Builder just walked out!

[FebruaryPosting]

We’re 9 weeks into a 10 week build.
I’ve just had an email from the builder saying they’re terminating the contract with immediate effect.
They said due to ‘friction’. The only friction was them installing a cloakroom toilet I didn’t like and that wasn’t discussed, and them putting a ridge on the top of the bathroom tiles that looked odd. That’s it.

We’ve paid over £50k to them, and the last week was going to be a snagging list, like putting doors in, plastering the ceiling on the landing, touching up paint where they created a leak etc, which we were going to pay extra (£4k) for.

But, we’ve already paid over £4k for the cloakroom, and they’ve only put a loo and sink in?! No tiling, decorating, taking out an air vent…all of which was supposed to be included!
The kitchen/diner we paid over £20k for (plus £10k for the actual kitchen) and they’ve not finished the painting and other areas. We paid £3500 for them to level and lay the floor. The floor isn’t level.
The bathroom we’ve paid almost £10k for, and there’s no floor, the towel rail doesn’t work, and it’s not been painted….

There’s also other things paid for that we haven’t got/hasn’t been finished.

Can we take him to small claims to retrieve some of the cost we’ve paid out?

He's used the wrong tile edge bead depth (rookie error) and that panel behind the loo is definitely a design choice that should have been discussed.

Speak to your home insurers to see if they cover for anything like this (they in turn would claim against the builder).

The quality of some of that tiling in the corners is poor. They’ve done a bad job of cutting and fitting them to size. Reminds me of the tiling job I did in my first house and I was clueless, heaven knows what the subsequent owners thought!

It's hard to advise not being on site during the communication but I would respond in writing in an attempt to seek clarification of what has been the straw to break the camel's back...

I remember one job DH was involved in, he had nothing to do with the wife, but the Husband fell out with everyone working on their property. He was rude and obnoxious and kept talking about a ''builder'' saying this and that had to occur when no one had met the ''builder'' and the fellow kept turning up with pages taken from the internet, and if the guys put up an alternative opinion based on experience, he was extremely rude back to them and there was nothing any of them could do to seek reason with him.

Do you have an official body over there who can be a 3rd party to assist in negotiation? Is the Builder a member of trade group who might offer assistance in this regard? I think you need to go down this route before the Court claim option as exhausting all avenues.

Can you live with the brown toilet back? I would really try and get to a point where the builder comes back to finish off. You shouldn't have to compromise but this may be the best way to go. Don't pay anymore until the job is finished and pay that by credit card too.

Also if the real reason is the builder is over stretched agree which jobs to prioritise eg leave the painting as this will be easier to do yourself/get someone else in to do but get the building work finished

I'd write out your snags list, get another quote from elsewhere (if his wasn't itemised) and then tell him you want that much refunded to allow you to complete the work.

What does he mean about the reduced budget, though? Did you cost cut after agreeing the work?

Some posters here are insane.

It isn't about OP being indecisive or difficult 🙄

It's clear he has carried out really shoddy work, including not levelling a floor, an incomplete kitchen (that they've spent £30k on in total!), an unfinished bathroom for £10k.

It's not a small job that you could accept & touch up.

He has taken a massive amount of money & failed to deliver.

I am a bit surprised you paid so much when he hasn't done the work - a week to go but incomplete bathroom, kitchen, painting ... that's a lot.

I think your only option is legal redress unfortunately.

Agreed, he sounds dreadful.

We paid by debit card….stupid I know now… I’ve also read so many stories about things being covered by CC, so no idea why I didn’t do this and just transfer the money to pay it off. But it’s done now…

He has changed the brown back to white now, and put a sink in (which feels too big), but then left everything else in there.

Re; the reduced budget, when we got the quote he said it would be X. We said we had X, so he agreed to do the work for this amount.

He also gave us an invoice with an extra £500 on it, for an ‘increase in materials for the bifolds’. I queried this, said he didn’t mention it, and he can’t just add hundreds without a discussion. He said prices had gone up since the original quote, but I said he needed to communicate this with us. We agreed to pay half in the end, but this also seems to be a bug bear of his that he’s ‘out of pocket’ £250. 🙄

Op, I'm so sorry you're going through this. The builder sounds horrendous. I have no advice, but I hope you manage to get the work done. 💐

I'd leave honest reviews for the builder everywhere too.

