THE OWNERS of a Weymouth guest house say their ‘dreams are in tatters’ after being told a builder left their property in such a mess that it will cost £30,000 to repair.

Now the director of the building company in question Martin Lobo, of Weyland Construction Ltd, is being investigated by Trading Standards after numerous complaints from customers in the area.

It comes after Weyland Construction Ltd was placed in voluntary liquidation on March 2 owing more than £310,000 to creditors. Mr Lobo has now become the director of a new business Weymouth Glass Ltd. He said he was “very disappointed and upset” and sympathised with his customers’ and creditors’ concerns.

Disgruntled local businesses, builders, scaffolders, and contractors have all been told that there is no chance they will ever see the thousands of pounds they are owed.

Katy and Mick Finch, the owners of Melcombe Villa guest house in Gloucester Street, claim the work carried out by Weyland Construction Ltd has left them ‘close to a nervous breakdown.’ Mrs Finch said: “It’s just disgusting that a building company could get away with leaving our business in that state.

“We had water running down the walls, tradesman coming round who weren’t qualified and in the end we have had to spend £30,000 to put it all right.

“That’s money we don’t have – we’ve had to borrow and put it on credit cards just in order to get everything put right and we still can’t finish it off.”

The couple employed Weyland Construction Ltd on November 17 2010 for a six to 10-week job priced at £26,000 and paid a deposit of £6,500 with further weekly instalments of £2,500.

Six weeks down the line they noticed the employees were not turning up and felt that the work was not being completed to the standard they expected.

They say Mr Lobo admitted the company had financial problems. The couple then personally went and bought £1,300 for slate for the roof in order to get their building worked completed.

Mr and Mrs Finch allege that Mr Lobo then promised that the builders would return that week and complete the job. But the work didn’t progress and shortly afterwards those sub contractors who had turn up downed tools, accusing Mr Lobo of not paying them.

Then it is claimed that the scaffolding company said they had not been paid either, so they took away the scaffold boarding.

After seeking legal advice the Finches wrote to Mr Lobo to request the work be finished in two weeks but after receiving no response they say they were forced to hire other builders to finish the work so that they could re-open.

To their horror they were then told by experts that instead of laying the natural slates, they had purchased, Weyland Construction Ltd, had laid fibre cement tiles – which, they say, is against the planning permission rules for the area.

The owners claim the workmanship had caused water to run down their bedroom walls, the incorrectly installed dormers were leaking and the building was in a state of disrepair.

Mrs Finch said: “It was shoddy craftsmanship – we were told a bricklayer had been doing the roof, and this does not equate to previous reviews of the company’s work. I think somewhere along the line the company lost all its good workers.”

She was shocked to hear from the new builders that most of the work had to be ripped out and that it would cost £30,000 to put right.

Mrs Finch said: “We moved here two years ago for a change of life and we absolutely loved it here until Mr Lobo came on the scene.

“Now we’re borrowing left, right and centre to just put the work right, we can’t borrow anymore.

“Some days I’ve just been in tears all day – I’d like to ask Martin why he took our money and spent it on something else when he knew he was in such financial difficulty.

“The hatred I feel is unbelievable: He’s wrecked our lives, ruined our dream and left everything we planned in tatters.”

The couple say they have been informed that there is no way they can be reimbursed for the money they are owed because the limited company is now in liquidation.

At a creditors meeting on Thursday, March 24, a list of 57 creditors was distributed, to the attendees, which included Mrs Finch and the director of J W Scaffolding, Keith Adams.

Now this family-run Dorchester company says it is owed £3,052 from Mr Lobo’s company after putting up the scaffolding at Melcombe Villa.

Mr Adams said: “The thing that annoys me is that if he was £300k in debt why did he take me for that job knowing he couldn’t pay.

“We’d never been hired by him before but I think he came to us because he’d burnt all his bridges with all the Weymouth firms.

“When we found out it was a big shock to us as a local company.

“I can’t believe in a town this size someone can be allowed to keep going.”

Mr Adams said he felt sorry for the Finches and tried to help them out by keeping his scaffolding up as long as possible despite the lack of payment.

In the chairman’s company report for Weyland Construction Ltd, seen by the Echo, it states that directors Martin Lobo and Lynda Richards ploughed £40,000 of their own money into the business to avoid going into liquidation.

It states that the company owed £12,000 to the Finches at the time of going into liquidation.