If you have had a quote for work, how many 'extras' should be

[PanicMode]

added onto the contract?!

We are in the middle of a project (c£40k) and we negotiated a fixed price of £36k. We were away from the house for 4 weeks, which was the time frame they gave us for completion, but on return from holiday, we are a LONG way behind where we should be, and where they told me they were on the phone, when I was sitting on a beach. (DH was home every night for the first two weeks).

They were annoyed that we wanted a 10% retention until the end of the project, in order to ensure all of the snagging is finished properly, but we managed to negotiate it all and everyone agreed that was the plan.

During the project, they called me saying that they needed to replace the flooring in our old kitchen (£140) and that we needed an extra radiator/extractor etc - so I agreed that. I got a bill (via email) yesterday, a day when no builders turned up for work, for over £2500 for 'extras', including making good pipework, additional plywood, additional flitch beam they hadn't budgeted for - now surely that should be at their cost as it's part of the work they contracted to do for the fixed costs? I am annoyed because I think that this is how they are getting the costs back to where they wanted them to be in the first place.

WWYD?

[GrandPoohBah]

I would tell them that you hadn't agreed any of the additional costs and do you're not paying them.

10% is not much of a retention - I pay my builders half upfront and the other half on completion. If there are snagging issues I retain the sum I think it will cost to put them right before paying the second half. They sound like they're taking the piss a bit to be honest. Was your quote a quote, or an estimate? They're quite different things...

[PanicMode]

Definitely a quote. DH thinks they are taking the piss too. Am going to sit on the money for a while and argue some of the items.

[tricot39]

10-15% is industry standard retention. Normally held after completion for 12 months - although for small building work that is not normally held for that length of time. It is not advisable to pay up front but best to do weekly or fortnightly "valuations" based on progress/materials ordered.

What contract do you have in place?
A fixed price contract is fixed but only up to a point. If they opened up and found that there was unforseen extra work then that is not necessarily covered - unless that was the specific contract terms? In which case they would have lumped on a large excess to cover contingency. If you negotiated down strongly without omitting work then yes they will push the price back up again and probably beyond. But why should they discount you by 10%?

Professional projects have 10-20% contingency allowances on top of tender figures. What did you allow for?

Having said that, lying about progress, being in delay and not turning up sounds rubbish. But then agreeing to a reduced contract sum tends to suggest that they are not great/in demand builders anyway. Most good ones would have walked.

Best way forward is probably to ask to meet the boss and talk everything through. Ask for explanations about the extras and delays. Ask for the programme/plan for completion. Ask why labour not on site. Avoid direct confrontation and stay calm. Just get lots of info and keep good notes. Circulate minutes after the meeting - the next day if possible.

Sleep on it. Decide if you think that they are honest and genuinely dealing with problems? Or are they mucking you about and doing bad work? If they are good but slow it is probably worth sticking with them as the old adage is that you can only have 2 out of the 3: good, cheap and quick!

If you decide that they are no good, it probably will not get better. work out what would be involved in getting the work done to a point where you could sack them or vastly reduce their scope of work.

We had some bad builders and in the end decided not to hand over our kitchen to them because they couldn't do basic joinery. We got them to finish the bulk of the prep and then asked them to leave - they knew we were unhappy by that stage.

However your ability to do this will depend on the contract you have as you can't massively reduce the scope of work. Also if you have gone "lump sum" you will not have any financial leverage. However there is probably some solution that can be brokered. You just have to work out what is best for you and then persuade the builders to go along with this!

Do not withold money punitively. Pay for work done or you will get no progress and then end up veing taken to court for non payment. Obviously retain money for defects but don't decide that you will not pay for other reasons.

Good luck!

[PanicMode]

Thank you Tricot - all very useful advice. I am a surveyor myself, although not a building or quantity surveyor, but I had agreed a schedule of works, and what was agreed within the scope of works. We have a list of Stage A works (all of the demolition, replastering, first fixes etc) and Stage B, which is all of the making good up to fitting the kitchen etc.

There were extras we agreed on - such as additional flooring and heating etc, but I don't think that I should be paying for additional materials/labour if that was part of the agreed schedule of works.

They are a well regarded local company - I spoke to their last three customers, all of whom rated them very highly. I'm not disputing the quality of the work at all - it's been done extremely well.

DH and I have made a list of what we think we can/will agree to, and then what we need to 'discuss'. I was expecting around £1000-£1500 of extras based on the conversation we'd had with them half way through (once all of the major demolition was done and before the rebuilding started), so to have been presented with a bill for closer to £3k plus VAT out of the blue was irritating (to put it mildly).