Issues with builder, need some advice please.

[chrismisterx]

Some beams are long, some are short. Prices vary.

thank you for your reply, the room is 4m long approximately, the breast wall is around 1,6m long, I have no idea what's involved in sorting it.

The more reading I do the more I am resigned that its been done wrong, no were online have I found it passing inspection with just added wood, so I am trying to prepare myself for the worst.

[chrismisterx]

Update.

Well no surprise the building work isnt even close to being up to regs, worse still he may have caused damage and now I need an engineer to access what's going on and to do the maths for what's needed to put right.

I message him today explaining all that, and I got this reply.

Chris
I understand you are upset regarding what has been started work wise, but due to so many changes and extras along the way. The work that has been done so far has been done to the best of my knowledge. You have not been an easy client to work along side due to constant changes and sitting in the same room while work has been continuing.
But due to the current circumstances I'm no longer trading and the company is now dissolved. So unable to forward insurance information.


I would like to point out a couple of things, first nothing was changed that would effect any of his work apart from the archway, he fitted a door there and was paid in full, but later on when he talked us into the underfloor heating he took that back out. The other changes were on his advise and we asked if he could do further work for us when we were discussing things, nothing was changed after the second quote.

Also the claim I was sitting in the same room, with most of the work thats not true, a lot of the work was very messy and the time I did, I asked if it was ok as we had moved everything upstairs out the way and wasn't a lot of room, his reply was that it was fine and I wasn't in the way.

Now his last point about being a company, I searched his name and found one listing on companies house, matched his address, this was from 2016 and was dissolved in 2017, I cant find anything else using his current trading name or his name and address, does that mean he is lying to try and fob me off or am I searching wrong?

If it turns out he isnt a company, what's my next step, I think the fact he is claiming to have dissolved his company means he wont be making good anything, so what's my next legal step, should I send a pre legal action letter, just not sure how to best move forward.

thank you

[chrismisterx]

Update.

Well it seems like forever since we started dealing with this.

Action fraud give us a crime number, trading standards are involved and are making a case against him, after we had a safety test done for the electrical work it was found to be unsafe to the point we had to have parts of our electrical shut off until we could get someone else in to fix the wrongs, it ended up with a complete new fuse board as he had damaged it.

We have also contacted a local student law firm who is considering taking our case on for free, to help with pre legal letters and the such, should find out in the next couple of weeks if they can help.

The bank has started to investigate to see if they can claim some of the money back from his bank.

The house is still a mess atm, the damage is much worse than we expected and the builder is claiming he is no longer trading, so its a case of waiting to see now.

[wales01man]

Were you dealing with this builder as a LTD company or an individual seems very quick to dissolve a company

[chrismisterx]

Were you dealing with this builder as a LTD company or an individual seems very quick to dissolve a company

We hired him as a sole trader, from my builder.com

He claimed he was a company after he stole the money, but trading standards and a friend who searched on company house cant find any records, he used to have a company in 2016 but that dissolved a year later.

The reason he informed us he wasn't trading anymore is I asked for his insurance details, he said as he is no longer trading he doesn't have to supply them, its my guess he was never insured.

He did work he wasn't qualified to do, he did work on the fuse box and left it and I quote "criminally unsafe" to the point the person doing the safety test had to disconnect parts of the circuit, he said we were lucky no one was killed or a fire started.

Not only did he run off we our money, but he has caused massive amounts of damage, doing things he wasn't qualified to do. We had to get the ceiling propped up to hold the rest of the chimney stack in place, to give you an idea of how much of a fly by night he was, he quoted £1200 from the breast wall to be removed and we have found out after the fact it should have been more like £4000 when you take into account plans being drawn for building control, steel and the such.

Its going to cost over £5000 to put right as we have water coming into the house, so the roof seems to be damaged from his work.