Builder being weird / trying to guilt trip me

[Amateurish]

I've recently finished a building project at home. The builder has generally been crap. A job which he said would take 3 months in fact took over a year. His workmanship had been poor and he's had to redo loads of work, mainly at the request of Building Control.

I owe him a final payment, approx £25k.

Firstly he's tried to get me to pay an extra £5k by saying he made a mistake in his original estimate. I obviously told him to jog on.

Now he's asking me to pay the money to some random friend of his. When I told him no, he's trying to guilt trip me by saying he needs to "save the vat" on materials and that he can't work because he is injured.

What is going on?

[Amateurish]

Mr Pointy said:

OP, have you got BC signoff?

Yes

[Amateurish]

snotrag said:

If the job is 'finished' (or as good as you think its going to be), write him a cheque for the agreed balance and hand him it. You've held your end of the contract. Just make it black and white.

Yes, as good as I think it is going to be. I would rather get other people in to fix any snagging.

[Amateurish]

stinkyspanner said:

Don't do it, he hasn't done you any favours by the sound of it. I too had the misfortune to have some work done by an idiot builder, all the excuses under the sun, illness, staff, suppliers, dog died, building control don't know what they're on about etc etc. Forget him

So many excuses... Either my builder is the unluckiest man alive or he's a fibber.

[Amateurish]

Simpo Two said:

What's going on is that he can't run a business and has got into debt. Not your problem, and you don't owe him any favours either.

Minor point - an Estimate is not a Quote and therefore can vary.

I just used the wrong word. The work was fully specced up by the architect. He provided a quote against that spec. Although now claims not to have read it properly and forgot to price up quite a major and fundamental part of those works.

[Amateurish]

So just send the money even though he has asked me not to?

[Amateurish]

MadCaptainJack said:

Amateurish said:

Now he's asking me to pay the money to some random friend of his. When I told him no, he's trying to guilt trip me by saying he needs to "save the vat" on materials and that he can't work because he is injured.

Did he put any of this in an email, text, Whatsapp or anything else that could end up being presented in court as evidence?

Did his original quote include VAT?

Yes, all in email and WhatsApp

He is not VAT registered.