A COUPLE who paid their neighbour £53,000 to build a gym in the garden have branded it “rubbish” – and are suing him for £215,000.
Paras Dodhia and his wife Devina had high hopes that pensioner Tommy Joyce would transform the yard of their Middlesex home.
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But after forking out thousands, the pair were left fuming at the “rubbish” quality and “shoddy” workmanship.
The gym enthusiasts claim Mr Joyce’s gym was so “atrocious” they were forced to gut and demolish it.
Now, the neighbours are battling in court, with Mr Dodhia suing 66-year-old Mr Joyce for £55,858 in compensation and £160,000 in legal fees.
But, the furious pensioner has defended himself by accusing his neighbours of “destroying evidence” when they knocked down the gym.
The job was originally quoted to cost around £36,000 and this was confirmed in September 2020.
But by early 2021, Mr Dodhia and his wife were concerned at the lack of progress, and the increasing budget – including an extra £7,350 for “additional garden works”.
Eventually, the suspicious homeowner called in two experts to take a look at the make-shift shed.
Mr Dodhia claimed they assessed he would need to spend an eye-watering £20,000 to correct Mr Joyce’s “poor workmanship.”
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The court heard that a surveyor slammed the pensioner’s work, “generally of extremely poor quality”, and determined the whole building should be pulled down other than the block work walls, slab floor and roof.
This surveyor believed that “remedial works” would leave a £55,858 hole in Mr Dodhia’s pocket.
Jeff Hardman, Mr Dodhia’s barrister, told Judge Saunders: “One of the contractors approached Mr Joyce to discuss the works and the likely defects.”
“An argument ensued: he said that ‘Tommy turned around and walked off, saying he wanted nothing more to do with the job and shouting profanities as he returned to his house’”, the barrister added.
Mr Hardman told the court: “Throughout early 2020, Mr Joyce was in the process of converting his (own) outhouse, and invited Mr Dodhia to consider similar works to his metal shed.
“In short, Mr Dodhia was touting for work from his neighbour, and suggested that he provide him with a quotation.
“Mr Dodhia discussed this opportunity with his wife, Devina.
“As gym enthusiasts, but with recreational pursuits restricted due to Covid, they were encouraged by Mr Joyce’s observations to convert their unsightly metal garage into a gym.”
According to the barrister, his clients had been impressed by Mr Joyce’s craftsmanship and believed he would be capable of constructing them a gym.
“Tommy turned around and walked off, saying he wanted nothing more to do with the job and shouting profanities as he returned to his house.”
Jeff Hardman
However, after it was built, an expert branded the garden structure “complete rubbish” and found the only reliable areas to be the ground work and roof, the judge was told.
“The shoddy work is unsurprising given that Mr Joyce says he picked up labourers from people he knew from the pub,” added Mr Hardman.
Mr Dodhia himself told the judge: “Tommy would offer ideas on what to do with the outbuilding – he was converting his own to a bedsit.
“As time went on, he would offer to quote me a price for constructing a similar building for us and told me about all the amazing builds he had done.
“I recall in particular him mentioning basement conversions in exclusive residential properties based in central London and how stressful it was to deal with soil types, damp scenarios, the local councils and requirements of high net-worth clients.
“He also mentioned running his own business, but that it went belly up as he lacked business acumen.”
‘NO SHAME’
Defending Mr Joyce, barrister Nigel Woodhouse, claimed his client shouldn’t be held responsible because he was not a builder.
He told the court: “His position is that he did not represent himself as anything other than a retired groundworks foreman and machine driver.
“He denies offering to construct and design the outbuilding and says he was helping out Mr Dodhia to get the outbuilding constructed as Mr Dodhia’s brother-in-law – who was an experienced builder – was too busy to construct the outbuilding but was able to supervise the works.”
The barrister added Mr Joyce believed he was “assisting his neighbour” rather than acting as a “design and build main contractor”.
He told the judge that his client accepts responsibility for work he carried out himself.
“These works comprise demolishing Mr and Mrs Dodhia’s old garage with the assistance of asbestos contractors, carrying out groundworks for laying pipe work and installing a soakaway and drain, digging out and laying trench foundations, taking down a garden shed and fence, digging out a retaining wall, putting in a temporary ramp at no charge and tiling the floors and the walls of the gym, kitchen and the gym bathroom”, he explained.
“He does not accept that he is responsible for works carried out by others.”
Mr Woodhouse also argued Mr Dodhia did not need to demolish the gym.
Mr Dodhia’s barrister told the court Mr Joyce expressed “no shame or remorse” for his work, and behaves as though “he did this almost as a favour”.
“Any professional person would be wholly and utterly mortified and embarrassed to have performed these works in such an atrocious way,” he added.
Judge Saunders reserved his judgement in the case after two days in court.
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