Clients warn of ‘cowboy’ landscaper
A landscaper’s shoddy workmanship and unreliability have come back to haunt him after an angry client set up a website chronicling his disastrous experience.
Adam Hutchinson set up the website in November to expose Christchurch landscaper David Driver, who he hired in 2022 to build a deck and a retaining wall at his Redcliffs property.
The website, which is top of the list when Googling Driver’s name, has unearthed tales of woe from Driver’s many disappointed clients over several years. Many have paid deposits with Driver abandoning the job uncompleted.
Driver advertises on neighbourhood Facebook pages, making people think he is a reliable local tradesman.
One irate client has posted the message “don’t touch this guy, he’s a cowboy” on all his online advertisements. “He seemed like a good bloke and his Facebook page and photographs suggested experience and good craftsmanship,” Hutchinson said.
He wasn’t to know the photograph that hooked him in was of somebody else’s work.
He was also encouraged that Driver said he was a licensed building practitioner. The licence granted in 2012 was only for brick and block laying but that wasn’t made clear.
Driver, originally from Clitheroe, Lancashire, started Hutchinson’s project – for which he quoted $24,045 plus GST – in July 2022. “I was travelling for work quite a bit over the next month and so I let Dave get on with it. He provided regular updates by sending photos and everything looked great. At this point I had no reason not to trust Dave or the quality of his work and so when he requested the final payment, I didn’t hesitate to pay him.”
On his return, Hutchinson noticed several defects such as cracked boards and poor finishing. He got a professional inspection, which found the deck did not comply with the building code and could collapse. Driver had used pegs, some untreated, to support the deck rather than dig piles. Substandard workmanship was also confirmed.
The inspection report recommended the deck be demolished and rebuilt. “The inspector said in the 20 years he’s been doing inspections, Dave’s work was the worst he’d ever seen,” Hutchinson said. The builder who totally rebuilt the deck described the work as “absolutely appalling”.
Hutchinson took Driver to the Disputes Tribunal and won a $24,533 judgment against Driver’s company, NZLandscape and Building, which he found was in the process of being struck off. Driver hasn’t paid.
Later an engineer’s report revealed the retaining wall Driver built needed major remedial work and Driver paid Hutchinson $9000 for the wall defects.
Driver started another company called Pink Cloud Limited in April last year and began advertising on community Facebook pages.
“When I saw Dave was offering to build houses it sent shivers down my spine ... I’m angry and frustrated but don’t want anyone to go through this same experience so have set up the website,” Hutchinson said.
Responses to his website included the family of an 80-year-old woman who paid Driver $2500 for a paving job in October 2023 but the job remains incomplete.
An Ashburton woman, who asked not to be named, had a similar experience when she contracted Driver to do some building and stone masonry work on her home. He failed to finish the job and a professional inspection revealed the use of wrong materials, lack of waterproofing and shoddy work.
Last November the Disputes Tribunal awarded her $11,500 although remedying the faults cost her about $30,000, she said. Trying to get some redress had cost her valuable time and caused stress and health issues. She found he was advertising his services on other community pages and on several she posted the message “Don’t touch this guy, he’s a cowboy”.
Christchurch woman Katie Earle counts herself lucky she lost only $1300, which she paid to Driver as a deposit in January for building a pergola and laying a patio with stone she provided.
“He turned up for a few hours and put in a few posts and I haven’t seen him since. I used to think I was a good judge of character but it’s been a wake-up call.”
When she posted on her neighbourhood Facebook page seeking information about his whereabouts, at least three other people contacted her with similar stories about Driver. She complained to police but they said they would not investigate.
Driver is associated with several companies. He first registered a company in 2006 and then another in 2015. Both have been removed due to his failure to file annual returns.
He registered new companies in 2019 and 2021 but again failed to file annual returns and both companies are on the verge of being struck off. In April last year he registered Pink Cloud Ltd and gave a residential address at which he no longer lives.
He doesn’t have an unblemished tenancy history either.
In March 2022, he and wife Amanda were ordered to pay their landlord $2868 for rubbish removal, cleaning and other items in regard to a Huntsbury property.
Driver did not respond to emails and Facebook messages and his cellphone number appears to have been cancelled.