A LUDGERSHALL resident says that she has been left unable to sleep in her bedroom for months after a workman failed to finish work to her conservatory.

Janet Dell, employed Universal Home Repairs based in Quarley, to complete adaptations to their Short Street home to accommodate her husband’s disabilities after seeing an advertisement at a local garden centre.

Her husband John, has been diagnosed with dementia and hydrocephalus in recent months which has left him with mobility problems.

Mrs Dell says it was verbally agreed that the contractor, Robert Vessey, would raise the kitchen floor, install new units and tile the walls for £600 paid upfront.

She then agreed to pay £1,000 if he would also re-do the steps outside and fix the fence and guttering.

As the couple were expecting a hospital bed to be delivered, it was then agreed that he would build a conservatory extension to her bedroom, after she said she was quoted £5,000, to house their settee and chairs.

The couple paid £500 in cash and handed over a £4,000 cheque, again with no written quotation, with an estimated completion date of the end of May.

Six months on, the foundations and main structure to the conservatory have been completed but French windows which she says were supposed to be installed between the bedroom and the conservatory are not finished, leaving it inaccessible from the inside.

There is also work to the kitchen and exterior outstanding.

After sending numerous text messages asking for the work to be completed, the couple have had to employ another contractor to finish the work – at a cost of more than £2,000.

Mrs Dell says she has been sleeping on her husband’s hospital bed while he sleeps in a reclining chair as they wait for the work to be done.

Describing the last few months as “hell” after handing over more than £6,000 in total, Mrs Dell said: “We have been living out of boxes. What bothers me most is that I feel that we have been taken for a ride. We have been fobbed off with excuse after excuse. He has taken our money and our friendship and abused them both. I don’t want anybody else to be taken for a ride.”

Mr Vessey of Universal Home Repairs says that he would normally give written quotations.

Responding to the complaint, he said: “I was contacted by Mrs Dell to undertake work to her kitchen. Subsequently she was so pleased with the work that as a result she asked if it would be possible to build a conservatory on the outside of her property, in a very small location, for the sum of £5,000 all in.”

He added: “There was a problem with the roof measurements from the supplier so therefore it delayed work to the roof. I had to the replace it with new one, at a cost to myself rather than Mrs Dell, and I honoured the agreement. She said that she would like a door in the conservatory but I said that a door would not be suitable. There was a verbal agreement that a French door would be put on the front.

“I am upset that Mrs Dell feels this way and I have said that I want to still be in correspondence with her. There was nothing wrong with what I did, I am not a rogue trader and I have clients who say what I have done for them is ‘outstanding’ and ‘life changing’.”