Hundreds face losing their homes after signing up to controversial 'no win no fee' legal firm which collapsed owing £48m

Yorkshire Post

Hundreds of householders face losing their homes after signing up to a controversial 'no win no fee' legal firm which has collapsed owing £48m. Around 1,500 residents were offered free legal representation by SSB Law, which said it would help them win compensation for dodgy cavity wall insulation.  However, the Sheffield-based firm fell into administration in January leaving them liable for huge court fees.  The firm also faces a probe by legal and financial watchdogs.  Devastated Sharon Lord, 47, fears she’ll be left homeless after becoming liable for £17,000 in court costs. CREDIT: SWNS

Transcript

00:00 This was a perfect house, I knew everybody that had been in this house in the past, but

00:12 the property needed so much work doing to it, I practically had to rebuild it and that's

00:18 exactly what I set out and I did.

00:28 I was approached by a company that came to my house, knocked on my door, promoting the

00:34 government scheme of cavity wall insulation, that this would help with the insulation of

00:39 the property, bring the cost down for the bills and things like that.

00:43 And I thought, the government are funding this, they've vetted these people, they wouldn't

00:48 be handing these grants out to these people if they weren't for real and they weren't

00:53 going to come and do the work that they needed to do on this property.

00:56 They damaged the property in installing the actual insulation.

01:00 Other issues started showing up throughout the house.

01:08 SSB then went into liquidation, I was completely unaware of that.

01:18 The first I knew about it was an email that I got from them on the 12th of January that

01:24 advised that they'd gone into liquidation and the courts had sent a court judgment notice

01:30 to me and they attached a copy of the email stating that I had £17,000 to pay by the

01:37 27th of February.

01:40 It was no win, no fee.

01:43 How had I ended up with these costs?

01:54 Not only had I lost the case, I had to correct all of the damage that was done to my property.

01:59 I had a month to pay it, there was no support from anywhere.

02:04 I went to the MP, was told they couldn't do anything because it was legally bound.

02:09 I was terrified.

02:11 I was terrified I was going to lose my home.

02:13 I'd had no opportunity to be able to even pay this in storms.

02:18 I didn't even know what it was for.

02:21 And all I could see was that they were sending bailiffs to my house and they were going to

02:26 take my children's things because the only thing that's in my property that's worth

02:30 anything.

02:31 I've worked so hard, I've worked the whole of my life.

02:50 I've never been in debt.

02:52 How, how has this even remotely come about?

02:57 It's just been horrendous from start to finish.

03:01 Anger is not the word.

03:03 Angry is, I can't even explain on how angry I am.

03:08 And we are not only left with sorting our properties out now, after all of this mess,

03:14 but we're also left with these bills.

03:17 People are absolutely devastated.

03:18 Some of these people are pensioners that's no life savings because they put everything

03:23 into the home and they face exactly the same.

03:27 And to feel like there was no support there at the beginning, by the people that we should

03:32 have been getting support from, was just devastating.

03:37 (whooshing)

03:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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