EasyLofts - not so easy...
A tale of incompetance beyond the call of duty
This area of the site is dedicated to a company called easyLofts , aka. Atticus Lofts Ltd of Battersea, London, UK. It is intended to be a record of my personal experience with easyLofts, but if you spot anything which might be construed as actually libellous then please let me know.
A the name suggests, easyLofts is a loft conversion company, but my experiences have been far from easy. They were due to start work on our loft on 5th december 2003, for a 5 week job. They were a week or so late starting, but as time of writing (10 Mar 2004) they have yet to finish.
I'm not sure what we have done to upset them, but it must have been something pretty bad for them to treat us with such apparent contempt.
As a result, I have taken it upon myself to try to ensure that a ggogle search for easyLofts brings up this page ahead of their own as yet unbuilt www.easylofts.com or www.easylofts.co.uk
More to follow soon...
ps while searching for info about them on the web i came across Atticus Lofts Ltd, which has a different
presumably older address. The interesting thing is that they used to offer a 10 year guarantee, but now its only 5 - wonder why...
And members of the "Guild Of Master Craftsmen", eh? I'll chase that one up to see if they still are...
11 Mar 2004
Here's a picture of the hotwater tank "supplied, fitted and commissioned" by easyLofts, taken on 25 feb 2004.
We received the "invoice" for final payment (due on completion) on 5 Feb, and had to pay for the electrics to be
connected ourselves, despite the fact that the Ariston approved engineer appointed by us confirmed that
vital wires had not been connected...
Lest there be any confusion, I have no complaints about the water and gas part of the installation, but the electrical component
was severly lacking, as can be seen from the photo...
(p.s. all those pipes are supposed to be there)
17 March 2004
OK, so what news? Well, after leaving 3 messages on their answer machine in the morning (fri 12th march 2004) asking for some sign that they are planning on finishing our loft ever, Mrs June Humpshire (nume chunged to potect her identity) calls me at work about 5:30pm with details of here bank account so i can pay for the boiler - see above. I have decided that if this is the only way to get them to move their f***ing a**** into gear then fine - I'll pay for the shoddy work they have done even though the loft is now 2 months late, and all but paid for.
Also, she agrees to come round again to look at plastering and general finishing which still hasn't been done.
She's says she'll come on monday 15th before 9am, or telephone before 9am
No great surprise that by 9:30 there is no sign, but i manage to get through on the phone.
So re-arrage for tuesday 16th
9:02 she turns up. Agrees lots plastering to be done, and i say i don't care what the finish is like, i just want them out, and building control to
come and inspect, and easyLofts to get the hell out of our life.
Plasterer arrives later tueday, to inspect, and says he'll be back 8:30am 17th march.
easyLoft call to say Building control will arrive at 10am weds 17th march, and that someone will be there to fix door closers before then
On wednesday the building inspector is the first to arrive at 10:30, and proceeds to find loads of little and not so little things wrong.
No plasterer, and no-one to finx the door closers.
All attempts to speak to atticus/easylofts fail, so I cancel cheque for boiler - Building Control man says I should have a certificate
to say it has been fitted by a competant person, and we have not got one.
What follows is an infuriating conversation with Jane Hampshire, where she gets very cross at my cancelling the cheque, cos she needs to pay the plumbers -
like i give a flying **** about her cash flow problems
She amazes me with her indignation at my being "late" paying for the unfinished boiler, for which she issued a new invoice last week, while
at the same time appearing completely oblivious to the fact that our loft is now over 2 months late
As some kind of consolation she says the Lucys loft is 2 and a half weeks into the project, and is almost finished! Is that supposed to make me feel better?
Shes boasting that they are building a loft in record time, while ours stands unfinished.
Another coorker was i asked her to guess how many man days
have been worked at our loft in the last 5 weeks - i venture 5. She replies that she doesn't know!
She doesn't know has been working where? or for how long?
Now this is no surprise to me, cos i have been inder the impression that no-one at easylofts has a clue what theyre doing, but it is the fact that she
has no shame in admitting it. She seems unable to see that this is a cause for shame on her part.
