We hired Lee West and West Property Services (Blackheath) Ltd (now known as Blackheath Building Maintenance Website) to do some substantial works at our house in Camden - and to this date, that counts as one of the worst decisions we have ever made.
The quality of work was extremely poor, and most of the work was so completely incorrectly installed to the point that it was deemed unsafe by regulatory bodies. We paid for extensive plumbing work to be done, including replacing the boiler and the underfloor heating pipes, and have had to have the whole thing done again. A chartered surveyor said in all his years, he'd never seen underfloor pipes laid so incorrectly. Furthermore, the exit flue was installed dangerously incorrectly and was leaking gas into our roof terrace. Upon reporting this extreme incompetence and negligence to Gas Safe, we found out Lee West and West Property Services were not even registered as legal and authorised installers. This came as a surprise as his website clearly states that he is.
When confronted with any issues, Lee West and his office assistant Jo consistently and constantly lied to us. We paid Lee West nearly £10k for bathroom furniture, which he claimed to order for us from CP Hart. Mr West falsified an e-mail from the company stating that the order was delayed. We discovered this fraud when, after four months and no sign of the bathroom furniture, we called CP Hart directly - who had never had an order placed, and confirmed that the e-mail was from a fraudulent address. Mr West has refused all of our requests for a refund, and over a year later, we are still out all of the money.
These are two of the worst issues that happened as a result of engaging him (paying for all the malfunctioning and dangerous work to be redone, and his theft of £10k from us) but throughout the process, we were lied to and conned. It was an expensive and terrible experience for us, and we are concerned because as soon as he'd finished stealing our money, Mr West folded his company so that we could not financially pursue him - and turned around and started another company right away. Same services, same scumbag - different name.
Lee West is a liar, a thief, and a thoroughly incompetent builder, and it is only a question of when he will find his next victim. We started this blog because we don't want anyone to suffer as we did, through Mr West. Please comment on your own negative experiences to warn others.
