Our builder, Area Bulgaria, destroyed our home

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Hi Everyone!

First off let me say that Anne and I are well. We have moved into our new home, and found that our builder is not a builder, and the people he deployed to build our house were unskilled laborors (well, most of them - I think we had one master carpenter, but that's all that I can recognize. The builder has not provided any proof of any skilled workers).

Every room has issues, and almost every installed component has been completed poorly. Anne and I will be performing recovery actions for at least the next year. Many of you know this already, so apologies for the duplicated message, but below are some links to a web album and a blog on the troubles.

This is what Anne and I have been consumed with over the last few months. Although we only moved in two weeks ago, our builder has caused us much consternation over the last 6 months, and it's been a full time job just dealing with the incompetence.

I'll post some more info here when Anne and I get out and about. Miss you guys heaps, and wish you were here (Helping!) :-)

Picasaweb pics: House of Horrors

Daily Blog updates: Nightmare House Blog

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Comments

[Cate]

Destroyed
Oh geeze, guys. So sorry to hear about this. Glad that you're ok, though. Onward and upward, huh. xx

[cheryl hubbell]

Wow sorry for your troubles
Jesus I would be very upset. It is buyer beware in Canada also. Allen and I put an offer on a home pending inspection. This home was in "st Lawrence Hieghts" one of the better places to live in Prince George and the inspector found $18, 780 worth of items in the house that were not up to code...that is just what the inspector found...we withdrew our offer. We have had no bites on our home...for 2 reasons people are buying weekend places and this house and property are for year round living and the yard is park like and needs maintainence and also we have preserved wood basement up on concrete blocks and there is a prejudice in this area re preservd wood basements...so we may be here until the old folks home... I hope you 2 are able to get some satisfaction out of that beautiful and functional design...nice from hearing from you. Cheryl and Rachel (Al is off to exotic Saskatchewan working)

[Leanna]

so sorry
I soooo feel for you guys. Your dream home/location to reside in for the next 5 yrs has become disappointing to say the least. I know it will improve as you work on it and make things right but it is still disheartening and costly. How on earth you both kept your tempers is beyond me with the delays that Fred had and then to have the things I have seen still not done.......and pictures always hide a lot so in real life, I can only imagine. Keep your chins up. At least you are now in your house and addressing it instead of living somewhere where it is even worse. The people and the country help to make it worthwhile....Hopefully, you find a way to take him to task and maybe even obtain some compensation.

[Rosemary]

Your poor house!!
Hi Anne and Adrian, Just read up on your "House of Horrors". You must both be devastated by all these problems! What was supposed to be a beautiful home for you both to enjoy now sounds like if not a rebuild, at the very least, a year's worth of fixing up! Hopefully you will be able to get some recompense from the so called builders to get the job done properly. Glad you are both well, and really feel for your problems. Love Rosemary and Graeme

[Anne]

Thanks guys
Hi guys Thanks for all your comments...........we have had so much support from amazing people here, we are getting protocol reports drawn up and seeing a lawyer. Things are very different in this country but the one things that seems to be universal is the warmth and kindness of the Bulgarian people we have met. We have had so many kind offers from British expats to come and fix things in the house at no charge, people have been truely wonderful. We had to get a couple of things fixed straight away as in was dangerous for us to be living here with the very poor quality of electrics. The new electrician spent almost 10 days here checking everything and replacing a lot of cables etc. One thing that really upset us was the builder had installed a broken light into the pool, the water had gone through the electrics and caused a huge amount of damage to the wiring. What he didn't tell us until we had been in the house for 2 weeks..........the pool didn't have a 12v converted (which is mandatory in pools) Adrian went swimming a few times and could have been electrocuted. The electrician found this out when he was checking all the problems. You can imagine just how angry we were. The pool has been drained and all the electrics terminated. Another serios problem was the roof........huge holes everywhere which of course we couldn't see from the house level, you just have to look at the pictures to see what a mess the roof is. The new "roofing specialists"have been here all week, replacing about 90% of the roof. There was no actual frame work in many parts and the tiles would have just fallen off during a strong wind. The chimney is a joke....they have covered the exterior of the chimney with indoor plasterboard..........one good winter here and it would all disintergrate, as the exterior of the house is already doing....cracks and holes appearing everywhere, and we have only lived here for 4 weeks!! We are getting the major stuff fixed right now then we are going to the mountains for a while, we will get everything done but would like a bit of peace and quiet for a while. This English "builder " is a bit of a joke in this village, he and his family live here but I have heard from a lot of people that he is not an "Ënglish gentleman"as he likes to call himself.....he is more the village idiot lol!! Which I had known that a year ago! Thanks a lot for all your feedback guys.........I haven't got time to spend on the PC these days but when we get away I will be sending everyone a personal email. Take care Love Anne et al xxxxx

[Jon Purkiss]

Interesting
We have just bought a house through Areabulgaria but we are not keen on renovating through their company.They seemed altogether way too keen to start work ASAP. Luckily we had no money left or we might have proceeded. Some of the renovated houses we saw were pretty shoddy to say the least. Good luck with your repair jobs , are you taking any legal action or is it a waste of time? Jon and Elvie

[bobdown]

wow
Geebus!!!...and I thought I had problems when I reno'd my joint BTW..Merry Xmas!...Better late then never :)

[Moira]

Area Bulgaria
I was sorry to hear of your problems with Area Bulgaria. I cant help wondering if it is the same Area Bulgaria who also carried out work on our house to an appalling standard. We called him back several times to put right the 'mistakes' but he declined. He turned quite nasty and threatened us with all sorts of things. I cannot believe he is still working as a builder. It certainly sounds like the same 'idiot'. I could go on but I had better not! Hope you get the house sorted.

[Adrianm]

Area Bulgaria
Hi Moira Yes it was one and the same Fred Wright is a liar and a cheat and a very nasty man. I have since heard many stories about this guy, he poses as an architect but have found out he was a baker in the UK. I am sorry that he has done this to you too, I am also surprised that he is still doing this but unfortunately there are many people out there who don't look his company up on the internet. We did a lot of research about him and even got references, but have since found out that the people that gave us references were getting kickbacks from him, or so we have been told. Unfortunately most of the people that are ripping people off here are the Brits and that is very sad. Good luck with your house Moira, I can only hope the system improves here. Cheers Anne

[Anne]

Area Bulgaria
Hi Elvie and Jon........I have sent you an email. Thank goodness you didn't get your house done by this con man, he is a disgrace to the profession, well in fact he isn't even an architect....he is a BAKER in the UK!! Area Bulgaria have burnt many people here in the Veliko TArnovo area I am told, I have also seen a few of the houses that he was responsible for........absolutely disgraceful!!

[Linda Chamberlain]

your horror story
Hi Anne/ Adrian, Anne its Linda down the road, this is an absolute horror story and this man needs exposing by the programme I told you about. We thought we had problems with our house, ours are moinor and nothing in comparrison to yours. I have viewed all the photos and I am absoluteley appalled, this is to shocking for words. I will catch up with you next week. Regards Linda