Need a builder? the last person to contact would be William Old who's add used to appear in the News & Trader (Newquay/Cornwall) using different headings, most likely to confuse the general public as his workmanship was so bad that no-one would dream of ever recommending him. His advert has now been removed after I complained and possibly many more irate customers. He came and looked at a job and gave me a quote to build a wall for £4500 which another builder had quoted £1000 for.  He also gave me a quote of £13,500 to put up a different retaining wall after he had seen the structural engineers plans. Before starting he signed an agreement stating it would be built has the plans showed, a week after receiving the final payment he asked me for more money, for what? he had not completed the job he had been paid in full for... I refused and he left and I have not seen him since.

The structural engineer who drew the plans looked at what had been built stating the retaining wall had been built 1.05m in front of the very thing it was supposed to be retaining plus many other faults as shown on the report (see supporting documents) The builder was informed of this but disputed what the structural engineer had found and was now claiming I owe him money for the equipment he used to do the job and for the removal of soil which I paid for and have the receipts as proof. He had originally informed me he would send the revised plans to building control due to him having to build 1.05m further into my garden to compensate for the 1.05m he had put the retaining wall in front of where it should have been. This was never done and finally I had to do it at a cost of £1128, I suggested that the builder, myself, the structural engineer and Russell Kay the person from building control who had inspected the work the builder had done meet at the site. This never happened due to despite having left numerous messages for Russell Kay to contact me for many months, this he never did other than send two emails stating I need to act as quickly as possible and any problems please contact him which is what I had been trying to do for months without any success.

Due to this atrocious service I was becoming suspicious especially as the builder and he were old acquaintances, I contacted councillor John Fitter informing him of the problems I was having, he quickly received a reply from Russell Kay who apparently stated as the structural engineer was more knowledgeable that he was he would have to go along with what the structural engineer had found. Now the most obvious question I think anyone would ask is what is someone from building control doing inspecting work that he states was beyond his capabilities. I then received an email from the builder stating he had taken legal advice which he will definitely need after all the proof I have to substantiate my claim against him. I heard nothing from him regardless that he had received a letter from my solicitor giving him 28 days to reply with his intentions and that i would if necessary be taking him to court. This was ignored, I emailed and sent a recorded delivery letter to inform him he had only 10 days left and the same again warning him he now only had 4 days of the 28 days left. In this I gave him full details of that I was claiming from him in total which must have shocked him enough to finally respond to my solicitors which was nothing more than a pack of lies which I have documentary proof and receipts to prove this. I have now taken out a county court summons against him which will now cost him considerably more than if he had returned my money I paid him in full and remove the atrociously built walls from my property.