DeposisevenSeptemberthemy mums been down the insurance route to no avail, and COWBOY COMPANY Abandon Job Leaving Front Of House Dangerous & Taking £6.5k Of Mums Money

Hello,

My mum is a hard working person who works with teenagers in the social service, she has her work cut out for her every day and does her best for them always. She has never earned very much and does not have savings. She spends her earnings on her house and looking after her two dogs Mimi the Chi-wawa and Roley they Yorky cross.

Back in February 2018 my mum was left a very small amount of money after her brother died so she set about remedying some subsidence to the front of her house which involved excavating her front garden to get to some of the brickwork. Once the work was done, rather than fill the garden back in, the 'hole' which was the garden was going to be turned into a courtyard garden. My mum and her dogs would use this every day as it gets the sunshine for most of the day. She paid the company Services a deposit in two stages which totalled £6,500 to do the work but after they excavated the garden and (very badly) laid some bricks they failed to turn up to do anymore work. Initially they said the work would take 2 weeks. Five months later (as of July) she still cannot use her garden and has been left with what can only be describe as a building site which is dangerous and unusable as a garden. Two local traders have given written statements saying the brick work needs to come down as the standard of laying is amateurish and not even laid in a straight line with inadequate footings.

My mum and ourselves have tried communicating with the contractors but to no avail, we have tried contacting Trading Standards but have heard nothing (you just get through to Citizens Advice who act as a filter and they just pass to Trading Standards anything they think is worthy and just throw the rest in the bin), we have been to a solicitor who has told us that although we have a case against the company Services and in court the case would likely be upheld, the likelihood of my mum getting any damages from them is very slim as we know the culprit has disposed of his and the company's assets by selling his car, his van, and has done a flit from his flat. Although taking them to court would be a very satisfying response to the wrong that has been committed to my mum, the privilege would cost around £500, (fee for claiming £5.000.01 or more) which is yet more money mum can ill afford to spend for the sake of getting satisfaction, so it looks like they will get away with it with absolutely no repercussion. My mum has been off work with depression as a direct result of this. We supposedly have a justice system in this country but where is the justice here when once you have ripped someone off, all you have to do to escape anything real happening to you is to sell all your assets before anyone has time to sue you?

None of our family are wealthy and we have no savings to help my mum put things right. We would like very much to try and raise the deposit that my mum has effectively had stolen, and hopefully a little extra so that she can complete the work on her garden and the front of the house. We have quotes starting from £8,500 just to correct the damage that the contractors have caused, which includes pulling the shoddy brickwork down, starting again and completing, but does not include personalising or making nice. I know lots of people don't have much money, so if you have sympathy for my mum and cant put anything in to her cause then please just share this page and let as many people as you can know about it, that's all we ask. Finally I would like to thank everyone in advance for their generosity and for those individuals / companies that have already helped my mum with free advice and statement writing.

David Hood, Anna Hood, & Jessica Hood.

Are there any contactors out there willing to donate a bit of time?

Please contact David Hood on davidhood999@hotmail.co.uk or 07468 452 846 with any offers, absolutely anything, that you think might help. Thanks.