Galeproperties Reviews

Martin Gale is not a builder. He takes advantage of people and rips them off. He fitted the wrong tiles on our porch roof, at the wrong angle, as with the other reviewer ignored the plans, and lied through his teeth. Even broke pad stones, and charged for work he did not do.

Date of experience: 01 May 2024

Would have given 0 stars if possible. Not to be trusted ! Stay away if you value your time, money and sanity. He is after your money, is irresponsible and careless and incompetent too. Had the misfortune of trusting this guy when an earlier builder caused a number of issues on my extension, building rooms the wrong size etc. This guy advised me to get rid of him (I have a series of text messages from him advising me on this) and took on the build but turned out to be way worse. How I regret trusting him ! He took full advantage of my situation and my trust and took a lot of money from me without doing the corresponding work. Did not even show any consideration for my family. And overall construction quality has been pathetic in most areas. I have a number of photographs to prove this.

To start off with, he did not read the architects plan or structural design documents and caused a lot of major issues, way more than the earlier guy. One example was where he completely ignored the structural design document and used undersized joists for the floor of my upstairs bedroom. I am now left with uneven floors even after he charged me further to insert a steel beam in the middle of the span to fix the issue he had caused and also further amounts to supposedly level the floor (it still isn't). I had to contact building control directly and get them to force him to do a lot of stuff (I have a series of emails regarding this, all to do with major structural elements). Also refused to provide past receipts for most materials purchases claiming that these were inaccessible, whereas I know for a fact that it is possible. Extracts almost double actual materials costs in most cases. If you do need to go with him, make sure to also keep track of daily labour attendance and exact expenses on labour and materials each day and get him to sign these each day. Billing for way more than actual labour costs each week is another way he extracts large extra amounts. And make sure to inspect each and every aspect of the build very closely every day !

And I am not alone. Have now heard at-least 3 other accounts of similar and some even more serious issues he caused in nearby areas. In one case, the home owner was advised to move out immediately by his surveyor for fear of the structure collapsing. In another, he caused serious careless issues and then refused to provide insurance coverage.

Is now based in Macclesfield (Prestbury), which is the location advertised on the Federation of Master Builders website as well. Do not trust anything on the website or the corresponding listing on the FMB website. FMB is known to always side with their members only anyways (just read FMB reviews written by customers rather than their members here on Trustpilot).

Date of experience: 17 November 2023