Please can I have an objective view regarding whether I am being unreasonable. Long story so bear with me.
We have just finished a very large renovation project that went on for 2 years and cost so much that we will be paying it off until we die. During the build we had a few issues with the builder charging us for extras that we were not expecting. We got the impression he was looking for every opportunity to charge us extra. We think he has ripped us off over £3000 and we are now in a position to refuse to pay the final stage payment of £3000 unless he can prove that he hasn’t lied to us.
Part of the build included rendering the exterior. It was in the contract that the builder would pay to render all the new bits of the house and we would pay to render the existing part of the property. It would be all one job but he would pay a third and we would pay two thirds. He told us that our preferred renderer was coming up too expensive and he had found someone else who would do it for £10500, our share being £7000 and his was £3500. He wanted us to pay the renderer directly which we did.
We got chatty with the renderer while he was here and he mentioned in passing that the whole job was £7500 of which we would pay £7000 and the builder would pay £500. The builder also sent us the renderer’s quote saying the job was £7500. When I questioned it with the builder he said that that quote was a mistake and should have said £7000 as that’s all we owe and as a gesture of goodwill the builder would pay the extra £500. However, we believe the renderer that the total job cost was £7500 meaning that the builder only paid £500 rather than £3500. Annoyingly the renderer’s work was poor quality and had left us with some issues that we anre likely to have to pay to fix in the future and if the builder had paid his fair share we could have gone for our preferred renderer who was more expensive.
The builder says that the renderer is lying and that he has paid the renderer £3500 in cash and he wants us to pay him the final £3000 stage payment. But we think he got someone cheaper to do the work to save him money and we have paid for part of the job that was supposed to be included on the contract. Would I be unreasonable to ask for proof that the total job cost was £10500 and not pay the £3000 if he can’t prove it?