A recent magistrates court case resulted in local roofer, Kenny Baker, trading as Baker’s Roofing, plead guilty to 7 charges under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. He received fines and costs against him totalling nearly £3,000.
Trading Standards in Wrexham launched an investigation into the roofer’s activities following a string of complaints last year relating to poor or incomplete work, excessive delays and repeated excuses for failure to deliver the contracted services. Three of Mr Baker’s customers gave evidence of repeated delays in carrying out work.
Roger Mapleson, Trading Standards and Licensing Lead said, “The standard of service provided by Baker’s Roofing was just not acceptable nor what should be expected of professional business. There were long delays in starting the work with a catalogue of excuses and customers attempts to resolve problems were frustrated by being given an out of date address for Mr Baker’s business.”
Good shopping advice from Trading Standards is that if you are considering having work done on your home, choose you builder or contractor with care. Make sure you know who they are and their address. Check how payment is to be made and be very cautious of demands for large payments up front. If they claim to be members of trade associations, check if they are, and whether this is actually of any benefit to the customer. If you can, do some research on line looking for reviews or poor experiences of other customers. Best of all, seek recommendations from friends and family.
Mr Baker fined £120 for each offence totalling 840, Victim Surcharge of £30 and costs of £2,093.
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