Builder has caused damage

FOXY1

It is unreasonable to take the cost of the damage out of the deposit as you have verbally contracted yourself to make that payment. The 50% sounds reasonable as the builder will have to pay for materials, it makes no difference how he pays for them that is for his own cashflow. If he paid £10,000 on credit and you did not pay him over a £40 drain cover is this fair? At the end of the day you will have the materials on site. I would trust him over the fact it will be done as sometime the materials may not be avalible the next day or possibly does not want a new one damaged whilst work is being carried out.
What is resonable is to deduct the cost of the cover once all the work has been done but make sure you agree the cost with the builder as not to rip him off, for example he may get it for £20 but a DIYer may trot off to b&q or similar and walk away with the same cover for £120.

From experience skip companies can be unreliable so it may be out of the builders control, from chasing it the skip company may have 'remembered'.

With any work being carried out and with your doubts I hope you have a contract, this will protect you as it details the work the builder will do, without one the builder has his own timescales.

marlasinger

baldelectrician wrote: »

What research did you do on the builder?

Most builders are ok, but it doesn't harm looking at his details
Do a search for his company name, mobile number, address- this will throw up any concerns

We got him from the FMB site, did a google search on his details but couldn't find anything. We live in a smallish town, so couldn't find any information on him, but we couldn't find anything on any of the other builders we looked at.

No-one's shown up today, I'm guessing because it's raining, but surely they should have rung to let us know no one will be here? :mad: