Paddle Homes

New Build Inspections

tonyw

New Member
I just can't beleive that Paddle Homes are not on this website!!! the owner of Paddle is your real "Builder from Hell"
 

David robertson

New Member
Paddle homes, in particular, DErek BArnes

I just can't beleive that Paddle Homes are not on this website!!! the owner of Paddle is your real "Builder from Hell"

I have worked for this man and I fully concur with your summing up of him, he short paid men all the time and did not build the houses correctly, shabby materials. No thought to building methods. short cuts all over the place. After sales were non existent. Health and safety was never adhered to. Terrible conditions for the work force. To sum him up he was the worst man I have ever worked for
 

tonyw

New Member
Just put his name and company name into a google search engine (Derek Barnes Paddle Homes) it will reveal all!! the man is a known crook and as David Robertson said above he builds houses completely against all known building regs and practices!! He is a total crook, he scammed me out of a lot of money when I briefly worked for him.

In the first week he instructed the groundworker to dig down well over 3 mitres on a weekend so no H&S would see, without any protection, they had a small mini digger to do it, it was to do a drainage connection, but what is worse the "Base Course" tarmac the 2 guys cut and dug up, his wanted them to put it back a bit like you would a jig saw puzzle!! they didn't do it thank god!!

He instructed me to use day old mortar and re-knock it up so it didn't get wasted, of course I ensured any old mortar got thrown, the man ia incredible in his ways, ways I thought went out 50+ years ago!!!

He is nothing short of THE ONE AND ONLY BUILDER FROM HELL!!!

Any prospective purchasers who even consider buying a property from PADDLE HOMES seriously DONT!!!
 

tonyw

New Member
I have worked for this man and I fully concur with your summing up of him, he short paid men all the time and did not build the houses correctly, shabby materials. No thought to building methods. short cuts all over the place. After sales were non existent. Health and safety was never adhered to. Terrible conditions for the work force. To sum him up he was the worst man I have ever worked for

I am guessing by your name David you worked for him in the Scotland area? send me a PM if you would rather not discuss stuff on here? I have no problem discussing anything to do with him in public, he cheated me out of a lot of money earlier this year.
 

tonyw

New Member
Judging by the name "Paddle" Homes you imagine you might need wellies due to water leaks!

He wanted (and did as far as I know) use old 3 x 2 baton to form roof trusses for a garage, the timber was no way man enough to support the weight, when I explain this he argued with me it was, this timber had been laying about for many many months in very inclement weather, it was twisted all over the place, it was split everywhere, its use would barely have been good enough for firewood!!

On this particular site in Scotland, areas of ground levels are way above the damp course levels, no insulation used in areas it should have been, but of course those areas are all covered up so no inspector could see! I could go on but please believe me and obviously David above agrees, the man is shocking!!!
 

tonyw

New Member
Oh and I might add, that if Derek Barnes wishes to take me on in a court of law, for any libel actions please let it happen! I have all the evidence I need to prove what I am saying is 100% fact! and I would not doubt for one minute that if that happens, many more people like myself would come forward and bury him!

I did have to laugh a few weeks ago, he rang my mobile, obviously not remembering who I am, and in a very rude and arrogant voice shouted "Whos that?" to which I replied, "Its me" I recognised his very rude voice straight away, he just hung up, he always just hung up on you even when you were having a conversation with him about work!

A rude and ignorant man who thinks the law is below him! he is in his late 70s by the way, and uses that to do and say what he wants, he was on the Cardonald site last year and a few guys had heard he would be there and came looking for the money he owed them, he had to hide in the back of a contractors van until they had gone!!! I don't condone violence, but I also don't condone scamming people for money!!
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Be very careful.
You need to be 100% sure you have proof to support your "facts" if Derek Barnes does take you to court for libelling him on this forum.
It is one thing to believe what you have written is true, proving it in a court of law is another matter.
You should also be aware that you will have to pay your legal defence costs which could run into thousands for a long drawn out libel case.
If Derek Barnes goes down this route, I doubt he would be prepared to settle out of court.
As you say the man is in his late 70's, so by Scottish life expectancy statistics, he is unlikely to live that much longer anyway!

You have lost some money in unpaid wages. Don't add to it.
 

tonyw

New Member
Yesterday I received an e mail from a very recent former employee who is now gathering all (or as much as possible) information from as many ex employees who are owed money from him, which from my knowledge is just about anyone that has crossed his path.

If anyone wants to contact me from here regarding this issue please do send me a Private Message and I can pass it onto the person who lives up in Scotland who is arranging a sort of Group claim against the man / his company.

Just a note the Paddle homes web site has VERY recently been taken down / closed as well!!

Mr New Homes Expert (sorry I don't know your name :) ) I appreciate your comments above, but believe me if he were to take any comments anywhere near a court room I and many others would welcome it! I am assuming you have put his details into a search engine? also it is only libel if it is untrue, Everything I have stated is true! he only conned me to go all the way from South Wales to Scotland so all my H&E and all other credentials stopped the Edinburgh H&E from closing the site down, the day I left there the same guy gave me a copy of a letter which Barnes had sent to the Scottish H&E using my name and my credentials very much PRIOR to me starting up there!!

People should not be scared to stand up against these sort of people, as his whole background shows, he has a scant regard for employment law, scant regard for H&S and basically a scant regard for anything to do with building regs and building practices!!
 

tonyw

New Member
Can I just add he never actually Employed ANY site staff whatever there status or role, even sales staff were taken on, on a self employed basis, which of course is not illegal, but its his way of getting around direct employed rules, well so he thinks, sadly for him everyone has rights and quite simply if you employ someone to do a job of work and when it comes to paying them you renegade or only part pay (as he did in my case) it is illegal!

