An NHS worker says she was left with snow falling through a hole in her ceiling due to bad workmanship on her house.
Kirsty Gordon, 49, was forced to live eight months in the freezing cold at her home in Stourbridge due to the shoddy work done to her property.
The 999 call handler was reeling from the loss of her partner when she decided she wanted to get a two-storey extension, Black Country Live reports.
She hired Andrew Fennell, who traded as Construct & Restore, to build what she thought would've been her dream home, but said the whole experience ended up being "absolutely awful".
Kirsty handed over £17,000 to the builder for him to carry out the work, which would've also included a new bathroom.
But after him "walking off in December 2018" she was left in a freezing home exposed to rain, wind and snow, as well mountains of rubble and a mould rotting ceiling.
Kirsty said : "In December 2018, he walked off the job. He never came back so until August 2019, my living room was exposed to the elements.
"There was a ceiling covered in tarpaulin but it had rotted through and was leaking, there was no insulation or anything, sometimes it rained and snowed into the house."
Fennell has now been prosecuted by Dudley Trading Standards for his shoddy workmanship and ordered to pay £13,000 in damages to Kirsty.
The extension had to be demolished and rebuilt by another company, costing her close to £29,000.
Kirsty had been mourning the loss of her partner who had died just a year before the builder was hired.
"The money I used for the extension was money I received after her death,” she added.
"I’ve had to dip into savings and life insurance money then return to work as a 999 call handler to pay for the repairs.
"It had a terrible effect on my mental health which was already bad after my partner died. "
She said of Fennell: "He was very unprofessional and the whole experience was awful. I was left in complete and utter disgust.
"I’ve had to get my whole driveway and back garden redone as well because of the mess he made.
"There were times when his bricklayers would turn up at 8am but he wouldn’t be here and there would be no bricks so they were just standing around doing nothing. It was absolutely awful."
Kirsty was forced to use layered clothing and hot water bottles to keep warm due to the gaping hole that was left in the roof.
There was a temporary ceiling put up but it rotted away, leaving mould growing in the living room.
The NHS worker added: "It looked OK to the eye but on closer inspection, it had timber on the roof and no tiles - it was just tarpaulin. With the wind that came down, it gave zero protection.
"He didn’t tie the extension to the top half of the build and also didn’t put insulation into any upper parts of the build.
"I had an absolutely huge pile of rubble outside the front of the house to the point where I couldn’t see out of the living room window.
"The drive and patio area were completely destroyed. The whole thing had to be taken down and started again."
Kirsty has since hired a new builder who fixed the problem and completed the work, but at a huge cost.
The court also heard how Fennel did not give the homeowner their rights of cancellation as required.
In mitigation, the magistrates were told that the offence was a one-off and that he’d used subcontractors to carry out the work he claimed were unreliable.
The court fined Fennell £550 and ordered him to pay a £55 victim surcharge plus compensation of £12,820 to Kirsty, with an additional £1,000 towards the cost of the prosecution.
Karen Wright, Dudley Council's director of Public Health & Wellbeing, said: "This prosecution sends out a clear message we will protect consumers from the activity of traders who flout the law and carry out substandard work.
"This kind of activity causes a huge amount of distress to the victims who have worked hard and saved to pay for improvements to their homes and are then badly let down."
Black Country Live has attempted to contact Andrew Fennell for comment.
