After workers ruined his brand-new bathroom and threatened to destroy their work in front of his one-year-old daughter, a father of two who owes more than £7,500 is furious.
James Crosthwaite, 37, hired House Bathroom Installations to install a basement bathroom at his Newcastle home. In March 2021, he received a quotation for £9,000.
Mr. Crosthwaite first paid the company £7,200, but the project was beset by a series of setbacks, with work beginning a month later, and was only finished when James engaged the second business more than a year later.
The cab driver said that Home Bathroom Installations performed subpar job and utilised the incorrect pipes, cables, and panelling.
He continued by saying that uninstalled windows during the winter created large gaps, and that garbage was also left strewn across the front of his house for months on end.
The father of two finally had to pay an additional £3,000 to have the issues fixed by a different company after becoming impatient with the delays, bringing his total expenditure to more than £10,000.
His wife was recuperating from surgery at the time, and the family also included a one-year-old and a newborn.
According to Mr. Crosthwaite, one of the subcontractors the company engaged even arrived at the home and threatened to destroy the bathroom he was working on in front of their one-year-old kid.
Home Bathroom Installations, owned by Anthony Wilson, has now been served with a County Court Judgment alleging that it owes Mr. Crosthwaite £7,655.
Officers from the High Court Enforcement Division have made three attempts to serve Mr. Wilson with a writ but have been unsuccessful each time.
It’s been a complete nightmare, according to Mr. Crosthwaite. He was hiring subcontractors to do the job and was continually placing the blame for delays on others.
According to Mr. Crosthwaite, the employees would often leave trash outside their home for months at a time.
‘The work was supposed to begin in April after we received his price in March of last year, but they didn’t show up until late May.
‘At first he employed a worker who probably put on about five full days over the course of a month; he was quarrelling with Anthony over supplies and being paid.
In the end, Anthony fired this individual, but not before coming to our home and demanding that I personally pay him and threatening to destroy the work that he had already accomplished in front of my 1-year-old daughter.
We had garbage left outside our property for months, the incorrect pipes were utilised, and the cladding was then placed improperly.
“He has consistently lied to us and broken his deadlines.” He left us feeling tense and enraged.
It was terrible to see the debris outside my home.
We had paid almost £7,000 for an unfinished project and a space with no use, so I told him I would seek legal counsel.
“I continued asking him to complete the room, and he kept promising, but he never showed up, so I decided to go to court.”
After he claims he was compelled to pay another business £3,000 to fix the bathroom, James’ bathroom was eventually completed.
I called another contractor to give me a quotation for the remaining work, and he said that the cladding that had previously been done was inaccurate, the cement that had been poured was poor and broken, and there was also a leak in the shower.
Additionally, he claimed that the work already completed was only worth £3,000, even though I had paid Anthony £7,200 for it.
I tried to get my money back by contacting high court enforcement, but he had created a new business and Home Bathroom Installations was never registered on firms home.
“I offered him lots of chances to do the job before I moved through with legal procedures, but he never kept to any dates or commitments,” the author claims.
Wilson denied the claim, acknowledging that there had been delays, but said that it had always been his intention to do the work and that it was unreasonable to ask for roughly £8,000 to be refunded.
Additionally, he claimed that delays in the job were brought on by his employees isolating in accordance with Covid’s instructions as well as a paucity of raw supplies.
Now then, Home Bathroom Installations has halted operations; however, Mr. Wilson has since founded a new business called Bathrooms and Cladding.
When reached, he choose not to respond.
Have you had it rough with contractors? To contact Elizabeth Haigh, go to mailonline.co.uk.