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The woman was in great distress. Having paid out thousands of pounds, she told me last week that she could not get builders to complete the improvements to her house or correct shoddy work.
In fact, she is relatively lucky. Another customer of the same local firm paid more than £120,000 and was left with an incomplete shell.
Indeed, in my Twickenham constituency I currently have half a dozen cases of residents badly stung by dodgy builders, who can achieve no redress from professional bodies, the law or trading standards.
One family has lost £100,000. Across the UK there are well over 100,000 cases on the files of trading standards officers - with numerous others unreported - and botched work costs consumers more than £1.5 billion a year.
Tens of thousands of small construction firms and tradesmen are hungry for work and give good value for money. But the industry is plagued by a small minority of cowboys.
The firm used by the woman who came to me last week embodies the problem. It has surfaced under a variety of names as its owner moves on from each set of creditors, unsettled accounts and incomplete or shoddy work via "phoenix" companies.
One resident tried to resolve a dispute through the Federation of Master Builders, of which the company was a member.
After a long process, an independent adjudicator awarded him more than £6,000; it has never been paid. The company was expelled from the federation but has continued to use its logo.
The authorities seem powerless.
Other companies are even worse. One constituent embarked on a £25,000 home improvement which led to a big hole in the front of the house and numerous faults before the contractor disappeared (she finished up paying over £60,000 to complete the work).
It transpired that the contractor has a string of county court judgments against him and several phoenix companies.
You might ask: why don't customers take more care? But some of the worst rogues are accredited with bodies like the Federation of Master Builders. There is no common database of dodgy companies.
Sensible people insist on stage payments but withholding half a contract fee is scant consolation if the work is so bad that it has to be done again.
It would be wrong to create costly red tape which undermined the competitiveness of the many decent companies - and which the cowboys would just ignore.
In 2000, the Government started the Quality Mark scheme, awarded after an audit and inspection. It was abandoned because so few companies joined.
A scheme called Trust Mark launched in 2004 provides a credit check and search for county court judgments. It now covers 12,000 firms.
But quite a few cowboys have joined up successfully. It offers no redress. And none of my constituents seem to have heard of it.
In a debate in Parliament today, I will be arguing that it makes more sense to combine this scheme with the Federation of Master Builders, thereby creating one consistent set of quality standards.
Council trading standards officers also need on their websites a unified, up-to-date list of known rogues, with their court records, disqualifications and phoenix company names.
This is surely a sensible middle way between over-regulation and cowboy capitalism.
Without it, I fear I will be consoling more residents left with holes in the houses and their bank accounts.
Reader views (10)
From dodgy builder, who set fire to our home to dodgy solicitor who let our claim for damages be struck out in court for "Inordinate and Inexcusable delay"; which, according to the Solicitors Code of Conduct is grounds for automatic compensation - I wish. We have been engaged in litigation for over 30 years since. If the coalition government are serious about restoring Britains reputation as a fair and just society then I suggest they start by examining such cases as ours and the thousands of others.
- Paul T-J, Oakham, Rutland, 24/07/2010 11:20
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Yes indeed a serious subject. Perhaps Dr Cable and Ken Clarke over at the Ministry of Justice ought to jointly look at another serious subject, that of the many rogue Insolvency Practitioners - who with their legal friends seem to be engineering all manner of bogus bankruptcies / insolvencies / administrations etc?
- Steve, Bournemouth England, 23/07/2010 17:01
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Vince Cable doesn't only need to target 'cowboy' builders - he needs to target builders full stop. On every spare inch of land in Central London a building is built. Where I live by the river in Battersea hundreds of luxury flats have been built - flats mean people - people mean cars. There isn't the infrastructure for these extra cars - none of the roads have been widened - this should have been thought about before any permission was given to build. Don't keep penalising the motorist - plan roads etc before any building permission is given.
- Liz, London, 17/12/2009 00:47
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I'd vote for a political party who were solidly and determinedly committed to outlawing cowboy builders and rogue traders. These people quite literally, hit us where we live. The effects of their bad workmanship or outright scams to rob us, hit us at gut level.
