Help with legal action against builder

[custardbear]

Hi
I wonder if anyone can help, we've had a terrible time with our builder who eventually walked out on our build a couple of
Months ago and was nowhere near finishing what was agreed, he also stole stuff from us (some of the fittings (showers, taps etc), items which belonged to us such as our broadband router, a few other things in the house that were meant to remain (most of our stuff had beeen removed to storage as we'd moved out) ... other things too like flooring and a ventilation system we were going to reuse).

The day he left he said he was making the house H&S secure (we had the police round at this point because we could see he was stealing our goods and he was threatening to hurt my husband), he told the police he was just making it secure as it was his responsibility, the police said it was a civil matter and suggested
Giving him the time to
Make it secure, but ended up just stealing our items as above, tampering with the electrics purposefully making them less safe and made no efforts at all to make it more safe - it was a horrific time.

We subsequently spent a month with new tradesmen, and got the house into a liveable state and moved back in last month - we're still got work to do.
He owes us loads of Money for work he never carried out but promised to do after he got a bit behind - I feel awful that he's shafted us, he's obviously knowledgable and we're really not so he duped us. The contract we had with the master builders was rubbish, I phoned then to ask for advice
And they were utterly useless telling me that they couldn't tell Me If I'd be in breach of contract if I didn't pay him the final chunk of money ... and it went down hill from there!

We're hoping for and want to get some legal support - does anyone have experience of how to tackle it? I'm going to call various places this week to get some direction (already spoken to trading standards)
Thanks in advance

Does your home/building insurance include legal cover? If so, then maybe speak to someone there.

Some unions also have a free legal line thaw ill cover legal costs if your claim has good chances of success. Not sure if they will be open during covid 19 lockdown.

I don't know where you would stand. Can you prove he stole goods? There's a risk it is your word against his etc.

Whoops! Typos there! I meant:

"Some unions also have a free legal line that will cover legal costs if your claim has good chances of success. Not sure if they will be open during covid 19 lockdown."

Thanks - I'm with a union, they've not got back to me yet, I'll try them again in the morning

You will probably find your legal cover is defensive only but the advice line might help if you have cover.

The Federation if Master Builders contract is awful. It is written to protect their members, not the client so no wonder.

Despite that it shouldn't allow for what you have experienced.

What was the specification for he work you agreed? Is it clear and form part of the contract?

Why have you paid for work not completed?

What is the value of the loss to you for what he has not completed? Is it within the small claims court track limit which helps? Do you understand the value of the stolen items and damage caused?

Have you photographed everything and close up for detail?

Is he well known and long standing builder? Ie is he bothered about his reputation?

Is he a limited company? If so, how long. What does companies house records say se are free to access)

Ultimately you have to start putting stuff in writing to him and enable him to respond. Be clear where this is going, ie court.

My husband wrote our own contract along with stringent clauses over payments and withholding them. In addition a 20% holdback at the end until the building certificate was issued and a grace period after that for snagging. Builder swallowed hard when he read it, but he was an excellent builder and quality was brilliant. He did mention he had pinched our contract to use now although with some less stringent clauses!!

You may have to just chalk this up to experience otherwise you could send good money after bad. Can you prove that he stole stuff? Can you prove that it was him that tampered with electrics?
You could chase this to the Courts but all that will do is give you a piece of paper saying "we agree that Bob the Builder owes you £000". Actually getting BtB to pay up is another matter entirely - he might hide behind a Ltd Co which he then folds, he might persuade the Courts that he has no money and offer to pay £5 a month for the next 50 years (and then not pay, so you have to chase him every time).
Attack is probably the best form of defence / get your side of the story in first. Go after him so that he cannot turn the tables and try to sue you for the balance of the contract.

Be the better person: be squeaky clean, get evidence for everything.
Give it a go but don't expect justice.

Check your home insurance as previously suggested. We used ours to take legal action against a car garage.

Also is there some kind of building regs/regulating authority/ombudsman?

We had similar issues with a plumber and Corgi (as it was then) got involved and helped us.