Builder tried to Submit False Declaration to Building Control

Bonnie151

I think this is more of a rant than request for advice because we are in the process of getting legal advice, but any comments would be welcome.

Long story short, 7 months after signing a contract and 7 weeks after our garage conversion started, we discovered that our project manager made a fraudulent declaration by signing that the work carried out was as in the approved project plans/drawings. He had also signed the architect's name rather than his own (seemingly with permission from the architect). It turns out that the significant changes to the plans that Building Control had noticed at the start of the project had not been updated on the plans despite Building Control both verbally informing the project manager and writing to the architect that this *must* happen. Building Control quite rightly refused to sign off the works this week and were none too happy with the false declaration!

When we asked the project manager and his boss how this had happened we first got bluster "I can't control what happens between our architect and Building Control" followed by "our architect would never make the requested changes until after Building Control came out to inspect in case there were additional changes" - somehow could not get them to understand that if that really were the case they had knowingly signed a false declaration!

So between that and a whole host of other problems , we are none too happy with this company. For example, we waited 6 weeks for a custom made door and when it arrived this week it was the wrong one. They wanted us to return the door and wait another 6-8 weeks with an unfinished, unsigned off room. We feel the project manager has not acted with reasonable care to ensure completion of the job. We also don't feel he has the skill we could reasonably expect a project manager to have -he is new to the role and is clearly in over his head. Pretty much every piece of work they have undertaken has needed significant rework (shoddy plasterwork, holes in walls, poor brickwork etc), not to mention the ignoring of numerous requirements which have taken lengthy arguments to get resolved. Unfortunately they seem to feel otherwise, hence our getting legal advice.

If anyone else has dealt with a similar situation, please feel free to chip in - or if you've dealt with worse, you can let me know to help me feel better!

Hintza

We are in a similar position in that our builder has not done some work to a satisfactory standard (new build). Fortunately we have a sizeable retention but in our case the builder won't turn up and we won't pay him. I think that is as far as we will go. In fact I hope he doesn't turn up because latterly everything was being done with such bad grace!

If we wanted to fight it we would need to get engineers in then employ solicitors.

My only real thought, is find someone to talk to informally and get a feel if it is going to be worth it (or legally necessary) and then plan a course of action. It will in all probability turn in to a nightmare so be prepared for the worst.

Good luck.