Negligent builders - who do I report them to?

onlyroz

We recently had some major building work completed on our house and during the work the builders made a serious error which could have killed us all. Fortunately nothing happened and the error was corrected but we would like to report the company to somebody to make sure that such errors don't happen to anybody else with more serious consequences. However, we are unsure who we need to approach.

The company is affiliated with:

- The Guild of Master CraftsMen
- Federation of Master Builders
- FairTrades Association
- The League of Professional Craftsmen
- TrustMark

Would any of the above bodies be interested? Or are there other official lines that I could persue?

ThumbRemote

I would have though the local council buildings inspector would be the official step.

There's no harm in reporting it to the other bodies as well, but they'll almost certainly take no notice.

onlyroz

The building work has all been signed off and we've got the completion certificate. Would the council actually do anything about things that happened prior to this? It seems strange to me that "negligence" (in the legal sense) requires actual harm to have occurred - and so nothing will be done unless they actually do kill or injure somebody.

Lomast

most of those organisations you listed are simply trade groups who wont care a jot as long as the builders keep paying their annual fee.

Not sure about trustmark they may be interested.

If you could give us an idea of how they were negligent then you may be able to get better advice as to who to report it too

bris

No, no one is interested in what might have been. If you were all killed you may have got justice though if that makes you feel any better.

Hintza

The other thing is you obviously carried on the using them and didn't report it at the time or get an engineer in at the time and stopped all work which would be the thing you should have done. What evidence do you have?

Water under the bridge now I would have thought.

onlyroz

Lomast wrote: »

If you could give us an idea of how they were negligent then you may be able to get better advice as to who to report it too

The joiners enclosed a room around the boiler flue allowing it to vent directly into the house. When the plumber saw what had happened he told us that we all could have died of carbon-monoxide poisoning. Fortunately this was in the summer before we had started using the heating. The flue was in this state for a few weeks - when I queried it with the joiners they advised me to open a window and it would all be fine. Once the people who actually knew what they were doing spotted the issue it was resolved quickly.

So you're basically saying that it's meaningless for an organisation to quote that they're a member of various bodies - and there's no checks on whether they are a bunch of cowboys? And there is no comeback for not following correct procedures unless somebody is actually killed? Seems like a strange way for the law to operate.

onlyroz

Hintza wrote: »

Water under the bridge now I would have thought.

Water under the bridge until I turn on the news one day to read about a family that died in their sleep due to this company's incompetence.

ThumbRemote

onlyroz wrote: »

So you're basically saying that it's meaningless for an organisation to quote that they're a member of various bodies - and there's no checks on whether they are a bunch of cowboys? And there is no comeback for not following correct procedures unless somebody is actually killed? Seems like a strange way for the law to operate.

Pretty much, yes.

These trade bodies get their money from the members. They can't insist on too high standards or they don't get their money.

Hintza

onlyroz wrote: »

Water under the bridge until I turn on the news one day to read about a family that died in their sleep due to this company's incompetence.

You said it yourself, "the joiners did it", they are not heating engineers.

Don't get me wrong though I would be very annoyed about it too. We had a new build done 2 yeas ago and the joiners seemed to do everything and as a result I can see us in court because my septic tank and associated ground works are wrong which were done by the joiners. The only good thing is I still have around £4k of retention. I can't even pursue the builder and incur too much in the way of legal fees as I am fairly sure they will liquidate the company.

onlyroz

Hintza wrote: »

You said it yourself, "the joiners did it", they are not heating engineers.

But doesn't the parent company bear any responsibility to oversee the project correctly? I don't necessarily expect the joiners to know about safety issues regarding boilers, but I would expect *somebody* to know, and to ensure that the build is carried out in the correct order.