A woman has spent months living in a house where she cannot cook and is forced to wash dishes in the bath after paying builders more than £16,000 to renovate her dream home only for them to disappear. Ionie Smallwood, a senior climate and agriculture sustainability consultant, from Winsford, Cheshire, said she was “done over” after hiring a company to build an extension on her three-bedroom 1930s home in September last year. The 33-year-old, who lives alone, said the builders suddenly stopped turning up on September 23, 2023, leaving her house unsealed and without a kitchen, and she now cannot afford to complete the construction having already burned through her life savings.
For the past nine months, Ionie has been unable to “cook food properly” and relied on £1.50 cartons of soup from Morrisons which she warmed up in a microwave in her living room. She also moved out of her bedroom for fear the ceiling would collapse during the night and because her bathroom sink is too small, has no choice but to wash her dishes in the bath.
Ionie was hoping to re-mortgage the property so she could afford to finish the construction work but was told by the bank that it is “not considered to be in a sound structural condition”. She said: “I just got completely blindsided because my brain was like ‘I’m so excited, my house is finally going to be my home after four-and-a-half years’. “I look back now and think why didn’t I hear all these alarm bells that were screami.
