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It's a long story I'll post a copy of the email I sent to the builder last week. This sums up where we're up to. We have received an email from his solicitor tonight asking for acknowledgement that she is representing this Ltd company. This week I have also been in touch with another customer left in a similar position. I will be eternally grateful for advice received.
Dear Paul,
We are pleased you have opened the dialogue and are happy to discuss the points you have raised.
Consequent to your email we thought it prudent to also contact JHAI, we also had a lengthy discussion, primarily in regards to the acoustic insulation, among other things, but to corroborate some of what you have said. Contrary to your email, they confirmed that the regulation relating to acoustic insulation in the flooring, is a required building regulation. He also confirmed, in writing, that he will not accept this being signed off without explicit consent from us, the customer. I would like to remind you that it was in fact you yourself that brought the need for the insulation to my attention, it was mentioned before purchase of the upgraded flooring, this is also clearly shown on the architectural plans.
We have mentioned previously to yourself, the noise from the children upstairs is very loud, and spoils the enjoyment of our incomplete living space. I would like to confirm that at present I have not given my permission for this to be signed off, and believe this deserves significant further discussion, and a proposal of how you intend to rectify this with minimum disturbance. I am also happy to involve Wellingborough Building control, who I have had a conversation with today. They also confirmed that this is not an optional regulation, regardless to the lack of insulation in the existing property. Should we be able to come to an agreement, I may be minded to allow your breach of this regulation.
You have previously told us that the playroom area of the house had to have around 50 cm of the top of the window obscured by brickwork, due to building regulations. This was categorically untrue. You eventually rectified this after your bricklayers laughed at this explanation and accepted that the bricked area was too low.
I am concerned that due to the pigeons that were living in the loft space for approximately 12 months, due to you not securing this until last week, despite repeated requests, will have left biohazardous waste due to their faeces. This is a further building regulation in my understanding, this can be confirmed with JHAI and Wellingborough Building Control.
When repeatedly asked to sand the wooden floors upstairs due to pigeon mess, you responded by saying “I didn’t shit on them”. You tried to charge me for the sanding, you eventually accepted this was your responsibility as again, the wood had been left exposed.
We thank you for your attached checklist and your attempts to rectify some of the issues. Of course you will understand given the present situation, we will wait for the results of JHAI building inspection before we are completely satisfied with them.
We will also be compiling our own snag list and a list of the significant outstanding items which we will issue shortly, perhaps these can be combined with your own so we can all be aware of what is outstanding.
As you are more than aware our second winter of the build is fast approaching, time is off the essence e.g. front of house is not being water tight/wood exposed to elements, this would fail a water test.
Our lack of trust and what seems to be now continued dishonesty about pricing and the exaggerated time line of the build, not to mention your recent portrayal of the discussions you have had with JHAI, all further verbal communications must be followed up with confirmation in writing within 24 hours, or be recorded.
The "gentleman's agreement" made on 6th September 2019, which included delivery of the kitchen units, paid for fully in March has already been broken, as you have failed to have the kitchen delivered.
The additional monies requested, despite not being included within the statement you produced on the 13th August 2019, is completely absurd.
The £2k extra over the budget for the roof tiles that were laid over a year ago, was never discussed at the time, this was not approved, and we received no variation invoice until our recent disagreement. To send a variation for something that occurred so early in the contract is ludicrous and unreasonable. We would not have accepted a £2k overspend when other products on the market would have been more than appropriate and perhaps we could have sourced a better match, as the tiles you have installed are very noticeably different, this being mentioned by passers-by. We refute this charge.
The money for gas call out is, we presume, referring to the time when your subcontractors did not complete works correctly and left my family, with an infant, without hot water for over 24 hours? We refute this charge.
