Problems with a builder - breach of contract but what now?

LittleWonder_2

I'll try to keep to the main points as this is a long, long story…. I’ll start with a bullet point summary:

• We accepted a quote for a small kitchen extension (3mx5m) for £25k and work started in July.
• The builder didn’t redirect boiler flue before it was enclosed in the building and could have killed us through carbon monoxide poisoning (our alarm went off)
• We switched the boiler off to stop this happening again. We were then without heating and hot water (we made do with the immersion for hot water)
• After waiting for nearly 3 weeks for it to be fixed we emailed him our concerns and got a reply back from his wife saying he had had a breakdown and was in hospital. She said that someone would definitely be round on the Monday but could we pay him directly and the cost would come off the remaining balance. We had already paid £21.5k of the total and there was still a huge amount of work to do.
• The plumber didn’t turn up on the Monday. We then found out that due to the way the boiler has been left and the fact he had stopped paying his subcontractors, nobody would touch our boiler. We also had a subcontractor turn up at our house asking for money.
• We contacted Citizen’s Advice and they told us to send a ‘Making time of the essence’ letter. We received an unpleasant reply from the builder, accusing us of a witch-hunt. He then told us that his kitchen fitter - who does not work for him - could take over the project and we could use the remaining funds to pay for the rest of the work.
• We were not happy with this. We only had £3.5k left and were living on a building site with no heating and hot water.
• We sent builder an email asking him to honour any amount over the £25k quoted. He agreed via email, which I understand is legally binding.
• We tried to source our own plumber to fix the problem. We had been told that the solution would be a flue extension (and that the builder had already bought this) but the plumbers wanted to replace and move the boiler at a cost of around £3k. We didn’t want the boiler moved into the extension as it wouldn’t look right so kept getting quotes.
• One plumber told us that we should really contact the gas emergency line to get everything independently looked at, then we would stand a better chance of getting a plumber in to complete the work as we wanted them to.
• Cadent came round and found that our gas was still on and potentially dangerous. The boiler should have been decommissioned as soon as the flue was contained in the building. There was also a gas leak under the hob that was 4 times the limit.
• A Riddor report was completed for this and we were advised not to have any work done until we had contacted Gas Safe and the local Health and Safety Executive to arrange them to look at it. Then any heating engineer would be able to work on it without fear of repercussions.
• In the meantime, work on the extension slowed to a snail’s pace. We couldn’t plaster the walls, install the floor or complete any further plumbing or electrical work until this was done.
• Gas Safe visited the property, inspected the work and confirmed in their report that the work was a danger to life and/or property.
• The boiler was eventually resolved. We had been without heating and hot water for 8 1/2 weeks by this point.
• As we started the to book in the remaining work, it became apparent that we would be imminently running out of money.
• We contacted the builder to see where our money had gone, if the contractors who hadn’t been paid had been paid from our money, and confirm how he intended to resolve any overspend. We suggested that we go the Federation of Master Builders conciliation services as they were a member. They did not reply so we had to hand-deliver a letter asking for this information.
• They emailed back to confirm that some of the sub-contractors hadn’t been paid, including out bifold doors. This meant that we don’t have a valid guarantee for them. The builder provided a breakdown on wearer money had gone, claiming they had spent £1,000s more than we had given them. The numbers did not tally with what the subcontractors had told us and it seems we were being charged for work on other properties. The cost of materials was also inflated.
• The builder also said that, due to his health issues, he was no longer a member of the FMB and said he was ‘a bit stumped’ on how to proceed. He offered to call in some favours to get the job done. He also said that the kitchen fitter who was now running the job was not capable of continuing with it. We think he was, at this point, trying to get back on site to take more money of us. I did not want this due to his reputation for getting work done and not paying people.
• I contacted Citizen’s Advice again. They said we had done all we could to mediate and out next action would need to be a Money Claim for anything we think is owed.

This takes us up to now. We have run out of money and the job isn’t complete. Money Claim sounds promising, however, I understand that we can only request money owed - I don’t think this is that simple as some of the problems we have encountered are difficult to put a price on.

We need a solution to the following issues:

• The builder should pay for any amount over the £25k, as agreed.
• Compensation for:
• No heating and hot water for 8 1/2 weeks
• Poor quality of work. We had to have our fascia redone. It was made up of offcuts. There is also no solution to where our extractor fan goes as it now blows out into the extension. This should have been included in the original building work. We have had to have more expensive lighting as there was too much insulation for spotlights to be installed as per the plans. An independent roofer has confirmed that the roof is poor quality. He could not advise re-doing it as we probably won’t have any problems but every shortcut that could be taken has been, including not oiling the lead. It looks awful. Our flooring is 12mm but should be 20mm. And finally, our deck was sawn in half for access purposes and screwed back down. It should have been properly dismantled and also it looks awful.
• Poor treatment of our home. All rubbish was just thrown into our garden and left for weeks. This included takeaway wrappers and we had evidence of rats as a result of this. They also used our household bin for their rubbish and threw it into the pile. We had to pay to have this all removed.
• Unacceptable amount of time for the job to be completed. He said 8 - 10 weeks but it is more likely to be 5 months. I know this is a difficult point to argue as he relinquished the contract when he handed it over to the new contractor but a great deal of the delays have been caused by his poor planning and poor quality of work in the first place.
• Of course, we would like compensation for the potential carbon monoxide poisoning, but I don’t know how you put a cost on this. It makes my blood run cold to think of what might have happened if we didn’t have an alarm.

Any advice on how to proceed or examples of how others have managed situations like this gratefully received. Is smalls claims court the only way forward? It has already taken a toll on my health as well as my bank balance and I don't think I can handle any more stress!

unholyangel

If you've spoken to CAB I'm surprised they haven't given advice on what you can and can't claim for.

