A DAD was left almost bankrupt after sinking £120,000 on a nightmare loft conversion – and claims he was “ripped off” by multiple “cowboy” builders.
Marc Rodriguera sacked two different builders for their allegedly “shoddy”; work and his home was almost written off due to structural damage amid the two-year ordeal, he says.
He, his wife and four children were even forced to evacuate amid 100mph winds during Storm Ciarán when the roof was “shaking”;.
NHS nurse Marc, 50, has now been awarded close to £10,000 at a small claims hearing on Monday (March 24) after taking one of the builders to court.
And he says he now plans to pursue further alleged losses.
Representing himself, he said he was told he was initially liable for all of the defendant's legal fees if he'd lost, which he said would have sent him into bankruptcy.
Marc told Flying Eze of the hearing: “It’s been a long time coming.”;
The dad, from Dagenham, East London, hired the first contractor in April 2023 to convert his loft into two bedrooms.
Early in the process, they realised the gable end wall – a triangular wall that supports the end of a sloping roof – needed extensive repair as part of the conversion.
It meant temporary structures needed to be built from the ground up.
Marc paid an estimated £42,000 to his first builder before sacking him the following July, he says.
He said: “He wasn’t following building plans and building control was not passing his work.
“It came to a point where he couldn’t resolve the issue about the gable end wall which was the main problem.”;
He went on to say: “All in all he was a cowboy builder. Really, I was just hoping he would finish it and have the proper building control.
“I terminated our contract... I shouldn’t have trusted him.
“He was saying ‘I’m going to finish next week, you need to pay this amount’. This was in July.”;
The builder had previously been working on another property a couple of miles away and had told them he could therefore save money on materials for their project, Marc claims.
He said: “Everything was not up to standard. All the pictures are terrible. We just went by his word.”;
The dad hired the second builder – whose company he eventually successfully sued – in July 2023, paying him roughly another £40,000 over several months, he claims.
He said: “I wasn’t happy with his sense of urgency.”;
He sacked him in November the same year, around the time Storm Ciarán struck.
“We were really worried, the loft was shaking in winds of 100mph, we had to evacuate,”; recalled Marc.
A third builder was then hired and roughly another £40,000 paid out, with the job completed to Marc’s satisfaction on Christmas Eve the same year.
The dad explained that the claim against the second builder was for £9,700 and related to money allegedly taken for the gable end wall and accompanying steelwork “which went into nothing”;.
Marc had budgeted for £70,000 overall, which he and his family had saved up over several years, with the project costing nearly double that, including architect and engineer fees.
“We saved this money for a long time during the Covid pandemic and it’s become a nightmare,”; he said.
The conversion wasn’t fully completed until summer last year, and the family didn’t have enough left to do up the kitchen as also planned.
“We didn’t realise how much it would affect us as a family...the upheaval of it,”; Marc said.
“We were prepared for six to nine months of disruption but the way it turned out it was scary... All of our savings are gone.”;
He said they were also lucky to have picked up on structural issues early on and believes the house could have collapsed in time if they hadn't.
Marc said he had wanted to pursue the money from the second contract sooner but decided to wait until the renovation was completed.
“I wanted it to be all finished before all the stress of trying to get some money,”; he said.
Speaking ahead of an initial hearing in November last year, he said: “If I lose this case and I have to pay the £9,000 then I will have to declare bankruptcy, it’s that bad for us. I’m not that confident.”;
He continued: “It’s a bullying approach. It’s really affected us as a family, my wife’s crying every night.
“Part of me regrets making a claim but it feels like a big injustice to just leave it.”;
Marc claims attempts were made to close the company but he managed to get a temporary stay giving him a window for the court process.
“I also reported… fraud [allegations] to Companies House but they’re not interested, they said it’s not something they can deal with,”; he explained.
The judge ruled in November that Marc would not have to pay the opposition legal fees if he lost, he said.
The defendant now has until April 7 to pay up, as per the court order issued this week, Marc claims.
Marc went on to say the whole process has opened his eyes up to the lack of protection afforded to consumers while dealing with the building trade.
“The whole industry is not really protecting the consumer,”; he said.
“Builders have their own way of talking amongst themselves, it all becomes confused and they keep asking for more money. It’s weird.
“I work in medicine, it’s like talking to the patient about the surgery and he doesn’t understand it. It’s my house and I can’t make them do what I want. It’s hard to communicate.”;
When approached by the Sun, the second builder declined to comment.
However, a solicitor representing his company in the case told us Marc had issued proceedings against the builder but “it was with the company that was undertaking the works”.
He said: “I was instructed to deal with that point, that the wrong entity is being sued.
“[The builder] is not personally liable for anything, it’s the company.
“The statement that was filed to the court was just showing who the contract was between, it was not detailing what the argument was about or what the nature of the work undertaken was.”
He said an initial hearing in November last year saw the judge identify the “correct defendant” and removed the builder from the case.
“It was then for the company to defend the claim but that company is no longer in existence, so the company can’t defend anything anyway because it’s not operating,” he continued.
“We never got to a stage where a defence was filed. I think Marc’s case has gone unopposed and I assume he’s got the judgement now.”
Are you the victim of a cowboy builder? Email [email protected]
