Builder cancelled contract for no real reason

shoehorn68

My builder didn't agree to the amount I paid on my extension and kept asking for more.

I have all bank records showing the payments I've made and asked them to cross check with what they had received from me.

This was ignored and emails were sent from them just asking for more money.... this went on for a short while with me saying, "check your account, it's not that difficult"

I then received and email saying, "Can you transfer £xxx with in 7 days or the contract will be end."
With the last line of the email saying, "Please respond to each point of this email with in 15 minutes or the contract will be end."

I did not respond and over the next 4 days I received no less than TEN notifications (WhatsApp, email, SMS) saying similar, all along the lines of respond within xx minutes or "the contract will be end."

After 4 days of this and having checked our signed contract I responded with, "In response to the email communication highlighted in grey below we, xxx and yyy acknowledge that zzz on behalf of aaa Ltd has cancelled the contracts relating to <my address> with effect from <date and time>.
The date and time I entered was 15 minutes after the date and time that the original email from the builder was sent.

Somewhat surprisingly to me they turned up the next day and said that they would continue working if I paid them £xxx  -  I said no because they had cancelled the contract meaning they had to remove all their things within 7 days and now had 3 days left as per the terms of our original building contract - we both signed this contract before any work began.

They seemed to understand what I had said and took their things the same day.

The next day they sent an email saying that they did not cancel the contract, but that I did and that they were still willing to finish the project but a new quote and contract must be signed.

I certainly don't want them to come back and complete my extension, but I don't know what to do to get them to understand that they cancelled the contract and I accepted their terms.

Happy to hear any thoughts on the above, am I right in what I am saying and what I have done? Any ideas on how to get them to understand? Should I go to a lawyer?

They had around £15,000 of work left to do on the contract, but now it seems as prices have gone up it will cost me £20,000 to complete the build using a different builder (I have obtained 3 new quotes for the outstanding work required). Can I take the original builder to small claims court for the extra money I will have to pay to complete my extension being as they cancelled the contract for no specific reason?

If you've got this far, thanks - and as I said any thoughts welcome, for or against me - I'm interested in where I stand.

Section62

shoehorn68 said:

My builder didn't agree to the amount I paid on my extension and kept asking for more.

I have all bank records showing the payments I've made and asked them to cross check with what they had received from me.

This was ignored and emails were sent from them just asking for more money.... this went on for a short while with me saying, "check your account, it's not that difficult"

I then received and email saying, "Can you transfer £xxx with in 7 days or the contract will be end."
With the last line of the email saying, "Please respond to each point of this email with in 15 minutes or the contract will be end."

I did not respond and over the next 4 days I received no less than TEN notifications (WhatsApp, email, SMS) saying similar, all along the lines of respond within xx minutes or "the contract will be end."

After 4 days of this and having checked our signed contract I responded with, "In response to the email communication highlighted in grey below we, xxx and yyy acknowledge that zzz on behalf of aaa Ltd has cancelled the contracts relating to <my address> with effect from <date and time>.
The date and time I entered was 15 minutes after the date and time that the original email from the builder was sent.

Somewhat surprisingly to me they turned up the next day and said that they would continue working if I paid them £xxx  -  I said no because they had cancelled the contract meaning they had to remove all their things within 7 days and now had 3 days left as per the terms of our original building contract - we both signed this contract before any work began.

They seemed to understand what I had said and took their things the same day.

The next day they sent an email saying that they did not cancel the contract, but that I did and that they were still willing to finish the project but a new quote and contract must be signed.

I certainly don't want them to come back and complete my extension, but I don't know what to do to get them to understand that they cancelled the contract and I accepted their terms.

Happy to hear any thoughts on the above, am I right in what I am saying and what I have done? Any ideas on how to get them to understand? Should I go to a lawyer?

They had around £15,000 of work left to do on the contract, but now it seems as prices have gone up it will cost me £20,000 to complete the build using a different builder (I have obtained 3 new quotes for the outstanding work required). Can I take the original builder to small claims court for the extra money I will have to pay to complete my extension being as they cancelled the contract for no specific reason?

If you've got this far, thanks - and as I said any thoughts welcome, for or against me - I'm interested in where I stand.

It sounds like the relationship has completely broken down if they are demanding you reply within 15 mins.

I think you need to swallow the additional costs you may incur by going to a different contractor.  When a relationship has got that bad it is rare to get things back on track to a successful completion.  You also have no guarantee this builder will complete the job within any timescale and cost you now agree with them.

TELLIT01

Check your home insurance to see if you have legal cover.  If so, contact your insurer.  If not, speak to a solicitor. 

FaceHead

Yes. Agree that you should go after them for the difference. Why do you think they have pulled out? 

Is it that prices have gone up, so they can't make money on your job, so want to renegotiate? If so, they should try to do so like grownups, not demand money in 15 minutes. Do they have any legitimate reason for pulling out? Why were they demanding money? Are they prepared to complete the job at the original price? What is the new price offered?

Next steps are: Get 3 good quotes from decent local people to finish the work. Get it done, and pay them. Send the old builder the letter before court action, and then follow the small claims process. It'll cost you a few hundred in court fees, for a non-negligible chance of getting several thousands back, so I think it's worth pursuing.