Urgent self build help please

[Fedupofallthemud]

We are approaching the end of a self build project, we have used a main contractor and a few other contractors to do smaller pieces of work. We have always worked round main contractor to make sure his work hasn't been held up by the other contractors. We were trying to arrange access for the flooring fitter and he's now refusing access till the final invoice is paid. It's not overdue, his workers only finished yesterday!!
He's also not allowing us in to do other stuff like sealing wooden worktops, putting in additional shelving etc.
I think this is completely wrong. Our contract talks us about us allowing him access, not the other way round.
Does anyone have any experience of this? We have a good weeks worth of work to do with flooring, carpets etc and really don't want another week delay by him not letting us get on with it.
Thanks in advance

What contract did you use? Is it one of the JCT ones or similar or have you let the work on a bespioke building licence/ agreement?

From the detail in your post it sounds as if you have signed a works only contract for a shell complete build. It is normal for the builder to complete the shell of the building and then when that final stage is complete and the final payment is made, control of the site returns to you. It is very unusual for a contractor to allow other people on site to do works before they have finished their contract unless a warranty is issued by the 2nd contractor for any damages to the work to date. You (and your employers agent) should have access rights to monitor the works and value the works to date so you can release the stage payment. Having more than one contractor on site at any given time can lead to disputes if the work turns out to be faulty.

If you haven't signed a build contract then your builder is not a main contractor - just the builder who has done the majority of the work on site. In this case you are in control of the site - it also brings a lot of health & safety obligations so not to be undertaken lightly and it is very doubtful that the builder would have started the work without this all being in place (employer liablity insurance, CDM paperwork, H&S files, site safety briefings for each new person on site, public liability insurance et al) You should also have warranties and collatoral warrranties for where you builder subcontracted work.