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Midlands family warn over "cowboy builder"
01/07/09
Home owners looking for builders in Warwickshire have been warned to be on their guard after another Midlands family reportedly fell victim to a "cowboy" tradesman. Raymond Claude and Jeanette Fisher told the Sunday Mercury that they paid contractor Paul Henstone almost £20,000 to extend their Warwickshire home.
However, after paying an initial £14,000 in March 2007, work on the project - which was scheduled to take 12 weeks - soon stalled.
Mr. Claude asked his solicitor to take legal action but then discovered that Mr. Henstone, who the site said has traded under Rock Construction and Roofing, Blackdown and the Extension Company, had been declared bankrupt in 2006.
Yet Mr. Claude said he had paid a further £5,000 to the builder after he returned to the site and promised to finish the job.
Again, progress stalled and some of the work Mr. Henstone carried out was later condemned by council building inspectors. A section of roof installed by the builder has now allowed damp into the brickwork of the couple's home, which will cost around £20,000 to repair, the site said.
Mr. Henstone is already subject to an enforcement order after Warwickshire Trading Standards presented a "catalogue of complaints" to a judge who described him as a "cowboy builder".
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