Notice to builder

[hennablossom]

Can the house owner send a notice letter to the builder for terminating him and the decision to look out for alternative tradesmen to complete his pending works that was left incomplete for months? Builder was chased up for months already to complete his pending works, after which he came in for less than a week but left most of the works undone. We prefer not to let him again as his work has been shambolic and have done more damage than before during his second attempt to complete his works.

[Law Student 2]

Hi, that sounds awful! I can understand why you would want to give notice.*
When you say chased up could you explain further what this entailed. For example, did you formally email explaining your concerns and asking for these to be solved. If not, this is a good idea as if the dispute does go to a third party you will have records that you attempted to solve the situation.*

It is also a good idea to take pictures of all the work you are not happy with. These would be useful to send in the email, explaining why they do not meet the standards you expected.*
If you send off notice to the builder it is likely he will charge you certain fees such as a cancellation fee, payment for the work completed already and potentially payment for items brought for the work that has not yet been installed. So you should be prepared for this.

However, it sounds like you may have grounds for a breach of contract. Especially since you provided a chance to remedy the situation. In which case you could be entitled to get your money back for the breach.*

Your ability to argue a fundamental breach of the contract would be affected by whether your contract was verbal or oral and what records you have of the work promised and done.*
Hope this helps!*