Difficulty with builder

[Hillswalker]

Situation is we employed a builder from rated people to install a kitchen, utility and new bathroom in the flat. Quote agreed was £13995 for labour. Materials not included.
Payment schedule was agreed via text message stating weekly payments of about £1000 deposit and then a weekly schedule of £2500 ish.

Builder predicted the work would be done by 14th July which is when he was then going on holiday for a month. The agreement was that the penultimate payment of £2500 would be paid on 14th July on completion of the work. Then the final payment of £2500 paid one month afterwards (14th August) to allow for building control to sign off the work.

There were a couple of additional bits of work that needed to be added such as having to install a pocket door and adding in a couple of extra kitchen units. These were quoted and agreed at the time. Payment was made at the time of these additional works being agreed. The builder also added an extra £450 to the quote once work had started because his electrician had misquoted. Although the work was in the contract and covered by the £13995, to act in good faith we agreed to pay the extra £450.

Materials were not included in the quote. These came to £3141. I asked for receipts. He refused to provide receipts.

He went on holiday on 14th July having not finished the kitchen, utility or bathroom. We paid him the penultimate instalment as per the payment schedule which had been agreed despite the work not being finished. In total he has had just over £16000 from us so far.

He has come back this week and in a whatsapp message he has asked for further payment before the work has been completed. He said he is living off his credit card and therefore needs £1000 to continue. He was becoming pushy and aggressive over whatsapp. I refused to engage over whatsapp and asked to meet in person which he finally agreed to. He came round this morning and we agreed to £2000 to be paid to him for the majority of the work and then a final £500 to be paid once the last small bits of work have been done. This conversation has been recorded via a cctv camera. Builder is not aware this recording was made. It was made in our home in the kitchen.

Once the builder left, we got another message from him saying I was dishonest and treating people badly etc etc. He said he would have to run the quote again and charge me for any favours he had done previously. He has now said the job has been much bigger than he initially thought and that any extra work needs to be paid for. He has also said he needs more materials going forward.

I replied saying it's £2500 left to pay as per our agreement. Take it or leave it. He said he doesn't want to cancel the contract and if I don't agree to paying the increased amount or pay for the extra materials then it would be me that has cancelled the contract and I will be liable for the fees for cancelling the work as per the contract.

We are done with this guy. We don't trust he's ever going to finish the work. He's clearly in financial difficulty and he will always be looking for other ways to get money out of us. The first time he has mentioned any extra materials or needing to pay for any further work has been in the last couple of days when he has admitted to living off his credit card and just been on holiday for a month.

My partner is expecting a baby, we can’t live in a building site any more and it’s really affecting our mental health. We just need him to finish the work or leave so we can find someone else to finish the work.

Any advice from someone with similar experience would be much appreciated

I don't understand what state the work is in? If you believe that there's about £2500 left of work to do then you can reasonably get someone else to do it.
If on the other hand he's not actually finished the original quoted works and you think there's a lot more than that then you're in a pickle.
Is the work that's done to a satisfactory standard and are you thinking the total cost is still overall fairly reasonable?
Then I'd say to him, you will pay him on completion of specific things eg utility and possibly offer a bonus for completion of the lot with xx days. The issue you have is that anyone else will charge a fortune to come in a sort out someone else's half done mess.

He doesn't sound like a particularly savvy builder and you can go down small.claims court route but that doesn't get you a finished house

You need to establish how much work is left to do? If it is just the £2500
Have building control been paid and have they visited?
Have you paid for the materials and if yes have they all arrived on site? He should have receipts for everything or have bought the items on account at a builder merchant and then be billed a month later. He might not want to show you the receipts though because he will get a discount that he won’t pass on to you.

The kitchen and utility are pretty much done. Bathroom pipe work and drainage is in but non of the walls have been damp proofed or insulated etc. The toilet etc hasn’t been installed.
Building inspector hasn’t been yet.
Most materials have arrived on site but he has refused to show receipts for them and got very defensive when I asked for them

Citizens Advice have good info on their website but definitely get advice before you go any further. Seems to be par for the course these days. I remember giving my builder £7k one day and 3 days later he said he had no money to live on and that was apparently my fault - basically trying to get me to pay in full before completion so he could fuck off. He also re-costed the job and started saying he’d done me a favour. I don’t think I’ve ever had a builder that hasn’t done me loads of favours 😡

So unfortunately you've paid him the installments but failed to actually tie these installments to specific stages of completion of the work. So you paid the completionand building control milestones without those being met. So you're a bit screwed in honesty.
Yes you are in the right and if you took him to small claims you'd probably win. But as I said, that doesn't get you a finished house any time soon.
Builders are not all financially or commercially minded. He sounds like someone who can't price a job properly at best.
You can either wash your hands of him. Find someone else to sort it out and accept you'll probably pay them a good bit more for that. Or you can negotiate with him and sort out getting the job done. I'd be paying on specific milestones and agree each one. I think either way you'll have to pay more than you've budgeted for unfortunately. As you've paid him already for the work it's quite a tricky position

Thanks for your candour. Yes unfortunately we tried to act in good faith and he was quite aggressive and intimidating at times. We just wanted the work done but lesson learned!
We will have to find someone else and go through small claims

I would also contact building control. You should have paid for this service and they need to inspect at various points. The cost and number of inspections depends on the works being done.

I have over the years had l a lot of building work done on various houses and I’ve been very lucky and able to use the same local builder each time. I always buy my own materials and I pay either fortnightly for labour if it’s a bit job or at the end of the job.

If you’ve not paid for the materials that will at least off set some of the labour costs you’ve paid for but not received.