Dispute with Builder - Advice Please!

Dean000000

Respectfully, I’ll disagree. I can’t post links but the below with all the required links supports my assertion

myjobquote.co.uk/costs/multi-storey-extension....

Like I said, it’s not beyond the realms, and Certainly not outdated by 40 years!

Doozergirl

teneighty wrote: »

Hang on a minute, an 80 square metre (internal area) 3 storey extension with underpinning and a retaining wall for £65k...dream on.

There is something very odd going on here.

Not odd. Entirely usual. I think most 'cowboy builder' jobs are a case of builders heavily underquoting.

The OP clearly sees it from their side - they've been taken for a ride, but the builder is on the other side wondering how the heck to finish the job without actually paying the customer to work for them. He won't have earned much, if anything.

£65k for a three storey extension the size of a small house, with VAT considerations to boot is a wildly optimistic price.

I'd be pleased at a quote of £30k to finish it. I appreciate that's not what the OP will want to hear shen there are budgetry constraints, but you can't make the budget fit the build, you have to make the build fit the budget.

How many quotes did you have, OP? What's the VAT situation?

Doozergirl

I have a regular client. I was heavily involved in designing a massive renovation of a house at the beginning of last year. Pobate took forever and I ended up finding a 'better' house for the client so he pulled out - but the projected build cost was £500k. It was effectively a rebuild - raisign the ridgeline of a large house and adding three extensions.

Client gave the plans to the new purchaser who used our architect to make some changes. She called last week asking me to quote on her changes, saying that she didn't have the funds of my client and could she send me the revised plans?

She had rejigged the interior - no big deal, same number of rooms, bathrooms etc, and kept all of the major structural alterations and added *another two extensions*.

Told me she'd get three quotes and pick the one that suited her - which isn't how we work anyway. Called the architect for a bit of feedback on her - he said she'd been told by a builder that she could do it for £200k!

No doubt that builder would get the job. But he won't finish it. But she wants three quotes and will pick the one that suits her . It cannot all be about budget, but that's how people are taught to choose a builder.

teneighty

I agree with Doozer, that is what I meant by "odd".

Builder wins the job by pitching a low quote then milks it for spurious extras until the final figure is around the correct contract value if not higher.

The trouble is once the work is half way through the customer is trapped. If they throw the original builder off the job it is extremely difficult to find another builder who will finish someone else's work and if they will it will be at a cost and it would probably cause months of delays.

Dean000000

...though there is no evidence the clinet (on this occasion) was being stung for extras...


not saying it wasn't the case - just that it isn't evidenced above.


though - not to feel unsympathetic, but if I was agreeing to a 65k project, id want a full and thourough breakdown to manage not just any changes/variations, but for cashflow/valuation purposes...

Doozergirl

Dean000000 wrote: »

...though there is no evidence the clinet (on this occasion) was being stung for extras...


not saying it wasn't the case - just that it isn't evidenced above.


though - not to feel unsympathetic, but if I was agreeing to a 65k project, id want a full and thourough breakdown to manage not just any changes/variations, but for cashflow/valuation purposes...

Agreed. I wasn't suggesting that the builder was going to fleece for 'extras'. No doubt those people exist and perhaps I like to see the best in people, but I do know what it's like to underprice a job and that isn't cowboy behaviour. It's a painful mistake.

As for the breakdown, yes. I suspect that they're probably at about the right point though, if not better off than had it been priced correctly in the first place.

PurpleIris

The quote was in line with others recieved at the time and we have agreed a few extras along the way but not unreasonable ones.

The issues were the time it was taking, some of the work not being good quality and the lack of care leaving us with leaks in our existing home many times.

All we want to do now is move on but we have a dispute about who owes who. We have had other contractors quote to complete and therefore have a right to a refund for the difference under Consumer Rights Act. But our builder disputes this and claims we owe him more money which would bring our total bill from him to £56k. This is hugely disproportionate to the amount of work left to do.

I think it will end up in small claims court as we can’t get a reasonable response from him at the moment.

We are considering DIYing some of the outstanding work as we are concerned we will not get the money back. Just concerned this too would affect our claim.

teneighty

How have the valuations and stage payments been calculated up until now?

Normally you would go through the detailed priced specification and total up the cost of all the work completed up to the valuation date. If a priced specification is not available you can estimate the percentage of work completed.

If the builder is claiming £56k that is just over 86% of the original contract sum. Has he completed 86% of the work? If not how is he calculating his figure?

Valuation disputes can be tricky so I suspect you will need professional help as I originally suggested.

Dean000000

take several several photos to document before you do anything.


And do what I said in regards to getting a breakdown to the original 65k, and the 44k valued to date.


You haven't mentioned the 'little extras' along the way.


To use an extreme example - if one 'little extra' was 20k's worth of windows/doors/landscaping (which has been done or supplied to site) then that could mae a difference too.


the important thing to do is to re-open dialoge with the builder to try and solve this sensible, amicably and fairly.