The electric call out we requested after our circuit board was tripping out several times an hour, which you claimed at the time was from a charger and/or Kindle, this was in fact from the loose electrical socket(s) you left in my daughter’s bedroom. In hindsight we feel this was quite a serious hazard you had created, you may have left them loose for decoration to be completed, but it was your duty to make them safe once work was completed. Again this had not been discussed with us. We refute this charge.
The ceiling finishing is particularly ridiculous. You appeared happy to leave a brand new kitchen with uneven ceiling levels. This was not acceptable to me, and so I removed the existing ceiling myself. This was 6 hours work, my time has value too. Also, had you felt this was incomplete you should have alerted us to this, and we would have rectified it. We gave you no instruction to remove this. We refute this charge.
Waste removal - you said in your email on 13th August, that you had exceeded your budget, again you made no agreement for additional costs for these, nor did you bring these to our attention. The site is littered with your waste, we have disposed of much of it ourselves over the last eighteen months. We refute this charge, we will not charge you for the waste disposal we have completed on your behalf.
You have given the appearance you have created fictitious costs in order to make your demand for final payment, when there is significant work outstanding and incomplete works. I do not accept any of these costs. Why are none of these cost included in the email sent 13th August? Particularly when concerning tiles installed over a year ago. Why have none of them been brought to our attention at any point of the build when we have repeatedly asked for breakdown of costs?
A further issue that concerns us about your honesty is the occasion, where you sent me two variation invoices for the internal flooring downstairs. One quote was for 3,000, the next was for approximately 6,500. You tried to explain this by saying that you had forgotten that the play room was not having the same flooring. Given the playroom is not double the area of the kitchen and orangery combined, this explanation doesn't really add up, further dishonesty.
There is also the damage you have caused to the property. Two walls that were plastered in 2017 and 2018 are ruined with damp. The bathroom upstairs has mold from where your staff lifted tiles to join the new roof section, and left them dislodged despite your claims otherwise. This resulted in a cracked and stained ceiling. Rain water can clearly be seen running down the external walls to this day. I sent you regular messages advising you about this. We had rain pouring through the bathroom ceiling, resulting in my daughter slipping, requiring medical care. Your response was that you were at Harry Potter World, and you could not send someone round to remedy the situation. The lounge walls where further shoddy half finished work has resulted in an internal wall, plastered in August 2017, saturated, flaking and ruined, requiring drying out and re-plastering. You blamed your employee James for this but as his employer and business owner, it is your duty to ensure the work is carried out correctly. You accepted on 6th September that you had not been monitoring the build for some time.
The fence you half completed is already wobbly. Our landscaper has informed us it has been installed completely incorrectly, the posts should, at the very least be dug 1' further into the ground then they are, and that we will have to remedy this as it will not last a further 12 months. Materials for the fence which included 18 bags of postcrete were ruined as you led us to believe you would be completing the fencing, always promising to finish the job (plenty of SMS messages proving this) but you demanded more money to finish. This very much adds to our general distrust.
We feel the current situation is tantamount to blackmail. We paid in full for a fully fitted kitchen in March 2019. With communication we have from you that it would be released in April 2019. After 5 months, you have now refused to release this kitchen without further payments that have not been agreed to, nor authorised. I believe you are deliberately manipulating our situation, knowing we have young girls with a metabolic disability, who desperately need a kitchen for me to manage their condition. They could incur irreversible brain damage because of your actions. You have been made fully aware of our need for a lack of disruption, particularly to the kitchen, for this very reason.
As far as I am concerned, and the legal advice I have received, you have breached the contract. The works that you told me would take 5 months (the amount of time we have been without a kitchen), has taken 18 months, and are far from complete. This is an unreasonable amount of time.
Given the above, we either draw up a strict timetable to complete works with installments based on the tender, with dates for completion at each stage (previously refused by yourself), you return all monies for incomplete or unsatisfactory completion, including the kitchen, or we have no choice but to start legal proceedings and other activities outlined below.
