A woman has said she feels like she was treated “as a number” after losing thousands of pounds on a Stewart Milne Group home she’s now unable to move into.
Lynne Ogilvie was assured she would be moving in to her new family home at the end of the month, hours before the north east housebuilder appointed administrators on Monday, January 8.
She claims to have lost at least £4,000 on her new home and received a generic email about her reservation that instructed house buyers to make “alternative plans”.
The customer was told she wouldn’t get money back paid for extras such as flooring and new appliances for her kitchen and that all outstanding reservations are now cancelled.
She told STV News: “It was just a generic email to all those who had reserved to say ‘all reservations are cancelled’ and all money paid is lost.
“To quote what it said was ‘to make alternative plans’.
“I had paid for all of our extras including flooring, different bits for the kitchen. So that is gone.
“Was it maybe too good to be true what had happened when they offered us the house? I don’t know.
“We’ve not had any email reply to the messages we have sent them. It annoys me that we’ve been treated as numbers.”
Unite the Union is exploring legal action against the group for what they describe as a lack of consultation after 217 jobs were made redundant following the company’s collapse.
The trade union has held meetings with former workers and subcontractors in Aberdeen and Dundee with staff feeling uncertain about the future.
John Clark from Unite North Scot said: “It’s devastating.
“You could see the emotion in the room with the questions we had to answer and how we can do our best as a union to support all the workers.”
Administrator Teneo said it was working with the Redundancy Payments Service to support employees in recovering “any statutory entitlements to which they may be entitled”.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
