Appeal for help for an 80 year old man who has been ripped off

[mattH]

Hello,

This is a request for help for something in my local area. It's an appeal for materials and labour from builders and roofers. On my local forum (I love SE4) a story has been posted regarding a dodgy outfit who have ripped of an elderly man for thousands of pounds and left him without a roof. Yes you read that right, without a roof. It has felt left but no battons or slate. From what I gather the poor soul was bullied into accepting this deal and handed over a large amount of cash. This is awful. It's been reported to Trading Standards and the police but as the guy has no roof there's no time to spare.

I've decided to donate some labour to the project, which needs to be turned around quickly. I'm looking for builders and roofers in the area and beyond who may have spare materials that are willing to donate. If you are up for helping even better. For Householders if the story below touches you theres a crown funding page.

This is not a scam. I am trying to help the bloke.

how you can help:

1. donate materials, labour

2. spread the story on Facebook and twitter and social media

3. donate to the crowd funding site.

If you want to contact me directly about it E-mail is best, I find PM's problematic to respond to on the ED forum [email protected]

Thanks for reading

Best,

Matthew

Text and link from the (I love SE4 forum):

*Please Read*

Last week my 80 year old neighbour who lives in Crofton Park Road was approached by a building company who knocked on his door, they told him that his gutters needed replacing, as we understand it he didn't agree to the works but he went out and when he returned the gutters had been removed.

The Builders had then told him that quite a lot of work was needed and once again without him agreeing to the works they erected some scaffolding and told him the roof needed replacing as a matter of urgency as it was leaking into his neighbours house (This wasn't the case)

My neighbour sadly believed what they were telling him and I think he was slightly intimidated so they started removing the roof tiles as well as the render on the dwarf walls between the roofs.

On the first day of the works to the roof they demanded that he pay them a significant sum of money running into thousands of pounds which he felt he had no option but to do so.

The next day they demanded a further even larger sum but when he went to the bank to withdraw the second amount the cashiers were suspicious and they contacted trading standards. Trading Standards told the builders to stop working immediately and they are currently trying to help find reputable contractors to replace the roof, however this will not be cheap.

My neighbour was left with all of his roof tiles on the pavement as we think the builders did not pay the skip company as they started filling the skip, then the driver came back and told them to empty it and took away the empty skip.

It is almost certain that my neighbour didn't need a new roof in the first place but maybe needed some repairs to the guttering and some of the flashings to the roof but has currently been left with jet felt on the roof, having paid an excessive amount for the work carried out to date.

To make matter s worse Lewisham Council have advised that the scaffolding is not safe and we don't even know who put it up as there is no board.

It has been an absolute nightmare as my neighbour is 80 years old and now has no roof, luckily some of our neighbours have paid for a skip to remove the tiles and we are now looking to help him replace his roof.

As my neighbour has unfortunately already lost a lot of money we are trying to reach out to the local community to help with the costs; We have set up a "gofundme" page where any donations would be most appreciated.

gofundme.com/2nvchrz8

We would also be grateful if any local roofers would be happy to offer their skills/time to help, one of my neighbours is a competent builder but not a roofer, my husband is also planning to help although he is not skilled in this area.

Please do be careful and make sure you thoroughly research any potential firms you plan to have any work with and especially be wary of people who knock on your door saying that you need work doing

This has been reported to the police also and the Crime reference number is PLRT00513128 CAD: 4298/14/4/16

Link

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILoveSE4/permalink/1276519529044862/?comment_id=1276597669037048&reply_comment_id=1276606359036179&notif_t=group_comment&notif_id=1461342863794668

[mattH]

Update.

We have met with Trading Standards who are going to introduce the householder to roofers for quotes. Our ideal objective is to get the roof sorted at no extra cost to the householder.

The co artists were asking ?25000 for the roof. They scammed ?7500 out of the poor chap.

As things stand i have appealed to local materials suppliers for stuff at a discount. We're still looking to secure the labour and materials for as little as possible...

Any help or advice greatly appreciated

Best,

Matthew Hanson

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

Poor Chap, that is appalling ! I hope he gets his money back .

[coreilly]

Thanks for highlighting this Matthew, a really neighbourly thing to try to help someone out. I've donated to the gofundme page.

Complete disclosure: Matthew has done some work for me (although he wouldn't recognise the username!) so anyone can see my older recommendations for his work. Otherwise no connection!

[mattH]

Thank you cornily, that's really great.