“He had the gift of the gab and was very good at convincing you that it was okay”, Daniel Phipps said
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A couple from Bexhill say they're facing "sleepless nights" after being left with an incomplete loft conversion – they claim – by a builder who has since gone into liquidation. The couple, Daniel and Kimberley Phipps, had trusted building company MH Developments Sussex Limited – owned by Michael Hughes – to undertake a loft conversion they had spent "a decade" saving for, only to be left disappointed and financially disadvantaged. The builder vehemently denied this, saying: "I am currently liaising with my solicitor over this matter. My solicitor is also looking to pursue a claim for slander and breach of contract."
Daniel Phipps claims he paid for around 80 per cent of the total cost of the loft conversion project, which has been left incomplete. Daniel shared how the couple trusted the company after the owner Michael Hughes was recommended by a relative. Despite having a lot of initial trust in the company, this was soon diminished when the couple say they were left out of the loop on important changes, such as the builder going on a vacation and not informing them until the day he was flying.
The 42-year-old said: "We went with him on the basis that he was recommended by my sister and that was that. We started in March and the first thing that went wrong was that he text me one morning and said he was going away for a week. Everyone's entitled to a holiday, but he could have given me some prior warning. He had a meeting with my wife the day before and didn't say anything. We were more upset when we found out he wasn't going for a week, in fact he was going away for two weeks to Jamaica, so that was the first time of trouble."
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While Daniel simply shrugged this off, he said he noticed more red flags creeping in when he was given a payment plan, which requested set amounts of money but was missing key parts of the project from the building schedule. Having paid 80 per cent of the overall cost of the loft conversion, in the hope this would speed up the process, Daniel soon began to query why limited work was being done on his property.
Daniel, who was relying on the loft so he could use other parts of his house as a dog grooming salon for his work, said: "He had the gift of the gab and was very good at convincing you that it was okay. I just thought it's going to be fine because why would a friend of the family rip us off? They went to my sister's wedding so they were good friends too."
With the building firm requesting payments from the couple, despite limited work being done, the couple say they made it clear that they were uncomfortable making further payments until they saw some real progress. It was then that the builder reportedly became short-tempered and said he was walking off the job.
Having returned just to clear up the rubbish from the site, the builder and his colleagues reportedly made Kimberley, who was home alone at the time, uncomfortable. She asked the builders to go and, despite Daniel giving them an alternative time to return to clear up the rubbish, he says he was ignored.
The builder, who acknowledged that the couple were eligible for a refund, claimed the family were only due back £5,000. Daniel says he knew this was inaccurate and they were due much more, however the builder, who Daniel described as being "evasive", offered no receipts.
Daniel, who was becoming increasingly frustrated, then decided to get in touch with the Federation of Master Builders who provided very little assistance. He then employed a solicitor, which he has now had to stop due to high expenses.
As a result of MH Developments Sussex Limited going into liquidation, just less than two weeks after taking a payment from the couple, the company – who changed their name just before closing down – will not be paying the couple back the money they are owed. Daniel and wife Kimberley have now been left with a roof protected by felt and hardly any of the loft extension they saved so hard to afford complete.
As well as losing out on this money, the couple also had to pay £500 for a decorator to repair water damage that was caused during the building work when the company put up a plastic sheet on the roof which simply leaked through. The builder offered no sympathy or compensation for this either, according to the couple.
To try and finish the loft conversion, which was also needed to provide temporary accommodation to Daniel's father as he relocates to Bexhill from the Isle of Wight due to poor health, Daniel's sister has set up a fundraiser to help the couple finish the works. Daniel, who has been left with a shell of a loft, said: "We still have no roof, we don't have any windows, we're just under felt which goes underneath the roof tiles and that's it.
"Everything's on hold at the moment and we've got very little money left. It's not great. We can get it weather tight hopefully, we've found another builder, he's very nice and knows our story and is doing us a bit of a favour because of that. He's being as nice as he can for us, but we certainly can't afford to get it finished."
Daniel has also shared his emotions following this ordeal, with his wife being "in tears" nearly every other day. He said: "We're in disbelief. You hear about these stories and you never think it's going to happen to you. We put our faith in him because of the friendship between his partner and my sister, but I didn't give it much thought beyond that.
"You put your trust in someone to rip your house apart and you've got to take a leap of faith otherwise you'll just be over their shoulder all the time. You put financial trust in them and I put too much trust in him and, in my opinion, he took advantage. I'm very upset, embarrassed, angry and frustrated because we keep thinking it would have been done by now. It just keeps dragging on and on; every time it rains you're worried it's going to come through. I've been keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't rain because we need to get the roof tiles on and get it as weather tight as we can."
Having waited years to get this loft conversion done, Daniel also shared how his "life savings" have gone to waste as a result of this situation. He said: "This is our life savings. We saved for over a decade. We put our money in the bank in the view of using it for a property one day and thought this is our opportunity and now it's gone. It's very difficult because it's always on your mind, you wake up in the morning and it's the first thing on your mind."
With his relative having recommended the firm to begin with, Daniel has shared how awful they feel about the situation, which was out of her control. He continued: "They are really embarrassed and upset and feel responsible for recommending him, hence why the [fundraiser] was set up. They are no longer friends with them because of it. I told my relative it's not their fault, they recommended him in good faith. They are not responsible for what he's done, he did that all on his own."
MH Developments Sussex Limited has been contacted for comment. The company responded: "I am currently liaising with my solicitor over this matter. My solicitor is also looking to pursue a claim for slander and breach of contract." The company has gone into liquidation and was also "struck" off the Federation of Master Builders list.
With a new builder starting at the couple's Bexhill abode this week, Daniel and his wife Kimberley hope that this will help them feel more relaxed about the unfinished loft as winter approaches. While the couple are no longer expecting a finished loft conversion, they hope that their house will not be subject to leaks during the winter months through the roof.
Although the couple can no longer afford a complete loft conversion, a fundraiser has been set up to help fund the loft for the couple. The target to be raised is £10,000.
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