Tweet
Good morning and thank you for reading my post, I hope someone is able to help. The background part is very long sorry and will post the issues below it.
BACKGROUND
We found this builder on mybuilder.com who had good reviews, so we hired him to fit some doors, then we got him to make a new loft hatch and board the loft out, so far so good.
While he was doing those jobs we got talking about some of our dream jobs we would like done if we ever had the money and he asked what the jobs were and told us it wasn't as costly as we thought, so we asked him to do a quick quote for a couple of more things. which included French doors fitted, move the kitchen and block up back door. some decking , chimney breast wall removed, items we always dream of having done but never could afford it, the quotes were really good and my parents knowing our house needed updated anyway told us if we got him to quote for everything they could lend us the money, it felt like we had hit the jackpot, a no interest loan, a very affordable builder and a chance for our home to be made nice, for context I suffer from complex PTSD and I am pretty much house bound, so it was life changing for me.
It ended up being a lot of work, nearly every room having some work done, he told us the more work he did the cheaper it was due to bulk buying and charging a day rate instead of per job.
So we ask for a second quote to include all the work, it came in at £10,500 this was all done word of mouth over a few weeks as we had him start some work from the first quote, he worked with us to work out how we could save money and stay under budget. So I borrowed the money plus 10% just encase of issues.
So it came to ordering some expensive items, French doors and decking, he asked for £2000 up front for materials, which seemed fine but this is where we made a terrible mistake and I feel really stupid, we had a holiday booked, my first one since I was diagnosed with ptsd, when he asked for the £2000 I asked if he could continue to work while we were away for 2 weeks and get a lot of the building work done, he said that would be a very good idea and he could do all the outside work, so we transferred to him £5000 to cover all the costs for all the materials. Next day a wagon turned up with all the wood for decking and work continued fine.
A week later, a few days before my holiday I was very stressed about that, having to get pills from my doctor for the trip, we had another conversion with the builder who told us he could get our bathroom , kitchen benches and flooring and a few other items at less than the 3rd of the price of retail but it had to be cash and thats why he could do the work so much cheaper than we expected, to date we had no issues with him turning up, items were being bought and work was being done, that all changed after we paid the cash.
We went on holiday, he only came to the house once in the two weeks, we came back to find none of the items had been ordered apart from bricks, blocks and some sand. None of the outside work had been done, he ignored texts for a few days and turned up with the excuse of he was doing all other work on his books to give us a full block of time to finish the work, that seemed fine.
French doors turned up and he continued to do some work, but he came less often, had a whole host of reasons for not turning up and only did small jobs where the material costs seemed very low.
over the next couple of months he job from job to job, until couple of weeks ago I had to message him after he had failed to turn up again and I complained that we were freezing due to the hole in the back of the house and no heating down stairs, he turned up and did 2 days work, not fixing the hole, but putting wood down on floor and the underfloor heating ( thats its own story, to sum up we never wanted that but he gifted us the system as it was left over from another job, all we had to pay for was for a couple of items, he told us its doing him a favour getting it out of his garage )
After he did these 2 days, we didn't seem him again the following week, he had promised to come and finish the downstairs the following week, he had already missed 2 completion dates due to his personal issues. We had tried to be very understanding, but I had major concerns, we had a gas pipe from the celling to the floor after the chimney breast was removed, i thought that was dangerous, we still had gaps everywhere making the downstairs freezing, a temp kitchen worktop, no flooring and still none of the major items done or purchase, we had already agreed to delay the upstairs work until after xmas and just wanted the downstairs liveable.
that brings us to last Thursday.
I decided enough was enough and I had to be a little less understanding as he was ignoring texts and phone calls, so I wrote a text explain that the gas pipe had to be move, it was just hanging and really dangerous, i said if he cant do the work due to personal reasons could he just send some of the unused budget back and we would get a 3rd party person to do it, I also said if he cant complete the work due to his issues, maybe it would be best to settle up the work to date and return the unused budget and he could just finish off the couple of jobs he was halfway though. remembering none of the "cash" items had been bought.
Well he replied to that text with a quote / bill saying the money was all used up, was only £200 left, but the quote was insane, he has billed us for work not even started, padded out the figures that he told us and even had the brass neck to charge us £500 for the roll of underfloor heating that he gifted us! It seems he just made numbers up to spend all the budget.
