Revealed: The shocking state of DIY SOS deaf couple's home after cowboy builder took their £72,000 savings - and left it half finished

This is the state in which a cowboy builder left a young family's house after being paid £72,000 to transform it into a dream home.

Deaf couple Ahmed and Rifat Ali and their three young children were forced to live on what was effectively a building site for almost six months when the rogue contractor took their life savings and disappeared.

The couple shared photos showing how the house in Bitterne, Southampton, was left with broken walls that left the family exposed to the elements.

The floors had gaping holes, there were dangerously exposed electrical wires and with the kitchen having been torn out they were left having to prepare all family meals in a bedroom using a microwave.

The Alis' housing disaster was featured in an inspirational episode of BBC One's DIY SOS programme this week which showed how an astonishing 150 local volunteers came together to finish the abandoned job and give the family the home they had originally dreamed of.

Ahmed and Rifat, 39 and 36 respectively, have both been profoundly deaf since birth and use sign language to communicate with each other – which had made living in such appalling and even dangerous circumstances all the more difficult.

This is the state in which a cowboy builder left a young family's house after being paid £72,000 to transform it into a dream home

Deaf couple Ahmed and Rifat Ali and their three young children were forced to live on what was effectively a building site for almost six months when the rogue contractor took their life savings and disappeared 

The couple shared photos showing how the house in Bitterne, Southampton, was left with broken walls that left the family exposed to the elements

Ahmed and Rifat Ali break down as Nick Knowles gives them a tour of their new home in Southampton after a rogue builder fled with their money and left them living on a building site

They had met two decades ago when both out shopping in Manchester and Ahmed spotted Rifat using sign language. Intrigued, he chatted to her in the same medium and they quickly formed a bond.

They have now been married for 14 years and have a young family.

Their children, Ismail, 11, Hiba, 6 and Adam, 4, are all hearing but their parents use sign language to talk to them which led to one of their biggest motivations to recalibrate their house: they wanted to open up the downstairs by removing walls to facilitate eye contact for signing.

Another factor is that Adam is autistic, and the couple felt it would make the special care he requires easier in a more open space.

But instead of getting this, Ahmed and Rifat lost their life savings of £72,000 after being 'harassed' into paying a builder up front for their ground floor conversion with extension only for him to abandon the project within two months of starting it.

He left it in such a dangerous state that it was actually condemned as unfit for human habitation by council officials.

It was at this low point that dozens of their Southampton neighbours stepped in to rescue the project, as the Nick Knowles-presented programme this week showed.

Speaking through a British Sign Language interpreter, Ahmed, 39, told the Daily Mail: 'These people worked night and day to restore our home, it's amazing and incredible what they did. They have hearts of gold and are beautiful souls.

'It really has restored my faith in humanity. We suffered at the hands of one bad apple, but it was fantastic to see the support we had and the way everyone came together.'

Rifat added: 'Those who have helped us are amazing. We watched the episode live at a special screening with the volunteers and it was very emotional, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.'

And she explained how before the community action their situation had left them at rock bottom.

'This whole thing really affected our mental health, and we still live with this trauma,' Rifat said.

'Each night we would cry ourselves to sleep. It wasn't safe being in the house, we were trapped and only living upstairs.'

They had bought their 'forever home' in 2017 in Southampton, where Ahmed had grown up, for £270,000, choosing it because of its location in an area considered family-friendly with good schools.

But their nightmare started last year when they decided to renovate the downstairs of their home to make it more open plan and accessible.

The couple revealed their regret at falling for the rogue builder's pitch when he contacted them after seeing their details on Southampton Council's planning website, where they had submitted their application for a ground floor extension.

Ahmed said: 'He contacted us offering his services. Our architect had recommended a number of builders, but we went with this man because he gave us the cheapest quote.'

The builders left it in such a dangerous state that it was actually condemned as unfit for human habitation by council officials

The floors had gaping holes, there were dangerously exposed electrical wires and with the kitchen having been torn out they were left having to prepare all family meals in a bedroom using a microwave

Ahmed and Rifat lost their life savings after being 'harassed' into paying a builder up front for their ground floor conversion with extension only for him to abandon the project within two months of starting it

One of the volunteers gives Ahmed a warm hug after the rebuild was finished 

The 150-strong group who stepped in to help renovate the family's home. The couple use sign language to communicate with their three young children, who are all hearing, and wanted to change the house's layout so they could keep an eye on them

That was to prove a very costly mistake. The local builder gave them a price of £66,000.

After paying him a deposit of around £6,000 and agreeing a payment schedule, work started last April.

Ahmed, who runs his own company teaching British Sign Language, said: 'Things went OK for the first few weeks but then the builder started asking for money that wasn't within the payment schedule when work hadn't been completed.

'Sometimes he'd ask for £2,000, or £1,500 or £500. It was random amounts. I work in London and have a very busy life, but he was constantly texting me. He really pressured us, sending messages and always demanding money. He wasn't very understanding, patient or respectful of our situation.'

Rifat, who stays at home to look after their children, was often left to face the builder's menacing demands alone.

Rifat said: 'Once they were building a wall, didn't finish it and he demanded money anyway. When I refused, he got physically aggressive.

'He was very coercive and angry and scared me and the children. He once even turned up at their school when I was dropping them off to demand money.'

Recalling some of the difficulties with the builder, Ahmed said: 'He would come in the mornings with other men and then they wouldn't return in the afternoon. Sometimes he would bring alcohol with him and drink it here. On one occasion he told me that I had to pay for the hire of his van.'

With the demands for money increasing daily and little progress being made with the building work, matters came to a head when Ahmed told him that they did not want him to continue.

They discovered that the builder had been taken to court before and was barred from acting as a company director, and it was this that prompted them to finally fire him – despite having paid so much up front for the unfinished building project.

Ahmed said: 'At our final meeting when we announced that we didn't want to continue, he demanded another £700.

'We called the police, and they told him to leave the property. That was the last contact we had with him.'

By that stage, around eight weeks after work had started, they had handed over £72,000 to the builder.

Ahmed revealed that while some people may question why they gave such a large amount, it is hard to underestimate the huge amount of duress they faced during this period.

He said: 'We had never done a big building project like this before, and we were being put under constant pressure for money from this man.'

With the family struggling to survive in the wreckage of their home, it was their architect who suggested contacting BBC One's DIY SOS: The Big Build to see if they could help.

After undergoing a number of interviews and showing images of their botched building project, they were accepted by the show.

Work by more than 150 tradespeople took place between last autumn with presenter Nick Knowles saying the team had to do 'six months work in about seven days.'

Deaf couple Ahmed and Rifat Ali and their three young children Ismail, 11, Hiba, 6 and Adam, 4

Beaming with delight, Ahmed and Rifat revealed that what has emerged from that intensive build is a home that has surpassed all their dreams – and helped to put their hellish experience of last year behind them.

As well as repairing the damage and creating a stylish, open ground floor and garden area, the rebuild included cutting-edge technology designed to make the home more accessible for a deaf family.

The house was fitted with cameras so the couple could watch their children more easily, as well as visual alerts for the fire alarm and doorbell, and lights that change colour to identify problems in different parts of the building.