Sorry it's a long one. We had been let down by builders and were desperate to get a job finished before 8 May - it's for a greenhouse base and the greenhouse moving man is booked to move it to a new plinth on that day. I found a local builder on the back of the village magazine, called him, he came straight over and said he could finish the job no problem as a matter of urgency, was very sympathetic and seemed legit (wanted payment into bank account, not cash). He sent two prices that evening - an estimate of days for a day rate for 2 labourers to dig out the earth in the middle of the three sections of the base, second firm quote for building up blocks and then to fill with hardcore in/concrete ready for a layer of decorative bricks on part of the side (only part as on a slope) and all of the top. He said 2 days for labourers plus him on day rate - we paid this, it went fine and apart from him asking for an extra £100 because he hadn't realised the sand would need to be barrowed in rather than brought right to the garden (which I paid) and we moved on to stage 2.
Stage 2 was to build the base up and that was when problems started. He had said he wanted £2750 total to complete this stage. I was happy with this price with the understanding materials would be on top. He said in his email quote it would take 5 days total - no contingency needed - and that they needed 2 days for the concrete to dry making 7 days in total. They started on the Wednesday/Thursday last week, I had paid for materials which arrived and he sent me the receipt - all good. One day was slightly lost because they all went out and got plastered the night before but I glossed over that. On the Friday he had been due to have £850 sub on the £2750 total but he asked for £1250 - which I paid partly as he has messaged saying he guaranteed they would get all the concrete done on Friday and so we were on target to get the bricking done for early this week (deadline Thursday this week).
Friday afternoon he said they had run out of concrete meaning the middle section (that the greenhouse will go on) couldn't be filled. He asked for £500 for materials and said he was going to order everything online that night (he phoned Friday night urgently asking for the money) as it needed to be delivered on Tuesday. Yesterday (Monday 21 April) my husband asked me to request a receipt for the materials and it became apparent he hadn't ordered anything - he messaged in reply to my request for the receipt saying he might need to pay for 'a drink' to get the materials delivered and was talking maybe Wednesday or Thursday meaning our deadline was definitely going to be missed.
I was upset as the builder was getting cross with me asking for a new finish date (which he wouldn't give and the story kept changing). In the end DH messaged him and said 'lets call this to an end, just come and get your tools' and the builder called him and said he would be able to collect the materials after all and bring them in his van. We said 'great' but then he started asking for more money to do this - £20 diesel, £275 for a day in the van, extra money for the labourers. We again said 'we don't want to continue with you' and he became mildly threatening saying he was going to take us to court to get the total fee (for £1250 he has laid 40 blocks and filled 2 holes with concrete so far, no brickwork) then he messaged saying he is keeping the £500 for materials and expects another £500 in his account before 8am this morning. That would make the amount he would have had for quote two £2250, the whole thing was supposed to be £2750. This morning he turned up and took all the sand and cement we had paid for on day one. Just a really unpleasant and expensive experience and I wondered if you all thought I was unreasonable to stop this job and what I should do next (if anything).