“not go near Premier ever again and would not recommend to others. If this could be 0 stars, that is what I would provide. A terrible and costly experience with poor results to show for it.
As an owner of a house in cyncoed, split into two apartments (for my aging parents and myself and partner). Myself, my father and also my partner Lewis Green have been clients of Premier. Our projects were due for completion in November 2016, Premier has still not finished and we are almost in August 2017 (8 months delay). With considerable quality issues especially around plasterwork and render and major construction work such as flat roof work. John does not employ quality subcontractors and they are unable to provide a quality finish. The only trade on this job that was good would be the carpenters and I am grateful for their eye to detail (Chris and Phil).
John would try to charge for work that was in the contract as (additional instructions) and tell us that it was an additional charge, after the work had been done by his men, with no consultation with us, with no costs up front. These costs in themselves were also inflated.
We had issues with things being built incorrectly. The ceiling to our new extension which was also a flat roof for a terrace had to be taken down. This was originally completed on the 18th of December 2016. From that point it leaked, ceiling showed signs that the plasterboard was getting wet. It turns out the ceiling and flat roof has not be built correctly and ( ceiling would have fallen eventually). The leaks were as a result of the flat roof not being sealed and constructed properly. The whole ceiling needed to be replaced, re plastered, covering our finished room in plaster (which is still not cleaned off) and the roof needed to be resurfaced. There are still quality issues with plastering.
health and safety has been poor, we warned Premier about disposal of asbestos. One day another supervisor turns up with bags of asbestos, left next to our skip near our front door. It stayed there for 2 weeks. We told John about it and explained how dangerous that was.
His men putting up blockwork built windows and bifold door opening with wrong dimensions compared to drawings. When window surveyors arrived openings were not correct. Premier tried to correct them and even on the second time they were not correct delaying our windows by 4 weeks.
Stupidly we had been following his payment schedule trusting him. By December 2016 he had claimed for everything but £2000 pounds of the contract value, and had completed less than 60% of the work. He had taken the majority of the money for the build and I can only assume used it to fund other jobs. In January he said he had run out of money, and we had to pay him more or he wouldn’t be able to continue this included the £15000 of supposed additional works which he had concocted, however we did owe him an additional £5000 for additional works that we had asked for. Despite him being behind in progress.
Throughout the project we have had 2 or 3 men working on the job, at times just 1 for many weeks. There were a few peaks in November where there were a few more men, but the job has been significantly under resourced.
We are now in middle of July, and progress has stopped. He has left our garden in a terrible state and will not put it back. Premier removed and skipped three inches of our topsoil without permission.
We have been left with a poor quality finish especially around plasterwork which has meant we have had to put it right. our garden is a state from the way in which he has left it and work incomplete and £40,000 out of pocket and 8 months delayed.
John Sutton refused to install the glass to our staircase in May 2017 (which we paid for in December 2016) until we paid him more money. Please be warned. May I also point out that I am a senior lecturer in Social Sciences and not a project manager, and that Premier were contracted to oversee the project to completion in November 2016 as yet not complete.”
