The Story
My name is Jacquie Hale. I'm a mum to two small boys, 3 and 18 months. Three years ago, one month before our first baby was born, my and my partner, Ed Goldswain's London home was destroyed by a cowboy builder, whilst working on a basement extension.
We employed a firm of engineers to design the works, then found the builder through the Federation of Master Builders ("the UK's largest trade association in the building industry"). We contacted his references, then chose him from a group of 7 other builders we had shortlisted before speaking to his insurer to ensure his policy was appropriate for the work he was doing.
On 24th November 2012 when I was 8 months pregnant, we had to flee from our home as it started collapsing around us. We weren't allowed back inside and the building was demolished by the council with all our possessions inside it. We lost absolutely everything - all of our personal mementos including our first baby scan, clothes, photos, you name it.
We are still paying the mortgage on what is now a large hole in the ground, and have various third parties seeking compensation from us - including Barnet Council who billed over £300,000 for the demolition. We are on the verge of bankruptcy.
We have been fighting a legal battle for the last 3 years to try and get things put right. We took the builder to court and won, however the builder wound up his business (Aims Building & Plumbing Ltd) and simply started trading as Aims Building Services, so we received nothing.
We've also been in incredibly protracted discussions with both our building insurance and the builder's insurance to pay out on their policies, but they have so far declined to do so. These two insurance companies are very large household names but have been disinterested in our plight and in honouring the insurance policies they've taken payment for. They have cited various changing reasons for declining cover for the past three years, but won't provide evidence to back up their reasons.
The Ask
Ultimately we are just hoping to be able to rebuild our home, to get our life back and give our children the life we hoped we would be able to provide them.
As such we are seeking to raise £60K to enable us to pay the legal fees involved in taking these two insurance companies to court.
The Message
Even if we don't raise enough to hold these two insurance companies to account, we'd like to use this Fundrazr campaign to:
- Make people aware that their own household insurance policy may not be worth the paper it is written on due to the insurers' interpretation of the fine print.
- Highlight that cowboy builder Chris James / Knott is still happily trading in north London after being found by a court to be responsible for destroying our home.
Thank you so much for reading this.
The Press
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