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AIBU?

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Help with building disaster

4 replies

thegreenlight · 29/11/2023 15:43

I don't know what to do. Our builders have run well over schedule, they have had all our money and have now taken themselves off site while the kitchen is fitted. While they have been gone we have discovered everything they have bodged.

We have had no heating so DH has had to fit radiators only to find that a joint fitted by them under the floor bust and flooded the kitchen ceiling. We tried to call and sent messages but he is ignoring. We have two young disabled children sleeping in the house and they know this! Live wires poking out of the walls are a hazard too!

While the kitchen was being fitted a tile on the floor broke, when pulled up it revealed that it had been laid on 5 dabs of adhesive with no support to the corners - this is the same on all tiles! Builder said he had fixed it when we thought the tiles sounded hollow but obviously have not and now kitchen is fitted.

The annex we are building in the garden for my bereaved mum has had no back door on for months despite having her half constructed kitchen inside which was beginning to split from damp. Electricity hasn't been connected yet so we can't dry it out - it has been plastered, painted and tiled.

We paid this week for a back door to be fitted and electricity to be put in out of our own pockets despite having already paid the builders to do this.

To many other issues with workmanship to list.

DH has had to rip out and refit most of the bathrooms and is still in the process of rectifying their shoddy work. The have destroyed our wooden bi-folds by screwing them shut when they couldn't lock them one night and have taken a massive chunk out of our new-ish composite door and damaged the threshold. They literally break anything they touch! Door frames are wrong, no access to concealed cistern, skirting too high for carpets

We still have to have the house rendered, garden landscaped and the hallway plastered and boarded including arch and any money we will get from small claims (£10,000) would not cover this. We have no money left. We have paid them everything to the tune of £140,000.

Do i get them to render and plaster and then take them to small claims? What should I do?

OP posts:
Spookymormonhelldream · 29/11/2023 17:01

Well OP you have learnt the hard way not to pay in full until the job is complete to your satisfaction. But that ship has now sailed.
Try to come to some arrangement with the builders if you can. You couple try small claims but cowboys like these will probably declare themselves insolvent.

EvilElsa · 29/11/2023 17:06

Fucking hell OP, what a mess. I'm so sorry. I would start threatening court action now. Do you really want them to come back at this point? I wouldn't want them to lay a finger on my property with that list of bodges. I'd seek legal advice. Make sure you document and photograph everything.

Wilkolampshade · 29/11/2023 17:21

Uff that's so awful OP. I'm so sorry. Our own bodgy builder experience very much pales by comparison.
I think, we're I you, I would be cutting my losses and refusing them any further access.Pay, (I know I know) to get someone else to fix. We did this with the final bits on our loft as the guy scheduled to do it was So Completely Shit. There had already been a gap of 6 months since anyone was on site so it wasn't hard to say no.
People will tell you to fight but I couldn't have by that point, I was just so traumatised by it. I just wanted them GONE. I really hope you get sorted.

IamNannyPlum · 29/11/2023 18:22

Check on your home insurance to see whether you have legal expenses cover. If so, your insurers should be able to help.

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