Reported to Trading Standards & Sussex Police
My elderly father contacted this company to clear his overgrown back garden after receiving a flyer through his door. The company goes under different names: Town and County, tandcfencing, Town and Country Fencing & Gardening.
The company did not provide a written quote and told my father they would do the job for £200. The next day they said the work was bigger than first thought, they extended to include the brickwork and charged him £1200, taking a cheque. The following day they started working on the front garden, relaying the paving slabs and took another cheque from him for £4000.
As soon as I found out at this stage, I intervened and as my father had no written information whatsoever from this company I cancelled the cheques and let the company know. I asked them to provide a breakdown of all the work and the costs. They emailed a list of works with a fixed price of £4000 which they said had been agreed with my father. My father could not remember what he had said and was very confused.
I contacted Citizens Advice for advice. They told me that the company had broken the law by not providing pre-contract information and right to cancellation, and by starting work during the 14 day cooling-off period without getting written permission from my father. Because of these illegal practices the company was reported to Trading Standards. Unfortunately the verbal agreement made with my father was confirmed to be a legal contract.
The company finished the works the next day and I accepted the completion so that they would leave us alone. They continuously refused to provide a breakdown of their costs, it was not clear how they arrived at the amount of £4000. They did not explain the price increases and demanded payment without providing a proper invoice, instead they just sent an email which they insisted was their invoice. We still did not have the company’s proper details.
Over the next 24 hours I spent many hours on the phone with the fraud team at my Dad’s bank because the company asked for £4000 payment to a personal bank account which was not linked to the company, and then they sent me an email requesting payment to a business account that the fraud team said had not been paid into in the last six months. Whilst I was speaking to the bank and Citizens Advice the company repeatedly called me (Orlando and his father) and sent many emails. Orlando’s father came back to my father’s house and waited outside which distressed my father and felt very intimidating.
All in all it was a horrendous experience. This company took advantage of an elderly vulnerable person. I reported them to Sussex police in the hope that this does not happen to anyone else in the future.








