Our experience with House of Harrogate has been nothing short of a complete failure in…read moreprofessionalism, integrity, and project management.
Initially, Mark brought our project start date forward by six weeks, which we saw as a positive. In hindsight, it became clear that this was done primarily to bring forward our second scheduled payment to aid his non-existent cash flow. Soon after we had made this payment, progress on our project slowed down significantly. Frequently, tradesmen would arrive for only a couple of hours before leaving for other projects under Mark's instruction, leaving our renovation in a constant state of stagnation.
Mark withheld thousands of pounds from us after selling our old kitchen to his friend in Wales. Payment was delayed for over a month after his friend had taken delivery. When we enquired about the timing of his payment, he became aggressive and verbally abusive. This occurred in our own home, escalating to the point where we had to ask Mark to leave. The entire incident was captured on our CCTV.
On the day the floor tiles were due to be installed, he switched tilers at the last minute, bringing in someone he had never met before and failed to communicate this with us. The tiler dropped the first tile onto our newly installed underfloor heating, splitting a pipe and causing a major water leak. Mark took no responsibility for this; we were left to clean up the damage ourselves. The tiler failed to complete the job, forcing us to hire and pay for our own tilers to finish the work despite having previously settled this phase of the work with House of Harrogate.
Mark mismeasured our kitchen dimensions. We had to repeatedly insist that he remeasure as the technical drawings he provided didn't align with the measurements of the room. Mark eventually did--after the kitchen had already been ordered. The kitchen itself, which we were told was being handmade in Ireland, was delayed by approximately 2 months with various excuses; a broken machine, ferry delays and missed shipments due to 'drying paint'. We later discovered that the kitchen was not being manufactured in Ireland, but in Malton just 40 miles away. They had been chasing House of Harrogate for 2 months for final payment.
Mark then turned up unannounced at our property and advised us that the last instalment we paid, circa 35% of the project cost, had been taken up to help cover the cost of his divorce and he had no money. Again, all recorded on our home CCTV system. Despite having already paid 95% of the project cost, we had to pay the remaining balance directly to the kitchen manufacturer.
When the kitchen was delivered, key elements had been altered from the plans we signed off, rendering several cupboards inaccessible. Mark then informed us that we now needed to pay his workers directly, including kitchen fitting, plumbing, and electrical work. Additionally, we were now required to arrange and purchase our granite work tops, fridge, freezer, dishwasher, wine fridge, microwave, and other appliances - despite these being included in our agreed price and paid for months in advance. Eventually we took over project management ourselves and recruited our own kitchen fitters.
Aiming to rectify the situation, we met with Mark, who signed a loan agreement acknowledging the additional costs we had incurred. He agreed to repay us in instalments by set dates. These dates have long passed without a penny being paid. We then discovered that Mark was liquidating Houz of Harrogate Ltd and setting up, House of Harrogate Ltd.
We have put off writing a review in the hope that Mark would honour his commitments. However, after repetitive unfulfilled promises and a signed loan agreement that remains unpaid, we have concluded that we will never recover the money owed to us.
All we can do now is warn other potential clients of our experience with House of Harrogate, in the hope that it prevents others from going through the same ordeal. We strongly advise anyone considering their services to proceed with extreme caution or, better yet, look elsewhere.
