Post renovation issues - where to turn?

[Tomblibooz]

Hi,

I'm looking for some help please if anyone has knowledge or experience in post renovation issues...

A year ago we undertook a full house renovation. We had lots of architects and builders around for quotes before picking our preferred option. We went for our own architect/structural engineer, then a seperate builder to undertake all the work but a slightly larger firm with multiple teams/ who was able to do a lot of different trades in house (or so they said), and they said they would project manage too. They were not the cheapest, and decent reviews...so we did our due diligence, or so I thought!

The first few weeks went well, but then we had electricians leaving live wires hanging out of walls unexpectedly in rooms that weren't to be touched yet (kids bedrooms), the boiler move not being done by a certified person so co2 leak undetected for a few weeks etc. Along with the usual issues of poor quality finishing.

They refused to provide warranties for the works by the end, including on the brand new roof on the new extension (flat rubber roof).

We've started legal proceedings against them, funded by ourselves, as we've had to pay others to fix their issues or finish works they were supposed to have completed. The amount is over small claims court. The solicitor is costing £££ but has delivered nothing so far and we're months into it now.

Home insurance gives legal advice but doesn't cover taking them to court to recover costs unfortunately.

With the storm tonight, the new rubber roof on the extension is now leaking in multiple places. This is above our very expensive newly fitted kitchen and I'm just sick of issues/heart broken that its yet another thing to be fixed. I wouldn't trust them/their contractor to fix anything at this point, but do we need to tell them its happened and give them a chance to fix?

If we get our own roofers in to fix it, obviously we can chase the costs of that through the solicitor but will it give them an angle to say someone else has been on the roof and so warranty is void/they dont take responsibility?

Would home insurance cover the costs of the roof leaking after a poor install? I know they dont typically cover storm damage, but theres no damage, just the first major heavy rain its had.

Any advice or wisdom would be appreciated as I'm at the end of my tether!

Have you contacted building officer at council, not a redress but just more proof they balls up, unfortuanately the only way to go forward is legally. Get tons of pics and evidence. Organise a new builder to assess what was botched, more proof that they messed up. I had to organise a private investigator to serve court papers because all the official letters sent to him, his wife was returning saying he didnt live there anymore. Even if you win there is no guarentee of compensation. I had to pay to get balifs in, only then did I get my money. Very stressful time, took ages to resolve and my home was ruined, like your self I didnt just pick the first builder, I had several recommendations for this person, went to see his work done in others homes.
Is he a member of a trade body, if so contact them.
Feel for you massively because its extreme stress.

Sorry you've been through this too @2longinthetooth ! Such an expensive and stressful situation to be in.

Unfortunately I raised concerns to Federation of Master Builders and they said they could do nothing about warranties or anything relating to the financial side of things, and regarding the safety and quality issues, would only offer mediation which i didn't want to do by that stage.

Building control verbally told me the builder had tried to intimidate her and it was the worst misogyny she'd experienced on site in her 20+ years....but said she was not allowed to put that in writing. She did give me some issues that need resolved to get sign off done, so that's part of my evidence.

In some ways its useful to know it was worth pursuing for you, as we're so far in now but wondering if its worth keeping paying to try and recoup something, or if we're better to just write it all off now for the sake of the mental side of it. I'm not sure I can let it go though!

