Don't trust! Absolutely awful. Where to start?…read more
How about Surrey Lofts Group Ltd went into liquidation on 26 September 2022 so our 10 year guarantee is void. However they are trading as a "new" company called Surrey Lofts Walton Ltd. A new company that was incorporated on 15 May 2020. They have a new director who was appointed on 7 Sept 2022 when their previous director, Mark Grimshaw, resigned. He was also the director of Surrey Lofts Group Ltd. Suspicious!
Why would I need my guarantee? Good question - the work was only completed in Feb 2020. Well, my roof is leaking. I sought advice from an independent roofer and he said there's a section where the loft meets the chimney that hadn't been sealed properly. There's also a 2 sq. metre area that's like sponge. His professional assessment was the leak would have been occurring since the work was completed, or even worse, because Surrey Lofts didn't use the correct materials. Unprofessional!
This "new company that was set up 2 years ago uses the same website and phone umber as the previous company. The lady who was the initial admin contact is still working there. And their website isn't even updated to portray a new business. It boasts how they have been a family run company of over 22 years set up by Mark Grimshaw. Some pages say over 25 years. Again, suspicious seeing as it's supposedly a new company.
I wish this situation was the first problem I had with the company and the work they carried out, Unfortunately, it's not.
I already had to get them to fix the staircase they installed going into the loft as it had come away. This could have resulted in a serious accident to a member of my family. Luckily it didn't and I managed to get that sorted before they liquidated one company and opened up as a new one that had already been set up 2 years earlier.
Really bad, eh? Surely the work went smoothly when they were installing the loft? Nope. Sadly not.
The completion of the original job dragged on and on and on - with one of their contractors continually not turning up when he said he would for a variety of reasons including his car breaking down (twice) and him being in court for assault. (Yes he told me that when he finally turned up.) This matter was only sorted when I told the Project Manager that I would be getting someone else to finish the work and deducting the cost of this from any monies owed to Surrey Lofts.
So was the Project Manager pretty good? Nope. He was practically non-existent on the job - he came out once to chat us through the work at the start of the job and set up a WhatsApp chat for communication. The only other times we saw him was when big problems arose and he had to come out to check things out for himself. There were hardly any check ins to make sure the work was progressing on time. No weekly or even monthly updates unless requested.
Surely they were the only issues? Nope. Again, unfortunately not. Here are a few of the other issues we encountered:
- Our son's brand new bed was broken because another one of their contractors left his toolboxes on it and the electricians Surrey Lofts appointed were standing on the bed to fix the light fittings.
- We were paying close to 10 grand for them to fit a new bathroom - it needed to be reconfigured as the position of the toilet and bath were changing. This meant a new pipe needed to be fitted from the toilet, running alongside the wall and out of the house. Despite the cost of the bathroom, they added £30 on to fit plywood around the pipe so they could tile over it. No, this wasn't included in the 10 grand.
- A leak occurred during the work as they didn't put up the correct covers outside.
- We had to constantly ask for the house and outer area to be tidied at the end of each day because dangerous items such as nails, broken tiles and sharp pieces of wood were left lying around with dust left unswept despite the fact we were living in the house while the work was being done.
Surrey Lofts may reply to this message denying these events or offering excuse but it's all true, I've attached images.