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Jon's Story...
"I was introduced to Andrew Venton by a local real estate agents in La Souterraine. He sent me an introductory email at the start of October 2007 in which he claimed to be working in the after sales area for that business: "I look after the property refurbishment contracts and project manage renovations after purchase". I met him in person at my property in Colondannes some two weeks later on October 17th 2007. He showed up for the meeting with another Englishman, an electrician whom I didn't care for overmuch and with whom Venton soon fell out over some private matter. We discussed what I hoped to achieve with the property and I gave him some immediate instructions before returning to the UK. By 24th November he had sent me 2 devis for a couple of the smaller jobs and a further four for additional work I had flagged up were received by early December. It seemed that things would progress nicely with a pattern of pieces of work being undertaken, completed and photographs provided before moving on to the next job. On completion of each job I would write a cheque drawn on my French account. No problem. At this stage t was not difficult to contact either Mr. Venton or Ms. Foley at their business address which was also their home at Ruthier, St. Hilaire La Treille, 87190. I badly needed a fosse septique as my property lacked any sanitation. All too aware that these are non-trivial matters involving discussions between the Mairie and the regional authorities, I was not especially surprised when I was told by Venton that it was going to be expensive. It seemed I required a soakaway system and pump inbetween it and the house. The cost was pegged at €6649.66 and would be carried out by a contractor
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