Building contractor dispute

[yyyesssss]

Hello

Will try and keep it as brief as possible.

Oct 2023, Quote issued for £64k for renovation work on house
Nov. Work started
Nov - April. Variations encountered. Not quoted for but estimated
April 2025 Works finished and estimate issued £81k, which I accepted as being reasonably accurate, I have paid this amount to date.
December 2025 new bill of 98k issued, threatening to increase

When variations were discovered, I pushed the contractor for clarity on variations and quote to allow me time to respond/accept etc. He was very hard to reach and would dismiss with language such as “it’s a ball ache to quote", you’re getting a ‘Rolls Royce for a Ford’ or something similar.

As he had quoted the job after walking round the house for a few visits it seem reasonable he would know the cost of the variations, especially as the estimate arrived after we had moved into the property and everything was finished.

So in summery:

- Quote low, win job
- Discuss variations but not quote them or offering the client the chance to respond
- 8 months later detail the variations and ask for payment threaten legal action

Now I am landed with this gigantic bill, they did the work but didn't offer me the opportunity to decline it.


As an aside he split the payments across 2 companies to avoid paying VAT, and is suggesting he could potentially go back and re-invoice charging me VAT, as far as I can see this is a nono from HMRC and they generally take a dim view towards disaggregation and single entity tweaking.

[Pezza54]

Hi
In principle if you didn't sign a building contract that included clauses for variations and their pricing, then the court is likely to decide the contractor should be paid a reasonable amount for the variations.
If you think some of the pricing is unreasonable and too high, you should query the rates and quantities with the builder
Check the drawings and specification with the final account in detail. The builder may have missed omissions (work not done) or a cheaper material used than originally specified
Contractors can be notorious for producing final accounts late. They will concentrate on pricing the next job, ordering materials and programming labour leaving final accounts for a slack period in work on site
Variations can be necessary when the existing construction is uncovered and work such as replacing defective lintels is necessary. Often a contingency sum is allowed in the contract to cover this additional work
The variations you have mentioned are probably more to do with a client change of mind, either before or after work has started. These variations can cause the builder delay and disruption (reordering etc). The court may take the additional cost of this into account.
My advice is to try to negotiate an agreeable settlement with the builder, avoiding legal action

[yyyesssss]

Thanks for your response.

To clarify there were no variations from me the client. The work just turned out to be more involved than originally quoted. e.g. when lifting the floor it required skimming. Or a floor was not square so required leveling. This was discussed in person and agreed the price would increase from 64k to 82k. I agreed in person and it contained a 7k line for unforeseen. The 82k estimate was sent to me. But I never received the final bill. This was April.

Fast forward to December the bill is 98k. And when I question it each email comes back with a higher amount by a few hundred pounds. Very threatening and he is saying he reserves the right to increase the bill further.

So it just feels like he can charge what he wants

[Pezza54]

If you think the cost is unreasonable you don't have to pay what he is demanding.
If there are any variations that look too expensive, query the pricing.
Try to negotiate but if this fails wait to see if the builder starts a court claim.
If you make an offer to settle write "Without Prejudice" at the top of the letter or email

[yyyesssss]

Thanks for that. I had made a without prejudice offer which is equal to the final figure he made and his builder made in person.

With each new email, the price goes up by a few grand, and he threatens that if I don't pay, it will increase further. Quite intimidating. He's now hired a QS and said he would price the job, which presumably will increase the final account.

‘Hence your risk that you might have to
pay more than currently requested.’

'To confirm just sent you a self explanatory email requesting payment of £xxxx by 6pm tomorrow to avoid an exhaustive Letter of Claim for a higher sum being drafted and submitted.’

So I am just responding to his very long rambling often irrelevent emails with a simple:

I am still open to settling the matter and making a without prejudice offer, but it’s hard to see how that is even possible given you say you want to reserve the option to further increase / inflate the amount you are claiming to a 'higher sum'.

I'm not sure what else to do.

[Pezza54]

You have already made a without prejudice offer - stick to it
A qs can only accurately measure and price what he or she can see built on site or determine from drawings.
The qs will have difficulty pricing built work that now cannot be seen that changed from the original drawings and the designer did not complete as built drawings. For example the drainage may have changed and new trenches and pipes laid may have been altered to suit the existing drainage that wasn't as originally designed.
Having a priced final account prepared by a qs is the sort of expert report the judge would hope for to decide if more money is due to the builder.

Pricing materials is fairly straight forward, quantity x £ rate.
Pricing labour is a different matter. The estimated time to do a job ascertained from an estimator's text book (such as Spon's Architects and Builders Price Book) may vary significantly from the time the builder tells the qs the job actually took. If the qs uses the seemingly excessive time the builder said it took, the client uses the text book time to argue against the claimed cost