Robin Burry Maidenhead Builder: An Honest Review

Our Experience of Robin Burry

We employed Robin Burry in 2020 to build our extension. He started on October 14th. He filled us with confidence that he had plenty of experience and knew what he was doing. The price seemed reasonable, he provided us with a 13 week timeline and we were excited to have a 2 storey extention with converted garage that would be ready sometime in the New Year.

Right up to Xmas, things went well, a team of guys were there every day, money was flowing out of my account every Friday; the 13 week plan started slipping quite early but the extention was seemingly proceeding. Robin was on site almost every day, he was friendly, and worked long hours. He was seemingly project managing the job.

Mid January we asked Robin about this slippage and the growing list of tasks which hadn't yet been completed. Robin's comments were the start of a huge red flag, he told us he was having a bit of a 'cashflow' problem, why I don't know, I'd been paying him on time every week. He apparently needed an additional £5k that week to help him through it and get him on track to get everything finished. The money was budgeted and admittedly although it was a bit concerning, we were in deep by that point, we also wanted it to be true, I guess that is a major ingredient of being gullible. We paid that £5k along with that week's regular payment.

In mid February, I asked Robin how long it would take till completion. '4 weeks' he insisted. By Early February we heard that they had a new job starting and would need some of the guys there instead. The roof was on, the windows in the house (not garage) were in and the kitchen had been mostly installed, we didn't panic but we were concerned. We were told that different tradesmen would be needed to finish everything and it would just take a few weeks. Very quickly we were left with one guy who was plastering and installing the bathroom on his own. The work naturally slowed to a snails pace with the team of guys no longer there. The weeks passed by, they became months; we chased Robin who was never anywhere to be seen, rarely visiting our house. When he did he would speak to his guys then sneak away before I had a chance to speak to him. By May (33 weeks into a 13 week project), the one poor guy left working at our house told us he wouldn't be back as he hadn't been paid in months. The portaloo and skip that had been almost permanent fixtures on our drive were picked up by the companies that owned them for 'lack of payment'. We had to chase and chase Robin for every job, little or small over the next 18 months Our family of five was having to share the shower in our new ensuite for months because the bathroom wasn't finished and everytime we used it, it leaked down the walls of our kitchen. Our 'living room' was out of bounds for well over a year as it was used to store building materials. We chased continuously till the garage windows and kitchen velux window was installed, finally making our house secure almost a year after the project was begun, far too long for something so fundamentally important.

Tradespeople were not paid, leaving them apologetic (to us) but refusing to come back. Robin's own guys were not paid and would complain to us about it and how impossible he was to work for. I know for a fact Robin told certain tradespeople that I had not paid him, where in fact there was not ever an occasion where we did not pay on time.

Calls to Robin consisted of him telling us how he could '...get someone in there for Thursday of next week.' That day would come and go with no-one arriving. In my honest opinion, the man has no shame and will happily tell you anything to get you off the phone. Very late on in the project, he introduced 'Adie' a new guy leading his team who was going to complete everything. Adie was very much all talk, not doing what he said he would do and refusing to answer calls or text messages. In Mid April 2023 (Two and a half years later) with the house largely finished, but still behind considering how much we had paid him, we gave Robin a month to complete or consider himself fired. Robin chose not to respond either by telephone or email, thus ending our dealings with him.

The very little money we have left to complete the job has gone towards bringing in other tradespeople to complete the work and putting right where his guys went wrong (people have laughed at the quality of some of the work.) We are very fortunate that the electrician and plumber came back to certify their work once they heard Robin was no longer involved, despite them being owed thousands of pounds by Robin, money that I paid him. I am incredibly grateful to them.

The question is whether Robin is deeply corrupt and a liar, or simply the most incompetent person alive. Either he is chasing his tail all the time, trying to win new work to help get him out of trouble with his last project, or his business plan is to get in, complete the ground works and build the shell of the building whilst being paid good money, then scarpering and hoping he gets told to f*** off by people who have grown impatient, pocketing the money he has not paid out to suppliers and staff. But hey I could be wrong, he might just be that incompetent.

If you are considering using Robin Burry, please go back and read the first paragraph again, sound familiar?

If you have been unfortunate to have Robin work on your property please let us know on the 'Contact Us' section below, you won't be the first, others have already done so.

(Feel free to scroll through our gallery of unfinished jobs, please note there is a limit on how many photos I could upload, there are plenty more unfinished jobs.)