AIBU TTFO to the company?

[Havingkitties]

I got an email today from a building supply company asking me to contact my builder or settle the debt for the steel work for my extension as they cannot contact him for the payment. They say as per their t&cs they are 'within their rights' to come and get the steels from my property.

Thing is my builder f**ked off with half the extension done and the money for my kitchen which he said he had paid to the kitchen company. We have had to pay thousands to put right and pay again for the kitchen. The contract was never with me for the steels, though were delivered to the property and builder received them. I have paid the builder for the work he did (and then some). We have only just got the extension finished by other tradesman and the steels have been in place for some time.

Builder has not answered any calls for quite sometime and I hear has a lot of people chasing him. We will take him to court but we were just waiting until we had the job finished as it's so much stress and cost.

Can I just tell this supply company to do one and join the queue? The contract they have is not with me and no one else has come round to mine to seek his debts. Can't work out if they have a legal leg to stand on - seriously this is so stressful on top of everything else, I mean, they can't just come and knock down my extension for the steel can they? Can they persue me for this? Do I even reply?

Section D here should cover you - it really depends on their retention clause in the contract. They cannot just collect them from any property not owned by the builder. You are within your rights to bar them from your property and they'd have to take you to court to try and get them back.

www.lawdonut.co.uk/business/contracts-disputes/debt-recovery/getting-your-goods-back-if-you-aren-t-paid

Sorry, Section E - I just realised they are already in place.

They can't claim the money from you and they can't get the steels back from you.

Oh god you poor thing. It’s really common for companies to come and repossess scaffold, but I’ve never heard them try with a beam. I would respond with a solicitors letter pointing out the legislation as posted above, because the thing is builders merchants don’t usually care what the law says so you need to be very firm

Thanks so much for your replies - I read the first one, looked at the link, then had a mini panic attack. I just don't want to be taken to court for these steels that have been in for months and we have literally just plastered up some holes that building regs needed meaning to check the steels had been bolted properly! As long as I can reply with a water tight bugger off now!

@Havingkitties

I just don't want to be taken to court for these steels that have been in for months

This is so often what people rely on - the "threat" of court action. The fact is that if they were to take you to court you would get a polite and helpful hearing and the matter would be settled.

The difficulty is that the seller of the steels will not be over worried by the "law" I suspect. What you have got to be sure is that they simply do not enter your property and try to reclaim it forcibly. If that happened you should call the police

They'd be welcome to the steel if it were lying in the garden but they'd have to demolish half the house to take it. And I would happily call the police if they tried. Should I just ignore the email altogether or politely yet very firmly reply stating the facts, that they cannot reclaim it from my property or the cost, to go back to the 'customer' (the builder) and not to contact me again?

Most retention clauses aren't worth the paper they're written on, plus like you say, nobody is going to go to the time, effort and expense of demolishing a building just to get the steel they haven't been paid for. That's even assuming they could categorically prove that steel came from them. would just give them short shrift.

The builder no doubt has employees and so it is understandable that they will pursue all avenues to try and get payment for their work and materials. They are a creditor of the builder, not you, unless you own the contract directly with them.