Builder nightmare and loss of my best friend

I know there are many more heart breaking stories out there in the world but if you can help me, you will be helping someone close to home and changing my life for the better, if you can donate the minimum and all of your friends can do the same this would be life changing

My story start with, I finally could afford a dream location property, the house wasn’t why I bought it was because my dog would have a huge space to run around in and also play with the farm animals behind the house… what a dream I lived with my baby for a year and half.

Decided after extensive research and plans submitted I got quotes for builders over a 8 months period some were silly but 3 came in around my budget, I remortgage the house to afford to complete the build, myself and my dad went to view their work before accepting anyone quote, we talked long and hard over who it should be, checked reviews of them online and felt confident with our choice.

I paid my deposit with them, the build date came along and they didn’t show, when I contacted they said apologies there was a mix up of dates it will be the following week, I didn’t worry at this point mix ups happen.

They came the following week and started work, lots of noise lots of movement, it was estimated to be an 8 week job, I was to pay them a little each week which I did, they asked us to move out for 3 weeks while they do the messy part they didn’t want myself or my dog there, I moved in with my Dad.

I have a door camera as well as a pet camera, at least the door camera should go off when someone is at the door, strange that in this time moved out it only went off once, I checked it a few times and rang the builders where are they, they said they have been working at the front of the property and could I extend my move out for another week, I did this and during this time I was still making the weekly payments as I signed a contract to do. After 4 weeks I moved back into my house because I didn’t want to keep inconveniencing my dad and brothers. When I moved in looks like in that 4th week there was some progress, they then said they needed to relook at some of the building regs and plans etc… so 2 weeks passed and I only heard from them if I contacted, they said sorry we had a van break in and a site break in so they have had to deal with that and they had an emergency at another job site, at this point they told me to hold the next few payments until they have completed the job, I agreed.

They finally came back 4 weeks after stopping, they finally covered my open roof which was leaking in all through the house, plaster falling off the downstairs walls, floor s soaked, rooms I had finished decorating downstairs ruined, it’s been a nightmare with buckets everywhere collecting water coming from the ceiling. With the new roof on finally it seemed to have eased the rain fall inside the house although not everything, they did a lot of changes in that week, but did state that one of the neighbours down the street came to complain that it’s not following the plan agreed and she will report it to the council.

This added another step to the nightmare as the council told us to stop all work until they can investigate, this happened in August 2023, it took months to get an inspector to come out, but they cleared everything and said all was to plan and work can continue but during this time the rain increased and so did the cold.

At the end of August my dog my best friend for 11 years suddenly got really sick, this was another stress, weeks of vet investigations and costly procedures unfortunately he didn’t survive and died in just 6 weeks, I would give my life for my dog but all I had were vets and credit cards, I max out all my cards to keep him alive and get healthy, after 3 weeks in he started to feel better and improved and what a relief, but the vets didn’t know what it was other than a whole in his stomach and he needed to be a little stronger for them to do surgery, this whole time I wondered has he eaten something from the piles of rubbish that the builders left, I tried to block him from that area but he would always get where he wanted.

after the 6 weeks and he became just skin and bone he went to lay down outside in the snow so I knew he had enough of these drugs and vet visits, the week after I took him to the vets because he was so faint and they said this is the end, as I type this i’m crying because it still hurts so much, I knew one day it would happen but not like this and not this soon, my poor baby died in my arms and I had to leave with just his lead, teddy and £10,000 credit card bill.

The discussions with the builders started again, they confirmed the two choices I had with them, they would walk away and refund me “some” money or we need to agree to pay another £8,000 on top to finish the job, i spoke with my family and everyone put money to so I could afford this, we signed an extension to the contract and they said they can’t start again until January because they have other jobs to finish off from this time they had to stop, understandable, I had to go through the winter in the freezing cold with frost or fog inside my house.

January came and went, they moved the date to February, we are now in May and they came only to fix the guttering which I demanded because my neighbours is trying to sell her house.

What a nightmare I still am no further on and unfortunately the money they would refund is only £10,000 of the huge about I have paid them so far, so basically if they refunded me that I couldn’t afford to get anyone else in to finish the job because it’s practically nothing started, I’m good with diy but this is far past my skill set.

I never thought I would be in a situation where I am asking others to be kind enough to fund to help me in life, I have two jobs, my full time job that I often work longer for free because I need to get things done and my second job delivering because I can’t get a job stacking shelves due to my experience, they just say over qualified, not understanding I just want enough money to pay bills and eat and try and saved for another builder

the funds will be used to get another builder to finish the damage and finish the job anything left over will pay off my credit cards so I can afford to go back to one job, I want to thank everyone in advance for helping a fellow human out in this struggle