nightmare conversion

lynds1969

Hello all,
my mom is in a nursing home waiting to come home (im her carer).We decided to have our garage converted into a kitchen and our old kitchen changed to a bedroom for mom.
I found a local builder on the internet - he has a very professional looking website so it was quite inpressive.
He called round ,I told him all about mom coming home and that we needed it done quite quickly - he had a look at the work to be done and said it would take 4-6 weeks,he sent a quote through the post a couple of days later.We thought it was a little high and told him when he phoned - he seemed quite shocked.We phoned another builder - he came and had a look but never got back to us with a quote so we went with the first builder.
Anyway to cut a long story short it has now been 12 weeks and although the majority of it has been done there are a few jobs still left.The stress of all this living in a mess has really got me down.The builder has the gift of the gab and everytime we question anything he says -oh its just a phone call.He has really messed us around and I finally lost my rag with him last week when he wanted the final payment - all that was left to pay was £313.I said I wasnt paying him anymore money as he owed us some - he quoted £700 to have the drive resurfaced - the exact quote was "alterations to/to include resurfacing of driveway".We told him we didnt want this done as we will use the pressure washer.He said the £700 wasnt just for the drive (which he hasnt done anything to ) but for associated works and wont give us any money back.He also used my £300 Dyson hoover to get the rubble up when knocking the doorway through - he never asked to use it - I came back home and he had left it in the living room covered in plaster and it wont work right now and is filthy.I confronted him about this and he agreed he shouldnt have done it but no mention of any refund,he also admitted he had dragged the work out as he hadnt got anymore lined up!.I have found out through the plasteres and carpenter that he has ripped other people off by over quoting and even they are on my side and say I need to take it further.He put a bow window in place of the garage door and a canopy across the front and I only found out from the carpenter that the left hand window will not open fully because of the placment of the hangman gallow - I cant reach the window to open it but the builder has told everyone I knew about this but he never said anything to me.
I have been quoted £500 by a different company to resurface the drive and along with the price for a new hoover I am looking to get around £800 back off the builder - can anyone advice me what to do now - it is a waste of time talking to the builder again as I know he wont just give it to me .

Freddie_Snowbits

It would be helpfull to tell us what type of contract did you have and the staged payments that applied. Also I have made your post a bit more readible.

lynds1969 wrote: »

Hello all,
my mom is in a nursing home waiting to come home (im her carer).We decided to have our garage converted into a kitchen and our old kitchen changed to a bedroom for mom.

I found a local builder on the internet - he has a very professional looking website so it was quite inpressive.
He called round ,I told him all about mom coming home and that we needed it done quite quickly - he had a look at the work to be done and said it would take 4-6 weeks,he sent a quote through the post a couple of days later.We thought it was a little high and told him when he phoned - he seemed quite shocked.We phoned another builder - he came and had a look but never got back to us with a quote so we went with the first builder.

Anyway to cut a long story short it has now been 12 weeks and although the majority of it has been done there are a few jobs still left.The stress of all this living in a mess has really got me down.

The builder has the gift of the gab and everytime we question anything he says -oh its just a phone call.He has really messed us around and I finally lost my rag with him last week when he wanted the final payment - all that was left to pay was £313.I said I wasnt paying him anymore money as he owed us some - he quoted £700 to have the drive resurfaced - the exact quote was "alterations to/to include resurfacing of driveway".We told him we didnt want this done as we will use the pressure washer.He said the £700 wasnt just for the drive (which he hasnt done anything to ) but for associated works and wont give us any money back.He also used my £300 Dyson hoover to get the rubble up when knocking the doorway through - he never asked to use it - I came back home and he had left it in the living room covered in plaster and it wont work right now and is filthy.I confronted him about this and he agreed he shouldnt have done it but no mention of any refund,he also admitted he had dragged the work out as he hadnt got anymore lined up!.I have found out through the plasteres and carpenter that he has ripped other people off by over quoting and even they are on my side and say I need to take it further.He put a bow window in place of the garage door and a canopy across the front and I only found out from the carpenter that the left hand window will not open fully because of the placment of the hangman gallow - I cant reach the window to open it but the builder has told everyone I knew about this but he never said anything to me.

I have been quoted £500 by a different company to resurface the drive and along with the price for a new hoover I am looking to get around £800 back off the builder - can anyone advice me what to do now - it is a waste of time talking to the builder again as I know he wont just give it to me .

The question is do I let him also do my drive?
or Have I been done?

lynds1969

Thanks for that.
It was a written quote - payable in four stages.Final payment shouldnt have been till it was all done but as I said he has got the gift of the gab and we have been stupid.
He hasnt got any interest in doing the drive anyway now as he has got another big job on the go

lynds1969

Anyone got any advice on how I can get some money back of the builder ???