My kitchen could have killed me too

ON MONDAY, an inquest heard that Mary Wherry, the daughter of Jenny Tonge MP, had died of an electric shock from a kitchen that had been botched: a cable had been left uninsulated, which meant she received a fatal shock as she placed a utensil in a metal rack. She was 34, and left two young children and a husband.

The same thing nearly happened to me.

I live in a flat in Hammersmith, and work as a PA. Earlier this year, after saving for ages, I paid Pounds 6,000 for what I thought was the perfect bespoke kitchen. I had been driving through north London last November when I noticed a swanky showroom. Popping in for a closer look, I was impressed by the stylish ranges, and their business card confirmed they were members of the Guild of Master Craftsmen (I later discovered they had been struck off). I duly placed an order and paid my deposit of Pounds 1,675. In January they came to start the installation and I had to pay the balance of Pounds 5,025 at once - a sizeable amount, as my kitchen is the size of a cupboard.

I took time off to oversee things and soon discovered the fitter didn't have the faintest idea what he was doing. On day four, I went out briefly and returned to find that he had cut the oven housing in half and the cooker was practically sticking out of the doors. He told me he couldn't understand the plans. Things got worse. The repair to the oven housing was shoddy, the fitter didn't have the correct tools and I was left with cupboardspatched with wood filler because they hadn't been cut straight.

The men finally left. I was cleaning the dust from the kitchen surfaces when I got a couple of little shocks from my metal pans, but put it down to static.

Then I noticed the exposed copper wires coming out of the fuse box and wires lying across the top of the units. The plug on the cooker flex was straining, exposing an inch of wire, so that if a pan had come into contact with it, it would have short-circuited. When I switched on the washing machine the lights started to surge.

I contacted Trading Standards to ask for advice; they referred me to numerous other companies, including London Electricity. No one could help.

Finally, the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC) recommended a registered electrician. His findings were horrifying: the kitchen had been left unearthed, with live exposed wires, and the cable had been buried straight into the plaster, leaving it unprotected.

Having faxed his report to the company, asking for compensation, I received only an aggressive response, an offer to send out their own electrician, and a refusal to refund any money.

I considered legal action but it would have cost me more to bring the case to court than I could possibly get back. I felt conned, and there was nothing I could do about it.

CASH RICH, TIME POOR FIVE WRITERS WHO WERE AT THE MERCY OF LONDONS COWBOYS

THE Pounds 3,000 PLUMBER

The plumber who installed a new pump for our shower charged us Pounds 3,000 for what he said was the biggest, latest, best model. The labour - Pounds 50 an hour for around 20 hours' work - was on top. Because he came through a builder, neither my husband nor I thought to seek a second opinion.

When the shower subsequently leaked and another plumber took the tiles up, he informed us that the pump - which was coughing up water rather than creating a mini waterfall as promised - was in fact a cheap model which retails for less than Pounds 1,000.

When we tried to find the plumber, we were told he had "retired". That or he's serving a prison sentence somewhere.

Oh, and the pump hadn't been installed properly either, which is why the shower was leaking It cost us another Pounds 1,000 just to get the leak fixed. Helen Kirwan-Taylor

Hourly rate - Pounds 50

(plus Pounds 2,000 profit on pump)

THE Pounds 400

ELECTRICIAN Only after I had bought my Pounds 1,300 cooker did Smeg tell me I would need a special plug, as it had a double oven. I booked an electrician from a recommended firm; a mere child turned up, had a look, then left to fetch "supplies". I went to work, leaving my husband in charge.

When I returned, my husband stood in the kitchen door, blocking the way. He and the electrician had dragged the cooker across my Pounds 10,000 limestone floor, scratching it badly, and the electrician had stapled a cable from the fuse box into my pristine paintwork. "I had to pay him Pounds 400," said my husband.

I gasped. This was for two hours' work, most of it spent shopping for materials he should have brought with him.

"We also had to disconnect the gas fire upstairs; he said it was either/or."

"Did you tell him off ?" I said. "Well no, I just said, thanks a lot, bye bye."

And I don't even cook.

Hourly rate - Pounds 200

Liz Jones

THE Pounds 600 HANDYMAN

A drainpipe at the side of our house became blocked so we called a handyman who was a friend of a friend of ours. He said it was a big job, needing two men and a full day's work to bash through the concrete and lay a new section of pipe. This, he said, would cost Pounds 600.

We reluctantly agreed, but when he turned up on the appointed day he was alone and sporting an Olympic-size hangover after a stag weekend in Amsterdam with our friend. After four hours the job was done.

"That'll be Pounds 600," he said. "Since when do workmen charge Pounds 150 an hour?" I said. "But you agreed the price," he wailed. After haggling, I reluctantly coughed up Pounds 400.

To rub salt in the wound, the blockage turned out to be caused by something else farther down the pipe, so the whole thing had been a waste of time. And Pounds 400. But we are still talking to our mutual friend.

Hourly rate - Pounds 100

Mike Stone

THE Pounds 1,800 TILER

Three months after our bathroom was refitted for Pounds 6,000, the shower started leaking - through the kitchen light fitting. We dragged the builder all the way back from Wales to regrout it, but when the leak continued I called a large, famous plumbing firm.

Their overalled representative sneeringly told me my builder had used the wrong tile adhesive, charged me Pounds 60 for the information, and assured me that one of his firm's "specialist" tilers could redo my shower for between Pounds 1,200 and Pounds 1,800, depending on how many tiles had to be replaced.

"It'll only get worse if you leave it, sir," he called as I hustled him down the front steps.

I phoned a friend who had just set up his own building firm. He came round the next day, did the job in two mornings using all the original tiles, and charged us Pounds 200. Maybe he cost less because he wasn't wearing "official" overalls.

Hourly rate - Pounds 300

Nick Curtis

DO'S AND DON'TS OF CHOOSING A TRADESMAN

. THE more information you can get about the person or the company, the better. A mobile is not a business address. Get a landline number.

.ASK for a second opinion. If he tells you you need a new boiler, call another company and compare.

. IT costs more but it's better to use an agency (The Keyholding Company, Household Division, a small builder). He'll be vetted and he's unlikely ever to get work again if he botches the job.

. PLUMBERS should be Corgi registered.

Electricians must be NICEIC or ECA registered.

. GOOD tradesmen tend to be tidy. If he doesn't wipe his feet before walking in, be wary.

. WE all love Eastern Europeans, but beware: they may be trained in their native country but it doesn't mean they've done the task at hand.

. ALWAYS get quotes in writing. Always keep the paperwork.

. GET to know a popular local builder (walk onto his site with a bottle of wine, as I regularly do).

When in doubt about something, pitch up and ask for advice.

HELEN Kirwan-Taylor's Can You Recommend?, a guide to the best home services in the UK, will be published next spring by Conran Octopus.

(c)2004. Associated Newspapers Ltd.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.