Builder dispute and his supplier!

Dannyok10

Hi there, wonder if anyone could help...

We are having renovations done in our house and it has had a few issues. Firstly the estimated time of completion was 5 weeks- we are now on week 15. The builders have rarely been on site and when they have, it's been less than half working says.

We are coming to the end of the build but we have had some serious issues arise. We have paid him 95% of what we agreed with the quote... however there are quite a lot of snags and some possible building control violations. This could become so costly and be more than the 5% of monies we owe him. There is still some work to be completed as well.
We decided that we would withhold the money from him until he completed the rest of the work and the snag list. However, he of course has turned nasty... and the cherry on top is that he has started telling his contractors and suppliers that we aren't paying for the work.

Today we had an email from a door supplier saying that we need to pay an invoice, even though we didn't contract him to do it- the builder did. So basically he's threatening to get his 'boys' to come and remove our door from the house as it's still his door until 'we' pay the invoice... ??

Can anyone give us some advice on this?

pinkshoes

Surely the builder is responsible for suppliers being paid?

If so, politely write back stating that the builder has been paid 95% of the money and is therefore able to pay them for the goods.

Aylesbury_Duck

As above. You do not have a contract with the suppliers so any clawback they’re after is down to the builder.

tacpot12

I would send the door company proof that you have paid the builder. If the door company turn up, tell them they are tresspasssing and call the police if they do not leave immediately. Tell the police that there is likely to be a breech of the peace if the do not attend.

m0bov

Contact the police. Contact the door company and tell them you've notified the police of their threats.

Lomast

i may be wrong but I'm not entirely sure the above advice is completely correct undoubted the contract between the builder and his supplier has a clause in that goods remain property of the supplier until paid in full therefore the builder did not have good title to transfer to the op.

davidmcn

Lomast wrote: »

i may be wrong but I'm not entirely sure the above advice is completely correct undoubted the contract between the builder and his supplier has a clause in that goods remain property of the supplier until paid in full therefore the builder did not have good title to transfer to the op.

Pretty sure any retention of title isn't going to adversely affect a consumer contract, especially not once something has become a fixture to the OP's property - otherwise you'd have e.g. double-glazing manufacturers removing people's windows.

Lomast

Yeah ignore my last having looked into it it does not count if the goods in question have been fixed to the land