A disgruntled pensioner has been left ‘up skip creek without a paddle’ after a skip company went into administration.
Mary Somers, aged 74, of Burbage Road, Penhill, ordered a skip from Countrywide Skips last March in order to clean up her garden to make use of it by her visiting grandchildren.
When the skip was full, she tried to contact the company to arrange for it to be collected, but failed to get a reply from them. Mary is now stuck with the skip, as well as all the rubbish she had hoped to get rid of in the first place.
“I had to take out a loan on my social security so I could pay the £134 for the skip,” said Mary.
“Ever since the skip got full, I've been trying to get in touch with the company and it's
been pointless.
Eventually I called Averies Waste Management because their details were on the skip. That was when I found out that they had been contracted by Countrywide to deliver the skip to me. They also told me that they hadn't been paid either and that Countrywide had gone into administration.
Averies were really helpful and have been working with me to try and get some sort of solution. I feel like I've been deceived. I should've been told that Countrywide were contracting someone else to deliver the skip.
Also, why did they take on more customers? Companies don't run into these troubles overnight. They must have been having problems for a while, so why did they continue to take on customers when they knew they had problems?”
Insolvency practitioner, Chris Moore, of K J Watkin and Co, is the administrator for Countrywide. He said:
“The way it works is they take on a customer, contract a local skip company to deliver the skip at a previously agreed price and, hopefully, make a profit.
What's happened in this situation is that a number of local skip operators have been left financially out of pocket and the company's liabilities are over £1.5m.
From what I understand this is a nationwide problem and skip operators have been taking away their skips and leaving the rubbish.”
This certainly seems to be the case. Another unlucky customer was Ms Rajasana Otiende, aged 34, of Borehamwood, who paid £90 to Countrywide Skips when she hired a skip for a general clear-out.
The skip Ms Otiende received was the property of Paxton Skip & Grab Hire, of Harrow. Unfortunately Countrywide had failed to pass on her £90 payment to them so, when they collected their skip, they first emptied it’s contents onto Ms Otiende’s driveway.
A spokeswoman for Paxton said they had suggested that Ms Otiende should discuss the situation with her bank to try to recover her losses from Countrywide.
“I explained we were financially unable to take on the cost of recycling her waste without any contribution, as much as we sympathise with her situation, especially having been hit with a large unpaid bill from Countrywide and the ever-increasing landfill tax.
We acted completely within the law, we took our skip, and regrettably had to give back the rubbish.”
