Disabled mum left with pile of rubble after paying £51k for extension

A disabled mother has been left with a soggy pile of rubble, after forking out £51,000 for a new extension a year ago.

Gemma Greenhalgh, 35, and her husband Andrew, 44, planned to make a series of improvements and add an orangery to their home in Clevelys, Lancashire. They were quoted £58,000 for the job.

However, despite the fact that the couple handed over almost all the money, the work has been left unfinished. The brickwork is leaking, the garden is full of rubbish and the orangery lacks one wall and a roof.

The couple say they are now going to have to pay other building firms £20,000 to finish the job.

"The worst part is the orangery. I've got half-built brick walls and support beams where the roof should be. The floor is concrete and one of the walls is missing completely," Gemma tells the Blackpool Gazette.

"There hasn't been £51,000 of work done on this house. Just before Easter we contacted him and asked when it would be finished. I never heard from him again."

Gemma, who suffers from cauda equina syndrome, a rare spine condition which causes progressive leg weakness, has since suffered a miscarriage which she puts down to the stress.

But the unnamed builder disputes her version of events, claiming, "They have had the money's worth of work done on the house. There's nothing wrong with the job whatsoever."

It's an all too familiar story. According to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), dodgy tradespeople and cowboy builders are costing the UK economy more than £6 billion a year.

A third of people have had at least one bad experience with a tradesperson, such as poor quality of work, work not completed to the full specification, and the tradesperson disappearing mid-job.

But what should you do if you find yourself in a dispute with a builder?

If discussion with the builder gets you nowhere, your first port of call should be your local Trading Standards. If your builder's a member of its Consumer Codes Approval Scheme, it will offer you dispute resolution.

If the builder isn't a member, though, you may need to take things to the Consumer Ombudsman.

And if this doesn't get you anywhere, you'll need to go to court. If the amount under dispute is less than £10,000 in England and Wales and £3,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland, you'll be able to use the small claims court.

But, says Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, "What many people don't realise is that the building trade has moved with the times - there are some fantastic tradespeople out there, many of whom have high standards of customer service and the best in modern technology, from digital testimonials to full 3D imaging."

He adds: "We would also urge homeowners to seek tradespeople through reputable industry bodies to help protect themselves from rogue traders."