"Sue"

[helena handbasket]

Is that "Sue" on "Love it or Leave it?" right now on the telly?

South London, works in folk music promotions, etc etc.

It's 1:30 on some high channel, "Homes +1" or something.

Right?

[Sue]

My house and I were on "Love the Place You're In" earlier in the year - has it been repeated?

Edited to say: It was sold to other channels I think so maybe they've changed the name.

Don't all rush for autographs :))

What the programme doesn't show is the problems I had with the builder and the fact that despite a six week extension to the filming neither the living room nor the bathroom were finished (still aren't, I was totally traumatised, haven't been able to bring myself to sort it all, AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH).

[helena handbasket]

Yes, sorry, that's what is was. Mixed it up with another similar show.

Lovely to put a face to a name!

And your house looks fantastic! Too bad about the bathroom, hope you at least flush your toilet now! :)

edited to say: It's a shame that it left you in such a bad state. They certainly don't add that part to the program. Makes you wonder how all the others end......

[Sue]

Yeh but I had to find and pay for the people to do the work - I kept flagging up to the telly people that there were problems but all they were really concerned about was getting an hour's programme out of it at the end of the day working to a very tight deadline - so they put pressure on me to keep on a builder who had promised the earth but bitten off more than they were capable of doing properly in the time, unfortunately (and has now disappeared despite all my efforts to contact them).

And yeh the living room did look great despite the cupboards having no doors :)) but it wasn't really "me", and I still haven't got it feeling comfortable :-S

And yeh at least I have a flushing loo and can have a bath, but for six months I've been living without a proper bathroom, and with a very expensive new shower which I can't use. And all the floors have got to be redone (6)

Still, live and learn eh - I'm having to keep on at my day job to pay other people to get it all finished, once I summon up the energy to get yet more quotes (6)

[Huguenot]

Talk to a newspaper journo. You'd ne surprised how quickly the TV guys will sort it.

I once had a problem with a web ISP. I rang Margaret Drabble at the Guardian. I think they shat all over Milton Keynes in their haste to rectify the situation. Actually had a girl turn up at the door to apologise. Took 5 mins, but she must have invested 7 hours in travel and anxiety.

[Sandperson]

Sue, that's an absolute disgrace. I worked in TV production for many years and know how slipshod they can be sometimes but I would complain a lot harder if I were you. What was the production company?

[Sue]

To be fair to the TV company, the deal was that they provided a designer (though he was minimally involved) and I found and paid for tradespeople.

Unfortunately a person who was supposed to be just sanding my floors convinced me that they could do all the other work required as well. There were one or two hitches outside their control, but mostly it appeared that they just couldn't do the work within the required timescale, even though the TV people extended this as far as they could.

Also they took on things which they apparently didn't have the skills and/or experience to do, which not only meant that they had to spend time putting right their errors (which they charged me for doing!!) but has also left me with having to arrange for other people to mend or redo things.

They promised me verbally and in writing a fortnight before the "reveal day" that all the work would be completed in time, and in retrospect I have been very naive as despite all the evidence to the contrary I kept on hoping that things would somehow come right in the end.

I think the culpability of the TV company is in more or less forcing me to keep this person on just so that they could complete their programme on time, even though they knew of the problems. They also persuaded me to pay them at a point when I would have just called a halt, again to keep them working on the house even though progress was painfully slow and I was stupidly paying by the hour.

It will cost me well over a thousand pounds just to get the floors redone, plus wiring has been wrongly done (this person insisted on rewiring ceiling roses even though I had an electrician, saying they could do it cheaper, and in the process broke the wiring of both lights next on the circuit), newly plastered bathroom walls have apparently been undercoated without being properly sealed with PVA, as is apparent from some of the unpainted parts, apparently the living room cupboards have been built so that the doors will not fit flush, which may be why they were never fitted, and I have a very expensive and beautiful basin plus very expensive and beautiful taps, but the taps/spout are not suitable for the basin although the builder saw pix and the dimensions of everything before I bought it, so nothing has been installed.

I've also got three pieces of very expensive iroko wood which are the wrong size.

There's more. I can't bear to go on :-S

But hey, the TV company got a good programme out of it. They subsequently offered me ?100 in an email which mostly consisted of legal stuff disclaiming any responsibility - which I thought was such an insult I haven't responded.

