A woman has spent months living in a house where she can't cook and is forced to wash dishes in the bathroom after paying builders more than £16,000 to renovate her dream home, only for it to disappear.
Senior climate and agricultural sustainability consultant Ionie Smallwood, from Winsford, Cheshire, said she was “done” after hiring a company to build an extension to her 1930s three-bedroom house in September last year.
The 33-year-old woman, who lives alone, said the builders suddenly stopped showing up on September 23, 2023, leaving her house unsealed and without a kitchen, and that she now cannot afford to complete the construction after having consumed your life savings.
For the past nine months, Ionie has been unable to “cook food properly” and relied on £1.50 boxes of soup from Morrisons, which she heated in the microwave in her living room.
She also moved out of her bedroom for fear that the ceiling would collapse during the night, and since the bathroom sink is too small, she has no choice but to wash dishes in the bathtub.
Ionie had hoped to remortgage the property so he could complete the construction work, but was told by the bank that it was “not considered to be in good structural condition”.
She said: “I was completely shocked because my brain was saying, 'I'm so excited, my house is finally going to be my home after four and a half years.'
“Now I look back and think why didn't I hear all those alarms ringing in my ears?”
Ionie bought the three-bedroom terraced house in Winsford in 2019 and spent the last four and a half years turning it into her dream home.
Last year, she finally had enough money to pay for the last piece of the puzzle: renovating her bathroom and building a rear extension to enlarge the living room and kitchen.
“I've been renovating the property since I moved in four and a half years ago,” he said.
“The property was built in the 1930s, so I've been trying to make it more modern, homely and welcoming.”
He posted an advert for the renovation on Facebook and chose one of the recommended companies who quoted him £19,550.
“They showed me some of the work they had supposedly done before and they seemed very clever,” he said.
Ionie agreed to pay cash, including £3,850 for the bathroom renovation and a £12,850 deposit for the extension up front, after being told the project would take between four and six weeks.
“First they did the renovation of my bathroom and then the plan was for them to do the addition,” he said.
“They told me that there was a cancellation so they could start earlier than planned, in September (2023), and they asked me to pay cash in advance because they needed to pay for the materials.”
The property was not habitable while it was under construction, so Ionie booked a two-week trip to Scotland after work began on September 6.
She said the builders claimed the walls and roof would be ready by the time she returned, but that never happened.
When he confronted them about why there was no progress, he said they blamed one of the bricklayers who came to work drunk.
He also said the builders assured him they would apply for Building Control approval retrospectively using photographs, but then became “defensive” when he asked them to send him photographs.
Building control is a legal requirement that must be obtained before carrying out any work involving the construction, extension or alteration of a building, to ensure it complies with UK building regulations and other relevant policies.
“They told me, 'If you're not happy with the construction, we can pause the work and you can get building control involved,' almost as if it was a threat,” he said.
“Now I look back and think I was very, very naive.
“I think the reason was that I was so excited to finish my house, so I blindly followed what they said.”
When Ionie agreed to contact Building Control on September 23, he said the workers suddenly packed up their tools and disappeared, before blocking their phone numbers and cutting off all communication.
“They never came back after that,” he said.
“It was at that moment that I knew I was done here.”
Ionie has been living without a kitchen to this day and said she cannot afford to “live on takeaways.”
“It's a lot of microwaveable soups, like Morrison's, they have those little cartons that cost £1.25 or £1.50,” he said.
“So I can't cook food properly and I have to wash my pots in the bathroom.
“As a result, I have lost a lot of weight.
“My sister recently suggested I buy a George Foreman grill so I could cook some meat and fish, but it's been very frustrating.”
You also don't have a washing machine because the plumbing was in the kitchen and you have to visit the local laundromat which costs £11 each.
After the builders disappeared, Ionie decided it was safer to leave her bedroom because she feared the roof would collapse.
“It looked like the bricks had fallen a little bit, so I was pretty worried that the house was going to collapse on me while I was sleeping at some point,” she said.
“Because that's the room I sleep in and there's nothing stopping it.
“They hadn't put in what they call acrow fixtures, which are designed to support the first floor… they just left it.”
Puddles have also started to appear because the house was left unsealed and the concrete floor is not level, explained Ionie, who now cannot afford to finish the work.
“Those were my savings for several years,” he said.
Desperate, Ionie tried to contact her bank, NatWest, to see if she could remortgage her house and pay another builder to fix the problem.
She said: “When I tried to remortgage, the bank told me I couldn't,” and a letter from the bank confirmed the property “does not appear secure or airtight enough and there is no fitted kitchen.”
Ionie added: “It’s very frustrating.
“But I have no choice, I have no other place to live.”
She turned to her home insurance company, but was told it did not cover defects in workmanship.
He then approached private lending companies, but found that they would not lend him enough money, and after trying several times, he feared that rejection would affect his credit score.
Ionie said he reported the company to the Trading Standards Office, contacted his lawyer to take legal action and wrote a letter to his deputy Edward Timpson.
“I have reported them in every possible way and it is infuriating because the justice system has simply failed miserably, because clearly there is a loophole in the law that can be taken advantage of,” he said.
If Ionie can seal the property and install a basic kitchen, she could get a new mortgage.
He recently received a quote of £42,000 to repair the structural damage and restore the property.
“The problem I have is that I need money to fix it and be able to remortgage it, so I'm between a rock and a hard place,” he said.
“I basically have no choice but to go out to the public and say 'can anyone help me with this?'”
