Builder demanding money 16 February at 12:21PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 24 replies 1.3K views

skylinedude

Hi All,

Would like some help and advice please. I am posting this on behalf of my partner as she is very stressed and upset at the moment. I will give you the gist of the issue.

Partner has a damp issue in her garage and asked a few companies to quote, this one particular company came out and quoted last year but unforeseen circumstances my partner could go ahead with the work at that time. She again asked this same company to quote again which they did and both times they came to the property to survey etc.

My partner accepted the quote, date was set for the work to go ahead, workers arrived and started, after two hours they downed tools and said that they could not complete the work as the garage has a concrete floor and drainage could not be added and they left.

The business owner is now demanding the full amount of payment £6K for work that was not completed, my partner told her that there is no way she is paying as they should have carried out the site survey with due diligence and that she would pay for half the day even though the workers left after 2 hours. The Owner is saying NO, she wants a full days pay approx. £900.

Where does my partner stand on this. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

The reason she is stressed and upset, she lost £5K to a builder a few years ago. she employed him for block paving drive and he just did not bother, she went to court etc but got no where.

Thanks all.

mi-key

Tell her to tell them to take her to court, and don't pay them a penny. They won't do it, and even if they did they would lose. If they continue to hassle her for the money, call the police and report them.

It is totally their fault, its not hard to see a garage has a concrete floor, and probably 99% of garage have them ! I'm not sure why it took them two hours to realise this once they were there, but they have done no work, so can't claim any payment.

mi-key

Don't pay the £900 either. There is no way they can justify that when they decided to walk off the job after two hours due to their mistake

skylinedude

Thank you. That is exactly what I told It is not her that cancelled the work and the builders should have done a better survey, they came twice to the property.

ThisIsWeird

Inform them of this by a recorded means, ideally email or text. She should also have her phone ready to 'record' should they come by her house.

She should be calm and succinct - let them rant if they want to, as it'll ultimately count against them. If they do, just stare at him/them until they finish, and bring it back to the facts.

Worth practising making these points in the form of Qs as much as possible. "Why did you leave the site and end the contract?" Presumably they'll cite the concrete floor, to which the next Q is, "How many times did you survey the job?" "Are you telling me you didn't realise the floor was concrete before you began the work?" "What %-age of garage floors are concrete?" etc etc.

And then, "Are you telling me that I should pay you for a job that you didn't actually do? For a job you didn't realise you couldn't do even after 2 surveys? Didn't reckon the floor was concrete even tho' just about every garage in the UK has a concrete floor?"

Stick with these points, bring any deviation by them back to this. Repeat them until they answer each one as required.

Making these points in the form of Qs forces them to answer. If, instead, you simply state these points, they'll argue, and they'll be masters of that.

Any threats, implied or actual, call up your local police and tell them of your concerns. Don't over-egg, just state what was said, and in what manner, calmly and succinctly.

(On a different note, what were they planning to do to your garage to cure this 'damp' anyway - fit drains inside? Worth your partner starting a new thread on here about this, posting photos, inside and out of the garage.)

SpudGunPaul

ThisIsWeird said:

Inform them of this by a recorded means, ideally email or text. She should also have her phone ready to 'record' should they come by her house.

She should be calm and succinct - let them rant if they want to, as it'll ultimately count against them. If they do, just stare at him/them until they finish, and bring it back to the facts.

Worth practising making these points in the form of Qs as much as possible. "Why did you leave the site and end the contract?" Presumably they'll cite the concrete floor, to which the next Q is, "How many times did you survey the job?" "Are you telling me you didn't realise the floor was concrete before you began the work?" "What %-age of garage floors are concrete?" etc etc.

And then, "Are you telling me that I should pay you for a job that you didn't actually do? For a job you didn't realise you couldn't do even after 2 surveys? Didn't reckon the floor was concrete even tho' just about every garage in the UK has a concrete floor?"

Stick with these points, bring any deviation by them back to this. Repeat them until they answer each one as required.

Making these points in the form of Qs forces them to answer. If, instead, you simply state these points, they'll argue, and they'll be masters of that.

Any threats, implied or actual, call up your local police and tell them of your concerns. Don't over-egg, just state what was said, and in what manner, calmly and succinctly.

