Dodgy Builder and Court Action

hollydays

Rogue traders?

nigpay1

Not sure what programme it was

hollydays

nigpay1 wrote: »

Not sure what programme it was

I don't really understand how that's possible?

nigpay1

I'm not sure how it's relevant?!

I googled it a while ago, can't remember.
Thanks for your help though.

hollydays

The more you know about his past history, the better you can know how to handle this.

thearchitect

Have you tried to contact the original architect to see what work was done and whether you can have use of any such material?

Mind you, at that price I'd be very surprised if he or she was indeed a qualified architect.

nigpay1

te architect was part of the same company, I never knew who they were

thearchitect

nigpay1 wrote: »

Hi,
The next stage he told us was for us to pay £595 for an architect to come round to measure up to draw plans. They came round, spent a while measuring etc and left.

That was the last we heard from said builder apart from apologetic emails telling us the architect had let him down and he was chasing and that we would have plans soon.

To cut a long story short, what he told us could be done, couldn't. The architect had apparently told the builder this and rather than telling us and amending the plans/a refund etc. he just decided to ignore us and not get in touch again.

nigpay1 wrote: »

te architect was part of the same company, I never knew who they were

I'm sorry, but I'm having a little trouble following you here,

After a preliminary discussion with a builder, he arranged for an "architect" to visit your property and prepare plans for alterations at a cost of some £600. An initial measured survey was carried out, following which everything went quiet. You are now given to understand that the consultant advised the proposals to be infeasible and wish to recover the monies from the builder.

The first question I would ask is the nature of the problem/advice provided by the consultant. The simplest way to do that is to get in touch with him or her. Assuming that he is indeed a qualified architect, then he is required by law to be registered with the Architects Registration Board (https://www.arb.org.uk) and they maintain details online. If you can recall even part of the name given to you when he visited the property then you may be able to track him down.

Of course if they're not a qualified architect then that becomes a lot more difficult and £595 is certainly cheap.

If the architect has been paid, then he may well have prepared plans and the like which you can use to take the project forward with someone else. Better to recover some of your £595 than spend months hunting down a dodgy builder for repayment