builders not finishing work

[aladyofinderterminateage]

I am part way through a project on my house. The company have done part of the work. They have let me down a couple of times when they have told me the team are coming to finish off and they haven't turned up. I called them several times yesterday, assured me they are on the way. Eventually at 4pm they rang to say not coming.
They are supposed to be here now. No sign.
I am worried that they may not turn up/might do a rush job.
If they do a bad job I am concerned that they will mess me around.
Essentially I feel I am being fobbed off and I suspect that they have realised that I am a mid 60s woman, on my own.
Would I be within my rights to pay them for the work they have done and find another firm to finish off? I am feeling anxious about how to proceed.
TIA

You should give them a deadline/ultimatum. What does your agreement with them say about timing of the works? If it is silent then they should be expected to complete the works within a reasonable time.

If they then don't come to complete the works you should wait and see how much another builder will cost to finish the job before you pay them. Say they have done a third of a £10k job. You pay them £3,333. Then other builders say that they won't finish it for less than £8,500. You're out of pocket.

Thank you.
I will read through the paperwork again.
I hate dealing with this sort of thing, but it was work that needed doing.

Did you have a contract? That would be the first port of call.

It might be worth starting to talk to other builders and see what they say/quote. Builders quite often don’t like taking over work that’s half finished though because if something goes wrong it’s hard to prove if it’s their fault or the previous contractor.

Either way as PP said it will probably cost more and take longer to kick the old builder off and get a new one in.

Persevere with the current builder if you can. I know it’s frustrating but it’ll be a lot faster than waiting for someone else to have a free slot to do the work, unless it’s a really small job.

Unfortunately this is common, builders think they will be finished with you on X date so they commit to start a new project just after. And then your work overruns a bit but they know the new client is expecting them, so they have to turn up there or risk losing the new job. So they disappear off yours and they reckon they will squeeze in finishing yours when they can.

Chances are they do intend to come back and finish your work OP, they are just trying to juggle it with another job. What you need to do is be a squeaky wheel - phone up, ask where they are, phone up again, get shirty if they’ve not turned up when promised, etc. Basically make a pain of yourself till they turn up and do it. And then check the work carefully to be sure they are not rushing it.

Hopefully you have not paid all in advance? So they are incentivised to come back to get the rest of the payment?

Finding new builders to finish off a half or mostly completed job is very tricky, nobody wants that work.

No, I haven't paid them, so that is one good thing. Yes I am told they are finishing another job. They have agreed another day to come, so I will see what happens on the day. It just makes me feel a bit anxious, plus, I am living in a mess.
I hope they will get it finished soon.
If they had just explained this earlier I would have stayed in all day waiting for them. They handled it badly.

Wouldn't have stayed in all day.

They have agreed another day to come, so I will see what happens on the day.

Call the afternoon before, say “just checking you will be coming tomorrow as agreed” and try to get them to commit to an arrival time window. Point out that you have to stay in for them. Basically make it as difficult as you can for them to think “oh lots to do here, we’ll have to push alady’s work to tomorrow”