Those who work and are left with the results of building disasters have to take days off from jobs and careers to sort out the mess and problems. And far, far, worse is when the elderly, disabled or frail become living targets to be preyed upon by these unscrupulous thugs and louts who possess no social or moral conscious.
Thank you Vince Cable for bringing up a serious issue that many of us have to deal with in our everyday lives, one way or another. This perception, like I said, let's me know who I'll be voting for.
- J Turner, London, 04/12/2009 12:52
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I think my neighbour and I have used the builder who was expelled from FMB. We complained about the standard of his work and the timing. A six week job dragged on for 5 months and then he abandoned us. We foolishly paid money up-front and stage payments that were behind the amount of work completed. This man and his son are loutish and devious. Their behaviour was threatening, so much so that at one stage I had to call the police. We are now completing the job ourselves at extra expense but at least we have control over the work.
- Valerie Mcgregor, Hampton Hill TW12 1QY UK, 30/11/2009 17:45
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It is excellent that the issue of cowboy builders has been aired in Parliament, however in response to Vince Cable’s comments, TrustMark would like to clarify that:
• The FMB is a trade association, TrustMark is an independent, not for profit organisation, licensed by the Government to operate the TrustMark 'quality mark'
• FMB Masterbond is one of more than 30 scheme operators working with TrustMark. Ordinary FMB members are not eligible for TrustMark membership.
• TrustMark was started in 2006 and offers full redress indirectly via the five stage complaints process.
• TrustMark does much more than a credit check - it is the only organisation to require on-site inspections, provide deposit protection, and have the backing of BIS, CLG, OFT, Trading Standards and numerous consumer bodies.
TrustMark plays an important role helping people to find good, reliable and trustworthy tradesmen – every month, on average more than 300,000 tradesmens’ contact details are viewed through our website, demonstrating that the public are using the service provided to help them find reputable tradesmen. We have extremely stringent entry criteria which means TrustMark has built a very high wall to keep rogue tradesmen out. I would like to ask for evidence of apparently unsuitable firms being TrustMark registered to be provided so that we can investigate this fully.
- Roman Russocki, Ascot, England, 24/11/2009 14:54
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At last someone has at least addressed this problem. -As usual, Vince Cable seems to put his finger right on the button, despite his detractors. -I just hope he gets the chance to implement his plans.
I'm so tired and angry watching these silly T.V. programmes supposedly catching out rogue tradesmen, that usually end up with a reporter chasing after a rapidly departing white van shouting something like ''Well that wasn't very fair of you was it?'' While someone in the van gives a two fingered salute to the camera.
These guys have been getting away with stealing hundreds of thousands for years, with impunity. -A shoplifter can be jailed for stealing something worth a tenner, yet the law seems totally ineffective against rogue builders stealing thousands. -WHY? - Is nobody in authority really interested, other than Vince Cable?
- Huggy, Cumbernauld Scotland, 23/11/2009 13:59
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I was a building inspector in New Malden for eight years and came across some excellent and some awful builders - and plenty of average ones. The best won't bother to join Quality Mark type schemes because they don't need to - recommendation brings them all the work they need (in normal times anyway). One on my patch had an 18-month waiting list: he decided whether your job was one that he wanted and if you were lucky you got added to his list ... and after a long wait your reward would be a first class job at a very fair price. Recommendation is the best way to choose a builder but not fail-safe: some of my clients were more than happy with very poor work because they didn't know better, also some firms start off well, then expand and standards slip. It's not unreasonable for a contractor to ask for a small deposit before starting work, but after that don't pay for work that's not been done, and definitely don't pay the balance until satisfied. Finally, get/put everything in writing so as to avoid misunderstandings or worse.
- Tonyb, Melbourne, Australia, 23/11/2009 13:02
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Banks and now builders. And for Mr Cable's next trick, walking on water and turning base metals into gold.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 23/11/2009 12:09
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As long as VAT is charged at the full rate on house renovations - easily avoided by paying cash - the problem of cowboy builders will persist as both parties have an interest in doing things off the books. The solution would be to cut the rate of VAT (say to 5%) which would give people an incentive to do the work "officially". Wouldn't cost much either as so much revenue is lost already.
- P Hall, UK, 23/11/2009 11:33
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