There will be no payment until we see the kitchen units, carcasses, doors and ironmongery delivered. We will then make a partial payment (of 2,000) when installation of the kitchen units has been completed (1,000). Final payment will be given when all works are complete and a walk through has been undertaken. JHAI will clearly needed to have signed off all works completed also.
Kitchen to be installed and usable – 04/10/19
Playroom to be completed – 11/10/19
All outstanding works – 25/10/19
Due to concerns raised above, we have no option but to insist that a structured payment with absolute clarity on when things will happen is the only way forward. You have always refused timetabling of work when previously requested.
If this is something that we cannot come to an agreement on by midday on Friday 27th September 2019, I will start to take action. This will include, but not limited to: discussions with other customers of yours to warn them of your work not meeting building regulations and your blackmail attempts, instructing my solicitor to issue proceedings (to include freezing your assets after you twice said you would liquidate your company), speaking with HMRC, inviting Wellingborough Council Building Control to the house, commissioning a full structural survey and reporting you to Trading Standards and the Police. And of course we will publicly denounce you on social media platforms, reputation is everything. We can back up everything we say, and so I will not be perturbed by threats of legal action.
I expect your response no later than 12:00 on Friday 27th September, if I hear nothing by this time/date. I will take actions outlined above.
Regards
Karen Gardner
Some of the outstanding works/incomplete works includes:
No weep holes, no access to new loft space, broken roof tiles on th front and back of the property, no soak away, loose slabs that trip my children and hurt them regularly on both the patio and in the kitchen area, slabs that are only half grouted, blown glass in the orangery, the bottom of the playroom door being 6 inches from the floor, large cracks in all new bedrooms, front door with exposed brickwork, large gaps at the bottom of doors, exposed breeze block at the front of the house, a large gap that my young children trip over where the new and old floor meet upstairs. The brick gate post you knocked down, promising to rebuild on the first day of the build. The pooling of rain water on the orangery roof, the patio laid incorrectly without enough of a gap to allow adequate drainage. The wooden sheet on the bay already appears cracked and water damaged as it has been exposed. Orangery lantern has no end clips attached, door gaskets in orangery incorrectly fitted. This list is in no way exhaustive or complete.
Dear Paul,
We are pleased you have opened the dialogue and are happy to discuss the points you have raised.
Consequent to your email we thought it prudent to also contact JHAI, we also had a lengthy discussion, primarily in regards to the acoustic insulation, among other things, but to corroborate some of what you have said. Contrary to your email, they confirmed that the regulation relating to acoustic insulation in the flooring, is a required building regulation. He also confirmed, in writing, that he will not accept this being signed off without explicit consent from us, the customer. I would like to remind you that it was in fact you yourself that brought the need for the insulation to my attention, it was mentioned before purchase of the upgraded flooring, this is also clearly shown on the architectural plans.
We have mentioned previously to yourself, the noise from the children upstairs is very loud, and spoils the enjoyment of our incomplete living space. I would like to confirm that at present I have not given my permission for this to be signed off, and believe this deserves significant further discussion, and a proposal of how you intend to rectify this with minimum disturbance. I am also happy to involve Wellingborough Building control, who I have had a conversation with today. They also confirmed that this is not an optional regulation, regardless to the lack of insulation in the existing property. Should we be able to come to an agreement, I may be minded to allow your breach of this regulation.
You have previously told us that the playroom area of the house had to have around 50 cm of the top of the window obscured by brickwork, due to building regulations. This was categorically untrue. You eventually rectified this after your bricklayers laughed at this explanation and accepted that the bricked area was too low.
I am concerned that due to the pigeons that were living in the loft space for approximately 12 months, due to you not securing this until last week, despite repeated requests, will have left biohazardous waste due to their faeces. This is a further building regulation in my understanding, this can be confirmed with JHAI and Wellingborough Building Control.
When repeatedly asked to sand the wooden floors upstairs due to pigeon mess, you responded by saying “I didn’t shit on them”. You tried to charge me for the sanding, you eventually accepted this was your responsibility as again, the wood had been left exposed.
