Cowboy Builders and smalll claims courts

kaya

Morning!
I won't bore you with the details too much but we have just parted ways with our builder, sent him a letter recorded delivery informing him that i am instructing another builder to complete the work he has refused to do, checked two jobs, spoke to the owners, got a written quote wih his home address, phone number and name on, made him sign for the cash he had so i think we dotted the i's and crossed the t's. His paperwork is all in his personal name and home address so there is no company for him to close to avoid any judgements and i know he has penty of equity in his house to recover debts from.
Aside from walking out before the job is done he has completley destroyed my driveway, failed to follow the architects spec sheet and missed out on insulation, failed to fit a vapour proof layer under all the insulation so most of the roof will have to come off and be redone (once again this is in the architects spec sheet he agreed to work to in his written quote), fitted an underfloor heating system that has now been tiled over that will not in any way meet building regs( as i understand it the building control people can make me have it ripped up if i inform them of its existence)
The remedial works will probaly exceed the 10k max allowed in the small claims court but i am disabled and don't have access to funds to pay costs in the mainstream courts(just handed over my 60k savings to bob the chuffing builder). he took over 7 months to "not complete" a 3 month job and has failed to meet building regson several points, fortunatly being disabled i have been around to see that the building control people have checked all the footings and floors/steelwork etc so i know they are ok.
My questions being due to the poor standard of his work i don't want him back here to rectify the faults and is there a limit to how many small claims i can make against him? can i take him to court for the remedial roofing work and then use the system again for the driveway and heating? also what happens during the work? it will probably involve the roof being removed and replaced which isn't to intrusive but ripping up my kitchen floor and tiles (it has a brand new 15k kitchen just fitted) isn't something i want to be present for, stress is a huge affectting factor with my health and the last 7 months have really taken their toll, it got so he was arriving at 9.30, smoking half a packet of cigarettes then popping off for breakfast between 10.30 and 12 and going home at 2.30 every day. He left chisels, suerglue, aerosols and even stanley knives and blades all over my home during the work and i have a 3 year old(fortunately well behaved).
Will i be restricted to claiming once or can i make several smaller claims?

keith969

Fot the amounts you mention, you need proper legal advice. Why not start with a visit to your local CAB?

kaya

I have a broken back Keith and unfortunatly couldn't spend two hours sitting in a plastic chair waiting to be seen if i wanted to

Furts

Anyone going to Court needs to be super cute, and on the ball to succeed. There are too many unknowns in the this post but I appreciate it was meant to be brief.

What contract existed with the builder? What were agreed starting and finishing dates? Whose role to call in Building Control? What was the agreed termination of contract terms? Who is saying work is wrong? Where is the expert witness report? Why have you hid the ufh from Building Control? What has been paid? How much is owing?

These are few to be taken on board and Court action can be time consuming and stressful with no guarantee of success. Do not build your hopes and your finances on a successful outcome. If ultimately you get success here then treat it as a bonus.

Harsh as it seems you selected this builder to work in your home. The builder is probably more savvy than you think and will be well versed in avoiding legal questions, responsibilities and outcomes. It is a reasonable question to ask why things have gone this far, and why you had no inspection, supervision and management regime. These are all items a Judge is likely to ask you to explain if you went to Court.

kaya

hi Furts,

What contract existed with the builder?
i have a written quotation and payment schedule from the builder underling what he was to do and for what price, the contract to undertake the work was verbal which i understand is acceptable in law, all his payments were in cash and signed for by him and dated

What were agreed starting and finishing dates?

on that point i failed, we didn't have agreed starting and finishing dates but the job was around 3 months work (confirmed by three other builders) but he walked out after 7 months, i didn't in my wildest dreams think that a builder would take 7 months to do a 3 month job as they wouldnt make any money, aside from a few weeks he had off he was here every day, he just didn't do much

Whose role to call in Building Control?

i called in buiding control when told to by him to check footings, steels, and flooring insulation before it went down
What was the agreed termination of contract terms?