Largely you're only entitled to actual losses that were a result of the breach and that cannot be reasonably saved. Theres also no entitlement to betterment and you're expected to take reasonable steps to reduce your loss and not take unreasonable steps to increase them.

Typically, courts don't entertain claims for distress & inconvenience. The exception to this is where the purpose of the contract is to provide peace of mind, enjoyment etc. But even then, its token amounts that are awarded. For example a couple unable to live in their new home for 2 years and who had to travel long distances every week to oversee work/do work on the property and who attributed the house issues as a major contributor to the breakdown of their marriage were awarded just £750 (iirc surveyor had said nothing at all needed done when quite a lot of work was needed to make it habitable).

Also, if your claim is in excess of £10k you'll want proper paid for legal advice as the limit on small claims is £10k (and if its not dealt with at small claims, costs aren't fixed - you could end up liable for the other sides legal fees). Nor is taking court action guaranteed to get your money back - if the builder has no assets, you have nothing to enforce the judgement against.

DCFC79

I cant offer any advice OP but I do hope you can get some or all the money back.

LittleWonder_2

The claim won't be more than 10K. We are potentially going to be a grand over - are we within our rights to complete a Money Claim for this? I really want to ask for a reduction in cost for the inconvenience - so your view is that the courts wouldn't support any financial recompense for this? I know that you can't be driven by anger in situations like this but it seems so wrong that he has ripped us off and put our lives at risk with no real consequences.

unholyangel

LittleWonder wrote: »

The claim won't be more than 10K. We are potentially going to be a grand over - are we within our rights to complete a Money Claim for this? I really want to ask for a reduction in cost for the inconvenience - so your view is that the courts wouldn't support any financial recompense for this? I know that you can't be driven by anger in situations like this but it seems so wrong that he has ripped us off and put our lives at risk with no real consequences.

Anyone can complete a money claim against anyone for whatever reason or amount they like. However unless you can substantiate it in law, you're not going to get very far. Civil law is not about punishing the wrongdoer - that's what criminal law is for. Civil law is just about making sure you're not worse off due to their breach. Therefore the initial position/aim of damages is to put you back into the position you would have been in had the contract not been breached (or as near as money can achieve it).

So if he was supposed to dispose of the mess he left and you paying someone to take it away is reasonable (ie you're not hiring a skip for a small amount of rubbish that couldve been placed in your normal bins or something to that effect) then you should have a solid claim for the costs involved in that.

Likewise the extra £1k - providing its just expenditure to get the extension as contracted/agreed with the original builder and doesn't involve any elements of betterment (better light fixtures may be classed a betterment btw - a court would have to examine the facts of your case and decide if that were the case) then you should have a solid claim for that also.

To put it bluntly, you can't claim for what could have happened, only what actually did happen. However you seem to have reported it to the appropriate bodies so it would be their call on whether to prosecute him or not.

LittleWonder_2

That's helpful - thank you. I think we will have evidence to support us claiming the £1k, so this is promising. We have got it down as cheap as we possibly could but it's still going to run over. It's a shame that we can't quantify an amount for the inconvenience, unless I can work out how much extra electricity I have used running electric heaters and the immersion? Not sure this would be acceptable.

The betterment part is a bit frustrating - we didn't want the more expensive lights as they don't work with our smart home hub, which is one of the key things we wanted to be able to do.

Thank you again for your helpful suggestions.

CardinalWolsey

Ignoring the quality of service issues (which aren't great...), and coming back to the overspend and contract. The builder may have given you a quote, but what type of contract did you sign - what does that state with regards to additional costs: is the contract fixed cost, with changes handled via variation, or was it an estimate of the total costs, but charged at a time and materials basis? Unless it was definitively a fixed cost, with no variations and no side-notes, a 4% overspend doesn't seem excessive and should normally be budgeted for. If fixed cost, you do need to check the wording with regards to changes - what is deemed a change, who agrees the change, who pays for the change, how that is agreed / contracted. Small building works can very quickly become a matter of he says / she says, and so paperwork is the key.

LittleWonder_2

It was a fixed quote and the builder said he would take the hit if it went over £25k. We did have an unexpected cost early on, which we agreed to pay for as it was completely out of the builder’s control (the foundations had to be dug deeper so we paid £820 for the extra concrete)

I’m really shocked by the lack of protection that it seems we have as customers. We have been massively let down and severely inconvenienced but reading the comments it seems that there is not that much we can do in terms of compensation?

hollydays

LittleWonder wrote: »

It was a fixed quote and the builder said he would take the hit if it went over £25k. We did have an unexpected cost early on, which we agreed to pay for as it was completely out of the builder’s control (the foundations had to be dug deeper so we paid £820 for the extra concrete)

I’m really shocked by the lack of protection that it seems we have as customers. We have been massively let down and severely inconvenienced but reading the comments it seems that there is not that much we can do in terms of compensation?

You can’t get blood out of a stone

CardinalWolsey

LittleWonder wrote: »

It was a fixed quote and the builder said he would take the hit if it went over £25k. We did have an unexpected cost early on, which we agreed to pay for as it was completely out of the builder’s control (the foundations had to be dug deeper so we paid £820 for the extra concrete)

Is this the wording on the contract that both you and the builder signed, or did he produce a quotation for you and verbally agreed to cover any overspend? The devil, as ever, is in the detail.

LittleWonder_2

When it became clear that his admission into hospital meant he couldn’t finish the job, he passed it all over to a new contractor and in an email agreed that he would cover any overspend. CAB have said this is legally binding but I don’t know what this means in practical terms.... so complicated!