We thank you for your attached checklist and your attempts to rectify some of the issues. Of course you will understand given the present situation, we will wait for the results of JHAI building inspection before we are completely satisfied with them.
We will also be compiling our own snag list and a list of the significant outstanding items which we will issue shortly, perhaps these can be combined with your own so we can all be aware of what is outstanding.
As you are more than aware our second winter of the build is fast approaching, time is off the essence e.g. front of house is not being water tight/wood exposed to elements, this would fail a water test.
Our lack of trust and what seems to be now continued dishonesty about pricing and the exaggerated time line of the build, not to mention your recent portrayal of the discussions you have had with JHAI, all further verbal communications must be followed up with confirmation in writing within 24 hours, or be recorded.
The "gentleman's agreement" made on 6th September 2019, which included delivery of the kitchen units, paid for fully in March has already been broken, as you have failed to have the kitchen delivered.
The additional monies requested, despite not being included within the statement you produced on the 13th August 2019, is completely absurd.
The £2k extra over the budget for the roof tiles that were laid over a year ago, was never discussed at the time, this was not approved, and we received no variation invoice until our recent disagreement. To send a variation for something that occurred so early in the contract is ludicrous and unreasonable. We would not have accepted a £2k overspend when other products on the market would have been more than appropriate and perhaps we could have sourced a better match, as the tiles you have installed are very noticeably different, this being mentioned by passers-by. We refute this charge.
The money for gas call out is, we presume, referring to the time when your subcontractors did not complete works correctly and left my family, with an infant, without hot water for over 24 hours? We refute this charge.
The electric call out we requested after our circuit board was tripping out several times an hour, which you claimed at the time was from a charger and/or Kindle, this was in fact from the loose electrical socket(s) you left in my daughter’s bedroom. In hindsight we feel this was quite a serious hazard you had created, you may have left them loose for decoration to be completed, but it was your duty to make them safe once work was completed. Again this had not been discussed with us. We refute this charge.
The ceiling finishing is particularly ridiculous. You appeared happy to leave a brand new kitchen with uneven ceiling levels. This was not acceptable to me, and so I removed the existing ceiling myself. This was 6 hours work, my time has value too. Also, had you felt this was incomplete you should have alerted us to this, and we would have rectified it. We gave you no instruction to remove this. We refute this charge.
Waste removal - you said in your email on 13th August, that you had exceeded your budget, again you made no agreement for additional costs for these, nor did you bring these to our attention. The site is littered with your waste, we have disposed of much of it ourselves over the last eighteen months. We refute this charge, we will not charge you for the waste disposal we have completed on your behalf.
You have given the appearance you have created fictitious costs in order to make your demand for final payment, when there is significant work outstanding and incomplete works. I do not accept any of these costs. Why are none of these cost included in the email sent 13th August? Particularly when concerning tiles installed over a year ago. Why have none of them been brought to our attention at any point of the build when we have repeatedly asked for breakdown of costs?
A further issue that concerns us about your honesty is the occasion, where you sent me two variation invoices for the internal flooring downstairs. One quote was for 3,000, the next was for approximately 6,500. You tried to explain this by saying that you had forgotten that the play room was not having the same flooring. Given the playroom is not double the area of the kitchen and orangery combined, this explanation doesn't really add up, further dishonesty.
There is also the damage you have caused to the property. Two walls that were plastered in 2017 and 2018 are ruined with damp. The bathroom upstairs has mold from where your staff lifted tiles to join the new roof section, and left them dislodged despite your claims otherwise. This resulted in a cracked and stained ceiling. Rain water can clearly be seen running down the external walls to this day. I sent you regular messages advising you about this. We had rain pouring through the bathroom ceiling, resulting in my daughter slipping, requiring medical care. Your response was that you were at Harry Potter World, and you could not send someone round to remedy the situation. The lounge walls where further shoddy half finished work has resulted in an internal wall, plastered in August 2017, saturated, flaking and ruined, requiring drying out and re-plastering. You blamed your employee James for this but as his employer and business owner, it is your duty to ensure the work is carried out correctly. You accepted on 6th September that you had not been monitoring the build for some time.
