Bron: Unsplash
Puk (34) and her husband have three children together. Last year they decided to renovate their house, but what was supposed to be a fun adventure ended in disaster. Their contractor left bright and clear, but only after he had filled his pockets.
“We live in a nice house, but with our fairly large family we could use a little more space downstairs. We therefore decided that we would like to completely overhaul the ground floor. An extension, but also a new kitchen, stairs, toilet and floor. Actually, everything was going to be taken out and we were going to renew everything.
Construction deposit of 110,000 euros
We had already lived there for almost ten years at that time, so we were ready for a fresh new start. We took out a construction deposit with the bank for 110,000 euros. A lot of money, but at least we had enough to fulfill all our wishes.
We also had about 30,000 euros in savings, as a possible backup, but of course we would rather not use that.
Away
We quickly found a contractor, a nice man we knew through contact. He seemed reliable and we decided to work with him. The agreement was that we would pay 20 percent in advance when accepting the quotation. 30 percent at the start of the work, and the rest afterwards
It seemed reasonable to us, although it is always exciting to spend such a large amount of money. Partly due to the fact that we knew him through contact and because he lived near us and we therefore regularly met him in private, we saw no problems on the road.
Deposit
After accepting the quote, we transferred 20 percent of the amount. Just under 20,000 euros. However, from that moment on the doubts also arose. The renovation was constantly postponed and he always came up with a different reason, he was difficult to reach and when we did speak to him he promised new things that he did not keep. Yet he came by just often enough to measure things or carry out small work, so that we did not completely lose confidence.
Moreover, we also tried to look at it positively, because our backs were against the wall. After all, we had already paid 20,000 euros.
Start of the renovation
Ultimately, months later than planned, he started our renovation. We were of course overjoyed that it was finally happening and couldn’t wait for it to be finished. He and his colleagues started the work, they worked hard and in the meantime he asked for the second payment.
This time we of course had more doubts, but because it seemed that he was really going to work hard and we were very happy with that, we also paid for the second part. That was just under 30,000 euros.
For a while things seemed to be going well, and he was at work for a few weeks. Although he sometimes suddenly didn’t show up for a day, things seemed to go reasonably well. Until the day he didn’t come back. Days passed and no one came anymore. His things were still in our garden, but there was no trace of him.
We left with the northern sun
He stopped answering, didn’t respond to texts and didn’t open the door. He seemed to have left with the north sun.
After waiting two weeks, we wanted to take legal action, but it soon became apparent that we were not the only victims. In other words: we could join the back of the queue.
We were of course very disappointed, because he had hardly done anything for the almost 50,000 euros we had paid. But since we quickly discovered that the process to get some of our money back would take a very long time, we decided to find another contractor to finish the job.
Fortunately, that worked, but in the end we had to invest almost all our savings to complete the renovation. Something that we correct in advance not wild ones.”
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2024-01-20 15:11:15
#contractor #defrauded #euros
