Substandard roofing work- received second invoice :/

Giraffodill

I need advice about sub standard roofing work we have had done!

At the beginning of November last year, we contacted a roofer to give us a quote for replacing the bottom of our roof felt. They quoted £672 and we asked them to go ahead. We then did not hear anything from them. On 23rd December we returned home from a day out to find our garden furniture strewn across the lawn, and felt packaging in our bin. There was no note, no phone call or any other kind of contact. I called the roofer and he wasn't in. He later called back when we were out and my MIL picked up the phone. He said he was calling to find out whether the work had been done, and what had been done (erm- this is why I called him?!).

We weren't able to check the work properly until January, but in the meantime, water was leaking in and causing mould to grow on our bedroom ceiling. When we did go into the loft to check the work, the new roof felt was sagging badly, which was causing the leak. We had this confirmed by a family member who is a surveyor. I tried several times to contact the roofer to ask him to come and fix the problem and carry out the work to a fair standard. We were sent an invoice during the period that I tried to contact him. Eventually we got a call from M, who we thought was an employee of the original roofer we had employed, N.

He arranged a day to come and fix the work, but did not turn up, nor did he call or text, so we wasted a day waiting in. This happened a further 2 times. At the start of February, my husband got through to N again who promised that he would be round that week, and another day (12th February) was arranged. At 1pm I called N and he said that M was supposed to be coming round but he didn't know when. He said that unless M arrived before 4pm to assume he wasn't coming. I told him that it was unacceptable that we had already been let down on 3 appointments and were about to be let down again. His response was that they had to prioritise people whose roofs were leaking! I told him that as a result of his shoddy work, our roof had been leaking since December and he just said there was nothing more he could do.

I then called M, and explained the same to him and he said he would be round at 4.30. I said that I wasn't sure he'd have enought time in the daylight to complete the work at that time and he was confused. I told him that we had been expecting the tiles to be removed, felt tightened, re battened and tiles replaced which was the only acceptable course of action.

M came round and explained to us that he was a subcontractor who N had employed on day rate to do the original work. He said that N had given us a cheap quote and not accounted for scaffolding, so he had admittedly not been able to carry out the work to a satisfactory standard. He repaired the work as best he could without scaffolding but again admitted that it was not a proper job.

We have today received another letter requesting the 'very overdue £672'.

I would have been more than happy to pay for scaffolding if it meant that the work would last a reasonable length of time. Now we face having to pay this invoice for work that the subcontractor has himself admitted is not really of a good standard, and the possibility of having to pay out again to have it done properly in another year or so, thus costing us far more in the long run. I wouldn't hold out any hope of the 'guarantee' being upheld considering the trouble we had getting in touch with the roofer and his uncaring attitude. The subcontractor told us that he had already been paid, and that he would no longer be accepting work from N, as there had been too many cases like ours.

What do we do now? Do we have any legal recourse? We have made it clear on all contact that we are unhappy with the work, but do we have any reasonable excuse to continue withholding payment seeing as the leak has now stopped? Help!