Hi, combination of cash and bank transfer. but about 90% by transfer. I was thinking about ringing the supplier directly, explaining the situation and seeing what they say...

Hi, am looking for advice with how to deal with my builder. I signed a contract with a Loft company to build a new loft, good references, I met on of their previous clients and was happy to use them. They subcontracted the work to a builder who did a good quality job, however was very slow and indeed the project is still only 95% complete after 8 months. I'm not too concerned about this as I still have one final payment to make and believe the Loft Co will complete the work. On the back of this work I signed the builder to do a kitchen extension for us (for a good price of £32k). Foolishly I paid a large deposit for this work, and subsequently paid further amounts ahead of schedule and now estimate the builder has approx 20k of my money. I believe he is encountering serious cash-flow problems as none of his team appear, I've had people at the door trying to find him for outstanding payments and he repeatedly asks for more money. We had a frank conversation where he admitted the above and we worked out a plan whereby we would spread the remaining 10k of work to be spread over the remaining project. My idea being the more work he did the more I would recover the money I'd given him and would encourage him to continue working. My immediate concern is that while he is working, it is manual work requiring little in the way of materials, and that once he needs to have timbers/beams delivered etc he will have no money and will disappear. He promises me these materials have already been paid for but I have no faith in these promises. If I can establish that he has in fact paid for these materials can I approach the supplier directly and ask for these to be delivered? At least I can try and minimise my loss which I feel pretty sure will happen. I'm torn between continuing on our current plan in the ope that he will actually complete the work, or cutting our losses (approx 18k!!!) leaving us with half a kitchen and I'm not sure we can raise any more cash to complete this work. Any advice very gratefully received. Thanks