In a similar vein, when she came round the first time aboiut 10 days ago, i was moaning about how it was dragging on, and that a loft that was started after
hours has been finished before. "Oh no" she pipes up, "its not finished - they're having proble,s too"!.
I have to leave it now as i'm late going home, but more to follow - I have a letter promising that they will be finished 5 days from receiving the Building inspectors
report. If the mess up that one then its off to court we go...
p.s. apparently Atticus went bust, and easy lofts have moved offices again - they're no longer in webbs road, but salcott road, just round the corner. Looks a bit residential - wonder if they pay business rates....?
23rd march
Darren and derek(?) come round, fit tiles, trim felt, bash down leadwork, and remove crap from gutter.
25th march
9:50 annabel rings to ask if we want the headroom on stairs chamferred to comply with building regs.
me: how long will take and when
A calls back: Ray says billy can't come till 3
me: why not
a: hes busy
me: we have decorators in - can i speak to ray
a: i can't give his number
me: send billy at 3 then, and get ray to call me
Needless to say Ray "its my company so i make sure we do a good job" Hampshire never called back.
Billy came and fixed the headroom, which is now much better. Not sure why they didn't do it right in the first place though...
Developments (sic):
monday 5th april: Spoke to Annabel, who said Jane would call me back
Tues 6th: called and left messages at 10:20, 12:10 (Jane called back at 1:30 - i was away form my desk) and 14:13. Finally managed to speak to Jane at 15:05, but she said they hadn't received the
building inspectors report - we got it on saturday. I said i'd fax it through and call her back. Fax sent OK, but then the phone was back on answer phone - for f*&%$ sake!
Weds 8th: Well, they managed to get round to taking down the scaffolding yesterday - I reckon thats a few days short of 4 months its been up. Is this a record for a "five week job"?
Actually, they only took it down from the front of the house - its still there at the back, which is just as well because they need to put a larger SVP (sewer vent pipe) at the back - building
control say its got to be 75mm (3 inches) and they've only fitted a 50 mm (2 inch) one - an easy mistake to make if you don't bother to look at all the other houses in the street...
Also, Jemeima called easylofts on mondat to leave messages to the effect that if they don't take the scafolding down we'll get someone else to come and remove it. this appears to have jolted them
into the minimum of action.
Thursday 8th:
Ms Waldron (sp?) from building control calls to say shes finally managed to get through to atticus, and get their address. Atticus/esylofts still claim not to have received the letter sent to
their old Webbs Road address, so a new copy has been sent to their new address at 21 salcott road.
How useless can they get?
How long before they do the 3 remaining jobs: change the SVP pipe to 75 mm, fix the bathroom fan, and finish insulating the storage area?
Not a huge amount of work, but for the useless easylofts/atticus its a big challenge.
We're hopeing to have the builing control certificate by the end of april, then we can start thinking about sueing them for all the stuff they've f***ed up.
Brief update, just to show this is still not finished:
SVP pipe still not changed
Certificate for the boiler still not materialised - Jane says she keeps calling the plumbers and texting them, but they don't seem to be replying...
Hmmm, might that be because they are not friends with easyLofts anymore?
If that where the case then why might that be?
I did the insulation on the cupboard door myself in the end - Jane seemed to think that insulating a door was impossible.
The scafolding is still up at the back of the house, and due to lack of certificate the building control haven't been round yet. The council should really start
thinking about serving some kind of order on us and or Atticus/easylofts for not doing what they said to do...
Anyway, thats all for now.
brief update: no progeww in terms of anything, apart from a few people contacting me though this site, either to say they've had similar experiences, or that they have
narrowly avoided doing business with atticus/easylofts.
And speaking of Atticus, it appears that there is a Compulsory Insolvency Order registered against them - check the Companies House for details.
Disclaimer: a large part of this site was written having just come off the phone from guess who, therefore there are plenty of spelling mistakes. I could correct them, but i think they help to convey the frustration that results from dealing with atticus lofts / easyLofts...
p.s. if you've had the misfortune of dealing with this company, or even if you've had good experience, then drop me a line to let me know - mail me on