Builder's ****

I am a female pensioner who needed some repairs to my roof. I responded to an advert in one of the community newspapers, delivered once a week on our doorsteps. I found Roy's advert for roof repairs and asked for a quote to take down 2 lengths of guttering, to replace the old facia board and to put back the same gutters on completion. I also needed a small area of waterproofing and replacement of ceiling board to be done. The facia and gutters were to be painted and the waterproofing in that area to be repaired if necessary as the whole roof's plastic underlay and battens were replaced approximately 2 years ago. Roy gave me a verbal quote of R10 00.00 to complete all the work. The next day Roy demanded a payment of R4000.00 as he had already selected all the material required to complete the work, but he could not pick up the material unless it was paid for. I gave him R4000.0, requesting to see a copy of the invoices for materials when it was delivered on site. A day or two later, Roy arrived with a "colleague", who now presented me with a series of alarming photographs of the so-called disrepair of my roof, telling me alarming stories of how dangerous it was to even walk on the roof and how rotten all the facia boards were and how much waterproofing was required, etc. He told me that he would not charge me anything more for labour, but that he could fix it all for a further amount of R6754.00, which would cover all the materials required. I was not feeling well on that day and after this alarmist message was delivered to me, I was so upset that I actually paid him a further R5600.00, which is all that I had. I nevertheless told him that I needed to see all the materials on site as well as his work tools and equipment. His workers were using my ladders and the only materials he dumped on site was some left over bits of tile glue, sand and cement from other jobs. To make the story short, Roy dumped 2 workers on my property for +- 3 days and after receiving all the money I had, he simply disappeared. The barge boards are still lying around on my roof and two out of the 4 gutters have been broken. A reputable roof specialist who belongs to Master Builders, inspected the roof and reported to me that the work that had been done, i.e. waterproofing, will need to be re-done as the wrong material was used. Ties were moved and different colours of cement was used on the capping, etc. I am writing this report as I am convinced that Roy, along with the support of his wife, Tertya, are confidence *********s, running a **** operation to relieve unsuspecting pensioners and vulnerable people of their hard earned savings.