Not to be confused Best Buds Garden Services
This is a word of warning for anyone thinking of using PEDRO DUARTE t/a BEST BUD GARDEN SERVICE, based in Dagenham/Barking. The sole trader calls himself Pedro Duarte but I have heard his 'workers' call him Curtis and Marcus.
To summarise: He was hired to clear a garden, build a raised bed and repair a concrete path for my 85 year old mother. This was quoted as a 3-man 5-day project. It started the last week of February 2021 and they walked off the job without notice at the end of May 2021. A county court judgement was awarded in August 2021, my arguments were:
- misrepresentation - Mr Duarte presented himself and his team as experienced landscapers however the worker supervising and carrying out most of the work was not qualified and according to his own step-son had never slabbed a garden before;
- sub-standard work - the raised bed and slabs had to be re-laid but this was not completed to a reasonable standard and the screeding started peeling a few weeks after laying;
- breach of contract - the work was not completed;
- damage to the property - broken floor board, chunks of paint removed from doorframes, tools used without consent and destroyed, kitchen flooded after heavy rain (they had dumped concrete into the drain which blocked the pipe attached to the boiler overflow pipe).
Problems - besides the general sub-standard work, they rarely turned up before 10.30 and usually left by 15.30, did not order the correct materials (2 tonnes of sand had to be removed from the garden), no/ wrong equipment, frequent no shows (later told by a worker that they were on other jobs), other no shows because they did not want to pay for parking permits, workers begging me to pay the remainder of the fee before the job was completed, used the raised bed as an ashtray, destroyed plants, dumped the crap from their van into my skip, concreted over a manhole, washed concrete down a drain, lied about completing parts of the agreed fix, wonky raised bed - should have been above knee high so my mother could sit on it and garden - result knee high at one end, mid-shin other end, did not use separators or a spirit level for slabs!
He was hired through Checkatrade and they verified my review.
Once the CCJ was awarded I attempted to post my review on Google but this has been removed so I will be contacting them to find out why this has happened. I am not stating anything that does not appear in the CCJ.
I could have sued for the full project but I am only looking to recoup costs for the incomplete work and fix the damage his team caused. Had Mr Duarte apologised and admitted his team could not complete the work for whatever reason, we could have come to an arrangement but once he realised there would be no more money he couldn't give a hoot. The last text received from Mr Duarte stated that I should be grateful that he bothered to come back the first time to fix the work.
Will I continue to pursue this? Hell yeah! Firstly because this was my 85 year old mother's home, so it could not be more personal. They were made aware of how much her garden meant to her, that she had been seriously ill and could not use her garden due to the uneven paving. My mother was practically a hostage upstairs for 3 months as she could not go downstairs due to the poor floor protection they put down.
Secondly, That last text...
Thirdly, Mr Duarte has claimed that he does not know me and has never done any work for me.
Karma's a b&*%h. I'm unlikely to get any money back, but the CCJ will remain on his personal record* for 6 years and I believe the law was recently changed [BUT DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS] so that you can make a claim against a trader at least 5 years after the work was carried out. I am sure my annual BG boiler service fee will be considerably higher this year thanks to the flooding so I will look to recoup that difference next year.
*If you know PEDRO DUARTE t/a BEST BUD GARDEN SERVICE please reach out with any information you may have. Checkatrade say they verify the traders insurance information and advised me that I have the correct name but I have a feeling his real first name is Curtis or Marcus not Pedro.
This is a word of warning for anyone thinking of using PEDRO DUARTE t/a BEST BUD GARDEN SERVICE, based in Dagenham/Barking. The sole trader calls himself Pedro Duarte but I have heard his 'workers' call him Curtis and Marcus.
To summarise: He was hired to clear a garden, build a raised bed and repair a concrete path for my 85 year old mother. This was quoted as a 3-man 5-day project. It started the last week of February 2021 and they walked off the job without notice at the end of May 2021. A county court judgement was awarded in August 2021, my arguments were:
- misrepresentation - Mr Duarte presented himself and his team as experienced landscapers however the worker supervising and carrying out most of the work was not qualified and according to his own step-son had never slabbed a garden before;
- sub-standard work - the raised bed and slabs had to be re-laid but this was not completed to a reasonable standard and the screeding started peeling a few weeks after laying;
- breach of contract - the work was not completed;
- damage to the property - broken floor board, chunks of paint removed from doorframes, tools used without consent and destroyed, kitchen flooded after heavy rain (they had dumped concrete into the drain which blocked the pipe attached to the boiler overflow pipe).
Problems - besides the general sub-standard work, they rarely turned up before 10.30 and usually left by 15.30, did not order the correct materials (2 tonnes of sand had to be removed from the garden), no/ wrong equipment, frequent no shows (later told by a worker that they were on other jobs), other no shows because they did not want to pay for parking permits, workers begging me to pay the remainder of the fee before the job was completed, used the raised bed as an ashtray, destroyed plants, dumped the crap from their van into my skip, concreted over a manhole, washed concrete down a drain, lied about completing parts of the agreed fix, wonky raised bed - should have been above knee high so my mother could sit on it and garden - result knee high at one end, mid-shin other end, did not use separators or a spirit level for slabs!
He was hired through Checkatrade and they verified my review.
Once the CCJ was awarded I attempted to post my review on Google but this has been removed so I will be contacting them to find out why this has happened. I am not stating anything that does not appear in the CCJ.
I could have sued for the full project but I am only looking to recoup costs for the incomplete work and fix the damage his team caused. Had Mr Duarte apologised and admitted his team could not complete the work for whatever reason, we could have come to an arrangement but once he realised there would be no more money he couldn't give a hoot. The last text received from Mr Duarte stated that I should be grateful that he bothered to come back the first time to fix the work.
Will I continue to pursue this? Hell yeah! Firstly because this was my 85 year old mother's home, so it could not be more personal. They were made aware of how much her garden meant to her, that she had been seriously ill and could not use her garden due to the uneven paving. My mother was practically a hostage upstairs for 3 months as she could not go downstairs due to the poor floor protection they put down.
Secondly, That last text...
Thirdly, Mr Duarte has claimed that he does not know me and has never done any work for me.
Karma's a b&*%h. I'm unlikely to get any money back, but the CCJ will remain on his personal record* for 6 years and I believe the law was recently changed [BUT DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS] so that you can make a claim against a trader at least 5 years after the work was carried out. I am sure my annual BG boiler service fee will be considerably higher this year thanks to the flooding so I will look to recoup that difference next year.
*If you know PEDRO DUARTE t/a BEST BUD GARDEN SERVICE please reach out with any information you may have. Checkatrade say they verify the traders insurance information and advised me that I have the correct name but I have a feeling his real first name is Curtis or Marcus not Pedro.
