A RAGING homeowner has told how a ‘cowboy’ builder’s attempt to throw up a new family home next door nearly made his house COLLAPSE.
Shaun Simpson, 60, said he was left in the middle of a “living nightmare” after builders working in BARE FEET turned the site into “a death trap waiting to happen”.
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Mr Simpson said he has been told his garage is now at risk of falling down amid the carnage on Gibraltar Lane, in Denton, Greater Manchester.
The homeowner’s suspicions were raised after he spotted the bare footed labourers leaning over unprotected holes metres deep.
He reported what he saw to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Workers had also dug out earth close to the boundary of his property, leaving part of it ‘unstable’, Manchester Evening News reports.
The man behind the botched project was Mustapha Matib who elected himself as the principal contractor – despite not being a builder.
Matib was prosecuted and handed a suspended prison sentence for breaches of health and safety laws.
However, Mr Simpson says he and his wife – who moved into the property in 1997 – are still living with the consequences of the horrific work.
Planning permission was granted in the summer of 2018 for a new two-storey four bedroom detached house, a double garage and indoor pool.
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Following this the bungalow, garage and carport which used to sit on the site were demolished – it was then that Mr Simpson said an “invasion” of demolition people came and started to “rip the house apart”.
The homeowner said: “It was like something you might have seen in the sixties or seventies, lads just wandering around, ripping stuff down.”
Soon after, whilst he was out but his wife at home, he claims a digger came close to their fence line and started digging away the earth.
Mr Simpson said: “My wife asked the guy what he was doing and he said the measurements he’d been given would have taken him halfway into our garden!
“My wife said they were digging that close to us the house was actually rumbling.”
Once they dug away there was a drop of about 14 foot
Shaun Simpson
Mr Simpson said the workers had “pushed the boat out a little far” and rang the building inspectors who were around within a matter of hours.
They issued a prohibition notice ordering no further work to be carried out.
Council officers also attended which is when Mr Simpson was told his garage, which borders the site, was ‘compromised’ and he was advised to take his car out of it.
Mr Simpson: “I just keep thinking: ‘Is this going to collapse one day?’
“We’re living on tenterhooks. It could be a total catastrophe with respect to my house.”
When inspectors attended the HSE said they found a “large, deep and unprotected excavation” which neighbours said they believed was to be the swimming pool.
The hole, said to be around seven feet deep, and which the HSE said “gave rise to a foreseeable fall risk”, filled with water when it rained – making it even more of a hazard, neighbours said.
NOT A CLUE
Following the excavation work, fences along Mr Simpson’s property boundary started to fall down, meaning he was unable to allow his dog to run loose in his own garden.
Mr Simpson said: “Once they dug away there was a drop of about 14 foot.
“It was absolutely unbelievable. You could have fallen over there and killed yourself.”
The HSE said it eventually established Matib had failed to prepare a construction phase plan with risk assessments and method statements detailing how the work would be safely carried out.
He also failed to appoint a site manager with suitable skills, knowledge, and experience to manage the work.
To top it off, the clueless project manager also failed to ensure any health, safety, and welfare for those carrying out the work.
The work “put workers in danger and rendered the neighbouring property unstable”, the HSE said.
The guy’s arrogance and lack of regard for anyone else is absolutely incredulous. I feel angry.
Shaun Simpson
Since the construction carnage the value of the property has plummeted and the couple are now struggling to sell the house – with would-be buyers thinking he’s “joking” when they look around it.
Mr Simpson said: “He (Matib) is just a cowboy without putting the horses anywhere. He has refused to engage with us and there has been no communication with me.
“The guy’s arrogance and lack of regard for anyone else is absolutely incredulous. I feel angry.
“During the time this has been going on I’ve lost my mum and dad. So we were running around trying to look after them and had all this on top.”
The site has now been secured but its future is now uncertain following Matib’s conviction.
Matib, of Allerton Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Health & Safety at Work Act.
He was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, and to pay costs of £5,673 at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.
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