{"id":33554,"date":"2026-05-11T10:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/33554\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T10:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:04:11","slug":"dundee-couple-forced-to-live-in-caravan-for-year-after-building-firm-bungle-100k-renovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/33554\/","title":{"rendered":"Dundee couple forced to live in caravan for year after building firm ‘bungle \u00a3100k renovation’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Loraine and Rob Deering poured years of savings into the scheme, but still don’t have a house they can live in<\/p>\n

10:31, 10 May 2026Updated 11:25, 10 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"Loraine<\/p>\n

Loraine and Rob Deering who have been left living in caravan after a failed \u00a3100,000 home renovation(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

A couple have lived in a caravan for over a year claiming a building firm left a \u00a3100,000 home renovation half done – then went bust. Loraine and Rob Deering, who both served in the Royal Air Force, invested 10 years of savings into the project.<\/p>\n

They have lived in their Dundee home since 1994 and attempted to renovate it, hoping to make the property more suitable for them as they age. Loraine, 66, and Rob, 74, signed an agreement with RPM Group, who promised to rework their bungalow and add another bathroom in just 12 weeks, at a cost of \u00a3126,000.<\/p>\n

But work came to a halt, and now, RPM Group are in the process of dissolution – while Rob and Loraine have been forced to spend a year in their caravan, as their home is still uninhabitable. Loraine said: “My husband and I had both decided that we wanted to future-proof the property for our old age.<\/p>\n

“I started drawing up plans in 2024, and took them to an architect. He recommended the firm we eventually went with – RPM Group Scotland – and they were chosen primarily on the fact that they were recommended and they were a Trusted Trader.<\/p>\n

\"Loraine<\/p>\n

Loraine and Rob Deering, who both served in the Royal Air Force, invested 10 years of savings into the project(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

“We handed the keys over on March 31, 2025. From there, they said it was only going to take 12 weeks, and we were slightly sceptical. But as things progressed, they weren’t turning up – we were finding no workers on the premises.”<\/p>\n

The couple had been told that work would finish on June 6, 2025 – a deadline which was then extended to mid-September. After Rob had a major operation in September, the couple were told again that they would be able to reenter the home – but work stopped altogether.<\/p>\n

“We had to tell them my husband was going in for this major surgery – they promised we’d be back in the house,” Loraine said. “We ordered our furniture, and we didn’t get in. Our furniture is in storage, or sitting here in the damp.<\/p>\n

“Then they just walked off the job, after I had said about getting somebody in to have a look and see how much has been done. They tried to say it was our fault and we obviously don’t want them on the job – nothing could be further from the truth. They just walked off the job and refused point-blank to even respond to us.”<\/p>\n

\"Loraine<\/p>\n

Loraine and Rob insisde their home(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

As winter settled in, the couple were forced to spend more money living in Airbnbs, eating through their savings. The couple have attempted to make a fraud report to Police Scotland, but were told that the burden of proof would be so high that prosecution would be nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

They contacted DBLaw Chartered Surveyors, who surveyed the property and found that the house is not currently inhabitable, as the kitchen, bathroom, heating and electrical fittings are all missing. They estimate that just under 50% of the contracted works had been completed. Meanwhile, Loraine and Rob have paid 90% of their bill to RPM Group.<\/p>\n

Rob and Loraine have now lost 10 years’ worth of savings, and are struggling to continue living in their caravan with their mobility and health issues. They are currently being supported by Veterans First in Dundee, who are assisting with reaching out to legal organisations.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been living in Airbnbs and our touring caravan – which is not ideal for our health and mobility, but it was only supposed to be 12 weeks and we felt we could cope with that,” said Loraine. Now all our income is going on paying for accommodation and trying to save again.<\/p>\n

“It took us 10 years to save the money to get this done, and there’s even more needing done now because of what they’ve damaged and not done right. We don’t know where to go. We don’t know what to do anymore. We’re just surviving and going from one day to the next. We don’t know when we’ll ever be back in our home.”<\/p>\n

\"Loraine,<\/p>\n

Loraine, 66, and Rob, 74, signed an agreement with RPM Group, who promised to rework their bungalow and add another bathroom in just 12 weeks, at a cost of \u00a3126,000(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

RPM Group have claimed that the couple requested several changes while the work was ongoing, leading to extra expenses and staff – but the couple deny these claims.<\/p>\n

Solicitor Ritchie McNeil, who is representing RPM Group, told The Courier: \u201cThere has been no intentional, or reckless, wrongdoing by my client. At the beginning of the job, they went the extra mile to help Mrs Deering and even weeded her garden and plotted plants for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the work commenced, Mrs Deering instructed significant additional work and the knock-on effect of that was additional costs being incurred which were not foreseen or accounted for.<\/p>\n

\u201cRPM prepared a scope of works for the job to be carried out and provided that to Mrs Deering. This ultimately led to cash flow issues which meant RPM had to cease trading and could no longer finish the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have since taken the difficult decision to dissolve the company. This is truly an unfortunate set of circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loraine and Rob Deering poured years of savings into the scheme, but still don’t have a house they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2363,12071,144,3252,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-33554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-armed-forces","9":"tag-dundee","10":"tag-police-scotland","11":"tag-royal-air-force","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116555380766215345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}