Builders final bill

[Daisy829]

I’m wondering if anyone knows the answer to this....we had an extension done 5 years ago & the builder hasn’t asked for the final payment amount which is approx £10k. I have chased him & see him around and have a chat but he’s never come forward for it. We don’t have anything in writing (no judgement plse), he’s a decent honest guy so we would of course pay him if he asked but I was just curious where we would stand legally if he asked for it. Just to note he did an excellent job & we are really happy with it!

Do you have his address and contact info? I would try to get it resolved. Maybe you don’t owe him what you think you do. I would touch base so my conscience was clear.

Given you have chased him and been open I wouldn't keep doing it. He has 6 years from the invoice to chase it

Yeah this is what I think @MarieG10 I wonder if he’s sort of using us to hold the money to avoid tax. Hes done the same with my brother although his work was done 18 months after ours. We’ve seen him in the last couple of months & he knows how to find us. It’s just a bit strange!

So does he have 6 years from the work being done or 6 years from the final invoice. We haven’t had a final invoice.

My friend had this, as I recall it was about £16k. She did chase him over the phone and saw him around a few times but he fobbed her off...very weird. Think it was about 10 years ago.

Maybe he would rather write off the loss than get over the VAT threshold?

Yes I wondered if it was to do either VAT or tax. Strange isn’t it. I guess we will wait and see...

Technically assuming he is a limited company, he should have the work in his accounts and paid corporation tax even though he hasn't been paid. He has to write it off as a bad debt to get his tax back. Having said that HMRC are not likely to ever know that.

Sounds to me he is just disorganised

I can't be sure about 6 years from when. Yours is very unusual given you are chasing him to bill you. I would assume you would take it from when the work finished but you would need legal advice on that

Yes I think he’s not great with paperwork unknown his wife does most of it for him. I guess time will tell.

6 years is enough! I think you need to offer to pay up or get him to sign something stating all payments have been made for the work done.

Yes that’s a good idea actually getting him to sign something. It’s a bit strange isn’t it.

Okay I’ve just called him. He’s promised to get me a final bill & he’s working on our neighbours house in a couple of months so hopefully will get it sorted.

it might be worth mentioning you need to get this sorted for back-tax reasons and you wouldn't want to name him as a debitor.

A plumber never billed us for doing our bathroom. It's been nearly four years now. I have given up chasing him and am just leaving it. That's only about £1500 though. He evn had costs buying the waste and other bits and pieces.

@Murinae that’s sort of how I feel. I’ve asked him a lot. He said he’s got it all written in his books. It’s about £10k we owe him so not small change. I’ll see him soon enough by the sounds of it so I’ll try to get it sorted.