@TombliboozMine happened yrs ago in 2002, it was a full reno of my home, the way they left me I didnt even have a toilet. There had been some work done but thinking about it now he was way out of his depth and just a vile human being. Loved the money though, I knew him from around town and his wife worked in the same place as me. She used to verbally attack me saying I was harrassing her husband. Its laughable and I let her know a few home truths. I nearly came close to hitting her but knew id lose my job. He had destroyed my home it was uninhabitable. I had to move back in with my parents. He had just demolished everything in the house. He,d bought a new fancy pick up and Id heard on the grapevine via his wife of how they both were scamming other people in the company. Looking back I should have pursued it professionally because we are apart of a professional body but I had no actual evidence only gossip. It was a miserable time and scarred me for life. I was livid and this spurred me on to go all the way. It was like they were flaunting it in front of me. I had various trades coming to my home demanding money because they had not been paid either. I also had no other option as I needed that money to finish the work on my home. It was a desperate situation, id hit rock bottom so I had nothing else to lose. I was spurred on by anger. There really should be more done against people like this. The stress is beyond. It affected me so much I only have 1 trade in to do a single job these days, if its a bigger project I break it down. Id not let it slide. Everyone would know about it. I thought of going to the papers etc because you think of everything looking for an outlet. However my parents are more sensible than me, I was a raging monster I wanted to go and key his new pick up that id paid for. The anger and injustice of it all is overwhelming. Looking him up in the following yrs he had several ccj,s. Yet still allowed to scam people after me. Its wrong and needs to be tighter regulated with easier avenues for redress.

I suppose for you its a matter of outcome, how likely are you to get your money and will it be worth it against solicitor costs. The last thing you want is losing more money for zero gain. These people are pure cons. They just rap up the company and start a new one. They know they can get away with it. You could check out citizens advice to see if there is another avenue. Also you do have to protect your mental health, it sent me barmy. Id start writing letters. Write to the professional body, what is the point of being in one if it doesnt oversee or regulate the people within it. Seems ironic. Put it in writing how this has affected you. Demand answers. You in good faith trusted these builders solely on the basis that they were in a professional body. Thinking that the body would be ensuring a good standard of work. However this is not the case and it makes a mockery of the body. Put it back on them. Ask them why would you trust them in the future if their members are cowboys.
Start looking on line about them you will be surprised what you can find. Plus I know things have moved on since 2002 and this is now seen as serious. Maybe there is a forum online where you can get more up to date ways of redress or tips. Im truly sorry for you. It knocks you personally and questions your judgement. However you did your homework and still got shoddy work but that is no reflection on you. That is some scummy scroat. I guess its chalked up as a expensive lesson learnt. Like me I rarely have trade in these days and if I do its for a single job so its manageable and not so costly. Its finding a way to live with it. Not easy I might say.

It took me a while to get my money but do you know what after all that stress, when it was time for the court to pay me they told me I couldnt have the money because they had run out of cheques. No bank transfers in those days all cheque. You couldnt make it up. So I had to wait for them to get new cheques.

First thing, get a very reputable builder in to assess everything. Tell him what the problems are, take pictures and get him to write a full report. Pay for this if needed.

Then I think in your position if you can afford to get someone to fix anything urgent, like the roof, I would. It’s not worth the loss of a kitchen as well. I would email the original builder telling them what you’re doing but at this stage I wouldn’t be letting them rectify it themselves.

Then TBH I would be having a clear conference with your solicitor about options. Has she checked there are assets to satisfy any judgement? Because builders are often sole traders with no assets in their own name, or a company which doesn’t have any assets at all. What this means is that even if you are successful in court and get a judgement, there will be no assets at all to satisfy it so you could essentially waste thousands of pounds only to end up with a judgement but no remedy for the house.

If your solicitor has checked this and it seems positive then you still need to have a discussion with them about how long this is going to take, and how much it’s going to cost overall. It sounds brutal but to be honest I would probably be channelling as much money into sorting the house out with different builders as I could, and minimising legal costs. With a decent builders report and ChatGPT if you are reasonably intelligent, you could probably bring the claim yourself or consider doing the work up to any hearing for a fraction of the cost.

Have you had final sign off from building control? If not I assume you haven’t paid in full for the work done?

We had some poor building work done and before we paid the final amount we made sure they fixed everything required for BC sign off. The roof was the one thing they did really badly. It leaked the first winter after and the builders had a go at fixing it. It was ok for a while then leaked again. In the end we were so fed up we got a roofer to redo it at extra cost - not the whole thing but additional overlap and flashings and different coping stones. The roofer said the builder had taken shortcuts to cut costs. The roofer repair was a small percent of the total job so we just swallowed it.