Anyone used a builder mediation service?

[HeyPesto55]

So relations with our builder finishing our kitchen renovation have completely broken down. He has gone on to another job, refuses to tell us when he is returning or when he will finish the work. To add insult to injury, he has been fully paid up with about 3 weeks of work left to do. (I know, I know!) We have no sink, dishwasher, washing machine and the heating hadn't be reinstalled. I am going grey obviously.

Has anyone used or can recommend a mediation service? FWIW, I don't believe he's a crook. I believe he will see with a bit of outside perspective that it would be in his best interests to just get the job finished. At the moment he's just trying to exert his power over us and be difficult. An arsehole generally

We had a similar situation to this, and we approached the Federation of Master Builders.

They didn't actually do much, but the threat of being removed from their register was enough to make the dishonest thieving twats builders return the money we'd paid them.

If you've reached that stage, though, I don't think I'd want them back in the house. Too much scope for them to resent you, and do an intentionally crappy job.

(Sorry, I'm bitter about builders. Others may have a different perspective!)

Huge sympathies, OP. Renovations are so stressful even when they're going well. Why did it go so sour?

I agree with margaurette though – in the first instance go to the FMB, if your builder is a member, and ask them if they can help you get back the balance you paid for work he hasn't done. Then use that money to get someone else to finish the job.

If that doesn't work or he's not a member, speak to a solicitor about sending a letter demanding the money back. Hopefully that'll be enough of a scare to get him to refund you.

Thank you very much for your comments. I'm not sure he's a member but it's worth exploring... definitely.

Makemine, I think if I threaten legal action he'll never return and we are in difficult position in that we have literally no additional money to pay anyone to finish.

Obviously he's fully aware of all this! He's already said if he's forced off the job then we won't see any money back. If we threaten legal action, he'll say he's forced!

It's so stressful. I'm so sorry to hear about your experiences. What were the outcomes?

There should be something in your contract about this.
We had the right to go to arbitration, and the arbitrator found in our favour and required the builder to pay back money for things he hadn’t done.
Unfortunately for us our builder was a sole trader and declared bankruptcy. We didn’t see a penny. —and the arsehole continued building, presumably under his sons name—

If he doesn't want to be forced off the job, why has he walked off and gone to another one?? That makes no sense. What happened in the run up to him storming out?

Isn't it horrible.

We got the money back, and used it to pay someone else to finish it. They've done a much better job, so if you discount the time and stress, we've ended up ok.

But sympathies, it crap feeling so powerless.

It is so annoying! A catalogue of miscommunication... he's a very volatile guy. Tends to take any question of what is happening as criticism. It started when we asked for an idea of what order he was doing works in and when he thought he'd finish and just snowballed from there. Not helped by him dropping our larder unit and telling us we needed to pay for the replacement and then he would claim on insurance. As we now have no money, we have reached a dead end on that one. He just shouts a lot. It's pretty horrendous.

I suspect he got really fed up with the job and now just wants rid. Nothing in the contract. It's an email that says thing like 'fit kitchen.' I've just received an email from him warning to expect bills for further work. He hasn't even done half the job yet! There is no way you can talk to the guy.

No idea how we got to this stage tbh. It makes me feel a bit sick.

Margurette, really pleased you got there in the end. But what a total nightmare. Not sure how you have stayed so rational...