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Hi all
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Have been advised to come here by the kind folk on MSE Forums for some legal advice regarding a situation we're currently in.
Where do I start ...
We employed a contractor to do a full renovation of our new house. The project we were told would take 6 weeks and we signed a contract with agreed works and price.
Things were going OK at the start until we were advised the project would take longer than 6 weeks due to "unforeseen issues" which arose during the project. The cost of the project as agreed on the contract was c. £30k. We paid our instalments on time (in light of the work running behind) but when it got to around £25k being handed over started to get concerned that we would have paid the builders more money than the work they had actually done. I discussed this with the builder face to face a few weeks prior to this and told him that I would be holding the final money back till the job is complete to cover all works and snagging.
It's worth pointing out at this stage the contractor who I signed the contract with actually didn't lift a finger in the property - he subbed it to people he met in the yellow pages etc but that's another issue.
The contractor started to penny pinch and this is when alarm bells started ringing. For example we agreed a cost of £X to re-paint the entire house. The decorator he got in was doing all the work, and at around 75% complete the decorator told me he is no longer required and has been told not to come in anymore. I raised this with the contractor and explained the house isn't fully decorated and I expect the painter to return to finish. This was met with huge resistance as clearly the more days the decorator was in the property the less profit he would be making. Getting the decorator to come back in and finish was proving impossible. This is where things started to turn.
In addition to the above at around week 10 of the project (and still not complete) my wife and I were at our wits end. There would be days where no tradesman turned up at all and days where someone would be there for just an hour. I emailed the contractor saying the works have overrun long enough and he was continually failing to meet his deadlines. This was 2 weeks before Christmas and the house was still miles from being finished.
With all the stress of the project over running, penny pinching and lack of presence in our property I emailed the contractor and said that he is to finish as much as he can by the end of the week, and anything not finished / completed would need removing from the quote and costs to be discussed as it seemed the building works would be going on indefinitely. We had to end it as I felt he was purposely stalling in the final weeks for some reason.
A day later we received an email from the contractor subject "termination of agreement". His words in the email state that he will not be returning to the 'hostile environment' and he has no interest in finishing the project. He advises he will follow up with a revised final statement of costs.
We receive the final statement and invoice and he is asking for £8,000 for works which he previously agreed he would do for free, plus extras which he had not told us about nor had we ever agreed to. We wouldn't have agreed to them as they were extortionate charges. He has also since changed his tune about the reason for terminating the contract as "withholding payment". I reminded him that we would not pay the final sums until the work was finished, this made no difference. He claims my threat of not paying for any works complete by the end of the week removed any "previous gestures and offers".
Today we have received paperwork from a DCA saying I have 5 days to pay. If I don't pay they would either petition for bankruptcy or follow up with a court case.
My wife and I are incredibly stressed by all of this. Not only did he leave us with an incomplete house 2 weeks before Christmas, he also did a terrible job on some of project and now expects us to pay £8k!!
There are also still outstanding works from the original contract to the tune of c. £6.5k
So if it's not too much trouble I have some questions that would really help me out.
1) where do I stand legally on work which he said (in writing) he would do for free, but is now charging us?
2) where do I stand legally on 'extras' he is now charging us for that sit outside of the signed contract and were never agreed / approved by us?
3) in the contract he has a clause that we are liable to pay any recovery costs for outstanding payments. The DCA has highlighted that if further court action is required these costs would be passed to us. Given he was the one who terminated the agreement does this clause still have any relevance?
4) from a legal POV what are your thoughts on the entire situation?
At one stage I was prepared to stand in front of a judge and argue this, however I am getting concerned about this cost increasing drastically should it progress through the courts and he adds on fees, solicitor costs, compensation etc. £8k could turn into £12k by the time it gets to court?
Any advice would be hugely appreciated. This situation is such a shame. at a time we are supposed to be enjoying our first new home together we have a sour taste in our mouths because of this evil man.
Thanks so much
Lee
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Have been advised to come here by the kind folk on MSE Forums for some legal advice regarding a situation we're currently in.
Where do I start ...
We employed a contractor to do a full renovation of our new house. The project we were told would take 6 weeks and we signed a contract with agreed works and price.
Things were going OK at the start until we were advised the project would take longer than 6 weeks due to "unforeseen issues" which arose during the project. The cost of the project as agreed on the contract was c. £30k. We paid our instalments on time (in light of the work running behind) but when it got to around £25k being handed over started to get concerned that we would have paid the builders more money than the work they had actually done. I discussed this with the builder face to face a few weeks prior to this and told him that I would be holding the final money back till the job is complete to cover all works and snagging.
It's worth pointing out at this stage the contractor who I signed the contract with actually didn't lift a finger in the property - he subbed it to people he met in the yellow pages etc but that's another issue.
The contractor started to penny pinch and this is when alarm bells started ringing. For example we agreed a cost of £X to re-paint the entire house. The decorator he got in was doing all the work, and at around 75% complete the decorator told me he is no longer required and has been told not to come in anymore. I raised this with the contractor and explained the house isn't fully decorated and I expect the painter to return to finish. This was met with huge resistance as clearly the more days the decorator was in the property the less profit he would be making. Getting the decorator to come back in and finish was proving impossible. This is where things started to turn.
In addition to the above at around week 10 of the project (and still not complete) my wife and I were at our wits end. There would be days where no tradesman turned up at all and days where someone would be there for just an hour. I emailed the contractor saying the works have overrun long enough and he was continually failing to meet his deadlines. This was 2 weeks before Christmas and the house was still miles from being finished.
With all the stress of the project over running, penny pinching and lack of presence in our property I emailed the contractor and said that he is to finish as much as he can by the end of the week, and anything not finished / completed would need removing from the quote and costs to be discussed as it seemed the building works would be going on indefinitely. We had to end it as I felt he was purposely stalling in the final weeks for some reason.
A day later we received an email from the contractor subject "termination of agreement". His words in the email state that he will not be returning to the 'hostile environment' and he has no interest in finishing the project. He advises he will follow up with a revised final statement of costs.
We receive the final statement and invoice and he is asking for £8,000 for works which he previously agreed he would do for free, plus extras which he had not told us about nor had we ever agreed to. We wouldn't have agreed to them as they were extortionate charges. He has also since changed his tune about the reason for terminating the contract as "withholding payment". I reminded him that we would not pay the final sums until the work was finished, this made no difference. He claims my threat of not paying for any works complete by the end of the week removed any "previous gestures and offers".
Today we have received paperwork from a DCA saying I have 5 days to pay. If I don't pay they would either petition for bankruptcy or follow up with a court case.
My wife and I are incredibly stressed by all of this. Not only did he leave us with an incomplete house 2 weeks before Christmas, he also did a terrible job on some of project and now expects us to pay £8k!!
There are also still outstanding works from the original contract to the tune of c. £6.5k
So if it's not too much trouble I have some questions that would really help me out.
1) where do I stand legally on work which he said (in writing) he would do for free, but is now charging us?
2) where do I stand legally on 'extras' he is now charging us for that sit outside of the signed contract and were never agreed / approved by us?
3) in the contract he has a clause that we are liable to pay any recovery costs for outstanding payments. The DCA has highlighted that if further court action is required these costs would be passed to us. Given he was the one who terminated the agreement does this clause still have any relevance?
4) from a legal POV what are your thoughts on the entire situation?
At one stage I was prepared to stand in front of a judge and argue this, however I am getting concerned about this cost increasing drastically should it progress through the courts and he adds on fees, solicitor costs, compensation etc. £8k could turn into £12k by the time it gets to court?
Any advice would be hugely appreciated. This situation is such a shame. at a time we are supposed to be enjoying our first new home together we have a sour taste in our mouths because of this evil man.
Thanks so much
Lee
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