Sacking your builder

[Twistedsanity]

So after 7 slow painful months of what should be a 3 month job my builder has run away with his tools when I refused him any more money until the job was finished and signed off (this was made clear last time I paid him). His work has been reasonable bar a few dropped testes and he is an old guy who it appears bit off more than he could chew.

Visited two jobs he had done.Got a written quote, payment schedule drawn up then he did everything in a different order. Providing there are no hidden nightmares there is about enough money left to get the job Completed by someone else, all his payments were cash and signed for so according to his schedule he is slightly ahead with payments, he drove off down the road like a woman scorned with **** falling out of the back of his van as he couldn't get the doors closed properly, tbh after 7 months I think we were both sick if the sight of each other and the last two months he has been here from 09.30 until 2.30 with an hour for lunch and another hour or two for smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. I'm.getting quotes to finish the job as there is very little left and building services have been round at my request to check the last few bits he has done but another builder told me I am legally obliged to write to him and give him the opertunity to finish the job before I employ anyone else or he can sue me? I really don't want him back here and can't see he wants to come back either, the underfloor heating system he fitted alone would see him hung out to dry after he would have to remove my entire kitchen floor to rip it out and replace it, can I just get on with employing someone else?

[wandringstar]

I got rid of mine after error after error a couple of years ago, they even put the wrong plasterboard on a bathroom, and it had an odd smell when you had a bath, so that had to come off.

 

it was the lies that finished it, being told that the roofer would start in 2 days to commit me to a new roof, so scaffold went up, but builder knew the roofer was off on holiday for weeks, when another company could have done it no problem.

 

eaves tiles left off after new fascias/soffits, water pouring into each room, builder turns mobile off.

 

so I sacked them, they were absolute rubbish, even built the porch 6 inches too small. I got the yellow pages out and got some nice people in individually to finish it.

 

 

never again, acted like they were doing me a favour, couldn't even sweep up, I cant believe I managed to keep my cool.

Edited February 9, 2017 by wandringstar

[Rupert]

You need to inform him formally that you no longer require his services, highlight missed deadlines and protracted progress, indicate your intention to engage others. Formal firm polite, make sure he receives it, signed for or personal delivery, film the hand over. That should be the end of it unless he feels you still owe him.

This is as much for you as him, just in case you need it later.

 

I am a contractor.

[Bemused]

You need to inform him formally that you no longer require his services, highlight missed deadlines and protracted progress, indicate your intention to engage others. Formal firm polite, make sure he receives it, signed for or personal delivery, film the hand over. That should be the end of it unless he feels you still owe him.

This is as much for you as him, just in case you need it later.

 

I am a contractor.

 

Spot on.

[Twistedsanity]

Thanks. Same as wanderingstars situation but not as bad really, constant lies about deadlines and needing money, insulation mentioned on the architects spec sheet missing, I could go on and on but I'm sure it's familiar to most of you. I mentioned I was getting the old but perfectly good crazy paving drive replaced in the near future which he took as free reign to destroy it. Looking on the bright side what he did was to a reasonable standard so it could have been so much worse

[buze]

I had that last year actually. On a much simpler job too, installing paving outside my place. The guy played smart etc but was in fact a dumbo. And he didn't know how to lay paving. Well, not straight anyway, and not with the required fall. Eventually after a few shouting matches he just decided to take off and left me to finish the job myself.

[Luckyshot]

You need to inform him formally that you no longer require his services, highlight missed deadlines and protracted progress, indicate your intention to engage others. Formal firm polite, make sure he receives it, signed for or personal delivery, film the hand over. That should be the end of it unless he feels you still owe him.

This is as much for you as him, just in case you need it later.

 

I am a contractor.

Glad I don't use any contractors as if he was mine I would have just told him to **** off.

[Twistedsanity]

I pretty much did everything they say you should, went to two jobs he had done and spoke to the people, got a written quote with his name, address and home phone number on, agreed a schedule of payment dependent on stages of completion etc. Got him to sign everytime he was paid, trouble is I'm disabled and can't lift a bag of sand and also have a limited budget so telling your builder to do one half way into a job isn't that easy an option for me really. It's even more frustrating as I could do most of the work myself if I was able bodied.

[Scully]

Ahhh... the joys of living in a rural community, where standards and reputations are known to all.

😊

[fortune]

It's not all one way though. Some householders have distorted ideas of what jobs entail and keep changing their minds. There are some really crooked people out there that lead contractors into situations where work is commissioned and then fault is found and the person won't pay for the final settlement. The firm that my daughter worked for used to take loads of digital pictures of the site from the road in from day one. She used to say that it was as if the customers had been to some sort of school to come out with some of the random claims. Eg I am not paying the bill because you have broken the arm off of my gnome !!!? And I am not paying the bill because one of your contractors vehicles has dripped one drop of oil onto my drive and I want the whole lot ripped out and relaid. I am not paying the bill because the colour of the upvc is not the right colour>>> even when factory samples are matched up to the fitted frames they swear black and blue that it is completely different. There are definitely some very devious unscrupulous theiving so & so's out there and that also goes for professional fraudulent insurance claimers.

[Twistedsanity]

I'm sure there are lots of scammers out there, this guy has broken the neighbours fence, destroyed my driveway completley and also the entire Street has ingrained oil.slicks outside their house where his old range rover kept leaking diesel all the time! To be honest I haven't tried to claim.anything and he is slightly ahead with payment if I refer to his own schedule he drew up, when I mentioned we should refer back to it during the dispute his answer was "well you might as well throw that in the bin now". There is only 4k of a 60k job left to pay for which he has to build a couple of stud walls, fit a shower and toilet where the plumbing is already in place, insulate a wall and cap a chimney along with any snagging, so for what amounts to a weeks work for him and a labourer (if he could manage to do complete days) and a few hundred quid in materials he would have pocketed 4k, never had any payment issues whatsoever apart from.near the end when I told.him.i wasn't comfortable with paying him until there was more progress, think he should have stayed retired.

[scorpius]

Been there, not a pleasant experience, in my case I learned that they had being putting the main contractors board in their van when they left and replacing it with their board, during court proceedings found that everything was

in his wife's name even the vehicles were hired, cost me a lot of money, it might be worth looking at the site

"Trust a trader". Good luck.

[fortune]

There are guilty parties on both side of a line. You get the total bodging builder that couldn't give a monkeys and by the time serious costly fault show up the bloke has long gone. And the person that commissions work knowing full well that they haven't got the money to finish the job and engineers conflicts to throw the contractor off of the job. Some of the big firms are the worst and don’t pay their sub contractors which they know will break the small firm. This is the kind of thing that Tescos do to farmers. And some of the craftsman guild things are just rubbish because a yearly payment from any old bodger and they are on the list of " professional trades" ect in your area

[wandringstar]

never go on recommendation, every time I have, its a let down, its like they think you are a given, I see people working and approach them if I like them, that's my method, also, you never want to be friends with your contractors, keep a distance, its not a social evening, be civil and polite, but don't get sucked into the chat.

[mowdy]

Ahhh... the joys of living in a rural community, where standards and reputations are known to all.

 

That's the beautie of living in Cumbria/Northumbria every body knows some one who knows You or about you .

you just have to ask the right people that's how I get most of my work and how I vet my customers!!

Edited February 9, 2017 by mowdy

[digger]

I've never taken on uncompleted works where the previous builder has done a runner/ been told to go etc

A veritable minefield, no idea if work to date has been done correctly. Impossible to provide a guarantee, accurate quote for completion.

Good luck in finding someone to complete, you sound like you have your head screwed on.

[Remimax]

I've never taken on uncompleted works where the previous builder has done a runner/ been told to go etc

A veritable minefield, no idea if work to date has been done correctly. Impossible to provide a guarantee, accurate quote for completion.

Good luck in finding someone to complete, you sound like you have your head screwed on.

yep even worse when your local "pub job" electrician has been having a go.

got called to sort out a rewire on a HMO last summer when the "electrician" got rumbled on site by building control as not registered.

just as well it was a mess.

not summit id usually get drawn into but i knew the builder.

a big lesson learned by him and the owner.

Edited February 9, 2017 by Remimax

[Retsdon]

Not really on topic...

Scene: the car, self in driver seat, a 3 year old and a 5 year old strapped in the back seats. We're waiting to rurn right at a set of traffic lights.

 

From a blue sky and the back seat..the 3 year old: 'Daddy? Wh,wh,wh,' - he has a bit of a stutter- 'why don't you like the builders?'

 

Self: 'Hmm, I don't not like them. In fact, I think they're nice people. But...I don't know. It's just that I have my doubts about their competence. The jury's still out...blather..blather..'

 

3 year old: interrupting:...'i, i, is it because they're just a pack of f@¥king cowboys?'

 

5 year old, bouncing in glee and pointing: 'Daddy! Daddy! Donny used the F word! He used the F word!

Self: 'I wish you boys would pipe down! I'm trying to get across this traffic here..'

Thinks to self:'That's it. I really, really must be more careful what I say...amazing what they pick up. Lucky their mother wasn't here....

[Retsdon]

As it turned out thery did an excellent job for very good price. My son was slandering thrm with no justification whatsoever:)

[Twistedsanity]

Looking over the spec sheet he has scrimped on some insulation here and there but that's likely through ignorance rather than deceit. I think I'm gonna hire a labourer for a week and put my formans hat on, aside from skimming the ceiling and tiling(the wife has done £1500 on tiles for a 6 ft square room so there's no way I'm attempting to do that, probably end up in a divorce court) it's all simple and very accessible, and I've got the tools already. Getting quotes in takes weeks and then the worthwhile ones are booked for a month or two afterwards. Even if it takes me a month I'm.still 2k in pocket and finished faster than hiring someone else :-)