MISLEADING AND DISHONEST. AVOID AT ALL COST ONE RENOVATIONS LTD
My husband and I own a terraced house in Walton on Thames, which is being rented. A leak was discovered in one of the bathrooms and was seen by a plumber who could not locate its origin. We did some research and found a company called Specialist Leak Detection Ltd. They came on the 14/6/21 and found the leak, after removing part of the wood flooring and concrete of the bathroom. The invoice for said work was £462.00. That was to find the leak.
Then, the person from Specialist Leak Detection Ltd, named as Joe Munday, referred us to another company that could repair the leak: One Renovations Ltd. The contact person from One Renovations Ltd was named as James Mark. All communications were via email, and I include verbatim the replies from One Renovations Ltd. They quoted “around £595 - £795 + VAT + materials. We would need to further expose the area conduct a repair and quote to screed it back in again”. When asked to clarify this, they wrote “We need to further expose some of the concrete/screed surrounding pipe which connects the pipe from the back of the toilet into the outlet drain to carry out a permanent fix/repair to the leaking pipe”.
On the 25/6/21, a workman from One Renovations Ltd came to our property with a spanner, changed a bracket on the toilet and left after about 20 minutes. The invoice that we received was for a whopping £1,539.60. When we contested it as excessive, the company sent an amended invoice for £819.60, including labour at £595 + VAT and materials at £88 + VAT. Obviously, knowing from our tenants what was done on the day, we knew that the invoice did not reflect at all the work carried out. When asking again for a revised invoice, they simply said that “works have been conducted on acceptance of quote”, and that “Part of the screed/cement was removed in order to access the stack to have the part of pipe connected to the outlet”. This was not at all true, as the floor and cement removal was done earlier by the worker of Specialist Leak Detection Ltd, and was already paid for. One Renovations Ltd was counting on the fact that we were not present on the day of the works carried out. Luckily, our tenants provided us with a detailed account of the facts, otherwise, we would have paid more than £1,500 for a 20 minute job, consisting on screwing a £6 toilet component.
We told One Renovations Ltd that we knew exactly what was done on the 25/6/21. That their quotation was misleading and the resulting invoice disproportionate, as it did not reflect at all the work carried out. We tried to negotiate a price in order to avoid a court case, but they kept on asking for £795. Three months later, after continuous requests to pay and threats of legal action, we decided to offer £450, and the matter was settled. We still feel ripped-off.
It is interesting to note that both companies, Specialist Leak Detection Ltd and One Renovations Ltd, have the same registered address: 10 Fides House, Chertsey Road, Woking GU21 5AB. And also, both companies have as director a Mr Mohammad Jabar Noor, aka Jay Noor. During this past three months long period of unpleasant email exchanges with various staff from One Renovations Ltd, we had the impression that they were all written by the same person. On a quick search, the names of the staff we had communication with, James Mark, Sarah Ward and even Joe Munday, do not appear anywhere related to One Renovations Ltd and Specialist Leak Detection Ltd, although as names they are fairly common. The overall sensation points out to a less than upfront one-man operation.
In conclusion, we consider the responsible person at One Renovations Ltd, most likely Mr Jay Noor, an individual that acts in a misleading, opportunistic and dishonest way with his clients.
