Cowboy Builder Issues

Lord_Dante

Hi everyone,

This is my lesson learnt tale of woe.

We had a builder who was a friend of the family to do some work for us. We agreed on £3500 to remove spalled bricks from our end terrace house wall and to rebuild a small garden wall.

The small garden wall was rebuilt pretty quickly and a few days work was done on the external wall. Everything went quiet for many months despite repeated messages and promises it would be done. Down the line another two days work was done. We received a message saying that the builder had one more days work to do. We waited for him to come round as we wanted to show him the mess his sub contractors had made of the mortar work (Its smeared across the wall leaving bad stains everywhere). We'd pretty much given up hope of getting the work finished after not hearing anything for months on end. He's suddenly come out of the wood work demanding the last £1000 even though the work isn't finished. We've refused to pay him till he comes round so we can talk through the final bit and the last day he said was to be done and he's then just threatened us with court and took pictures of the house.

This has all been going on since November 2015! The gaps between work and difficulties in getting him to do anything have been ridiculous. I don't think it would get anywhere in court but now I'm just after some advice on what to do to protect myself.

We have no contracts or written agreed deal. I think there was a quote letter he provided us when we originally bought the house about 5 years ago which we gave to the estate agents to negotiate money off the house price which I stupidly don't have a copy of.

At this point I'm either after him fixing the problems (1 days work, clean the wall, remove a bin in the alley he's filled with rubble) or for it to all be called quits and I'll use the money to get the work done properly.

Any advice much appreciated (Other than get a contract first I've already learnt that haha)

Furts

There will be people saying go to Court, others will say serve 14 notice letters first, others will say go Trading Standards. All these routes I will not comment on...

Instead I will be pragmatic, and commercial. I do not know what you have paid, nor do I know why the builder now wants £1000. So I cannot comment on this.

For one days work, which is what you have said is required, I would clean the wall and take the rubble to my nearest recycling centre. This would all cost close to zero and allow you to move on with your life. A simple answer and surely at some point since all this started in November 2015 there has been a day in your life, perhaps over a weekend, when you could have achieved this?

Lord_Dante

Sorry the days work was a days removing of and replacing bricks. The mess I can sort. I'm happy for him to just walk away at this point but if I'm paying him the final amount I want it done.

I don't want to really take it to court or go trading standards in all honesty. Its the builder saying he'll take me to court.

teneighty

Personally I would not take any action as this chancer will probably just give up and go away when he realises you are not going to pay him the £1000. It seems to be quite a common ploy for cowboy builders to threaten court action when they are totally in the wrong, probably hoping to scare the customer in to paying.

If you really want to do it officially you would have to write to him giving him 14 or 21 days to make good the defective work and complete the outstanding work otherwise you will consider him in breach of contract (verbal contract perfectly acceptable) for non-performance. You then have the option of employing a second contractor to complete the work and make good the defects and recover the additional expenditure from the outstanding amount of £1000.

In the extremely unlikely event that this muppet does take you to court, probably small claims/moneyclaim you will need a list of events in chronological order to show how slow and protracted the process has been and the contractor effectively abandoned the job. You will also need some photos and descriptions of the defective work. From your description he wouldn't stand a chance and he probably knows it, I doubt it would even get passed the mediation/conciliation stage before it was thrown out.

Lord_Dante

Thanks for the advice. Just spoke to some free legal advice thing I have through work and they've advised I sent him a letter using the consumer rights act 2015 about work not being done with reasonable care and skill. I'll also ask for proof he's completed £3500 worth of work so far. Plus some quotes for getting the wall sorted.

Thanks everyone!

teneighty

The trouble with that is you have to prove that the work has not been done with reasonable care and skill and he can argue that the work is not up to standard because it is not finished and he can't finish it because you wont pay him.

Like I said I would just keep my head down and wait to see what he does but have my defence ready just in case. If I really had too I would go with the non-performance/abandonment as he has less wriggle room.

Furts

Going back to my post you have not said what has been paid, if anything. It is not savvy, or even sensible, to approach it as you are, You are asking for proof the builder has done £3500 of work. That is wrong - you should be looking at what has been done, and to what standard, and putting your own valuation on this. When you have this figure you are in a position to verbally, or mentally, counter any nonsense coming from the builder.

Best of luck.

Lord_Dante

Some idea of the work

Furts

Lord_Dante wrote: »

Some idea of the work

It is a dogs dinner of a job, but so little work has been done from what I can see. Why were the bricks replaced, and why not the other spalled bricks left in place? All seems a bit strange to me.

Ball park figure for what I can deduce, £100-150 if done properly.

Lord_Dante

He's subcontracted to two blokes. One did other sections that are fine the bricks are mostly replaced, everythings nice and clean. Then there are those three bits done by another bloke. They're the bits we want sorting before final payment. As you say its a dogs dinner. The whole side of the house had around 500 spalled bricks so it was only the worse ones where half the brick had gone that got replaced.