Tweet
Hello,
I might be a little late asking for advice as it's possible we've already done some things in the wrong order unwittingly but ... any (gentle!) thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Between Sept-Dec 2013, we had a builder working on our property building us a two-storey extension. He had been recommended to us and had already completed some odd jobs around our house for us (hanging doors, laying a patio) so we felt reasonably confident that we could trust him. Initially things went well. He and his apprentice worked hard, the building inspector came at regular intervals and approved the various parts of the build. Things did go a little awry towards Christmas when our build went on longer than anticipated and he had other jobs stacked up, meaning he sometimes didn't turn up nor respond to texts or emails very quickly (if at all). You can also see a difference in the quality of the work completed towards the end of the contract (it is noticeably more rushed and done with less finesse).
There was also the issue where he left an overflowing skip on the shared area of our estate for over a week (we don't have road access to our property), leading to a complaint from one of our neighbours and a visit from the council. He fitted a kitchen for us in January and then was supposed to return in May to lay a patio around the extension once the ground had had a chance to settle. He had a dumpy bag of sand delivered ... and that was it. He went on holiday leaving the bag of cement mix sitting on the shared area (again). It was only picked up when I contacted the building yard with whom he had a contract and told them to come and get it. We couldn't get in touch with him, we had a load of paving slabs which we hadn't paid for and, as is the way of all builds, had found some snagging issues with the build that we wanted him to sort out (some crumbling grout, inadequate sealant around windows).
In the end, we told him that if he didn't get back to us, we would get someone else to do the patio and the snagging which is what we did. The new builder was very disparaging about the quality of the build but, as we had the final certificates from building regs, we though he might just be being catty! We thought that would be an end to it all but it became apparent very quickly that there were issues with the roof - DH and I moved into the extension bedroom and we would lie awake on windy nights listening to the roof thumping and groaning in a way that our old roof never had. In September 2014, we found water coming into our five year old sons bedroom. This was the point were the extension had been affixed to the house. We got quotes from two builders pertaining to this issue and contacted CAB who told us that we needed to give our builder adequate chance to return and fix the issue so we used a template letter from Which and contacted him. To give him his due, he returned within fourteen days and spent a day and a half on the roof. He left without communicating with us so we had no real chance to discuss what he'd done with it.
Fast forward to March 2015 - and water coming into our 5 year old's bedroom again. This time we contacted five roofing firms (rather than builders). They all, independently, said that the extension roof was inadequate and that there were serious shortfalls with it. So we retained one of them - we arranged for them to retile our original roof and repair the extension one. They took photos and prepared a report which detailed what they had found to be wrong. Within half a day of going up on the roof, they told us that the repairs required to the extension roof were more extensive than initially quoted for (and that it appeared that the "repairs" effected by the original builder in Oct 2014 appeared to be mainly spraying expanding foam into parts of the roof. (I should say that this firm have a good reputation and were fantastic with us and we are inclined to believe their assessment). Plus, despite wet and windy weather, we have had no water ingress or weird banging noises since they finished.
So they completed the work and invoiced us. We settled the invoice with them and then wrote to our builder reminding him that we had already contacted him telling him that if he didn't return we would retain another roofer, that although he did return, his repairs had been inadequate and so we had retained another roofing firm to complete the work and expected him to compensate us for the repair portion of the invoice. We included photos and the report made by the firm.
He has replied saying that he will refund something (we have no figure yet) but he disputes all the claims made by the roofing firm and alleges that they simply created problems to get more money out of us. He says that we should have contacted him first. We haven't replied yet as we want to know what the best approach is. Do we ask him for a figure so we can see if what he is offering is something we would consider? Do we avoid contacting him until we have taken some further legal advice or spoken to CAB? Perhaps we shouldn't have gone ahead with the repairs without forewarning him but we felt that the the letter from Oct 14 made it clear that if he didn't effect repairs we would contract someone else. He did make repairs but they were inadequate and we no longer had any trust in his ability to provide a stable roof. I really didn't want him back on the property after being told how poor his roofing skills were.
I'm sorry this is so long - I was trying to build up a picture of how our trust was slowly eroded in someone we had initially been pleased with.
