Fix the Grooms' house

This is the situation my friends are in and I've set up this page to try and help raise funds towards fixing their huge problem. The amount raised so far has helped hugely but they have a long way to go before their home is fully useable. I've raised the target to £15,000 to see if we can help them further. Emma and Matt are so overwhelmed by everyone's generosity, especially with the cost of living affecting everyone at this current time.

This explains the situation they find themselves in...

"We had a fire that destroyed our conservatory and all its contents 2 ½ years ago, caused by the lithium-ion battery in a ‘hover board’ exploding. The smoke also affected many other rooms of our home. This shook us up as a family and we considered moving to give our growing family more space, but decided we would use the money we received from our insurance (for a replacement conservatory only), save and remortgage to extend and improve our family home in Avon Road, where we’ve lived for the past 16 years and where our children have grown up and are happy.

At the end of 2022, after recommendations and research, looking at Companies House etc, we chose Obsidian Construction (SW) Ltd. In April 2023 the rebuild began and the project was due to be completed by the end of August, to coincide with the new school term where our daughter was starting secondary school and our son was moving into year 9.

It was all going okay until we were hit with a bombshell on the 11th of August, delivered via WhatsApp, from Josh Matthews (Director) that the company had gone into liquidation. Work stopped on that Friday and we were left with our house looking destroyed by the knock-throughs they did to our home in the days leading up to the liquidation, as well as being left structurally unsafe.

As a family, we have been left with:-

-No kitchen

-The side extension is not watertight.

-Our daughter no longer has a bedroom, the knock-through leaves it unsafe to use and she is having to sleep on the floor in our 13-year-old sons' room.

-No utility room or access to washing machine/dryer

-Steels were installed incorrectly, leaving the back of the house structurally unsafe.

-Dust is everywhere in the house which affects us all as asthmatics.

-Only one usable room downstairs - where we try to sit, eat, cook and work from home.

-Nowhere for the children to do their homework

-No drainage for rainwater.

-No chance of us getting any money back. (after receiving professional advice).

Josh Matthews and his company, Obsidian Construction (SW) Ltd not only left us with a structurally unsafe home and not watertight, but also hadn’t used our staged payments to pay trades, building supplies, hire companies, or for the fitting of the bifold doors, and didn’t even place the order for the windows, which we were led to believe the company were just waiting to confirm a fitting date. We estimate we’ve lost around £60k.

Building Control inspectors assessed the work done by Obsidian Construction (SW) Ltd, and from the report, this can only be described as ‘shoddy at best’. We’re only thankful that the brickwork was done by separate contractors, a local father and son team who did an amazing job!

Not only do we have to find a way to complete the outstanding work, but we also have to sort out and fix many areas that they have done wrong including:-

-Wall plates on the wall not fixed with resin anchors and bolts (one holding up the rear roof and the other holding the joists of the floor in the side extension)

-Installing correct steels in the back of the house and kitchen

-Rear roof pitch is incorrect and doesn’t match the approved plans

-Incorrect tiles used for low-pitch roof

-Incorrect Velux windows used for low-pitch roof

-No cavity trays installed on either extension

-Movement in the side extension roof due to lack of horizontal joists

From the advice we’ve been given, it’s clear that the law needs to change, as it allows directors to ‘hide’ behind a Ltd company and accept no responsibilities. There is little/no chance that we will be able to get any of our money back.

As a family we’re devastated by this situation we find ourselves in, but can’t thank our friends, family, neighbours and the Avon Road community enough for all the help and support they’re giving us, whether it’s a meal to reheat, doing a load of washing/drying, lending us their home/kitchen whilst away, or just a supportive smile/chat.

Our immediate aim is to get the ‘emergency work’ done which includes making our home structurally safe and watertight before the weather changes and winter sets in. We are already working extra hours and saving whenever possible to try and raise the funds for this work to get us out of this horrific mess. We have sought advice from other recommended builders, who have estimated a further £80k-90k to complete the rebuild and fix all the mistakes. We have no way of raising/saving this amount of money.

We are therefore appealing to the Devizes/local Community - eg. trades and building supplies for any help. Are you able to donate some of your time, skills or materials? If so, please contact us at [email redacted].uk.

We cannot believe anyone is allowed to do this and get away with it; destroying our family home and affecting so many other trades and businesses.

Many Thanks

The Grooms"