I am such a fool! Advice please

[WomanInTheMoon]

Argh!
I'm not normally quite this gormless but..
We have ticked all boxes of 'how not to employ a builder' when he came round to re-plaster one room in our house.
a)He was able to start the next day.
b)Cash in hand.
c)We didn't get any other recommendations/quotes - we had had a 5 month brush off from another plasterer and were feeling a little desperate!
We had to really push him for a quotation - nothing in writing, of course but he did say between 2000-2500k maximum, which was reasonable as it is a large room, this was including replacing a supporting beam and coving.

I feel so stupid - during the work he did do some extras like level the ceiling and replaced the funnel in the fireplace - but is now looking for a total of 8500k. The plastering and cornicing is fine but the joinery was truly appalling - they knocked wedges of the door and architrave, put 4 inch nails in the skirting into the plaster which is at crazy angles along the floor. Also they broke many things around the house, left it filthy, put a hole through the ceiling which wasn't repaired.

This took them over 7 weeks of them coming and going and me feeling really restricted to a small part of the house while all this work took place - most of the time they weren't here as well!

They all seemed to disappear about 6 weeks ago with the work unfinished and when my husband tried to get in touch, the builder didn't seem to know who he was! Very strange.

Then tonight he turned up looking for £4500 as we have already given him £4000. We asked for a breakdown and receipts and he refused, just demanding the money calling my husband a gypsy and a f-ing w**nker to boot. Charming. He was threatening in his behaviour, after he left I called the local police to let them know and they said they will call him to advise him not to behave like that!
The whole thing is very unsettling - he won't tell is what he charges himself - it appears all the others have been paid eg the plasterer, the electrician and he was demanding his pay. We can only account for him being here 6 full days with 1 other helping him.

I feel like SUCH a fool - we have had other workmen in since doing different jobs and they only underline how foolish I have been, they give in advance quotes and everything! I feel like it is our own fault for not getting written quotations but cannot rewrite the past now.

We are planning to speak to CAB in the morning and take the advice of a solicitor (who witnessed sweary builder).

Does anyone have any advice on what (shaky) ground we have?

oh dear.. poor you!
from someone who's also fallen victim to a dodgy tradesman: it's not so much being stupid, just being off guard can be enough.
for us the damage was fortunately not as bad, although because several neighbours saw us using the guy (gardening job) they thought he must be reliable... and they got fleeced for several £100s each, so in total he did quite a good job .

sounds like you are taking the right steps by talking to CAB and solicitor. I hope you get things sorted and him off your backs.
just wanted to give you my support really, as we were not quite as clued up about who to contact about it (we thought as it was cash in hand we were the ones in the wrong...)

it is a difficult situation for you but just sit tight.

write out exactly what extra work was undertaken, to what standard. have a think about what you think is reasonable to charge for it. work out the cost of putting right what has been done wrong ( wonky joinery). Write out on paper what you have paid him and think about how you can evidence it ( did you withdraw the cash from the bank for example).

this will give you a clear idea of how much you actually owe him and therefore how much to offer him.

there is no written contract either way in this case surely you can only go on the evidence- ie the work done and you can evidence that.

Thank you for replying and your advice.

We had great help from the CAB today - they advised we write to him two letters. One detailing the work that was done, what we weren't happy with and what went wrong, this is formal and chronological.
There is also a second hand written letter which is emotive, really just expressing how distressing it has been, especially how aggressive and sweary he was when he came round demanding the money last night. Both will be cc-ed to the CAB.

Actually I have felt a bit scared in case he does turn up - am not good with that sort of confrontation, when someone behaves irrationally its difficult to believe they will not just continue to behave in that way. Luckily though he hasn't!

I have a feeling though if all his jobs are cash in hand he may not pursue it as it may open a can of worms for him with relation to the Inland Revenue...but we'll see I suppose.
I am glad we are making steps towards a resolution even though he behaved like a petulant child yesterday, I really want to put it behind us - if he does turn up with a properly reasonable offer and receipts then of course we will pay him when we can.