Need a quote of alteration works charged by builder

squall_rj

Hello,

We have an (1.7 m X 2.4 m) extension project including refiting kitchen and bathroom with one builder.

In the begging, there is no drawing when quote and contract was agreed. We didn't put adding cloakroom, adding skylight in the quote.
We thought this is a small work.

Until we had party wall issue, we got an architect did a drawing and at that time, the cloakroom, raised ceiling with skylight are all in the drawing. This was made in last November.

They started working following the drawing without mentioning the cost.

The project is half way through but we have made full payment already since the payment was made weekly.

Now the builder come with a alteration work charge of £4500 for the cloakroom(was verbally agreed but now is denied), raised ceiling(was verbally agreed flat ceiling inside, pitched outside, but this was not written down), adding skylight and walling tiling for the kitchen(I thought this should be included but their quote of kitchen work didn't state wall tiling).

The cloakroom is 1.2x0.8 square meters. The skylight is 1x1 square meters. the roof is about 2.1 x 2.5 square meters. Wall tiling is about 3 square meters. This is s 2 bedroom terraced house.

The builder has stops work until we made payment. The cloakroom only has been plastered. Skylight is installed. Wall tiling for kitchen hasn't started.

We haven't been told the cost of any of these works when they started and we the price they are asking is too much.

Could anyone give some help here please?
We need a rough quote of how these alteration works should cost? Then we could argue with them.

Thanks very much.

robotrobo

Someone will answer your question on here , but as you are aware your negotiating power as diminished a fair bit with paying the builder the full amount up front before the jobs done.

I'm not trying to kick you while you are down as I have been in the Same situation myself , not to long ago when I had my garden & driveway altered.

squall_rj

Thanks for your reply.

Lessons learned that no matter how well they told you, shouldn't pay all amount before all work is done.

We are finding other people to finish the work since we need to move in soon and we have no confident for their work any more. They only have started put in cabinet and worktop for a day and already made lots of mistakes.

They are chasing us for the payment although we are not going to let them to finish the project. Even worse that they have our house key and refuse to return it until payment is made.

greenface

Change you lock . get that out of the way . make sure they have all their tools out .if you have paid for materials I think they are yours . impossible to quote without being there but once confidence has broken down . its difficult to have a happy ending

brightontraveller

How do you agree price and sign a contract without a specs drawings etc? It’s an extension not painting a wall? Then works start doing something different than quoted? What did the original quote say just “Build “ then total ????

You pay as defined in contract if its not in the contract and extras aren’t covered by T and C’s it for the legals to sort If you and builder can’t come to an arrangement verbal agreement is irrelevant if you can’t prove it ? ditto the demand for extras works both ways?

Amazes me how sometimes as if by magic certain clients and builders find each other ?

squall_rj

It's true we didn't specify the details of the work in the beginning and now we are in such a mess.

On the contract, it clearly states that any work which is not in the contract, needs to be agreed price and specification before starting.
I've asked for some alteration works but they started them without giving a price. Has this breached the contract?

Now we have paid in full and project is not finished, even the alteration work is not finished.
We probably need to find other builder to finish the work but I'm worried that we can't get rid of the current builder by just ignoring their additional alteration work invoice.

Thanks

squall_rj

Have some updates here.

The builder now says the extra money they were asking for are one day offer and since we didn't pay it, it is not valid any more.

He says the current work status has used all my original quoted money plus extra payment and he will give us another quote for finishing the remaining works.

He says there have been lots of alteration works so far which used all the money but haven't itemized them.

We've got some advice from citizen advise bureau.
Since their original contract only gave 7 days cooling period and it should be 14 days, we are allowed to cancel the contract now and ask for compensation for the work hasn't been done. We will write a formal letter to them.

Is this going to be a long process to get compensated from them?

greenface

keep us updated and good luck

shinypenny

Making alterations to previously agreed plans is the easier way of bumping up costs when undertaking building work.
I understand you are upset with your builder, but seeking compensation because he's not yet tiled the kitchen when this wasn't on the original spec seems a bit extreme!!
You have "not paid in full". You have paid him the cost of the original spec. Your additional work has cost him more, and you are liable for that cost.
Wait for the new written quote he's going to provide and take it from there.
You'll have to pay for the work to be completed whether it's by original builder or someone new. What would you have done if the original quote was £4,500? Got it done anyway?

squall_rj

We've already paid in full for the project and the project is not finished. We want to negotiate the price for additional work but their price is unacceptable. Also they asked us to pay the additional money in front. We can't trust them any more. What happened if they ask for more money afterwards again?

If original quote for a skylight, cloakroom, raised ceiling and wall tiling is 4500, I won't do them because they are much higher than our budget.

We've sent formal letter to them to terminate the contract and they are quite happy to accept it. I would say they know they have got more money out of our pocket for the job they've done.

The funny thing is they have left a big concrete mixer in the middle of our dinning room and warned us we need to take care of it. We will be charged if the tool is damaged or they can't access to the tool whenever they want. I don't think any respectable builder will do this.

Have found other people to do the job left over and have reported this issue to trading standards or CAB.
Not sure we could get any compensate but we will try.