12 x 8 Shed For Your Garden

A garden shed company and one of its directors has been landed with a $255,000 fine and ordered to pay $600,000 compensation to its customers. This was the price paid for failing to deliver many 12X8 sheds to customers who had already paid for them.Southport Magistrates Court heard that The Shed Warehouse in the Gold Coast, Australia and its director Josh Purtell took payments for wooden sheds it did not deliver between November 2009 and June 2010. Purtell was fined $85,000 for 43 breaches, relating to accepting payments for goods without intending or being able to supply those goods. He was also fined a further $1500 for misleading information and for making false statements to an OFT officer during the investigation.

The Shed Warehouse was fined $170,000 for the 43 breaches of the Fair Trading Act 1989. The OFT also secured compensation for 80 customers amounting to $589,866. Purtell was ordered to pay personally $174,000 of the compensation and has now had a conviction made against himself and The Shed Warehouse. A second director will also appeared before the courts shortly afterwards.

Even though this was on the other side of the world it goes to show there are many crooks out there and companies which may not play by the rules with your money. We have all heard of companies which take customer’s money right up to the day they put the company into liquidation and then start up a new company (phoenix companies) the next day. This means you have lost all your hard earned money.

My advice is to only deal with companies who have been trading for a long time, although that in itself is not a guarantee – looks at Woolworths etc, however you do need to be wary of companies which are reincarnations of earlier companies. These often claim to have been trading for many, many years but in fact it’s the previous company which had been trading and subsequently gone into liquidation. I know for a fact that one of the major shed companies which claims to have been making 8X12 sheds workshops for a very long time was only formed as a LIMITED Company in 2010.

The other best advice I can give is to pay on a credit card or only pay a small deposit. Reputable companies don’t have any problems with this. On our site there is an option to pay by credit card – giving you 100% protection – whatever happens or you can ring our dedicated support and sales line (0333) 800 8880 – local rate number -and just pay a deposit, which also can be on a credit card.

1st Choice Leisure Buildings is a family firm with my wife, son and myself at the helm. We trace our routes back to 1979 when we started manufacturing. Our web site, when we only sold our products, started in 1996, and was the 1st shed company in the UK to go online. Our 1st Choice web site started in 2000 when we introduced other buildings to our comprehensive range of sheds for sale with sizes up to 12X8 and larger so we are able to delivery to all over the country. There has NEVER been a liquidation or bankruptcy in our full trading history. In the troubled times through the 80’s 90′ and now this is something we are very proud off.

During the winter months many people have a bird table to entice our winter birds into our gardens. These are normally situated away from the shed to make it hard for squirrels to jump onto the table and steal the food. You can help and enjoy many winter birds in your garden such as robins, thrushes, chaffinch, sparrow and blue tits and if you are very lucky redwings and fieldfares. By feeding these birds you can help them survive through the bitter winter but as Spring comes then this should be curtailed.In the spring they would have built nests to have their young and these can be in a great number of places from trees, to barns and any sheltered places. 1st Choice Leisure garden shed factory’s office, near Guildford was a location for many birds nesting in the eaves of the building. It was reported that visitors – who were intent on buying a maybe a 12X8 new garden shed or summerhouse – enjoyed the birds in this unusual location.

During the summer you will find that masses of birds have arrived back from their migration and enjoying the British warmer weather. There will be a great array of colours and beautiful bird songs for you to enjoy in your garden. And many lucky gardeners will find goldfinches sitting on top of their summer house or garden shed as their numbers have increased greatly over earlier years.

Besides the goldfinches, it was reported by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). that there are the lesser known Long-Tailed Tit and Greater Spotted Woodpecker as well. The BTO reported the findings of its Garden BirdWatch which is a survey, by gardening and birds fans, carried out weekly.

Dr Tim Harrison, BTO Garden BirdWatch reported that Goldfinches use of gardens had changed significantly throughout the last few years and that during the summer months there had been a great increase. It’s thought that it’s possible that food being left out by bird and gardening lovers may have helped this increase.

If you are interested in increasing the number of birds in your garden and near your shed then the leaving of mealworms peanuts and berries in bird feeder would help to attract them. The enclosed type of bird feeders can be hung from the front of the timber shed or summer house as squirrels will find it hard to access the inside of the feeders.

Another way to view birds in all their glory is with a dedicated ‘twitching box’ which is, in essence, a garden shed adapted with special drop down windows where you can look out. The birds are totally unaware of you so you see nature at its best. You will find that a 8X12 shed, or sometimes a summerhouse, that 1st Choice Leisure Buildings will meet this need.

The attraction of the British garden birds is the sheer variety of colours and sounds and these can be enjoyed by sitting in your shed or summer house in your garden and looking out. You do need to be still as these birds can be nervous but when they arrive you can be sure they will be welcome.