A homeowner says botched repairs to her home have left her thousands of pounds out of pocket and suffering from long-term injuries to her head.
Suzanne Powell, who lives in Chorleywood, says she feels “angry and upset” and says the company she hired has ignored a court order to pay her £10,455.
In June last year, Ms Powell hired Manor Roofing & Building Ltd to carry out work to her porch and garage in Wyatt's Road.
She said: “They had good reviews and seemed like nice people. They started by stripping the flat garage roof and started relaying it but then it began pouring with rain. They left and told me it was watertight but water was pouring in.”
Ms Powell says the roofers returned and three days after starting, they claimed the job was complete and presented her with an £8,000 bill.
It was a Friday and Ms Powell said she would pay them on the Monday but on the Saturday, it rained again, causing more leaking.
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Around a week after the work first began, the roofers returned to fix her porch roof but during this, a drill fell from the roof and landed on Ms Powell’s head.
Pouring with blood, she was initially taken to Mount Vernon Hospital by the roofers.
Ms Powell recalled: “Mount Vernon said I needed A&E so one of them took me to Watford where they basically glued my head back together.
“The roofers were messaging me saying ‘you haven’t paid us’. My head was caked in blood, water was pouring through, I’d spent two days traumatised in hospital and they were phoning and begging me for the money.”
Ms Powell says she gave in and paid the company £6,500. She asked them to come back and finish the job but said the roofers declined. When the roof began leaking again in August, she says they blamed the petrol crisis for not coming out.
In December, Ms Powell told Manor Roofing & Building she had been quoted at least £10,000 by other companies for the roof repairs and threatened to go to Her Majesty and Tribunals Online Civil Money Claims service if they did not pay her.
After failing to hear back, Ms Powell went to court and a judgement dated January 31 2022 shows the county court ordered Shane Doherty, director of Manor Roofing & Building Ltd, to pay Ms Powell £10,000 plus a further £455 in costs.
But she says despite the ruling and repeated attempts to get the money, she has not received a penny.
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The self-employed secretarial worker said: “I am in despair. I can’t get through to them, they have ignored the court order – they even said they were dissolving the company which I managed to stop and I’ve just managed to stop them doing it again.
“The roof still needs repairing and they never finished the job properly. It just feels so unjust. I’m angry and upset by it all.”
Ms Powell added: “And because of what happened with the drill, I’ve been left with damaged eyesight, continued headaches and other neurological problems that are affecting me badly. It could have killed me.”
The Watford Observer attempted to contact Manor Roofing & Building Ltd for comment.
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