A single mother says she paid a contractor £4,000 up front to landscape her front and back garden – and claims he never carried out the work.
Sohal Navdeep, 42, from Kirkstall in Leeds, says she handed over the cash to the landscaper so her her four children would have place to play outside.
The story highlights the problem of cowboy builders who take money for work up front and deliver substandard work – or take the money and don’t turn up at all.
What was the money meant to be for?
The builder designed the garden on his phone and showed Sohal a computer model featuring pale grey paving, wooden planters, and slatted fence boards with stylish lights.
Sohal says the landscaper pressured her for the money up front via bank transfer for the £2200 for the back garden and a deposit of £1600 for the front for the materials, as well as a skip for £250.
She told Leeds Live: “He designed the full garden in front of me there and then, he was showing me pictures on his phone, I don't have any previous experience with tradesmen, I have never had anything done before so I had no reason not to believe him.”
Family left with ‘no garden to play in’
The landscaper allegedly returned and laid out about 10 slabs, work Sohal called “unsatisfactory”, and never came back.
She added: "It's been an absolute nightmare, I am so depressed, I work so hard, I have two jobs, it took me a year to save up that money, the garden is still not done and I can't afford to pay for it again, it's so unfair.
“My whole family are very distressed, I've been in tears, the kids have been affected, they have no garden to play in now, it's just mud, the money spent I could have taken them on holiday, now I can't do that, I've had my kids saying 'don't cry mum we don't even like to play', but of course they do , they are children.”
Sohal found the landscaper on Facebook and has started messaging other people on social media to warn them. She also found other homeowners who say they were ripped off by the contractor, including a man who says he lost £1200 he paid for materials.
Working with a landscape designer requires careful research to get the best results, so click on the link to find out what you should know before pressing ahead.
Gardener responds to claims calling them ‘nonsense’
The contractor claims the mum didn’t pay for the front garden and told Leeds Live: “Sohal had her back garden done for £3800, she paid me in full then asked me to come back to do the front a few weeks later.
“We turned up several times coming from Manchester, costing me a lot of money, and there were skips left on the drive from other builders, which caused me so many delays where we could have been working for someone somewhere else, so in the end I told her to get someone else to do it as I was sick of her messing me about.”
