Apologies in advance, for what will probably be a long post!
I had a fairly major extension done to my house and went fixed price with a reputable builder, using the FMB Plain English, Domestic Building Contract. Total contract was £53K + VAT.
Now, I won't go into all the pain and hassle of living with the building work itself. It felt horrible at the time, but probably not much worse than any other project. Suffice to say that an "8-10 week" estimated project ended up taking around 18 weeks. My only real grumble with the work when it was being done is that he could have maybe taken more care about waterproofing the house whilst the roof / gable wall was gone, during that rather wet June we had.
That and the fact that his project management skills seemed to be useless (always having to wait for materials to be delivered, never having the right labourer to hand when needed).
Anyway. We agreed a few "extras" during the project - the usual stuff: a bit of cabinet work boxing in at the end of the baths, tiling, kitchen fitting. Everything we discussed as a cost extra duly appeared on the statements of account we got and were paid for.
So, we get to the end of the project and on to the snagging list. We provide a list of about 40 issues, everything from broken windows (his newly installed ones that were cracked on arrival) and missing architrave, doors not shutting, electrical switches not working, sinks not plumbed properly (leaking wastes, loose taps) and our electric power showers not working properly.
He fixes half of them and says that the rest (mostly the plumbing ones) are due to faulty parts, not his workmanship. He then demands payment of his final account (to be paid on completion of snagging) and gets a touch shirty when I say we want the rest fixed. We pay and suddenly he's all friendly again - saying that we should feel free to call if we have any other problems.
A week or so later and a couple more problems do arise. The kitchen sink was leaking a lot (the waste pipes weren't connected very well and the sink itself wasn't sealed to the waste outlet properly, despite the huge amount of sealant that had been used) and we wanted to talk about other bits of the plumbing again.
After a couple of reminders, he came to fix the kitchen waste but just walked off after we raised the other plumbing matters and said that if we kept insisting he must fix it, he would "find" about £5000 of other costs to bill us for.
Well, he had recommended we call out Aqualisa (the manufacturers) regarding the showers, so we did. Their engineer looked at the install and immediately showed us the showers had been fitted incorrectly, directly against manufacturer instructions (connected to mains pressure cold, instead of a feed from the header tank). Whilst the engineer was here, he also had a look at the other plumbing problems and said that they were - in his opinion - down to bad workmanship, not faulty parts as the builder claimed.
At this point, we wrote to the builder, insisting he come and fix these problems, citing the Supply of Goods & Services Act 1982 and with the back up of the comments from the Aqualisa engineer.
The letter we received in return was quite rude, again blaming us for buying cheap parts (even the kitchen sink, which he had supplied from his recommended supplier) and including an "Final Invoice" for approx £5000. This invoice included a range of things that I consider to be part of the initial estimate:
- him calling out his plumber to look at one of his faults
- work on the heating part of the plumbing which proved to need more work than he'd estimated (but that's why I went fixed price) and for which no extra cost was ever mentioned
- unblocking a drain that I have no recollection of him doing (or being asked to do)
- fixing other of his own faults (items from the snagging list he suddenly decided to charge for, basically)
There were a couple of things that were not covered by that estimate, but which he had verbally assured us when we raised them would not be chargeable:
- use of T&G boards for bathroom floors, instead of green chipboard
- "extra" wiring work on the electrics.
He insisted the £5K be paid as a condition of him fixing any more faults.
We took some legal advice which indicated that he had no right to make this pre-condition, so wrote again demanding a fix. We also raised two other issues:
1. the leaking kitchen sink had caused water damage to the base unit it was mounted in
2. our carpet fitter had indicated the kitchen sub-floor the builder laid was so uneven it would cost extra to level it before laminate could be laid. In fact, he quoted for 1 extra day to level it, and it took two.
The builder's response to this was to add another £900 to the previous "final account"
- £500 for his plumbing parts when he first repaired the sink (the rep from the kitchen supplier inspected the work and identified two small pieces of waste pipe that were not theirs, total value about £10)
- £400 for self levelling compound to do what levelling of the kitchen floor he had badly done. Surely this would be part of the original contract.
Anyway, we have left him a "reasonable" amount of time to come and fix his faults and he has not contacted us. We are now faced with calling out contractors to fix these problems, bearing the cost ourselves and hoping to get compensation from him, as SGSA 1982 entitles us.
We've since found out that his latest client caught him repointing a chimney that they paid to be completely rebuilt and two previous clients are suing for a total of £25000 for work badly done (one including a kitchen floor that had to be condemned and redone).
So, am I just being precious here, since this is my first major building project? Or have I been hit by a cowboy? Or just a good builder whose errors have backed him in to a corner? Or one who realised he underestimated the job initially and now wants to claw back some profit from us?
Should I just walk away from the relationship with him and take a hit on the £00s it will cost to get the errors fixed? If I did this, I think there are probably things I would not get fixed, simply because I now cannot afford to have them repaired (more window panes that he claimed were "just dirty" but, now I've had a window cleaner round turn out to be cracked/scratched, for example).
Or should I persist with claims against him, spend about £500 getting an independent survey of his work and press on with claims for financial compensation for other contractors doing the work? In addition to which are about £1000 of breakages to our property caused by his men during the work (bookcases smashed when his worker fell through it, expensive bedspreads they took from rooms they weren't working in and decided to use as cleaning rags among other things).
My fear with this is that he will immediately counter-sue for his £5000 + £900. Or do his actions just look like standard "scare tactics" from a builder who knows he's in trouble and which are likely to evaporate as soon as we show we are not to be intimidated?
I know we're "entitled" to have the house in working order, but I can't see this happening without a legal battle over our costs v his costs and I could certainly do with living without that hassle. Am I better just forgetting all about him and paying someone else to fix my house?
Help and advice from those more experienced in the way builders operate would be greatly appreciated.
