Well I found out tonight that my mum has been let’s say ‘ overcharged ‘ for some work on the garden.
The garden of the house she has bought hasn’t been touched for years apart from the lawn. Parts were totally overgrown .
There is a section that runs down the side that is her land but actually outside of her ( dilapidated) fence - so will just about never be seen anyway.
A fortnight ago we had a hack at the 6 foot of wilderness and got it down to this state . Obviously still work to do on the roots etc but getting there
Anyway as I found out today a gardener came round last week and agreed to clear the roots and turf it . Miraculously he could start next day despite all decent tradesmen being stacked out. He said he would get some topsoil , hire a digger and use top quality turf . None of that happened . What was supposed to be two days work was half a day ( 3 men ) . Seemingly they were due to come back yesterday to complete the ‘ rolling down of the turf ‘ . I presume they just got rid of whatever biggish roots they could , and plonked some turf down. Its clearly not level so presumably not been flattened or remaining roots sorted and I doubt they will be coming back to ‘ roller it’ . As if that’s the way to do turf
And for the privilege of this top class job , my mum parted with £800.
She knows she was done .
All the red flags were there.
Unsolicited visit
Mobile phone only on callling card. ( no address , name or landline )
Paid for job before completing it.
Claimed to have done work for the previous owner to gain trust ( as said work hasn’t been done on it for years bar mowing and she knows who did that ) .
Available at short notice.
No written quote or note of work to be done.
Justified the price by over-claiming on the length of time and the amount of machinery / materials required to do the job.
I wish I could have some magic wand that would stop it happening again , but I can’t be there 24/7 .
I have calmly pointed out the obvious things , and told the neighbours I have basically barred her from getting any work done on the outside or inside of the house without my permission / agreed written price and for me to settle the bills for her .
Hopefully the neighbours will keep an eye out and call me if they see any suspicious callers