Furious customers of a building firm which suddenly went bust claim their homes are “uninhabitable” as workers abandoned jobs unfinished.
Nova Building and Developments Ltd based in Weymouth has faced a flurry of complaints with unhappy customers sharing pictures of piles of rubble and brick, unfinished floors and leaking ceilings.
In a statement of affairs, liquidators revealed the firm owed 18 creditors a total of £292,257.00 - including more than £120,000 to HMRC.
A number of customers have taken to social media in recent weeks to voice their frustration about the state their homes were left in, with several saying they have had to move out.
Jane Eagles paid thousands of pounds in advance for an extension which was never finished and, more than a year on, has still not been able to move back into her home.
She said: "It's been over a year and we still don't have a dry shell."Emotionally it started off as irritating, but then I started to feel sick when I got near the house - it was horrific.
"I started not being able to sleep because money was pouring out and nothing was getting done. I ended up at the doctors because I was so sick from the stress.
"In December we decided to cut out losses. There's no hate in this, we just want to warn others before they ruin more people’s lives.
“We haven't been able to go ahead with the rest of the work like the kitchen which should have been last summer.
"They kept saying 'it will be done next week,' - but that was last April. It was excuse after excuse.”
Another customer, named Emma, said she and her three children have had to share beds for four months as the work left their home "inhabitable".
Emma, who had to move into her mum's house, said: "We began our build in February 2022, due to complete July 2022.
"After almost 10 months of poor workmanship, broken promises, over payments, damage to our property, health and safety concerns and lies - we sacked them.
"Mountains of rubbish was left for months. Never removed for no reason other than them not wanting to spend the money we had paid.
"They damaged many items including our hot tub, outside brick barbecue, desk carpets and brand new sofa.
"I now have three children squashed and sharing beds for four months due to having to leave our inhabitable home."
The firm claims that "repeated challenges in sourcing materials and labourers" as a result of the pandemic and Brexit impacted their work.
A spokesperson for Nova Building and Developments said: "Like many businesses we started to struggle with rising costs over the past year but we were coping.
“Deadlines weren't always able to be met because of these issues but this was communicated with our clients at all times.
"A lot of the work was subcontracted and we had people on site that we thought we could trust and we did trust them but, in some cases, things could have gone better. We were paying workers for a full day of work and quite often they would be clocking off early: these are issues that we didn't always know about.
"We are confident that if we were allowed to finish the work in the cases highlighted then there would have been no issues.
"A lot of claims have been made on social media about the company - some have been completely outlandish - and that has contributed to us having to liquidate. We have lost business as a result of a hate campaign and it left us with nothing.
"We have received an awful lot of support from clients, friends and family that know we would not rip anyone off and we would always complete a job to the best of our ability.
"We have been harassed, and in some cases threatened, which crosses the line."
Trading Standards confirmed they were aware of one outstanding complaint regarding the company and were "looking into" the circumstances.
