HI All,

I am at my wits end with my builder with whom I signed a contract agreeing the scope of work and duration of work (8 weeks). I am in the 8th week of the contract and the work completion is not in sight. He has delayed the work all along sighting every possible reason and I am genuinely concerned that the work will not be over by the end of the week.

Do I have legal recourse against the builder ? Any possible help/guidance you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Happy to provide any more information if required.

Many thanks,

Swaroop

Were any penalties written into the contract should the work run over the 8 weeks?

Have there been any extenuating circumstances beyond the builders control causing any delay?

Yes, you do have recourse against the builder. However, before we can suggest your options, I think that we need to know a lot more about the building project, the contract, have you made any payments? What are the arrangements for paying? Who's the builder? Is it a sole trader or an established company?

No doubt there will be more questions but we may as well try this for starters.

Unfortunately there are no penalty causes mentioned in the contract. I frankly did not anticipate the situation coming to this. regarding the circumstances, I would not believe that these are excruciating circumstances beyond builder's control (for eg : my car broke down that's why I could not come, it was someone's b'day that's why he did not come today etc).

This is a side extension being done on a chalet house. There were 4 payment schedules mentioned in the contract (with the final installment to be paid after the work completion) based on the level of work to be completed in each schedule. I have promptly paid every scheduled payment (3 payments have been paid so far) via same day bank transfer. This is a sole trader ( having a company registered under his name ) and based on what I have seen, its mostly his relatives who work for him.

Happy to provide Builders name if that helps too ?

Unfortunately there are no penalty causes mentioned in the contract. I frankly did not anticipate the situation coming to this. regarding the circumstances, I would not believe that these are extenuating circumstances beyond builder's control (for eg : my car broke down that's why I could not come, it was someone's b'day that's why he did not come today etc).

With all building work I always say to take the builder's time estimate and double it.

Unfortunately it's near impossible to make builders stick to schedule because they take other jobs to avoid gaps.

That given that everything goes smoothly, without anything wrong being discovered during construction (collapsed pipes, rats nest, lead water pipes, skeletons, etc.)

So you are saying that he is operating as a limited liability company?

What is the state of play as regards the payments at the moment? Are you up to date? Do you owe him money? Does he owe you money?

But surely, the builder would have taken contingency and buffer into consideration before going into a contract and providing a timeline ? Having said that, I do understand that unforeseen circumstances can come into play but the least you would expect in such cases is for the builder to keep you aware of such situations. Unfortunately I have not received a single call from my builder advising of progress (or for that matter highlighting any issues !). hence my frustration.

Yes he is operating as a limited liability company.

With regards to payment, I am up to date on the payment as per schedules in the contract (have paid him 20K from 24k).

So 4K still needs to be paid to him but he has not reached that stage in the construction where I should pay him the outstanding. ( as per contract 3K to be paid after work completion).

Well I think that you are in a very difficult position. Financially it seems that the work is nearly finished. It's a very big job. As he has been paid most of the money for the work that he has done so far, he could feasibly walk off the job if he got annoyed and then essentially hold you to ransom. Bringing a new builder onto the job to finish somebody else's work will probably end up costing more than you had originally agreed to pay the first builder.

It was certainly very good move to agree to hold back £3000 to be paid after completion. Most people don't even do this – but I have to say that quite frankly, it's not enough. You should probably have insisted on holding back 1/3.

There is all sorts of action you could take – including the threat of legal action but it seems to me that the builder is in the commanding position here – and it sounds as if he knows it as well. We can advise you on all sorts of formal action that you could start to take that it seems to me that the best thing to do is to try and go along with it, grit your teeth and get as much of the work done as possible and then think about withholding money at the end.

In order to support this, you would have to be able to show a paper trail – with you writing to him and pointing out the delays in asking him when he's going to come back onto the site and finish the job. I think also that you need to make sure that you have got a detailed schedule of all the times and dates that he has worked – and not worked so that if eventually it does become a formal dispute, then you have some kind of paper evidence to show what you have had to put up with.

I must say that I don't like to give this kind of advice which sounds really as if I'm suggesting that you give into the situation – but I think that you would take a big risk if you decide to stand up to him at this particular point in time.

If you do decide to take a stand, then before you do so I would make a very careful appraisal of what work is being done, what work is left to do, and make an assessment of how much it would cost to get that work done by somebody else.

It might even be worth getting another builder round to have a look and give you an estimate. If you find that the cost of completing the work is broadly the same as the money that is outstanding on the job then that puts you back into control and you can then go to the builder and tell him that if he doesn't finish within seven days that he is going to be taken off the job.

Certainly, if you decide to terminate him then you must do it in writing, explain very carefully the reason why you are terminating him and give him an opportunity to get back onto the job and finish it properly. Seven days notice is probably okay.

Many thanks for your guidance. I really appreciate that.