Parents fear son, 8, could have died when bedroom ceiling caved in after ‘cowboy builders’ took £67,000 and disappeared

A couple who risked their lives working for the NHS during the pandemic feared their eight-year-old son could have been killed when the ceiling above his bunk bed collapsed after “cowboy” builders they paid £67,000 abandoned their work, leaving a leaky roof and a home renovation nightmare.

Prison psychiatrist Dr Kalpana Thomas, 51, and her husband Dr Simon Dein, a 64-year-old palliative care doctor, remortgaged their five-bedroom detached village house in Epping, Essex, in September 2020 so they could afford to build an extension and loft conversion.

They hired a building company on September 11 2020, called New Level Loft Conversion Ltd, which quoted £80,080 for the “total cost of works” according to documents seen by PA Real Life and offered to start within the next few weeks.

The project got off to a good start but Dr Thomas said the builders kept finding “unforeseen costs” and, when the couple finally put their foot down and explained that they “were not millionaires”, the builders stopped turning up to work altogether.

Despite having already paid £67,000, including tens of thousands of pounds in extra fees, they were left with a house surrounded by scaffolding, no electricity in the upstairs bedrooms and a leaking tin roof.

A few months later, during lockdown in 2021 while Dr Thomas and Dr Dein’s sons Louis, 25, and Marcus, 11, were at home, the ceiling above their bedrooms suddenly collapsed.

Dr Thomas said she “thanks the grace of god” that her youngest son, who was eight at the time, was not sleeping on his bunk bed as it could have been “horrific”.

“We had a really nice meeting with the builders and said look, we’re not millionaires, we’re both doctors who are primarily paid by the NHS so we don’t have an unlimited budget for these things,” Dr Thomas told PA Real Life.

“And you have to remember this was during the pandemic, so we’re working flat out and having lots of face-to-face contact with patients at a time when people were dying from Covid.

“It could have seriously injured him if not worse, because if you picture a child sleeping on a bunk bed, if the ceiling falls right down on his little body, it could have potentially killed him.”

After going to the police, Trading Standards and the ombudsman, the couple have given up on receiving a refund for the work and have now had to stump up another £57,760 to employ new builders to fix and finish the roof and loft conversion – while the plans for an extension have been abandoned.

Dr Thomas, who works with prisoners who suffer from psychiatric problems, and Dr Dein, who provides care and treatment for people with terminal illnesses, both continued working during the pandemic as they were considered key workers.

The couple started looking for a construction company online in January 2020, just months before the global Covid pandemic struck, to build an extension in the back garden and convert the loft.

Dr Thomas sifted through the list of options and checked for “good reviews” before contacting several companies to request a quote.

Most of them came back over budget except for one, New Level Loft Conversion Ltd, which quoted £80,080 and offered to start work within a few weeks.

Dr Thomas thought she was covering her back when she asked the company for references and was provided with phone numbers of previous clients.

“I went and saw one of the houses and met this lady who said she was pleased,” said Dr Thomas.

A few weeks later, the builders arrived on time, erected scaffolding around the property and set to work.

“All these builders turned up and it looked like everything was going well,” she said.

But no sooner had they started than the goalposts began to shift.

“They said the roof was really bad and that because it was very slippery, it was dangerous for their builders so they couldn’t build on it,” said Dr Thomas.

“They said we would have to put down some flooring which would be an additional invoice and showed us pictures which looked pretty bad so we paid for that.”

Dr Thomas said she asked to see the roof but was told by the builders that she was not insured to climb the scaffolding.

“They then said because we are in England and it’s always raining, you need a tin roof,” Dr Thomas explained.

“But we see all these builders arriving every day and knocking away at the roof, so it looked like everything was going really well.

“So again we thought that sounds reasonable, so we did it.”

At first the couple agreed to pay the unforeseen costs, but demands kept coming until finally they decided to call a meeting in November 2020, by which point they had already paid £67,000.

The couple said the builders were very “understanding and reasonable” but that after the meeting, they stopped showing up.

“Every day there was another excuse, like one of our builders has Covid so everybody else is in isolation,” she said.

“This went on for weeks and months.”

During this time the house was covered in scaffolding and did not have electricity in the upstairs bedrooms until a local electrician came to fix it on Christmas Eve.

More importantly, the tin roof was leaking and putting their children’s lives at risk.

“All of our children were at home during lockdown when the ceiling in one of the rooms collapsed and then a few days later it happened in the other room,” said Dr Thomas.

“The fact is, Marcus, my little one, he was eight years old and sleeping in a bunk bed.

“Now if the ceiling had collapsed when he was lying there, it could have been quite horrific – he’s only little.

“It was purely by the grace of god that it was daytime and he was outside his room.”

They contacted a solicitor in a bid to get their £67,000 back but because the company had become insolvent and had no insurance there was no “viable route” through the civil courts.

Next they went to the police and were referred to the fraud line but again hit a dead end because they were told it did not qualify as fraud.

After trying Trading Standards and the Ombudsman, they contacted their local MP Alex Burghart but Dr Thomas said she has all but given up on seeing a penny.

In the meantime, they have paid another company – Custom Loft, which Dr Thomas said has been “brilliant” – around £57,760 to fix and finish their roof.

While the loft extension has now been completed and the house returned to its former glory, sadly the couple had no choice but to abandon their plans to build an extension.

“I’m just surprised that something like this can happen in the UK,” Dr Thomas said.

“It seems like there is a loophole in the law that allows cowboy builders like this to take advantage of people.

“Does somebody actually have to die for them to do something?”

The owners of the now liquidated building company declined to comment.