Builder suing for retention money - help!

emv

Hi

I posted a few months ago asking for advice as our builder who completed an extension to our house a year ago had not carried out a defects inspection and hadn't responded to our request for help (because water was coming in through a join between the extension & garage roof) for over a month. His response was not to send anyone out but to ask us to arrange a time for the long-overdue inspection.

By this point, we had had the problem with the roof sorted out by someone else. We were also very concerned as the last piece of work that he had carried out - restoring some flooring in our bathroom where the builders had taken up flooring to get to some pipes - had been carried out very badly by disgruntled builders who didn't want to be back in our house when they had work to do a few houses down. The work was done so badly that we also had to get that redone and the builders left a radiator covered detached from the wall and leaning aganist it so that when our 2 year old touched it, it fell over & he narrowly escaped it falling on him.

We owed about £3k in retention money but have also had problems with our 3 year old boiler which was moved as part of the building work. We were told that the problems - which have cost us £500 with another bill for £750+ yet to pay - were caused by the system not being flushed when the boiler was moved. We paid the builder £1000 in full & final settlement & he is now taking u sto Court for the remianing £2k.

My questions are:

• does the fact that we have no signed contract with the builder (as he asked us to sign both copies of a contract but didn't ask us to return it for his signature) work in our favour at all?
• should we explain about the poor standard of work or isn't this relevant? We explained to the builder that he had breached his contract by failing to carry out the defects inspection - which was due in Jan 08 & not mentioned by him until April 08, a month after our urgent request for help - and that this was why we weren't paying in full
• is there anything else that I can offer in defence of our claim?

Thanks

Emmavix

adaze

Is it a standard contract, or the builders own.

The fact that the work was of poor quality and had to be refitted speaks volumes, could you get a statement from others that did the repair work to state how it was before they repaired it? That would be v. useful.

You have paid to get problems sorted, so they should be removed from the outstanding amount, IMO, and this maybe mentioned in the contract, so if you have already paid 1250, he is basically asking for 750, and that is the amount you could be asked to pay. Did he agree to the "full and final settlement"?

Did you take any pictures, did anyone else see the shoddy workmanship?

EliteHeat

Surely you would have to have given the builder the opportunity to correct any work that you were not satisfied with.

It does not seem reasonable to me to get someone else in and then expect the builder to pay for what amounts to snagging work.

You use emotive terms such as disgruntled and then introduce the unlikely possibility that a radiator cover (not the actual radiator) could have seriously injured your child, implying some sort of negligence on the part of the builder.

Finally, it seems a bit rich to expect the builder to correct faults with your three year old boiler that are clearly the responsibility of the original installer - why on earth should it need 'flushing' (and what sort of flushing are you talking about) after only three years.

My personal opinion is that you don't stand a chance.

webwalker

emv wrote: »

Hi


My questions are:

• does the fact that we have no signed contract with the builder (as he asked us to sign both copies of a contract but didn't ask us to return it for his signature) work in our favour at all?
• should we explain about the poor standard of work or isn't this relevant? We explained to the builder that he had breached his contract by failing to carry out the defects inspection - which was due in Jan 08 & not mentioned by him until April 08, a month after our urgent request for help - and that this was why we weren't paying in full
• is there anything else that I can offer in defence of our claim?

Thanks

Emmavix

Firstly the original builder should have been made aware of and given the oportunity to remedy the faults, only you know if this was done. The retention money is intended to be used only if your builder refuses to carry out remedial work to your satisfaction.

On your builders letterhead there is usualy a mention of associations that they are part of, try sending a copy of your grievance to them and advise your builder that you are doing this. Copies of bills from other companies for the repairs would help back up your claim but you would still owe your builder the balance between the two sums.

madjay

I think you will find that you are in breached of contract.... you can not with hold retention after a year with out a full detail reason in writting. You can not get some one to carry out the snags without informing the builder in writting that unless he rectifys the problems in a certain time then you will get some one to do the work and will deduct the amount from his money. He has not breached his contract by failing to carry out the defects inspection on the required date. No thing in writting?????? Then I think you do not have a leg to stand on.

adaze

I think we need some more clarification from the OP. I read the main points from the orginal post as:

1) Roof leaking, original builder did not respond or offer to fix for over three months, roof fixed by others. I find this perfectly acceptable, you would not be expected to live with a leaking roof.

2) I read the part about the work on the floor, as work was done to a poor standard that we were not happy with and as a result got someone else to fix it. This is a bit different, did you give him the opportunity to put it right? What does the contract say about the defects period, guarantee etc...?

In response to eliteheats response, I find it perfectly acceptable that if the builder has moved the boiler and pipework AND this has resulted in the boiler failing then he should be held responsible (this isn't clear from the OP though, and if the builder has done nothing to the boiler then I would agree with your point)

Madjay, it would depend on what was stipulated in the contract, if the builder has not fulfilled the contract, then I would find it resonable that the retention is held back, thats what its for. However it would also be mentioned in the contract the reasons that the retention can be with held the OP really needs to have a read through what they signed. Whilst I would agree that notifications should have been done in writing, I wouldn't agree with the "no leg to stand on". If the contract stipulated set periods and you can prove when the builder finished (witnesses, invoices etc...) then the defects period will be quite easy to prove, as would the defect if the work has later been corrected by others.

The key points are: what does the contract say, they can vary massively. Did you give the builder sufficent chance to rectify the faults? Have you sent anything to the builder in writing?

madjay

adaze, I agree with your points, but a contract has to be signed by both parties and in this case it is not. If the builder was instructed to carry out the work "as per His Quotation" and t&C he has attached to it becomes a contract in lui of a signed one, which more than likely will favor the builder.