Consumer White Paper: `We wanted a roof. We got misery'

White Paper: Dodgy contractors, short drinks and sharp practices in motor trade are focus of consumer crackdown

ANTHONY AND Christine Lambert paid a builder pounds 9,000 to erect a conservatory, pave their drive, replace the windows and do roof repairs at their three-bedroomed house in West Bromwich, West Midlands. He started last August but quit in February after they refused to give him any more money. Mrs Lambert, 36, an office manager, said he left a trail of destruction. The conservatory was 13 inches shorter than planned and not insulated. The drive was left sloped, forcing the gates to open out onto a public footpath.

She said the builder fitted PVC windows instead of the more expensive wooden ones in the contract, and the heating boiler has not been properly re-installed. "We had to get a loan from the bank to pay for another builder," she said. "It was pounds 5,000 more to get it finished. This announcement is long overdue. We are trying to claw back the money from the builder that we gave him."