When Adele Greshon was recently told that building work had been carried out over a gas pipe that put them at potential risk, she collapsed sobbing into the arms of her 19-year-old daughter.
It was the latest in a culmination of stress, heartache and financial pressure that the 47-year-old, self-employed hairdresser and nail technician has faced since she had building work carried out on her home three years ago.
Adele, who lives in Milton Keynes with her two daughters, 19 and 15, told The i Paper she has been left with a £35,000 bill to put right building work that is unsafe and illegal, after already paying a builder £22,500 to carry out the work in the first place.
Now, she has been told they are living over a gas pipe which could potentially explode.
“It has been a never-ending ordeal and the stress has affected my health and the whole thing has left me feeling like I can’t trust anybody.
“Financially, it has had a huge impact and as well as being out-of-pocket, I now need more money that I cannot afford to have things put right.”
Adele said the whole saga unfolded after she and her daughters downsized following a relationship breakdown and moved 200 yards away from a four-bedroom, detached house into a £350,000 three-bedroom, detached house.
Due to her job as beautician, her plan was to convert the garage and have a porch built so that two-thirds of the garage conversion would become her work room and the back-third would be a utility room.
Adele ended up employing builder Ryan McManus to do the work following a chance conversation with his brother who owned the removals company she used when moving home.
The building work began at the end of February 2023 and during discussions, she asked the builder if planning permission was required and he told her it was not needed.
The work took around seven weeks and Adele said upon completion, she was unhappy with the internal works and got someone to do a snagging list, withholding £2,500 of the payment until these were rectified.
“Relationships had broken down by this point and I phoned Milton Keynes council to find out how I went about getting my building control regulations certificate – and that’s when I found out there wasn’t anything.
“So, I had to appoint an architect to do it. I also had to put in retrospective planning permission because it turned out I did need planning for the porch because of its size.
“Everything just unravelled from there and it has been three years of having the strength to keep fighting on.”
Adele explained that while the work had been done by Ryan McManus, it had been carried out to a “poor standard” – words not just iterated by Adele but the Federation of Master Builders too – and the architect identified a number of issues.
He then arranged for a builder to go round to inspect them and he found numerous structural problems, inadequate foundations, an unsafe roof, potentially dangerous lintels and no insulation.
“The whole thing basically needs pulling down and re-building,” said Adele. “We did look at underpinning, but unfortunately, the porch can’t be underpinned because they literally built on top of the existing flagstones that were there at the old front door.
“The most pressing issue which I only recently found out about after the Federation of Master Builders came round, is the gas pipe. It has been built over and it could explode because of the weight of the foundations and the porch.
“Southern Gas Network, the supplier, came to assess it and said the gas pipe needed moving.”
Adele discovered that Ryan McManus was a “phoenix builder” who had set up four different companies since 2020.
“Phoenixing” is when a company goes into liquidation, often leaving behind debts and unhappy customers, only to rise again with a new name but trading in the same sector.
Adele paid out £22,500 but held another £2,500 back. She then had to pay out £3,500 to rectify the internal works and snagging issues. She has been quoted £35,000 to have all the problems rectified.
Adele Greshon says the building work was carried out to a poor standard“I haven’t got the means to do that as I have a single income,” she said. “I paid for the initial work by downsizing and borrowing a little bit more on the mortgage. But now I need money to have things put right but haven’t got it.
“It has taken its toll on me and I have nowhere to go because it is classed as civil law and not criminal law. Trading Standards have told me they can’t do anything because he has closed the business down, so there is no business to prosecute.”
Jeremy Grey, head of external affairs at the Federation of Master Builders, said: “What happened to Adele isn’t just a building job gone wrong, it’s the safety and security of a forever home shattered.
“Adele is now left carrying a £35,000 bill she never should have been handed. Adele has done everything she reasonably could – she took a trusted recommendation for the builder; chased the council for help; conducted surveys; spoke to her MP; and she still has nowhere to turn.
“That’s a failure of the system. That is why we need a licensing regime for builders, it’s just not right that anyone can start up without any minimum proof of competence to be a building company – it’s something the Government must review urgently, otherwise stories like this will keep repeating themselves.”
Ryan McManus told The i Paper that although he sympathises with Ms Greshon, he is not responsible for her loss.
He said: “The loss was completely avoidable had Ms Greshon obtained the correct consents prior to instructing builders.
“UK policy and case law at the time made it clear that it is the homeowners responsibility to obtain all consents. Builders are not planning agents nor are they architects or structural engineers and it was held by the Court of Appeal that they shouldn’t be expected to know planning law at the time of building.
“As I had not received any drawings or contact from my local authority, it was a fair assumption that it was not needed.
“As I am not an expert in planning, it clearly stated on my original quote that we were not being paid for any planning consents. As for the monies paid, I believe that figure is correct although a large proportion of that was for windows and doors. The extra cost is for work that I did not quote for as I didn’t know it would be necessary as there was no communication from a building inspector.
“The gas pipe is something I was not aware of and has not been brought to my attention but again would have been completely avoidable had the correct consents and inspections been carried out by Ms Greshon. I do recall coming across a utilities pipe and took the action I felt necessary at the time.
“Lastly, this claim of phoenix companies has no grounds.”
Adele responded, that when McManus quoted for the job, she asked him directly whether she needed planning permission and he said she didn’t.
She added: “He also told me he was keeping building control updated by sending photos of the work. The council had no record of the job at all.
“His quote said planning fees and building inspections weren’t included in the price. That’s not the same as telling a first-time customer she has to apply for building control herself. Excluding planning from a quote doesn’t exclude building regulations compliance. It also doesn’t override his statutory duty under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to carry out the work with reasonable care and skill.
“But this isn’t really about paperwork. My porch was built straight onto the flagstones. The footings, foundations, lintels, insulation are all inadequate, in fact there’s no insulation in the roof and no cavity trays. No planning form or building control application would have made those foundations right. That’s the workmanship, and that’s his.
“I paid him £22,500. Whatever that money went on, I’m now facing £35,000 to knock the whole thing down and start again.”
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