nightmare loft conversion

fuzzball172

Just a quick overview before my question...

In July last year we arranged for a reputable building firm with 29 years history to build us a loft convesion. Work was due to start, scaffolding went up and a deposit for materials was paid. One week later we heard they had been declared bankrupt by the VAT man. We found another builder through our architect who agreed to do the work for a reasonable price. They stated the build would take 6-8 weeks (builder speak for 8-12 weeks). Work was progressing ok then November bad weather hits and slowed the project down. Then Christmas happened, again no more work. January rolls round and no builders due to flu, builders come back then off again with illness. Since christmas we have had maybe 7 or 8 full days worth of labour on our job. Builder claims that as there was no work for his other building team, he let them go work elsewhere, but he now has no builders fit enough to work. He has turned up a few half days last week but on the days he did'nt show no phone calls or texts. We are now in month 7 for a simple loft conversion and month 4 with current builders.

Where do I stand with getting a different builder in to complete the job and getting some money back from the current builder?

PeterZ_2

I'm afraid so many builders are like this that you ruin the risk of replacing one rubbish builder with another.

How much have you paid them? A simple conversion should certainly take no more than 8 weeks.