For veteran Tony Wade and his wife Sue, retirement was their chance to move to quiet Cambridgeshire and soak up the delights of the British countryside.
To make their lives as comfortable as possible they decided to transform their new home into the perfect oasis by converting their garage into a livable space, kitted out with a new kitchen, dining room and shower space.
But their simple conversion became a three year nightmare after a cowboy builder conned them out of £65,000 and left the pensioners living in a cold, damaged home.
After obtaining planning permission for a new garage, conservatory and redesign of the layout, Tony, 82, and Sue, 77, found a construction company through Checkatrade.
They selected ‘BSW Construction Projects’ who they deemed to be a reputable firm and claimed the building works would take a mere two months.
And so the couple paid £37,000 upfront before quickly realising the builders lacked basic construction knowledge.
Mr Wade told the Daily Mail: ‘I had to tell them three times that the driveway was uneven.
‘The last time they came, I asked one of the men, “have you got a spirit level?” and he said “no”. But when I gave him my spirit level, he still put it the wrong way around.
Tony and Sue Wade have reached breaking point after spending their life savings on the incomplete renovations
Veteran Tony has started taking stress medication due to the whole fiasco
‘It’s been very stressful. We feel devastated.’
Reflecting on the fiasco, Sue said they were drawn in by the idea of a speedy renovation – and the builders promised that by Christmas 2022 it would all be complete.
Trusting them, they handed over £45,000, racking up a further £20,000 as the fiasco continued.
But shortly after the ‘eight-week’ project began, the builders repeatedly failed to show up and left work half-done.
By December there were continued delays and throughout 2023 there were more payment requests and unstable communication.
Work on the property stopped in November 2023 and though the couple tried to contact the builder multiple times, going as far as staging a two-person protest on the man’s doorstep, it was in vain.
Three years later Sue and Tony reached breaking point – neither of them can sleep over safety concerns and Tony now takes stress medication.
Sue said: ‘When they came back after Christmas, we noticed building materials weren’t coming on the site.
‘We wouldn’t see a builder for three or four weeks. So nothing was getting done.’
Left behind are 35 defects, including a shoddy garage, a half torn down conservatory, and dozens of problems inside the house.
The Wades were even forced to spend two winters with no heating in certain parts of the house.
Work on the property stopped in November 2023 and though the couple tried to contact the builder multiple times, going as far as staging a two-person protest on the man’s doorstep, it was in vain
Left behind are 35 defects, including a shoddy garage, a half torn down conservatory, and dozens of problems inside the house
Sue added: ‘The garage leaks and it’s damp there because they didn’t do it properly.
‘When it rained the water came in at the drive doors and just flooded the garage. We got no help from him at all to put it right.’
When work started, the builder had promised the couple their money would have been kept safe in a separate bank account for the job.
But he later admitted he had shifted the money into a different job.
The pair approached Checkatrade to complain about the builder, but the company had to be chased over nine months to respond to the case.
Tony said: ‘I had to phone them about six or seven times before getting anywhere.’
The company eventually sent someone to write a report on the work in February 2024.
Sue added: ‘His word to us was that he had never seen such a bad lot of work done in his life.’
Despite the state of the property, Checkatrade only offered a £1,000 in compensation to the Wade’s, a tiny fraction of what the couple had already spent on the project.
They say the saga has weighed heavily on their mental health.
Sue added: ‘We were that stressed and upset and worried about it that we had to go to the doctors. Tony was put on medication for stress. I couldn’t sleep at night.’
They are now living in an unsafe home, with a cold and unfinished kitchen, having lost their life savings.
The simple conversion became a three year nightmare after a cowboy builder conned them out of £65,000 and left the pensioners living in a cold, damaged home
A Checkatrade spokesperson said: ‘We take the experience of Mr and Mrs Wade extremely seriously and recognise the distress this situation caused.
‘It marks a failure in the delivery of work by BSW Construction Projects Ltd, who were removed from our platform over two years ago.
‘We accept that the handling of the Wades’ claim could have been dealt with more quickly. At the time, we understood they were still in discussions with the trade to resolve the issue directly and were awaiting further evidence before escalating the case to an independent surveyor. Since then, we have bolstered our industry-leading vetting, monitoring and complaints processes, and cases like this would now be escalated automatically.
‘Our best-in-class Guarantee exists to protect homeowners on the rare occasions work goes wrong, and we remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of trust and safety for everyone who uses Checkatrade.’
