Concreters in Perth: Dodgy concrete offer scams WA mum

A PERTH mum has been scammed out of thousands of dollars and had her backyard left in ruins after responding to an advertisement for backyard renovations.

Danica Sanshall was looking to upgrade the pool area and backyard of her home in Gwelup when she came across an ad for a special on exposed aggregate concrete.

The builder demanded a $4000 deposit, 25 per cent of the total cost of the renovation and, being unaware that it is illegal to charge that amount, Ms Sanshall handed it over.

“They seemed to be able to talk the talk and knew their trade quite well,” she told Nine News.

“I’m a very trusting person and I trusted that they knew what they were talking about.”

According to Consumer Protection spokeswoman Lanie Chopping, it is illegal to charge more than 6.5 per cent of the total cost in deposit.

Once the money was paid a group of “intimidating workers” arrived at her home and began ripping up the backyard pavers, filling the pool with debris and turning the lawn into a muddy and sandy disaster.

“We’ve got sand through the house, dogs not able to go out the back,” Ms Sanshall said.

“It’s not nice to deal with.”

Ms Sanshall tried to contact the builder after the workers tore up the yard and disappeared but he had switched off his phones and she never heard from him again.

Not only was her backyard ruined, they caused so much damage to the pool that it will have to be completely emptied, costing hundreds of dollars extra.

Since the incident, Ms Sanshall has been in contact with multiple people who say they have also been ripped off by the builder.

“They do tend to get quite intimidating guys to come out so for that reason, some people are quite scared to come forward. But I do encourage them to do so, so we can stop this from happening to other people” she said.

“I don’t know how someone can live with themselves, ripping people off like this.”

Consumer Protection has since launched an investigation into the business, with Ms Chopping saying there is no ABN for the business and the website they have set up lists a fake address.

“We can’t find a listing for the people who are behind the website,” she said.

“There’s no identifying information that we can trace so we will be looking into that issue.”

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