I’m afraid the more you post the more it seems 6 to 1, half a dozen to another.

re bifolds prices have gone up and it’s reasonable for him to charge you for that, paying only half is not on

Re; the reduced budget, when we got the quote he said it would be X. We said we had X, so he agreed to do the work for this amount.

He's talking out his arse then. That was the agreed amount prior to commencement of work - no reduced budget since the agreement.

Depends what the contract says.

Does your contract with him actually contain a clause that allows him to end it prematurely because of 'friction'? That would be my starting point for the legal action I think you're invariably going to have to take. I would also check if he's a paid up member of the National Federation of Builders because they have a mediation service for when relationships between contractors and clients break down, so it might be worth trying that.

www.builders.org.uk/find-a-builder/complaints/

Do you have a contract? If so, what type. And a programme of works?

@GoodChat

Depends what the contract says

yes it would if there was one, but given the OPs silence on the matter and reference to “we told him what we wanted” I’ve assumed one doesn’t exist.

In the event the contract exists it would be very unusual in current economic climate for the contract to have the builder take on any increase in costs of materials

A good contract would clearly state who absorbed additional costs in the light of price rises and it's always the customer. It's hardly the builder's fault that prices rises during the construction because of external economic factors.

Not having a written, signed contract is really foolish!

To be honest it sounds like you've not really project managed this very well, I.e you haven't been specific in the sink you want etc or having regular meetings as there's a lot of little bits you mention you're not happy with as your post has gone on.

It will be much easier to try and salvage your relationship and get it fixed and pay them the 4K.

Is some of the problem that he's reduced the spec to match your budget but you still want exactly what you had in mind originally?

Just to try and see it from his perspective, he's used the brown back because he has an off cut, it is on special offer or whatever, the sink is the cheapest one he can get (the tiling does seem to be an error but he fixed it). The sockets on the island means the sparky can get finished and on to another job.

Are you there? I.e can you make these decisions on the spot? Otherwise it costs him in time and other jobs.

He could be a nightmare or you could be causing him a real headache. Or it could be 50/50.

But I do agree with getting the major work finished and getting in your own decirator

Sorry for the silence, I’ve got a chest infection, haven’t slept for a week, and now this….

My OH has noted some other things this morning that the builder hasn’t done, like the shower, he said he’d install X and hasn’t, and has put in a cheaper version.

My OH is going to write an email to him, listing what we have paid for and he’s not completed, and also drawing his attention to the cash we gave him, and VAT we’ve paid for for an incomplete job.
He’ll then ask for X back, and give him 14 days to pay, and if not we’ll go down the small claims route.
We think his home address is what’s on his invoices and on Companies House, so we’ll hand deliver the email if he doesn’t respond.

Thank you for the helpful advice, I’ve passed that on up my OH.

@FebruaryPosting sounds like a good solution.
Good luck!

Sorry to hear you are poorly, OP. Do you have a written contract with this builder detailing the payment terms and scheduling?

Calmdown14 - I’ve been here 100% of the time, working from home in the lounge.
We assumed he’d ask us when we needed to tell him about what we wanted in the cloakroom and bathroom, but it was only when he’d done it we knew.
I then asked him to speak to me when it came down to deciding things like that, and even with the bathroom loo I said I wanted an X lid and he’s still put a cheaper one on. And that’s after our conversation.

I honestly don’t know how much more I could have done.

On the plug issue, they did all that so no electrician, so it was only their time. If he’d have said ‘We can’t now do it under the island, it needs to be on the side’ I’d have said ‘okay, only put it on one side then, not both’, but he didn’t. He just cracked on and I only knew after it was done.

Why on earth have you paid for unfinished rooms?????

For clarity, there is clearly a contract, but it may not be written. If there isn't a full written contract, the quote (assuming there was one) and any terms and conditions on that are likely to be part of the contract, subject to the ts & cs not containing any unreasonable clauses.

The general position for construction contracts is that the builder cannot pass on increased costs to the customer. If there is no written contract and the builder's ts & cs are silent on the issue, that is the situation. If the cost of materials rises, the builder has to take the hit.

Some contracts do allow the builder to pass on increased costs with the customer's agreement. However, a clause that allows the builder to simply demand additional money without first agreeing it with the customer is unlikely to be upheld by the courts for a consumer contract.