no agreed termination, he walked out when i refused him any more money until the work was completed and signed off( we agreed when he had the last payment that the remaining £4000 was due when completed, signed off and all snagging was done)
Who is saying work is wrong?
i have checked the architects spec sheet that accompanied the plans that were approved by buiding and planning since he left, there was no vapour control layer fitted under the flat roof insulation, 50mm of insulation missing from under the pitched roof, been up on the roof myself and there is water pooling, felt not overlapped, missing lead flashing, one guy has told me the top layer of felt is insufficient and that the tilework will leak, the tiles arent even nailed down, i have some roofers coming round to quote to bring the work up to the architects spec sheet which is what the builder agreed in writing to work to, three plumbers have confirmed that the underfloor heating won't meet buiding control regs and are quoting for correcting it


Where is the expert witness report?

i will have three quotes from different companies to rectify the work he has done wrong, if needs be i could get an expert witness report done or simply get buiding control to confirm it doesnt meet regs
Why have you hid the ufh from Building Control?

i haven't hidden anything from building control at all, they dont come round to check vapour control layers and other matters, they have been at all the relevent points mentioned on their paperwork, it was the buiders suggestion when questioned about the underfoor heating that i hide it from building control and consider it 'a bonus' , i have not had building control in to sign off the work yet as he left it uncompleted

What has been paid?
he has had around £55,000 in cash(all signed for and dated) and there is 4k owing (around the amount it will cost me to get the job finished ) but that doesn't include rectifying all the things he has done wrong
so far the only legal advice i had was to write to him and formally dismiss him to avoid him coming back and claiming the money that is owing, i did this two weeks ago sent recorded delivery
thanks for your reply
How much is owing?

Furts

Your builder is laughing all the way to the bank. Taking a £4K hit after receiving £55K is peanuts. I suggest you have received bad legal advice and have a flawed scenario. Imagine the Court...

Why Mr Builder is the work bad? Because kaya would not allow me to complete it.

Why was this? Because I received a letter from kaya telling me to stay away.

Have you met the finishing date? No the job is on programme but I am not allowed to finish it.

Was this in accordance with the contract? Absolutely not.

What contract did you have? Only a verbal one because kaya chose not to enter into any accepted and recognised contract. I explained everything to kaya but kaya was not interested in details.

Do you normally work to contracts? Yes. here are my standard terms - note what they say about finishing dates and calling in Building Control and supervision.

Judge reads terms and ponders. These look fair and reasonable.

Whose role was it to liase with Building control and call them in for Inspections? Strictly in accordance with the law hereand that was the role of kaya.

Judge ponders and thinks...this builder may not be good but he seems a thoroughly reasonable fellow.

You can call me Devil's Advocate but going along these lines you do not have a water tight case.

Yes the work is wrong, but this should have been conveyed to the builder long ago, in writing, with dates and recommendations, and you should not have parted with £55K.

All the builder has to say to the Judge is he was willing to rectify the work, he has not been notified of the defects, you had said till now that you were happy with his work and he is being prevented from returning to sort everything out.

You may win your day in court but you can see from my logic that this is not a guaranteed result.

You have to step back and carefully analyse exactly where you can reasonably expect to be. This may include forgetting the ufh and just getting the structure correct.

Building Control should have been involved on the flat roof. Were you Building Notice or Full Plans here?

Doozergirl

Where do you put £55k in cash?!

