I have just been out to fix a leak for an elderly disabled lady. She reported the leak to her insurance company yesterday evening and they got a plumber to contact her. He telephoned and got her to turn off her heating and water and said he would get back to her, he never did and she was without heating and water for 16 hours.
However when I was there she was telling me about work that had been done over the past year or so and the problems she has had. She had a new kitchen fitted including having a new boiler fitted. The people who did the work never completed it and she is left with ungrouted tiling and no door handles, however the worst was they fitted the new boiler to some rotten wood and it started to come away from the wall. Somebody propped it up with some lengths of wood and the lady contacted environmental health for help (she did not have enough money to get another tradesman to sort it out), environmental health sent a company to sort it out. She showed me the job sheet stating what they had done and it listed the materials used, she said the council told her the bill came to £2500. Now after removing V.A.T. and materials (about £100 from the job sheet) then that leaves £2000 for labour, she said 2 guys came and they were there for 6 hours! Because she is disabled she got some sort of grant for £1000 but that left her with £1500 to pay which she hasn't got. The council told her the company who did the work have put a charge against her house for £4500, so she thinks that when she passes away they can claim £4500. I am not sure of that but it sounds like she is being taken advantage of.
She also told me that somebody, who is a friend, changed her bath, he charged her quite a high price and she said it seemed quite high. He told her he had made a step to help her get in and out of the bath, she had not asked for a step because she cannot get upstairs. The leak I was sorting was in the bathroom and this step is made of quite thin ply, it was also falling apart, the front panel was virtually falling off so I looked underneath and this is what I found
It was lucky she could not get upstairs as if she had stood on this step it probably would have collapsed.
However when I was there she was telling me about work that had been done over the past year or so and the problems she has had. She had a new kitchen fitted including having a new boiler fitted. The people who did the work never completed it and she is left with ungrouted tiling and no door handles, however the worst was they fitted the new boiler to some rotten wood and it started to come away from the wall. Somebody propped it up with some lengths of wood and the lady contacted environmental health for help (she did not have enough money to get another tradesman to sort it out), environmental health sent a company to sort it out. She showed me the job sheet stating what they had done and it listed the materials used, she said the council told her the bill came to £2500. Now after removing V.A.T. and materials (about £100 from the job sheet) then that leaves £2000 for labour, she said 2 guys came and they were there for 6 hours! Because she is disabled she got some sort of grant for £1000 but that left her with £1500 to pay which she hasn't got. The council told her the company who did the work have put a charge against her house for £4500, so she thinks that when she passes away they can claim £4500. I am not sure of that but it sounds like she is being taken advantage of.
She also told me that somebody, who is a friend, changed her bath, he charged her quite a high price and she said it seemed quite high. He told her he had made a step to help her get in and out of the bath, she had not asked for a step because she cannot get upstairs. The leak I was sorting was in the bathroom and this step is made of quite thin ply, it was also falling apart, the front panel was virtually falling off so I looked underneath and this is what I found
It was lucky she could not get upstairs as if she had stood on this step it probably would have collapsed.
