Builder asks for payment for crap work
Discussion
TL;DR - builder does shoddy work, fobs off customer for 18 months then asks for payment in which time customer has appointed new company to make good.
Going back to July 2014, (mid point in work) a big issue was found with the roof and was reported to them immediately. They felt it may subside in time so we let them carry on with the work (at a very slow pace, when they had nothing else on by the feel of it). The issue didn't subside, they got their sub to do something to the roof in the hope of a resolution but it had no effect.
In December 2014 when in their opinion the work was done they wanted paying for the outstanding amount. We refused the final 25% payment as we wanted the roof fixing. They conceded it was wrong and wouldn't put up with it either. They said they'd come back after the coldest part of the winter to look again. We said we wanted this fixed in a reasonable time frame and were seeking alternative contractors to do it but if they wanted to address it we would be happier to let them fix it themselves.
No contact was made after the coldest part of winter apart from an email in July 2015 asking for us to pay/contribute to the roof being ripped out and completely redone, ie: for us to pay to rectify the mistakes their sub had made. We didn't decline but asked for some figures around what they wanted in addition. No response came.
In September 2015 having had no further contact from them we appointed another firm who found a number of faults with the construction and took videos and pictures of the issues for us to keep in case we needed them. Since the firm has fixed it no issue has occurred and a full resolution has been achieved.
Today (December 2015) we get an email from the original builders asking for the final instalment and for £1.5k of extras which pretty much came from nowhere and certainly weren't agreed or costed.
So my PH friends, we want to reply in a cordial manner to the effect of "You're having a laugh," with the timeline being so long, the work quality being poor and being repeatedly fobbed off to the point we had thought they'd just walked away from the job. Is there anything we should or should not say in this situation? I'm not one for getting into this kind of situation so am a bit lost and don't want to say something wrong which ends up with us inadvertently coughing up for crap work.
- Note sorry for the long post*
Going back to July 2014, (mid point in work) a big issue was found with the roof and was reported to them immediately. They felt it may subside in time so we let them carry on with the work (at a very slow pace, when they had nothing else on by the feel of it). The issue didn't subside, they got their sub to do something to the roof in the hope of a resolution but it had no effect.
In December 2014 when in their opinion the work was done they wanted paying for the outstanding amount. We refused the final 25% payment as we wanted the roof fixing. They conceded it was wrong and wouldn't put up with it either. They said they'd come back after the coldest part of the winter to look again. We said we wanted this fixed in a reasonable time frame and were seeking alternative contractors to do it but if they wanted to address it we would be happier to let them fix it themselves.
No contact was made after the coldest part of winter apart from an email in July 2015 asking for us to pay/contribute to the roof being ripped out and completely redone, ie: for us to pay to rectify the mistakes their sub had made. We didn't decline but asked for some figures around what they wanted in addition. No response came.
In September 2015 having had no further contact from them we appointed another firm who found a number of faults with the construction and took videos and pictures of the issues for us to keep in case we needed them. Since the firm has fixed it no issue has occurred and a full resolution has been achieved.
Today (December 2015) we get an email from the original builders asking for the final instalment and for £1.5k of extras which pretty much came from nowhere and certainly weren't agreed or costed.
So my PH friends, we want to reply in a cordial manner to the effect of "You're having a laugh," with the timeline being so long, the work quality being poor and being repeatedly fobbed off to the point we had thought they'd just walked away from the job. Is there anything we should or should not say in this situation? I'm not one for getting into this kind of situation so am a bit lost and don't want to say something wrong which ends up with us inadvertently coughing up for crap work.
V6Pushfit said:
What was the roof issue?
Was there extra roof work at the original contractors hands?
Do the costs balance ie original contractor roof cost v rectification contractor?
Lastly original contractor - did you give them a reasonable time to return to rectify?
The original contractor got their sub back to do an additional fix which was not thought to be needed by anyone but was a bit of a wild stab in the dark. It did nothing to alleviate the issues.Was there extra roof work at the original contractors hands?
Do the costs balance ie original contractor roof cost v rectification contractor?
Lastly original contractor - did you give them a reasonable time to return to rectify?
Costs balance (outstanding stage payment + "extras" roughly equals rectification contractor + other rectification costs to other parts of work - not gone into these here for fear of boring the tits out of everyone!
Timewise they have had since the issue was reported in July 2014 to rectify and we have asked many times for it to be done. Rectification work was done in October 2015. Earlier in 2015 we gave 14 days notice that we wanted rectification to take place else we would seek an alternative contractor to sort it out.
Drawweight said:
Are you saying that you didn't send them a bill for the work you got done to fix their shoddy workmanship?
It's payment from them that you should be chasing up not the other way round
No the difference is now small and we want to move on with life (we're talking under a hundred or so out of pocket all told).It's payment from them that you should be chasing up not the other way round
My feeling is we bent over backwards to give them chance, to engage them and get them to put it right and they chose to just go quiet and ignore us so we felt the contract had been abdicated. This time last year they didn't want to get stuck into fixing it because of the cold weather and have not been in touch to sort it out all year (apart from one email asking for an unspecified amount of additional money to pay towards fixing the mistakes which was replied to asking for figures but it went quiet again) and now the weather is getting cold they aren't enquiring as to coming to fix it, just asking for money. Presumably they wouldn't fix it now as the weather would be too cold (I realise this is somewhat a BS excuse on their part but I'm following their logic).
So from the responses so far it seems like we just say it straight, we considered their delays and then silence this year to be them backing out of the contract and we used the funds we had to rectify the issues because we'd given them over a year to rectify it with nothing being done. Sound ok?
Edited by joebongo on Tuesday 15th December 21:48
a7x88 said:
No he's not.
He's saying he owed 5k however the roof wasn't finished to standard
Original builder never fixed it
New builder fixed it for £5100
Hence OP is £100 out of pocket. Which I'd agree with the OP in that it's not worth worrying about.
Agree, but Id suggest that the OP could use this to his advantage. Assuming the OP still has all correspondence (emails im assuming?) to the original contractor, Id suggest a written letter with copies of all said correspondence, why he isnt going to pay and that any further demands for payment would result in action from the OP to retrieve the balance.He's saying he owed 5k however the roof wasn't finished to standard
Original builder never fixed it
New builder fixed it for £5100
Hence OP is £100 out of pocket. Which I'd agree with the OP in that it's not worth worrying about.
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