(On a different note, what were they planning to do to your garage to cure this 'damp' anyway - fit drains inside? Worth your partner starting a new thread on here about this, posting photos, inside and out of the garage.)

The don't have a case so why do you say ranting will count against them?

Being upset if you feel you're owed money doesn't change whether you're entitled to it or not. A one off visit to an address if you think you're owed money isn't a course of conduct so a single rant is irrelevant. 

Oh and for your info there there are only certain threats the police will deal with. 

FreeBear

SpudGunPaul said: Oh and for your info there there are only certain threats the police will deal with. 

Breach of the peace is a catch-all that can trigger the involvement of the police. Sending a communication (email, letter, voice) with the intent to cause distress is an offence that could result in a high court appearance (was on a jury for just such a case last year).

Harassment has two elements, one civil, the other, criminal - For the latter, the police can get involved, although quite often, they prefer to class it as a civil offence.

If you are feeling threatened, then keep pestering the police to take action.

Doozergirl

ThisIsWeird said:

Inform them of this by a recorded means, ideally email or text. She should also have her phone ready to 'record' should they come by her house.

She should be calm and succinct - let them rant if they want to, as it'll ultimately count against them. If they do, just stare at him/them until they finish, and bring it back to the facts.

Worth practising making these points in the form of Qs as much as possible. "Why did you leave the site and end the contract?" Presumably they'll cite the concrete floor, to which the next Q is, "How many times did you survey the job?" "Are you telling me you didn't realise the floor was concrete before you began the work?" "What %-age of garage floors are concrete?" etc etc.

And then, "Are you telling me that I should pay you for a job that you didn't actually do? For a job you didn't realise you couldn't do even after 2 surveys? Didn't reckon the floor was concrete even tho' just about every garage in the UK has a concrete floor?"

Stick with these points, bring any deviation by them back to this. Repeat them until they answer each one as required.

Making these points in the form of Qs forces them to answer. If, instead, you simply state these points, they'll argue, and they'll be masters of that.

Any threats, implied or actual, call up your local police and tell them of your concerns. Don't over-egg, just state what was said, and in what manner, calmly and succinctly.

(On a different note, what were they planning to do to your garage to cure this 'damp' anyway - fit drains inside? Worth your partner starting a new thread on here about this, posting photos, inside and out of the garage.)

Why engage in conversation with them?  Especially asking questions? 

They have no leg to stand on.  The best advice is to ignore them entirely.  Block their numbers and call 101 regarding any harassment if it continues.  

But yes, I totally agree on finding out what the issue is!  Photos, definitely!  Let's try and save this lady some more money - this could have been a lucky escape!  

saajan_12

Was the 2 hrs actually spent on useful work, or would a new contractor have to start again with no benefit from the 2 hours?

No point in engaging in conversation. Just write once to state her position, that she was happy for them to do the job, they chose to terminate despite no changes in the flooring since the quote. She is willing to walk away for £0 but if they don't like it, the alternative is they do the work as agreed. If they disagree, they can take it to a court and no further communication will be entered. 

skylinedude

saajan_12 said:

Was the 2 hrs actually spent on useful work, or would a new contractor have to start again with no benefit from the 2 hours?

No point in engaging in conversation. Just write once to state her position, that she was happy for them to do the job, they chose to terminate despite no changes in the flooring since the quote. She is willing to walk away for £0 but if they don't like it, the alternative is they do the work as agreed. If they disagree, they can take it to a court and no further communication will be entered. 

They have dug up some of the floor to expose concrete so my partner says but when I looked at the floor it was all concrete anyway. There is no block paving or a wooden etc floor.

SpudGunPaul

FreeBear said:

SpudGunPaul said: Oh and for your info there there are only certain threats the police will deal with. 

Breach of the peace is a catch-all that can trigger the involvement of the police. Sending a communication (email, letter, voice) with the intent to cause distress is an offence that could result in a high court appearance (was on a jury for just such a case last year).

Harassment has two elements, one civil, the other, criminal - For the latter, the police can get involved, although quite often, they prefer to class it as a civil offence.

If you are feeling threatened, then keep pestering the police to take action.

Where's the harm? and face to face isn't malicious communication.

As I said a one off isn't harassment as there's no course of conduct.