The fence you half completed is already wobbly. Our landscaper has informed us it has been installed completely incorrectly, the posts should, at the very least be dug 1' further into the ground then they are, and that we will have to remedy this as it will not last a further 12 months. Materials for the fence which included 18 bags of postcrete were ruined as you led us to believe you would be completing the fencing, always promising to finish the job (plenty of SMS messages proving this) but you demanded more money to finish. This very much adds to our general distrust.
We feel the current situation is tantamount to blackmail. We paid in full for a fully fitted kitchen in March 2019. With communication we have from you that it would be released in April 2019. After 5 months, you have now refused to release this kitchen without further payments that have not been agreed to, nor authorised. I believe you are deliberately manipulating our situation, knowing we have young girls with a metabolic disability, who desperately need a kitchen for me to manage their condition. They could incur irreversible brain damage because of your actions. You have been made fully aware of our need for a lack of disruption, particularly to the kitchen, for this very reason.
As far as I am concerned, and the legal advice I have received, you have breached the contract. The works that you told me would take 5 months (the amount of time we have been without a kitchen), has taken 18 months, and are far from complete. This is an unreasonable amount of time.
Given the above, we either draw up a strict timetable to complete works with installments based on the tender, with dates for completion at each stage (previously refused by yourself), you return all monies for incomplete or unsatisfactory completion, including the kitchen, or we have no choice but to start legal proceedings and other activities outlined below.
There will be no payment until we see the kitchen units, carcasses, doors and ironmongery delivered. We will then make a partial payment (of 2,000) when installation of the kitchen units has been completed (1,000). Final payment will be given when all works are complete and a walk through has been undertaken. JHAI will clearly needed to have signed off all works completed also.
Kitchen to be installed and usable – 04/10/19
Playroom to be completed – 11/10/19
All outstanding works – 25/10/19
Due to concerns raised above, we have no option but to insist that a structured payment with absolute clarity on when things will happen is the only way forward. You have always refused timetabling of work when previously requested.
If this is something that we cannot come to an agreement on by midday on Friday 27th September 2019, I will start to take action. This will include, but not limited to: discussions with other customers of yours to warn them of your work not meeting building regulations and your blackmail attempts, instructing my solicitor to issue proceedings (to include freezing your assets after you twice said you would liquidate your company), speaking with HMRC, inviting Wellingborough Council Building Control to the house, commissioning a full structural survey and reporting you to Trading Standards and the Police. And of course we will publicly denounce you on social media platforms, reputation is everything. We can back up everything we say, and so I will not be perturbed by threats of legal action.
I expect your response no later than 12:00 on Friday 27th September, if I hear nothing by this time/date. I will take actions outlined above.
Regards
Karen Gardner
Some of the outstanding works/incomplete works includes:
No weep holes, no access to new loft space, broken roof tiles on th front and back of the property, no soak away, loose slabs that trip my children and hurt them regularly on both the patio and in the kitchen area, slabs that are only half grouted, blown glass in the orangery, the bottom of the playroom door being 6 inches from the floor, large cracks in all new bedrooms, front door with exposed brickwork, large gaps at the bottom of doors, exposed breeze block at the front of the house, a large gap that my young children trip over where the new and old floor meet upstairs. The brick gate post you knocked down, promising to rebuild on the first day of the build. The pooling of rain water on the orangery roof, the patio laid incorrectly without enough of a gap to allow adequate drainage. The wooden sheet on the bay already appears cracked and water damaged as it has been exposed. Orangery lantern has no end clips attached, door gaskets in orangery incorrectly fitted. This list is in no way exhaustive or complete.
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