Builder has disappeared, work paid for is incomplete, tools left on site

mavenmim

We needed a lot of building work doing on several buildings (we bought a dilapidated farm cottage with several outbuildings). I initially had quotes from many companies in late 2019, and chose my favourite (an established local builder with a small team) who gave us written quotes on four different projects. I took these to be fixed a fixed price for the work as they are phrased as "proposed contract price for our tender" rather than as a "quotation" or "estimate". I accepted via email and they started work.

We then got hit by the pandemic which slowed everything down and pushed costs for materials and labour up significantly. There were also some things that were not included in the original specifications, such as external retaining walls (as the site is sloping) and some elements of the drainage (as we are not on mains drainage) and we had to add some work outside the four projects to dig trenches related to utilities and fitting a ground source heat pump that supplies all the buildings. The builder also made me pay for several things that were supposed to be included in his original pricing, like scaffolding and the electrician. I tried to be reasonable, as I could see the work he had done was good, and I recognised that his costs had risen to a point that he couldn't deliver at the prices originally agreed, but he was reluctant to make a new agreement, whilst costs started to climb up wildly beyond the original prices we had agreed.

By last summer I had paid double the original amounts, and three of the four projects were mostly done (the fourth I had said not to start until the others were completed, but we do have quite a lot of materials purchased and stored on site to lock down prices before they went up). I asked him to give a cost to finish, and I paid £8k of that in advance. We also agreed that he would take off some cladding that had been fitted very badly, and put it up properly replacing any damaged parts at his own cost, as he was embarrassed that one of his labourers had claimed to be experienced at this but had done a bad job of it whilst he was off for a fortnight with covid. That was last August. I haven't seen him since.

I know he didn't plan to disappear, as he left some of his kit on site, including a stone saw, a trailer and some ladders, as well as a small cheap caravan he bought off eBay as a place for his crew to have tea-breaks and store stuff, that we were going to freecycle at the end of the job. He did reply to one text saying that his wife had locked him out and said their 40 year relationship was over, and his life had fallen apart but he'd be back in touch when he had got his head around that, but nothing since.

I don't think he is a dishonest guy who set out to rip me off. I just think that he hadn't anticipated the impact of the pandemic (could anyone?) in terms of his crew being poached for higher day rates, the work being slowed to such a degree and material costs rising so much, which was why I kept paying. And it may be that his personal life has turned upsidedown. But I'm now at a point where I've spent double the initial budget and the work isn't finished (and project 4, making the actual house we live in habitable, hasn't even started). Plus I'm going to have to pay £27k for another firm to finish the work I've already paid him for, and his stuff has been left on our site for 7 months without communication.

I just want to check out that I'm not missing anything, and my understanding of my rights in this situation is correct.

1) I could try to take him to court to get some money back, but as it is a limited company and doesn't appear to have done any work other than ours for some time, there is unlikely to be money to recover and therefore any legal costs might be pouring good money after bad. So possibly trading standards or some small claims case for a token amount might be worth it, but employing a lawyer almost certainly isn't.

2) His stuff can't be sold until I've sent a TORTS (INTERFERENCE WITH GOODS) ACT 1977 letter and given him another 12 weeks to collect it, and - if he does resurface - I can't prevent him collecting them even though he owes me money.

I have legal insurance on my home insurance, if that makes any difference.

It seems unfair that nothing protects a consumer in this situation, as we are left to pick up the cost of bad/incomplete work we have paid for, and the result will mean that my kids (who were 7 when we moved here, and 10 when we started work, but turn 15 this summer) are likely to be away at university by the time we can afford to repair the house and give them their own bedrooms.