[legalbeagle]

Sue - I don't want to add to your stress, but do think about this one point for a second. They TV company offered you some money. That means they think they are at least partly liable. Sounds to me like you might be able to get some of your money back without too much more hassle. Try writing back saying you are seeking legal advice but will accept ?2,000 in full and final settlement..........or you'll get in touch with the papers. I did that to my kitchen company who were woefully terrible, so I have SO MUCH sympathy with you, and they paid up pronto.

[Sue]

I've had so much stress already with the builder, who threatened to take me to court (I withheld the final week's payment pending discussion of what was due, but the builder refused to discuss things with me in person with or without an independent mediator, and hasn't responded to any of my further efforts to sort the situation out), that I'm not sure I can take on the TV company as well.

They have told me OFF the record that the whole TV team was appalled at the builder (who spent a day with them on the reveal day and amongst other things apparently took three hours to make a few pencil marks on one cupboard door. At this point the TV team rightly or wrongly decided that apparently the builder did not actually know how to attach the doors and was playing for time knowing that there was none left. The builder had previously promised both myself and the TV company that all the doors would be completed and attached by a date three days prior to the reveal day.

The builder then apparently used a 7" masonry drill to put up a picture in the living room, thereby drilling right through to my newly plastered hall and knocking out large lumps of my hall wall. One of the TV assistants, an amateur DIYer, also apparently put up three blinds in the living room in the time it took the builder to put up one).

This all cost the TV company money because they had to keep the film crew on for several hours after they should have left, at vast expense, because things weren't ready for the reveal.

However, ON the record, is a different matter.

The reveal day was last August, the TV programme was shown in October/November, can't remember the exact date, and the ?100 was offered only after the programme had been screened.

I'm not sure how long I could legally wait before approaching the TV company for a better offer, and also I'm not sure quite what I would say except that they effectively put pressure on me to retain the services of and pay somebody who I would otherwise have replaced, in order for their programme to be completed.

The thing is - at the end of the day, I employed this builder, the TV people didn't force me to, albeit I would have replaced them PDQ in other circumstances after I'd given them the benefit of the doubt once too often (6)

Edited to say: All the trauma physically aged me about twenty years (seriously), and caused me to lose my rag big time with the builder plus snap at my poor partner who I'm amazed stuck with me through it all. He has also tolerated many long long rants about the situation and its effect on my retirement plans :-$

Edited to add: My retirement plans will be forced upon me if I don't get back to work now :))

[legalbeagle]

Sue - you have my full sympathy, litigation is horrible, and I can see how you would feel it adds to your stress. If you want to know more about your legal position I'll happily PM or chat about it with you. I don't think you're too late to get money out of people but then again you may feel you just want to fix your house and move on!

[helena handbasket]

oh how terrible Sue! I'm sorry it turned out that way, but I can't help but think the production company must have SOME liability here. Probably good lawyers as well.

I should also apologize for opening up what is obviously quite a painful can of worms. You looked so composed on the program, never would have guessed that it was such a mess behind the scenes. Goes to show you how unreal these shows are I guess.

I think someone should start an online campaign: "Save Sues House!"

[Sue]

Thanks both for your support!

LegalBeagle I may well PM you at some point, just trying to get a load of stuff sorted I wasn't able to do over the holidays as I've been ill for a while (better now).

HelenaHandbasket, they filmed loads and then edited it right down. They had already told me that they weren't going to cover the problems with the builder, because those only became gradually apparent as the project progressed (or didn't.

It was such a relief to have my living room back, which I hadn't been able to use for almost two months, and have a bath, which sat around unplumbed in for a month (I feel another rant coming on here - it wasn't the plumber's fault, the plumber was great) that my happiness on the final day of filming was genuine, even though nothing was finished :))

[legalbeagle]

Sue - you're welcome to PM me about it any time, no hurry. Meantime I wish you a healthy and cowboy builder free new year!!

[Sue]

Thanks LegalBeagle.

To be fair, I wouldn't describe the builder as a cowboy - didn't deliver on promises and didn't always seem to know how to do things, but I'm sure that wasn't deliberate. Was very over-confident, however, which was why it took me a while to realise that things were going so slowly and so wrong.