Builder asking for more money

[socksandshoos]

Refurb of 2 bed house should have taken 3 months at approx £50k budget. Am at the 3 month mark, have handed over £49k now builder asking for more money as the plastering (which was finished a month ago) cost more than he realised. I gave him £2k extra at the time for this.

Original quote broken down into payments, builder said he was ahead of schedule so some payments given earlier, others once trades had done their bit.

Bathroom/kitchen not done yet, and despite a quick start, very little progress in last month. Don’t want to go in guns blazing but how do I approach this - I don’t want to hand over anymore until the job is finished and if I have to get in another builder I’ll be more out of pocket so hoping someone has had experience of this and can advise on what to say to get them to finish without holding me to randsom

I’d need more detail but think you’re already too far in on the money. Definitely don’t pay any more until it’s finished.

Thanks for your reply. I spoke to him today starting with ‘what do we need to do to get this finished’ & said he couldn’t justify asking for more money when he hadn’t done work he’d already been paid for. He made a few excuses & reeled off a few bits that were done today & his plan for next week. Also said he wasn’t asking for more money, just that he’d been billed for appliances when it should have come to me (true, think Howdens block unpaid accounts so messes up his other jobs).

so not fallen out (phew) not paid out (double phew) and hopefully back on track…

Great news OP.

Nobody pays that much up front, just a deposit then the balance when you are happy with the work. Your builder is a cowboy.

Thanks for your reply - any advice on what I should say to get things finished?

My son is stone mason, he pays for everything upfront, the client pays a deposit the balance at the end of the job.

We paid Howdens directly for our kitchen. It was on the builder's account but we paid the bill. Not all small businesses can pay upfront for materials.

Sounds like you've resolved it now?

Was it a quote or an estimate?

Get those appliances on site before you pay a penny for them. If you haven’t already and you’re able to, make your next payment on credit card. At least then you have protection if things go left. Get an email outlining the timings and expected completion date and don’t pay any more funds for labour until he’s finished. You should also have a copy of your contract, but either way start making a diary of what’s happened, what’s been said, and work completed.
We’ve had this with a tradesman before and it went as badly as it possibly could. Don't engage in BS sob stories about why it’s not finished, focus on getting him on site to finish. And building your evidence in case you end up in court / making a credit card claim.

Agreed.

Plus, this is a £50k job, builders can't bankroll that for their clients until the end and shouldn't be expected to either. That is absolutely the wrong reason to call a builder a cowboy.

Payments should reflect the work done though.

How payments are organised should really be sorted out from the beginning, whether it's payments at benchmarks or at regular agreed intervals with documentation of progress against budget.

We paid for our extension in staged payments. Deposit, foundations, roof on, finished job, plus a couple of additions paid for along the way.

What percentage is finished and how much contingency have you allowed - is that included in the £50k?

We did a much bigger project and didn't pay anything upfront, just payments at fortnightly intervals (so invoiced at week 2, paid within a week, so payments were weeks 3, 5, 7 etc. Final payment only made when everything complete. A valuation was done for each of those payments so we only paid for materials that had arrived or work that had been done in last fortnight.

Have you paid for some work that hasn't happened yet?

We'd normally budget for a 10% contingency but the fluctuating cost of materials meant we allowed for 15% instead. We ended up 8% over.

If anything came up that turned out to be more expensive than the original quote then the builder would call us to discuss options. This did come up a couple of times eg finding a wall was in much worse condition than expected.