Issuing a witholding notice; advice req

iamcornholio

Witholding Notices relate to certain commercial building contracts, not normally domestic work

What you do is demand, in writing that the work is put right to industry standards.

Give them seven days to put the work right or else you wll engage another competant contractor to do the work, and seek to recover your costs from the contractor

If payment is due, then you can either withould all the payment untill the work is finished (by the looks of it, the work is not finished)
Or you can pay up "under protest" and sue for the cost of putting the work right via another contractor.
Or you can make a part payment to cover the work already done satisfactorily, and not pay the balance untill th ework is done properly/complete

There is no reall legal jargon, just put the above into your own words.

Include dates and deadlines within the demand

crystaltips_68

Thanks, i will draw up a letter in a few days following the advice given, but first i am waiting for a couple of quotes to come in from other companies. Then i will decide how much to hold back.

I really appreciate the advice!!

welnik

I've been reading this thread with great interest as my husband is a tradesman. Am I right in thinking that if my OH provides a quotation and the customer places an order and pays a deposit, we then have to write to them and give them 7 days cancellation rights? The product he supplies is usually made to measure so this would mean we couldn't place an order with the manufacturer until the 7 days have passed.

In our experience, customers don't like waiting for stuff and when our product can take up to 4 weeks to make, this is now becoming an even longer wait.

baldelectrician

The regs exclude custom items (made to measure).

The client would have to sign a 7 day waiver and agree to pay in full for any materials ordered and any cancellation charges, then the waiting period would be the same as before

This is a shambles only a government can make. They take a good idea (to stop doorstep selling / hard sell by the kitchen / bathroom / bedroom sales companies) and make it cover someone fitting a tap washer.

The cancellation thing is good in practise, but very unfair on small tradespeople. It discriminates against small business.

I know someone who had agreed a start date of 2 weeks away, refused more lucrative work (as he had given his word) and was turned away when he arrived as arranged to carry out the work.
He lost out twice

There is nothing to protect the tradesmen from rogue customers

welnik

baldelectrician wrote: »

The regs exclude custom items (made to measure).

The client would have to sign a 7 day waiver and agree to pay in full for any materials ordered and any cancellation charges, then the waiting period would be the same as before

This is a shambles only a government can make. They take a good idea (to stop doorstep selling / hard sell by the kitchen / bathroom / bedroom sales companies) and make it cover someone fitting a tap washer.

The cancellation thing is good in practise, but very unfair on small tradespeople. It discriminates against small business.

I know someone who had agreed a start date of 2 weeks away, refused more lucrative work (as he had given his word) and was turned away when he arrived as arranged to carry out the work.
He lost out twice

There is nothing to protect the tradesmen from rogue customers

Thanks for that. I think we will be amending our quotes so I will get some advice on exactly what to put on them.

There are always stories about rogue tradesmen but not so many about rogue customers. We had one yesterday who agreed a price for a job which was labour only to fit a garage door. When it was fitted, he then wanted to know where the UPVC cladding was to go around it which had never been discussed and was not on the quotation. He then refused to pay. He didnt bargain on my OH taking the keys to the door and saying that he would not get them until he paid up. Curiously, out came the wallet. He basically wanted him to go off and purchase the UPVC (£40 worth), come back and fit it for nothing.