I paid £6,000 upfront for a refurb that did not happen

On 17 June I agreed to spend £10,000 in less than a minute. I did it on WhatsApp, with no written quote and no contract, with someone I had trusted for almost two years.

This is what happened next. I have reported it to the police, and other people have reported similar experiences with the same person. Nobody has been charged, so I am not naming anyone.

Two years of trust

I met the agent in 2024. I had just bought my first rental flat and I knew very little. He found a tenant in three weeks. He answered every question and told me there is no such thing as a stupid question.

In 2025 he found me a second flat. This year it needed a new kitchen and bathroom. I live too far away to manage builders myself, so I asked him.

Less than a minute

Only after I said yes did I ask how it would work. His answer: £6,000 upfront to order the materials and £4,000 when the job was finished. The materials would arrive in three to four weeks. The work would take about eight weeks.

The card that did not work

I asked to pay by credit card, because I knew a card payment would give me some protection. He said he could not take cards. A few days later he sent me a payment link. It failed. My bank told me the problem was with the link. I tried the same card on another purchase and it worked.

Then the invoice came. It had one line, "part 1 of refurb", and the bank details of a personal account in his own name. The year before, I had paid his limited company.

I had a refinance planned for the end of August and I wanted the work to start. So I paid the £6,000 by bank transfer. On 25 June I told him it was done.

67 days of waiting

I asked to see the kitchen and bathroom designs before I paid and again after. He said everything was ordered and he would send them over. I never saw them. Then I started asking for updates. These are the answers I got.

On 26 August I told him he had made me feel like a third class customer. On 31 August I asked for the receipts and the keys. The same day I found out I was not the only one.

That was five weeks ago. He has not replied.

Three questions I should have asked

If you are about to pay someone for a refurb, please learn from my mistake. I had three chances to stop, and each one was a simple question.

If the answers are not clear, do not pay. Waiting a week costs much less than what I paid.

Where I am now

I have no new kitchen and no new bathroom. I have a police incident number and a folder of WhatsApp messages.

Reading those messages again was not comfortable. Most of the warning signs were there, and I had explained each one away.