Getting £ back off a bad builder

[Meels1978]

Hi, just after any experience with a similar situation. We employed what appeared to be a partnership of builders to start work on an extension that was due to be finished by July. One of the partners disappeared. According to the remaining partner, they’d had a row and fallen out. After that people were never on site regularly, we didn’t know who would be on site not when despite asking. It was clear they would not be finished on time. Then I was told, while you are away on holiday, we’ll get loads done. All that happened was the external wall was knocked down. Our house has been open ever since and that was the end of July. The only other thing that has been done since is one rsj was installed. According to other builders this has not been done safely so we have had to pay someone else to make it safe. We also had to pay a plumber to fix a problem they had caused with out boiler. We have paid about 3/4 of the fee and I feel we need some of this back along with some compensation. Does this sound achievable ? We have instructed him not to bother coming back on site after he made various promises to ‘get back on track’ that came to nothing. There was also a really serious injury on site where an rsj was dropped on a worker’s leg. The man is still unable to walk and has also had problems contacting the man in question who has recently set himself up as a limited company.

[pt2537]

Good morning

There is no doubt that we would need to know a lot more about the case before it would be safe to offer any specific advice.

With that said, it would seem that there was a contract with the builder although we dont know the exact terms, and it seems as if the builder has failed to carry out the works with reasonable care and skill, thus are in breach of contract ( implied terms under the Consumer Rights Act 2015)

On the face of it you seem to have a claim against the builder. What you can claim would arguably need an experts report to advise on the damage to the property, as there could be further (currently unknown) losses that would need to be included.

[DE DOGS]

Very similar situation to mine, Partners to build me a 30X30 building, they dug out the footings, I paid 50% of the cost, they employed a bricklayer, bricklayer built approx half the walls, one partner came along and fired the chap, no problems but lucky for me I caught him as he was leaving the job and told him to carry on I will pay you. next, I informed the partners that had split up,now no roof no drains, no floor in fact they walked away, but a month later one of the partners returned with a lad and fitted the roof, just to get rid of him I paid the balance, low and behold his partner arrived and demanded I pay him the balance. My Grandaughter moved into a property, and employed a builder, she made him sign and cost every part of the renovation, gave him a copy checked his previous jobs and made sure they were not family related, he lost money as he cost it wrong

[Meels1978]

Thank you for replying both of you. I am sending him a letter requesting money back although I doubt this will materialise but it gives him the opportunity to do the right thing. On further inspection of our plans today it turns out that he didn’t stick to the original structural drawings at all so whoever takes over has that to deal with on top of everything else!