Tipped

Avoid these builders!

December 17, 2008

In October 2006, I paid UCS £1830 to make and fit a brand new set of double glazed exterior french doors and frame. Within five months, the doors were sticking so badly that they would no longer open.

After spending a year asking UCS to rectify this problem, and receiving abusive emails from them for doing so, I got a separate company involved who told me that:
*there was no damp proof cause fitted so the doors would just rot over time;
*the bottom of the frame was not mounted on a solid mortar base but wedged in and ‘floating’ on top of a broken sill, thus meaning the base of the frame would bend and move over time;
*local Building Control had not signed off the work. I wrote to Haringey Building Control who confirmed that the work was not to standard and that UCS did not use a FENSA certified installer for the double glazed units and thus the work would not be passed by themselves.

I took UCS to the small claims court to get a refund as they only offered a refund on the proviso that I returned the exterior doors first, and UCS didn’t show up for the first court case in September 08. Judgement was found in my favour but UCS asked the court to set aside the judgement in October and a new court date was set for six weeks later in December 08. Just two days before the court case, UCS wrote to Edmonton County Court to state that they were no longer challenging the ruling – they didn’t turn up to the court case that they requested but I did as the court was not given enough notice or told that UCS would not be attending. Haringey Trading Standards are currently investigating them for misuse of quality assurance marks printed on their headed paper.

Furthermore, UCS fitted a shower in my upstairs neighbour’s bathroom and the entire outpipe flooded so that it was like someone had turned on a hose in my kitchen which was below the shower – simply because it was not fitted by a plumber or anyone qualified to do the work. I have never so much as received an apology from UCS.

Keywords: builder, plumber, barnet, herts, wood green, ucs