It should look like this in the imagination Mickaël’s house. “To the right of the entrance is a small chamber with a kitchen in the back. To the left is a small living room, then a dining room, just opposite. And to the far left are the bedrooms.” However, you have to be very imaginative. Because in his land of Pernay, “there is only a board and crawl space”.
The construction site has been closed since October 2022. At that time, the owner was constantly seek clarification from the Project Manager, Construction Design, which was recommended by his uncle. In vain. “I am calling to understand why the work is not proceeding. Each time they tell me that it is only small delays that eventually accumulate. A few days, then a few weeks. I send two registered letters with the default. No answer.”
A net loss of 50,000 euros
In the spring of 2023, one of his acquaintances, who is familiar with people in the construction industry, explained to him that protective proceedings had been announced against the company. Mickaël is getting scared. He decides to go to the headquarters in Fondettes. “I run into the site manager. I explain to him that I’m upset, that it’s impossible for us to continue like this. And there he says: ‘Oh, but you don’t know about this? Wednesday, we’re closed.’ A judicial liquidation is announced in July. “That’s where I realize we’ll never see the deposit for the carpenter and bricklayer again. It was worth 50,000 euros.”
It is a heavy blow for Mickaël. Ilegal action cannot be taken against a company that no longer existsand no insurance company takes this into account. The ten-year warranty cannot actually apply, given that the work was not delivered. “Actually, when there is a liquidation, the first people who are paid are the employees. Then the suppliers. And third, the customers, if there is money left. Something is not clear to me. Otherwise, it’s easy, everyone builds two houses, it works, we build a good reputation. Then we take on 50 clients and let them go. Maybe it’s not that simple, but that’s how I feel.”
“More than thirty victims”
The blended family with three children was said to have been in the house for months. And be patient, in the rental that inhabits until a solution is found. And there is hope because the bank has just granted a loan extension of 50,000 euros since the loan was launched. Contacts have just been established with another builder who would be ready to take over project management.
Meanwhile, Mickaël asked about the Construction Design company and realized that it existed “more than thirty victims”, who exchange very regularly on an online discussion group. They are among them Leslie and Thomas, a young couple in their thirties who are building in Chançay. “At the time we announce the liquidation, we don’t believe it. We say it can’t happen to us, that it’s only happening on TV. It takes a few days to realize that we’ve lost a third Because we also made a deposit of 50,000 euros. “
Photo provided by owners
Sell at a loss or bring the project to fruition?
Leslie was six months pregnant at the time. Just when she thought she would have a house without water and air for the birth of her daughter, she suffered a setback. “I’m starting to have my first contractions, because of the shock it creates. Very quickly, the couple pops the question. Should we sell as is, and necessarily at a discount, with only one meter of concrete blocks installed? Or should we complete the project ourselves and become project managers? “I loathe this house, I loathe this project, I loathe the people who interfere with our home, but we have no choice but to go through with it.” Leslie explains. Otherwise we lose too much of the story.”
In six months, the couple learned to draw plans and spent hours calling back all the craftsmento see if they are following them in the process and multiply the quotes. “I remember well when we were on the phone with the mason. He told us: ‘It’s simple, there’s no structural design anymore, I won’t get paid, so it’s done for me, end of construction.’ And then I told him, ‘But you can’t do that to me.’ And I think that was one of the first times I ever begged someone in my life.”
Things have progressed willy-nilly since then. But with this a stubborn grudge against their former project manager. Leslie has tears in her eyes when she looks back on last year, which was so challenging on a psychological level. “They stole my pregnancy, they stole the birth, they stole the postpartum period. I care about my daughter. That’s the only reason I didn’t swing from the fifth floor today. And the former manager is fast asleep.”
Leslie and Thomas hope to be at their lodge for their daughter’s birthday in October. If the plasterer finally decides to redo skylights placed too high. An example of hardship among others, which means that the project cost them €47,000 more than at the very beginning. And yet it doesn’t have to be over.
Former manager claims he was in ‘good faith’
contacted, former Construction Design manager claims to have warned 80% of his clientsa few days before the decision of the commercial court, that the company will be put into liquidation. “Those whose projects were the most advanced”, specifies. Before adding that his company, which has been around for 10 years, has produced the cost of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. “In September 2020, we finally managed to reopen the construction site, but the second wave of the epidemic immediately hit us. And this is delaying everything. We have loans guaranteed by the state, but we have to repay them from a certain date,” everything comes together. The bankers cut off our permitted overdraft in October 2022. I am selling the business premises and re-investing 230,000 euros into the business to save it. And when construction prices go up, because of the war in Ukraine, so as not to pass the prices on to customers, I take on the increase in costs.”
The former boss suggests he was “in good faith” and managed his company “like a good father”. When the ax falls, he assures some of his clients that he will continue to watch them, “volunteer”. for that “I’m selling my house and donating €130,000 to pay my clients’ suppliers on their behalf”. Obviously Mickaël, Leslie and Thomas weren’t so lucky if he’s telling the truth.