Are our builders being unreasonable? What can we do?

[LJDJGJFJ]

We have/are having work done to our house. The builders started at the end of July and had agreed in contract to be complete by the end of August. We know that this timescale was about right as all the other quotes we had stated the same timescale.

For weeks now, we have been asking for a new timescale and to be told what will be completed each day, builders seem reluctant to give us that.

We have paid for more that what has been done so far, about £6000 worth is left to be done and we now owe only £2600. For a while, we held off on payments and tried to hold off again last week but the builder was adamant we had to pay so that he could pay wages and buy more materials. We agreed to pay half of what he was asking for for this payment, as we have already payed for all our materials and have paid more than where we are up to in labour.

We are now at a point where it has taken double the time we were told and if they were to do full days, we estimate there should be another 3 weeks to go.

Initially at the start, he said he would do evenings and weekends if he falls behind but we have had no evenings or weekends. He comes at 10:30/11am and leaves about 4pm and hasn't even turned up or bothered to message today. We feel like we are living in an absolute nightmare at the moment and have only shown him understanding so far, but we are at the point now where we are quite honestly really fed up.

We can't spend any time downstairs but luckily can now use kitchen facilities and we are due to have decorators in next week as the job should have been completed some time ago by now. We also have a 5 year old and 4 month old so it is dragging along way too much now! What was supposed to be 5 weeks is now looking like 13 weeks plus!

Where do we stand and what can we do? We are not confrontation people anyway so as I say, have been really polite and understanding so far, but we can't keep living like this!

Hi OP,

Have you been waiting on any materials as we've had a delay in materials and other things?
Also materials have really gone up in price too.
If he's still sticking to the original price, I'd save the rest until they are finished and signed off by building control, if you need them.
Why is he turning up so late? They seem to be 3 hours short each day on those hours, this could be a reason it's taking longer.
Ask him for a meeting and use that time to agree to a new schedule and tell him you cannot make anymore payment until it's finished.

Did you get a quote OP?, cos it sounds like he's working on a daily rate at the moment.

@Takeitonthechin it is all through a quote and as I said, all our materials were paid for at the beginning which is before they shot up in price so I feel as though he hasn't used our material money for materials when we gave it to him!

We have a very small outstanding balance now, compared to what the full quote was and don't want to pay anymore of the balance until he has caught up with the work (as we have now paid for a lot more than what he has done so far according to his breakdown of the quote. In our eyes, if for whatever reason he couldn't finish the job, we now wouldn't be able to pay somebody else to complete the job and would be left in a state :(.

We won't be paying anymore than what was originally quoted as we physically wouldn't have the funds to do that.

We believe that if he had worked full work days, we would have had it finished within the timescale he put on the contract, but he is working half days and since it has run over, is sometimes not turning up and not answering our calls either.

My mum had work done a few months ago and her builder came at 7:30am and left at 6pm sometimes later without fail, he even came on Easter Sunday (after asking if that was okay of course)! Not that I am expecting that, but she was certainly lucky!

In fact, we already have the bulk of materials needed. We have a delivery on Wednesday as well which is already paid for so I don't actually think anymore need paying for.

There is certainly a huge list of things that could be done over the next week with the materials that are still in our house, yet we still have no shows and half days.

You need a meeting with OP, I'd go round his house when he least expects it if he's not answer your calls

OP - I would have meeting and go through the contract . if you owe roughly £1300 out of £6000 I would be saying that this his finishing payment given you have paid for all materials. to some extent depends how much your finishing payment is worth to him But a proper contract is a contract - & I would with hold until you are within an ace of finishing. Sounds a bit hand to mouth to me. One piece of advice we took before previous works was never employ a builder who asks for money up from for materials . A decent going concern should be able to accommodate that with a decent payment plan . But you are where you are & I can understand the nervousness of thinking he & team just walking off.

It sounds to me like he is putting builders on to other jobs rather than yours. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets oiled & perhaps other customer are shouting louder than you or he is overstretching himself by taking on jobs he cannot fulfil with the team he has. I would have a polite and decent conversation to say we need to finish by x ( even if beyond the original date ) and get him to agree to x job by y date or no more money. Scary but - might not work - but at least he has you on his list to get that last payment. & have that conversation with the contract in front of you.

In previous work builders would clock off about 4 pm but they started at 8am and did inside work until 9 at which point they did outside work.

@LJDJGJFJ I am sure you have thought of all of this & sorry if no help - but my thoughts are with you

@Takeitonthechin
@BasiliskStare

Thank you both!

We have already had the co cessation's with him numerous times over the last 4 weeks when we realised it definitely was not on track but we have lost all faith to be honest. Husband has spoke to reading standards who say we are well within our right to have a reduction of cost or to terminate the job and have money back to get another builder to complete the job.

We will have a decent and polite talk to him as we don't want to leave anything on bad terms and will explain that this will be our next step if it is not done by X and if he continues not to do full days/Miss days.

That should say conversations! Sorry haha

Whoops! Also supposed to say trading standards there!

How did it go op? Did you get a resolution?