kaya

i havent started proceedings yet and understand i have to give him notice and the opertunity to rectify the faults before going to court, my intention is to get three quotes from independent parties to rectify the faults and present them to him first with time frame in which to complete the works. since employing him i found out that he is does mainly groundworks for his son who is a builder. He told me that as he is semi retired he doesnt earn enough to qualify for the VAT threshhold which sounded reasonable at the time but i have now heard he has already been in trouble for tax avoidance and also i am not his first victim and can get a written letter from someone else he stitched up, also a quick google tells me that the fines for a builder for not adhering to buiding regs are unlimited.
I submitted full plans which were approved and i recieved a list from building control as to which points of the build i was to call them in for which i did, nowhere did it mention checking the underfloor heating during installation or the roof insulation. I trusted the builder to complete the works to the spec given and had no cause to check him throughout( he presented himsef as a competent professional tradesman) after all when you get your cooker repaired you dont stand there with the manual looking over the engineers shoulder checking everything he does, if you go to a carpenter to get a green oak chair made and he presents you with a pink pine table its reasonable to want your money back or the goods you ordered?
I did try follow the rules and visited two jobs he had completed and spoke to the people there, i got several quotes and didnt accept the cheapest, i had a written quotation stating the works to be completed and the price and also had a payment schedule drawn up(which he then decided to do everything a different way), all money was signed for, the quote has his home address, full name and also home and mobile number. Im not sure what else i could have done aside from a proper written contract? I didn't realise until later that this vapour control layer was missing or the roof work was shoddy and was assured that the heating would meet building regs.
i found this excerpt from the new consumer rights act :

In all of the above examples, the service contract is governed by the Consumer Rights Act which means you can use this as protection should anything go wrong.
The rules mean that all contracts for services must do the following:

• The trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.
• Information which is said or written is binding where the consumer relies on it.
• Where the price is not agreed beforehand, the service must be provided for a reasonable price.
• Unless a particular timescale for performing the service is set out or agreed, the service must be carried out in a reasonable time.

If the service you’re provided doesn’t satisfy these criteria, you’re entitled to the following remedies under the Consumer Rights Act:

• The trader should either redo the element of the service which is inadequate or perform the whole service again at no extra cost to you, within a reasonable time and without causing you significant inconvenience.
• Or, in circumstances where the repeat performance is impossible or can’t be done within a reasonable time or without causing significant inconvenience, you can claim a price reduction. Depending on how severe the failings are, this could be up to 100% of the cost and the trader should refund you within 14 days of agreeing that you're entitled to a refund."

surely this implies that i am correct so long as i give him the oportunity to rectify the faults? and where is the line that says i dont have to have him back as his competence to complete the job is in question?

im not trying to make a fast buck in the small claims court here and dont think that as someone who is registered disabled and takes morphine daily i could be reasonably expected to keep track of everything he did as he did it, after all thats why i employed someone who presented themseves to me as a professional competent experienced builder, im also not going to court to get him to complete the rest of the works but i do want the work i have already paid for to be completed to a reasonable standard and to meet building regs which isn't unreasonable?

kaya

just had a read and it does say to call building control in to check roof insulation, i was present at the time when they were here and remember him asking them about using cellotex to fill in between the rafters on the pitched roof which they advised him on, they didn't mention this vapour control layer he has missed and he also said to them "so the next time ill see you is at completion then" which they agreed

andyhop

Something doesn't add up

You can get to the bank for 55k in cash but you can't get to the CAB for proper advice

You can climb on the roof to check the felt and roof tiles but you can get to CAB for advice

The time to question was when the work was being carried out . It's a few days work to retile a roof so why didn't you stop work when you noticed there was no membrane ....

teneighty

Although a little on the harsh side the advice given by Furts is basically good.

The way you describe the defects is jumbled and contradictory, not really your fault you cannot be expected to be an expert, but it would not do you any favours if you took it to moneyclaim/small claims court.

For instance you mention the lack of vapour barrier to the flat roof. How do you know it is missing? Is it a warm roof or a cold roof? You then go on to talk about a discussion with building control about the insulation between the rafters (pitched roof?) and them not mentioning the vapour barrier. What exactly did it say on the "architects" drawings and why was the builder discussing changes with the building control officer? If you were party to these discussions did you agree to the changes?

These may seem like trivial details but they could be the difference between winning and losing your claim.

You will have to present it in a clear concise manner with evidence such as photos and possibly witness statements to back it up if you want to be successful.

Even then you have to be sure that the builder has the necessary assets in his name to settle any judgment. Equity in a house may not actually get you any cash.