“You had one job to do.”
The words spoken by furious property managers and owners to shady “tradesmen” after repairs go wrong.
You’d think, hiring professionals to restore your home to its former glory would suffice, but as you’ll discover in a minute, a lot can go astray when left in the wrong hands.
Sadly, haphazard home renovations do happen.
And today, I want to shine light on that. Specifically, to bring your attention to three shocking stories where property repair dreams turned into nightmares.
In the blog post to follow, you’ll uncover arbitrary behaviours from builders, companies and other tradesmen that have caused huge disruptions in people’s lives.
Upheavals that, frankly, could’ve been avoided from the start.
For example, one story leaks the truth about a company that hired cheap labour instead of a team of specialists, just so they could pocket more profit.
Another story reports how a builder turned over such an appalling job, the owners had to take out a bank loan just to redo the property work themselves.
It’s awful, I know.
But luckily, there’s some good news.
Because although these plights are extreme cases, there’s also exceptional property repair professionals in existence around London and the UK!
At Sarrani, I pride myself on being an association of the latter, where the focus will always be on providing the best resources to reinstate your home hassle-free.
Here’s a link to some of our finished projects, with before and after photos to demonstrate the incredible transformations you can experience.
So let’s begin to unravel the first horrid story:
Inexperienced building company diminishes a home’s value by half a million pounds.
As I read this article, I asked myself:
How exactly do you manage to decrease a property’s value if the intention was to boost it?
And the answer was shocking:
In September 2016, The Gage family from Reading hired a company to do building work on their home.
The dream was simply to extend the house and increase the value of the property.
But after 10 weeks of work, it was torn apart by ‘cowboy builders’ who fitted the wrong size concrete slabs on the ground floor, mis-filled the foundations with cheap materials and used the wrong type of timbers in the roof.
The contractors they hired promised to “project manage”, the job from start to finish!
Yet, they hired inexperienced labourers that were way over their heads—leading to abysmal repairs and unexpected costs that devalued a beautiful home by £500,000.
This significant financial loss ruptured this family and left them traumatised and heartbroken.
To avoid this from happening to you or someone you care about, I recommend you find a company that has an impeccable track record of home renovations you can access and view for yourself.
Here’s a soaring case study that exhibits a perfect example.
As you can see from that, it doesn’t need to be distressing at all.
It starts with being vigilant when a company overstates its ability and competence to complete a restoration project. Thus, I believe, the best practice is to ask for proof.
Saying you can do it is one thing; proving it with testimonials, case studies and photos is far more credible.
Let me show you another example of a property repair project gone wrong:
A family risk losing their home after a nightmare building project went sideways—costing them £34,000!
Imagine hiring a tradesman you’ve known and trusted for years to deliver a top extension job on your house, only to be left having to demolish and rebuild it yourself?
Well that’s exactly what happened to The Wades from East Rudham when they asked a contractor they knew to put together a new kitchen, garage and utility room for their home.
However, after a slapdash job, the roof had to be removed and the kitchen walls replaced as neither were supported properly and water was pouring down inside.
In fact, the Wades had to take out a bank loan just to cover the damage done and now risk losing their home as they struggle to keep up repayments.
This is a classic case of one tradesman trying to do it all, rather than bringing in a group of experts to assist with the project.
By the end, the Wades had spent a small fortune, including around £8,000 in legal fees to try to get compensated for the dreadful work. But sadly, after months of painful disputes and heartaches—they’re still left out of pocket with the contractor refusing to pay back the £34,000 he owes them despite a court order to do so.
Here’s what I recommend:
Hire professionals that have access to a team of experts from the start. Ensure they have proven skills to deliver high-standard workmanship and can bring all the necessary resources together for you.
This guarantees a smooth reinstatement of your home and delivers an amazing outcome.
A few great examples of this can be found here.
A New Home Left With 354 Problems!
The last example here is a devasting story about a couple, Craig Wakeman and his partner, who bought a house from Bovis for £325,000, only to discover it was riddled with 354 defects!
Unfortunately, most of these issues were structural and it turned their dream house into a purgatory pit, consuming their lives and inducing many restless nights.
After they moved into the house in November 2017, they quickly found a host of problems, and they were forced to relocate temporarily while the kitchen and heating were ripped out and the many structural issues addressed.
Although Bovis took responsibility for the situation and covered all costs, Craig and his partner have experience massive disruption and inconvenience to their lives. They have “spent every waking hour worrying about the house” and have lost all confidence in the house ever being right.
This, again, just shows you how deeply concerning it can be when the wrong contractors are hired in the first place to build or reconstruct a home.
But as I said at the beginning of this post…
Where there’s obscurity, there’s proficiency too.
At Sarrani, our focus is on making insurance repairs and restorations as painless as possible.
We plan, coordinate and manage your project with only the most skilled tradesmen, contractors and suppliers available.
That’s because we have highly experienced project managers and a rigorous contractor vetting process in place to assure the best work is being carried out at the best prices…all set up to give you peace of mind and a sense of confidence while your dream property is revitalised.
Click here for a full list of our services and descriptions.
SOURCES:
STORY #2
https://www.edp24.co.uk/edp-property/building-nightmare-for-norfolk-couple-the-wades-1-5896589