MY ISSUES
So thank you for reading the background, sorry it was long, my issues.
When we discussed the work the first quote was done word of month and I kept a note of it, that was a few jobs on a job by job costing, that was changed when we decided to do much more work and a second quote was made, he wrote that down and told us word of mouth it was no more than £10.500, he had left the quote on the table and I was going to file it away, but when I went for it he had taken it back, so we had no break down of costs, just his quote of £10.500
Second issue is I paid £5000 bank transfer and £4500 cash, I got no receipt for the cash, but I think his last text might admit he was give £9500.
His last text implies all the money has been spent but its not even close to what he said as we were going along, he was on a day rate but we have been charge for everything, things like changing a light fitting, charged for things he did off his own back, but also charged for work not finished and not even started.
My Questions to you good people.
Do I have any legal case for the return of some of the money?
I have worked it out he has charged us £1370 for work not started.
then we have a whole host of jobs not finished, which he has charged us, for example we were charged by him £1200 for chimney breast wall removal, that included steel added, skip for rubbish removal and the wall made good afterwards. He hasn't made good the wall, he didnt add steel work, he didn't get a skip he got some lads to take the rubbish away ( which he has also billed us £250 )
The blocking in the back door, billed us for it, only half done, kitchen refit only half done, the list goes on and on.
Thank you for any advice, I feel very stupid and guilty for getting my family in the mess, i have borrowed money, got in debt and all we have in return is a house upside down with dangerous gas pipes hanging out the ceiling, My greed for getting the work done cheaply a price we could afford has really bitten us on the bum, the old if its too good to be true it normally is.
Is there anything we can do, he has just ignored all our texts and phone calls since his last one and I feel his offer to finish the half done jobs wont happen and I pretty sure our request to return the £1370 for items charged for not started wont happen either, even if we got that back it would mean the main issues could be sorted.
thank you very much for reading my long post, my gut feeling is nothing can be done and we are screwed, i just hope maybe something can be done, even if its to just stop him doing the same to someone else?
regards chris.
BACKGROUND
We found this builder on mybuilder.com who had good reviews, so we hired him to fit some doors, then we got him to make a new loft hatch and board the loft out, so far so good.
While he was doing those jobs we got talking about some of our dream jobs we would like done if we ever had the money and he asked what the jobs were and told us it wasn't as costly as we thought, so we asked him to do a quick quote for a couple of more things. which included French doors fitted, move the kitchen and block up back door. some decking , chimney breast wall removed, items we always dream of having done but never could afford it, the quotes were really good and my parents knowing our house needed updated anyway told us if we got him to quote for everything they could lend us the money, it felt like we had hit the jackpot, a no interest loan, a very affordable builder and a chance for our home to be made nice, for context I suffer from complex PTSD and I am pretty much house bound, so it was life changing for me.
It ended up being a lot of work, nearly every room having some work done, he told us the more work he did the cheaper it was due to bulk buying and charging a day rate instead of per job.
So we ask for a second quote to include all the work, it came in at £10,500 this was all done word of mouth over a few weeks as we had him start some work from the first quote, he worked with us to work out how we could save money and stay under budget. So I borrowed the money plus 10% just encase of issues.
So it came to ordering some expensive items, French doors and decking, he asked for £2000 up front for materials, which seemed fine but this is where we made a terrible mistake and I feel really stupid, we had a holiday booked, my first one since I was diagnosed with ptsd, when he asked for the £2000 I asked if he could continue to work while we were away for 2 weeks and get a lot of the building work done, he said that would be a very good idea and he could do all the outside work, so we transferred to him £5000 to cover all the costs for all the materials. Next day a wagon turned up with all the wood for decking and work continued fine.
A week later, a few days before my holiday I was very stressed about that, having to get pills from my doctor for the trip, we had another conversion with the builder who told us he could get our bathroom , kitchen benches and flooring and a few other items at less than the 3rd of the price of retail but it had to be cash and thats why he could do the work so much cheaper than we expected, to date we had no issues with him turning up, items were being bought and work was being done, that all changed after we paid the cash.