I was going to walk away from it, but since receiving this e mail from the person who worked on the same site as I did and he has since very recently "knocked" for money, my attitude has now changed, why should I just let him get away with it?
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Employment laws for self-employed are one thing.
What you are talking about is "breach of contract" which is quite different.
You could take legal action using the small claims court process.
You will probably be granted "Judgement" and then join a long list of creditors he will probably never pay.
Then its baliffs etc etc.
 

tonyw

New Member
Yes, thank you,

I am fully conversant with how employment law and breach of contract etc etc works.

I thought this site, well maybe a section of this site is a better way of putting it, is about making people aware of all the poor and badly run companies out there, and sharing peoples experiences, so individuals can make there own minds up. There are now 4 of us who are saying exactly the same thing about Paddle Homes (maybe better re-named "PUDDLE HOMES") but I get this feeling you are just concerned its a few people with an axe to grind against an employer? maybe I'm wrong?

The sooner this company is exposed for what it is, the slightly safer it will be for the home purchaser!
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
This site is about UK new home buyers sharing their experiences about defects, snags, and problems with their new homes and the house builders response and reaction (or lack of) to putting things right.
It is a place where buyers with issues can come for advice and information on how to achieve resolution.
It should and does act as a warning to any prospective new home buyer and hopefully given enough time will ultimately help improve the standard of new homes and the level of service buyers receive from the house builders that build them.

I don't think it is a place where ex-employees come to moan on about their employers not paying them!
and I doubt anyone has failed to get your message about not buying a Paddle Home!
 

tonyw

New Member
This site is about UK new home buyers sharing their experiences about defects, snags, and problems with their new homes and the house builders response and reaction (or lack of) to putting things right.
It is a place where buyers with issues can come for advice and information on how to achieve resolution.
It should and does act as a warning to any prospective new home buyer and hopefully given enough time will ultimately help improve the standard of new homes and the level of service buyers receive from the house builders that build them.

I don't think it is a place where ex-employees come to moan on about their employers not paying them!
and I doubt anyone has failed to get your message about not buying a Paddle Home!

This has nothing to do with not being paid!! it is all about quality and the end user getting what they pay for!!

Sadly you have already pre-judged us and have made your mind up! I can assure you 100% this is not about us not getting paid, the issues about that are long gone!

I have literally just come of the phone to people (Media) who are trying to deal with this and protect the purchaser, that's what it is all about! There is so much more to this that you sadly realise, building homes that do not come up anywhere near to building regulations is wrong and must be addressed. We are trying to address it and protect innocent purchasers, who you know as well as do can be blinkered by the actual cosmetic look of the property and its surroundings.

If this were all just about Money from a personal point of view, I would not have even bothered posting on here!
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
tonyw;7451[I said:
]".............there is so much more to this that you sadly realise, building homes that do not come up anywhere near to building regulations is wrong and must be addressed. We are trying to address it and protect innocent purchasers, who you know as well as do can be blinkered by the actual cosmetic look of the property and its surroundings.[/I]"

It is not just one particular small house builder "building homes that do not come up to standard", nearly every new home built in the UK is badly-built, not inspected properly, built using the cheapest materials and is as small as the builders can get away with and sold for as high price as they can get (especially with the help of govrenment subsidies like Help-To-Buy).

This is why I produced a 200-page information rich website as a wake up for the industry and to champion consumer interests.

If people are still buying a Paddle Home (assuming that chap is still building them) they really must be stupid after what you have stated!
 

Smcavoy

New Member
Hello all. New to this forum. I was doing a bit digging into Barnes and came across this forum. I'm one of those 'stupid' people that has unfortunately bought a house from Barnes 3 years ago. My gripe is not with my house as so far the house has been fine. A few snagging issues that got sorted eventually. But from reading up recently I'm beginning to wonder if the house will last a lifetime. Back to my gripe, its the length of time taking to complete the site. There are just under 20 properties proposed building, of this 11 are built with 4 purchased and 1 rented. Six are built ( on the whole) but still to be bought. There are founds and prep work for the rest but there has been very little action on site for a long time. I'm guessing all you potential employees are wise to him and staying well away. Just want the site finished and for it to be a normal street. Also posting to offer whatever I may be able to offer regarding these houses. And does anyone know how I could go about finding out how solid and sound my house may actually be?
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Provided the homes that were given planning permission have been started within 5 years, there is no obligation as to when the whole developement should be completed.
We have had a recession and credit crunch.
From what I have read on this forum, I doubt this individual is in a good position to progress the works.

Regarding your own house, I suggest you get it professionally inspected.
You could also ask the warranty providers for copies of their inspection records.
No doubt this site would have been regarded (or should have been) as high risk and every inspection should have been made at each stage.
Regarding the remainder of the site, I expect that someone will eventually buy it and complete it if Paddle do not.
 

welsh_wizard_98

New Member
Hi
Just like to add that as far as I know barnes has just has a 80,000 fine plus costs , also a prison sentence suspended. for infringing H&S in Baglan in Wales.
Comedy or what he denied he sent a man up in a bucket of a digger to work on windows......and heck there he is in a picture supervising it all.
better still he is banned from being a company director for three years.
yet here there he is still involved .....he will never learn will he
 

welsh_wizard_98

New Member
hehe sorry to inform you he has been in baglan for 12 years and still on the same sites
so dont hold your breath

as for the foundations best to speak to some of his workers and see what was put into the slab when it was layed....

I heard rumours of strange objects ...used to save on costs... I dont want to say too much it would scare you
 
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