I live in a block of flats that is managed by the leaseholders. We recently had the communal areas of our block painted by a national firm. The quote (circa £20,000) was to include the flat doors. The firm was reluctant to quote for these even going so far as to say fire doors can't be painted (unrue), but we said no doors, no deal. Anyway eventually they quoted for the full job and we accepted.
Fast forward two months... they have painted everything apart from the doors and are now dragging their heels. They had set a date this week and we had arranged for all the leaseholders to be present on that date (no mean feat!) so as doors have to be propped open for the entire day. They have now cancelled this at short notice citing "staff illness" and are saying they can't come back until next year. We are suspicious that they are planning on never coming back. Prior to cancelling the door painting date they requested partial payment for the work already done (we haven't paid this yet).
Where do we stand with getting a different firm in? Do we have to pay the first firm for the work they've already done? To my mind they didn't finish the job so they shouldn't get paid anything!