We went on holiday, he only came to the house once in the two weeks, we came back to find none of the items had been ordered apart from bricks, blocks and some sand. None of the outside work had been done, he ignored texts for a few days and turned up with the excuse of he was doing all other work on his books to give us a full block of time to finish the work, that seemed fine.
French doors turned up and he continued to do some work, but he came less often, had a whole host of reasons for not turning up and only did small jobs where the material costs seemed very low.
over the next couple of months he job from job to job, until couple of weeks ago I had to message him after he had failed to turn up again and I complained that we were freezing due to the hole in the back of the house and no heating down stairs, he turned up and did 2 days work, not fixing the hole, but putting wood down on floor and the underfloor heating ( thats its own story, to sum up we never wanted that but he gifted us the system as it was left over from another job, all we had to pay for was for a couple of items, he told us its doing him a favour getting it out of his garage )
After he did these 2 days, we didn't seem him again the following week, he had promised to come and finish the downstairs the following week, he had already missed 2 completion dates due to his personal issues. We had tried to be very understanding, but I had major concerns, we had a gas pipe from the celling to the floor after the chimney breast was removed, i thought that was dangerous, we still had gaps everywhere making the downstairs freezing, a temp kitchen worktop, no flooring and still none of the major items done or purchase, we had already agreed to delay the upstairs work until after xmas and just wanted the downstairs liveable.
that brings us to last Thursday.
I decided enough was enough and I had to be a little less understanding as he was ignoring texts and phone calls, so I wrote a text explain that the gas pipe had to be move, it was just hanging and really dangerous, i said if he cant do the work due to personal reasons could he just send some of the unused budget back and we would get a 3rd party person to do it, I also said if he cant complete the work due to his issues, maybe it would be best to settle up the work to date and return the unused budget and he could just finish off the couple of jobs he was halfway though. remembering none of the "cash" items had been bought.
Well he replied to that text with a quote / bill saying the money was all used up, was only £200 left, but the quote was insane, he has billed us for work not even started, padded out the figures that he told us and even had the brass neck to charge us £500 for the roll of underfloor heating that he gifted us! It seems he just made numbers up to spend all the budget.
MY ISSUES
So thank you for reading the background, sorry it was long, my issues.
When we discussed the work the first quote was done word of month and I kept a note of it, that was a few jobs on a job by job costing, that was changed when we decided to do much more work and a second quote was made, he wrote that down and told us word of mouth it was no more than £10.500, he had left the quote on the table and I was going to file it away, but when I went for it he had taken it back, so we had no break down of costs, just his quote of £10.500
Second issue is I paid £5000 bank transfer and £4500 cash, I got no receipt for the cash, but I think his last text might admit he was give £9500.
His last text implies all the money has been spent but its not even close to what he said as we were going along, he was on a day rate but we have been charge for everything, things like changing a light fitting, charged for things he did off his own back, but also charged for work not finished and not even started.
My Questions to you good people.
Do I have any legal case for the return of some of the money?
I have worked it out he has charged us £1370 for work not started.
then we have a whole host of jobs not finished, which he has charged us, for example we were charged by him £1200 for chimney breast wall removal, that included steel added, skip for rubbish removal and the wall made good afterwards. He hasn't made good the wall, he didnt add steel work, he didn't get a skip he got some lads to take the rubbish away ( which he has also billed us £250 )
The blocking in the back door, billed us for it, only half done, kitchen refit only half done, the list goes on and on.
Thank you for any advice, I feel very stupid and guilty for getting my family in the mess, i have borrowed money, got in debt and all we have in return is a house upside down with dangerous gas pipes hanging out the ceiling, My greed for getting the work done cheaply a price we could afford has really bitten us on the bum, the old if its too good to be true it normally is.
Is there anything we can do, he has just ignored all our texts and phone calls since his last one and I feel his offer to finish the half done jobs wont happen and I pretty sure our request to return the £1370 for items charged for not started wont happen either, even if we got that back it would mean the main issues could be sorted.
thank you very much for reading my long post, my gut feeling is nothing can be done and we are screwed, i just hope maybe something can be done, even if its to just stop him doing the same to someone else?
regards chris.
Comment