I might be a little late asking for advice as it's possible we've already done some things in the wrong order unwittingly but ... any (gentle!) thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Between Sept-Dec 2013, we had a builder working on our property building us a two-storey extension. He had been recommended to us and had already completed some odd jobs around our house for us (hanging doors, laying a patio) so we felt reasonably confident that we could trust him. Initially things went well. He and his apprentice worked hard, the building inspector came at regular intervals and approved the various parts of the build. Things did go a little awry towards Christmas when our build went on longer than anticipated and he had other jobs stacked up, meaning he sometimes didn't turn up nor respond to texts or emails very quickly (if at all). You can also see a difference in the quality of the work completed towards the end of the contract (it is noticeably more rushed and done with less finesse).
There was also the issue where he left an overflowing skip on the shared area of our estate for over a week (we don't have road access to our property), leading to a complaint from one of our neighbours and a visit from the council. He fitted a kitchen for us in January and then was supposed to return in May to lay a patio around the extension once the ground had had a chance to settle. He had a dumpy bag of sand delivered ... and that was it. He went on holiday leaving the bag of cement mix sitting on the shared area (again). It was only picked up when I contacted the building yard with whom he had a contract and told them to come and get it. We couldn't get in touch with him, we had a load of paving slabs which we hadn't paid for and, as is the way of all builds, had found some snagging issues with the build that we wanted him to sort out (some crumbling grout, inadequate sealant around windows).
In the end, we told him that if he didn't get back to us, we would get someone else to do the patio and the snagging which is what we did. The new builder was very disparaging about the quality of the build but, as we had the final certificates from building regs, we though he might just be being catty! We thought that would be an end to it all but it became apparent very quickly that there were issues with the roof - DH and I moved into the extension bedroom and we would lie awake on windy nights listening to the roof thumping and groaning in a way that our old roof never had. In September 2014, we found water coming into our five year old sons bedroom. This was the point were the extension had been affixed to the house. We got quotes from two builders pertaining to this issue and contacted CAB who told us that we needed to give our builder adequate chance to return and fix the issue so we used a template letter from Which and contacted him. To give him his due, he returned within fourteen days and spent a day and a half on the roof. He left without communicating with us so we had no real chance to discuss what he'd done with it.
Fast forward to March 2015 - and water coming into our 5 year old's bedroom again. This time we contacted five roofing firms (rather than builders). They all, independently, said that the extension roof was inadequate and that there were serious shortfalls with it. So we retained one of them - we arranged for them to retile our original roof and repair the extension one. They took photos and prepared a report which detailed what they had found to be wrong. Within half a day of going up on the roof, they told us that the repairs required to the extension roof were more extensive than initially quoted for (and that it appeared that the "repairs" effected by the original builder in Oct 2014 appeared to be mainly spraying expanding foam into parts of the roof. (I should say that this firm have a good reputation and were fantastic with us and we are inclined to believe their assessment). Plus, despite wet and windy weather, we have had no water ingress or weird banging noises since they finished.
So they completed the work and invoiced us. We settled the invoice with them and then wrote to our builder reminding him that we had already contacted him telling him that if he didn't return we would retain another roofer, that although he did return, his repairs had been inadequate and so we had retained another roofing firm to complete the work and expected him to compensate us for the repair portion of the invoice. We included photos and the report made by the firm.
He has replied saying that he will refund something (we have no figure yet) but he disputes all the claims made by the roofing firm and alleges that they simply created problems to get more money out of us. He says that we should have contacted him first. We haven't replied yet as we want to know what the best approach is. Do we ask him for a figure so we can see if what he is offering is something we would consider? Do we avoid contacting him until we have taken some further legal advice or spoken to CAB? Perhaps we shouldn't have gone ahead with the repairs without forewarning him but we felt that the the letter from Oct 14 made it clear that if he didn't effect repairs we would contract someone else. He did make repairs but they were inadequate and we no longer had any trust in his ability to provide a stable roof. I really didn't want him back on the property after being told how poor his roofing skills were.
I'm sorry this is so long - I was trying to build up a picture of how our trust was slowly eroded in someone we had initially been pleased with.
Comment