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Cowboy Builder ripping me off


Chris4809
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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

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If he has paid for materials that are yet to be delivered then you need to get him to provide details of the supplier and show the invoices that he should have....then you need to contact the supplier to confirm that the goods have been ordered for delivery to where? and when?

 

It is a worry that he may run off...so personally I wouldnt pay him a dime more than you already have, but if indeed he has paid for the other materials to finish the work then maybe your offer could be along the lines of paying him weekly for work carried out at the end of each week....but for this I would also suggest you have a written and signed agreement by both parties and an independent witness for all future work to be done, on what timescale etc

 

If however he can not provide any proof that the materials have been paid for and wont give you the details of the supplier than I suspect he has squandered your cash, in this case get what work you can out of him before saying goodbye with a letter stating that he owes you however much cash you feel you are out of pocket. You may also want to ring around local suppliers and try and get a feel from them if anything is amiss.

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another thought just crossed my llittle mind....if you did a bank transfer, which you can prove then maybe your bank may be able to help....surely it is fraud if the builder has not paid for goods that your payment was for....maybe worth having a chat with your bank and see what they say

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