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Stroud family left with unfinished building work

BBC Image of the unfinished house workBBC
The Ponsford family has been left with holes in their bedroom walls after their builder abandoned his work

A family from Stroud has been left in "chaotic" living conditions after a builder stopped working on their house and stopped returning their calls.

Carmel Ponsford and her husband Gareth paid Carl Harrison Mills £30,000 to do some work to their house.

The work included separate bedrooms for their three children, two of whom have autism, but the builder ceased working and has not been in touch since 2021.

There is now a county court judgement against him.

Mr and Mrs Ponsford said they wanted separate rooms for the children because two of them have been diagnosed with autism and another was starting their GCSEs in September.

Mrs Ponsford said: "We just want a bedroom and safe space for them all, because they all need that.

"Children with additional needs are a lot and it takes its toll on the rest of the family, let alone the parents.

"The kids just need somewhere that's their own."

Image of Mr and Mrs Ponsford
The couple's building work has been in limbo since last spring

The couple re-mortgaged their home in order to pay for the work.

They said Mr Mills gradually stopped turning up for work and kept breaking promises to get the work done once they had handed over the money.

They applied for a county court judgement against Mr Mills for the £53,263.95 that he owes them. He did not defend the case.

'Detrimental'

Mrs Ponsford said: "We're all so tired. We're all so stressed out. We're all just fed up living like this ... and we're trying to be really grateful for what we've got.

"When you've worked really hard to have something, to have it all taken away by one person. It makes it really hard not to be cross."

"You just take people at their word, he gave us a contract.

"We're trying to make our family's life better and [he] ruined it," she added.

Image of a hole in the wall
Mrs Ponsford said the past year had been "exhausting" for the family

Mr Ponsford said: "In hindsight it's stupid to just hand over this money based on trust.

"But we both work full time. We're both busy. We've got three kids."

Gloucestershire police informed Mr and Mrs Ponsford their situation was a civil matter and it could not intervene at this stage.

Trading Standards advised it was a difficult case for them as it bordered criminal and civil issues.

BBC News has attempted to make contact with Mr Mills but he has yet to respond to a request for comment.

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