Fix my home after builders ruined it

So it was 2020. My husband realised that having a family just wasn’t for him and I had a cancer diagnosis. I was 38 with a 1 year old boy. The love of my life, my baby James.

What would happen to my boy if something happened to me? I only have 80 year old parents. He would end up in care.

So I fought. I was super mum. I didn’t think that I had it in me. But through the deadly threat of covid I immune compromised myself with chemotherapy. I was weak but I organised the divorce, the sale of our family home and the buying of a small home for my boy and I. I lost the man I loved, our home, my local friends. I moved. Got back to work. Tried to meet people in my new town.

The new home was far away from my original town and friends but it had a garden. And it is mine. And if anything happened to me, it would and will be my sons. Given that I’m still in remission from cancer, it may still be. I’m crying as I write this because I feel like a fool with what I did next. And I’m scared because I’m not leaving my boy what I dreamt I would.

I wanted to make it a perfect home for us. I didn’t know how long I had with James and I wanted everything to be perfect and to leave perfect things for him. As I was thinking this, a builder knocked on my door from Castle Home renovations in Peterborough. He said he was part of a small family business who could build an orangery on my home for 20000£. He seemed so honest; he said because his business is small they are booked up until March 2022 (it was September 2021). As it was a small family business, I thought that it would be a lovely thing to invest in. It would help us both out. So I signed a contract and I before I knew it I had taken out a loan and given them 14000£.

At that point, the building works was just a wall and what I thought was foundations. You see, I was heavily medicated (tamoxifen was putting me through the menopause - no sibling for James- but the tiredness and lack of focus was initially unbearable for me). I just wasn’t myself. The business knew. They knew I was a single mum in remission from cancer. And they preyed on me. They took much more money than the works were worth.

They kept saying that I needed to pay them in advance for the 4k lantern. Equipment. Supplies. Or nothing would happen. When I would phone to speak to them they blamed me for thee delays. Looking back, it was all too much for me.

In the end, the foundations weren’t foundations. There was no water proofing or insulation and they broke my drains by pouring concrete onto them. They then tried to dig it up but just made a hole for my son to fall in as we walk out the back door. They dumped the rubble all over my garden. And that’s all I have for my money.

So now, after two years, their company has folded and no one will take my calls. My home insurance won’t pay out and as they were a limited company I can’t take they to court; they have no funds.

I’m left with a hole in my home. And bad dreams, every night. I’m so upset that anyone could take advantage of a very sick single mother like that. And I don’t know how to fix what they did. I can’t seem to earn enough to keep up with the cost of living costs. I can’t leave a beautiful home for my boy; I can’t even leave a rentable home for my boy.

So please, if you can help me fix our home and generally help me to believe in the kindness of people again then thank you.