A couple who paid €14,000 for a conservatory are going to have to pay €53,000 to have it demolished and rebuilt, a judge said yesterday.
Judge Martin Nolan told Kieran and Anna O'Reilly that their nightmare experience was a product of what was known as the Celtic Tiger.
"There weren't enough good small builders to go around and people engaged builders without knowing or checking their bona fides," Judge Nolan said in the Circuit Civil Court.
Karen Ruddy, counsel for the O'Reillys, who live at Killakee Way, Firhouse, Dublin, said two builders had taken the O'Reillys' money and left their low-standard work unfinished.
Ms Ruddy said experts who had examined the work of builders Edward Shanagher and Martin O'Reilly reported it was of such poor quality it would have to be demolished and rebuilt at a cost of €53,000.
Ms O'Reilly told Ms Ruddy that in February 2005 she struck a deal for €14,000 for the work with Shanagher, Cherbury Park Avenue, and Martin O'Reilly, The Orchard, both Lucan, Co Dublin.
The conservatory had been brought to the roofing stage but despite numerous phone calls to Shanagher, it had never been completed.
Judge Nolan heard that Martin O'Reilly could not be traced and judgment had been granted against him at an earlier sitting.
Shanagher said he was a paving contractor and denied he was a builder or that he had been contracted to carry out the work for the O'Reillys. He had merely introduced the builder to them.
He said a €4,500 cheque made out to him by Ms O'Reilly had been used to buy materials for the builder.
Judge Nolan said when a person embarked on a job, it was his or her responsibility to carry it out in a proper and professional manner. The O'Reillys could not have known that Shanagher was not a builder and main contractor and he was equally liable with Martin O'Reilly.
"What Mr Shanagher thought he was doing is immaterial," said Judge Nolan. "He put himself in a position where the O'Reillys thought they were agreeing a contract with him as a builder and therefore he is liable."
He awarded Mr and Mrs O'Reilly €28,000 against both defendants towards the expense of demolition and rebuilding.