“HE has ruined my life and stolen my future.”
Those are the words of a distraught Hampshire woman left homeless after a builder abandoned work on her house – having broken more than 25 building regulations.
Lisa Overington is more than £50,000 out of pocket and has had to arrange a double mortgage to repair the damage done to her bungalow.
Now she is living among boxes in her mother’s conservatory while new workmen attempt to rebuild her home in Kiln Road, Fareham, which has been left without electricity, plumbing and kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Builder Shane Truckle, has been fined more than £28,000 after he was found to have broken 26 building rules.
Mrs Overington recruited Truckle’s firm Tailored Carpentry Ltd last summer to carry out a series of improvements and renovations at her bungalow, agreeing to pay around £38,000.
Fareham Magistrates Court heard how she paid £32,000 of that – around 86 per cent – with further instalments to come.
But Truckle abandoned the work in September only part way through the project with much less than 86 per cent of the work complete, the court heard.
When building control officers were called in, they found “unprofessional and non-compliant” work, discovered “unconventional” building practices and found that incorrect building materials had been used.
Structural errors were present while building materials had been left at the abandoned site, the court was told.
The damage was so bad that workmen have since had to tear out parts where errors were made and start again.
After the court hearing, which Truckle failed to attend, the mum-of-three said: “There is no electricity, no plumbing, no kitchen, no bathroom, no walls – it is an empty shell of a house.
“There is not even a sound roof yet and there is so much to do.
“He wiped out a year of my life – not only that but he has stolen my future by doing what he did to the house and because I have had to double my mortgage.”
In his absence, magistrates found against Truckle who had not entered a plea.
The 32-year-old, of Woodside Close, Sarisbury Green, must now pay £18,423 in compensation, £5,200 in fines, £4,540 in legal costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Mrs Overington now lives with her mother and 15-year-old daughter and, despite the compensation, faces a huge bill before being able to move back in.
She added: “To say he has ruined my life is not an overstatement. I have spent every weekend at that house clearing the rubbish and doing as much as I can to make it right.
“It has consumed my life and will do for some time to come.”
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