me.

'Security is a big thing for everyone, except cowboy builders, it appears.

'No worries about that now. That's bound to have had a profound effect on the Norcotts' quality of life.'

-A weight off your mind. No more stress.

-No stress at all.

It's lovely. We're not even stressed about finishing it.

It's just so nice that we've got some builders that we can trust and we know they'll finish it properly.

'And guess who those builders are?

'Yeah, the good guys who clearly revived the Norcotts' faith in the building community.

'So, Mum and Dad are happy. What about the real bosses around here, the three junior musketeers?'

Can you remember when those bad cowboy builders left, what did your house look like then?

It was in a state of... everything, really.

There were cracks like Jack said, all the pipes came out and everything.

-Messy?

-Yeah.

-Did you feel safe?

-No.

-No.

It felt like it was all going to collapse on us cos there was pipes showing, all wires.

It was all dangerous. There was lots of wires sticking out.

-What were the good guys like when they turned up? Were they all right?

-Fantastic.

-Better.

-Were they?

'That's what I call a ringing endorsement.

'Time for a heart-to-heart with Mum and Dad about what it was like

'for them to go through their cowboy builder experience.'

We were really stressed, we wasn't sleeping.

We were snapping at each other. Not arguing, but being very short. With the children we was like that too.

It was a really hard time because we knew we had made the wrong decision.

'And the result of that wrong decision was staring them in the face every morning.

'But then their luck changed.

'Our good guys got involved.'

-They were here from eight o'clock and some nights they didn't leave till ten at night.

-Goodness me!

They wanted to finish to keep on track and we were just amazed at what we were seeing, weren't we?

It was amazing seeing how professional they were. You realised how bad the cowboy builder was!

'Yeah, pretty much as bad as it gets,

'so how would they avoid being caught in the cowboy trap if they had their time again?'

-What would you do differently?

-Ignore the leaflets.

Yeah, look at the reputable companies that are obviously registered, etcetera,

then go through the various insurance certificates they need,

investigate a little bit deeper into the company or individuals you're talking to.

'Well, that's music to my ears, a sure-fire way

'to avoid ending up with a disaster zone like this.

'How does Peter feel about the cowboy now, a year down the line?'

I'm the father, the husband, so you like to get things right

for the family and your wife and I didn't do that.

You've not let anybody down. They've done you.

They've had a go at taking your money, abusing your trust.

-Thankfully, you've come out of it the other side.

-Yeah.

-That's testament to you as a family unit.

-Absolutely.

-I can hear the boys playing away. Sounds like you've got a genuinely happy household.

Yeah, and a very noisy one.

I was about to say, "A happy, stress-free household." There's three lads up there.

-They've not even hit their teens yet.

-No.

-Good luck.

-Cheers.

I genuinely do mean "good luck". It's nice to see a happy ending.

Yeah, it is nice. It is nice that you can see light at the end of the tunnel.

It's all very positive now, very, very positive, which is lovely.

'And on that wonderful note, it's time to bid the Norcotts a fond farewell.'

Well, a year later, you can still see the cruel irony, can't you?

Vicky and Peter took on this project to alleviate the stress associated

with a family bursting at the seams out of this house,

but thanks to the cowboy builder, their stresses doubled.

But well, after the good guys have been and done their good work,

it seems to me the stresses associated with this building have gone

and inside living there is once again a happy family.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd