Who’s been sleeping in my bed? The cowboy builders!
They’d emptied couple’s fridge – and finished 4 bottles of vodka
A COUPLE were horrified when they returned from a minibreak to find their builders had moved into their home.
Delia and Mick Cunningham say two Polish labourers had used their property for parties – and even slept in their marital bed.
The couple found empty vodka bottles in the kitchen of their three-bedroom home. The fridge had been restocked with Polish food after the builders ate everything else.
To make matters worse, Mr and Mrs Cunningham, both 60, were left thousands of pounds out of pocket thanks to the builders’ shoddy repairs.
They had been quoted £34,600 to replace brickwork, fit new foundations, replace guttering and insulate walls by specialist firm Marek KBI Limited.
The Cunninghams had planned to sell the £250,000 house in Harding- stone, Northamptonshire, which they have owned for 34 years, and move to Anglesey to live near son Mark, 29. Having been told the work would take five weeks, they decided to stay with their son. But when Mr and Mrs Cunningham cut their visit short after just four days they found their home had been trashed, rather than repaired.
They then hired a second firm – which they accuse of botching remedial work, too. The couple are now sleeping in a leaking building site seven months on. Mrs Cunningham, a former shop owner, said she and her husband, a factory worker, face a further £34,000 bill to fix the firms’ mistakes. Describing Marek KBI’s work as a ‘disaster’ from day one, she said: ‘People were using the side of the house as a toilet and we found cannabis. We went away to Anglesey for four days – but when we came back there was this horrible smell. ‘My husband went into the bedroom and he started talking to someone. I thought he was going mad, but there were people in the house. Obviously we told them to get out straight away. The place was a tip. These two labourers, who we think might have been homeless, were living here and they didn’t realise we would be back. The worst thing is they had been sleeping in our bed.’
The house’s brickwork was still not level, and a gap had appeared between their home and a neighbour’s. In addition, a new wall did not meet the roof and the driveway had been left cracked.
Months later, building firm Your Choice was recruited to repair the work after a £13,750 quote. But workers allegedly installed the wrong guttering which left rainwater leaking. Yadwinder Gill, director of Your Choice Home Improvements, responded: ‘As far as we’re concerned we’re part way through a job that the customer doesn’t want doing any more.’
Marek KBI has now been reported to Trading Standards. Marek Buza, former director of now-defunct KBI Ltd, said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for how workers treated the Cunninghams’ home, but claimed the two men were not sleeping there.