Builder gone bust, work not finished.

The \/\/anderer

I hope this is in the right Forum. If not, please move to an appropriate forum.

Without going into too much detail, I have a problem with a builder. His company has gone out of business, and our work is not finished. We have paid him half the amount of the price of the job. Probably only 1/3 of the job is done. He says the lads who work for him will finish off the job. Obviously we wont be paying anyone any more money until it is finished.

Just want to know what we can do about this. Can we claim back any of the money we paid him? Or are we screwed?

His company is registered as a limited company.

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, just a bit stressed at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will try to answer any questions etc.

Thanks.

LightningBolt

From what I know you'll be likely to get anything back. Company law gives more protection to tax authorities and creditors first. Anything that'll be left from the winding up of the business will then be shared out accordingly.

Open to correction though. Sorry to hear about the trouble

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

jor el

If the company has gone bankrupt, then customers will be at the bottom of a very long list of people who are owed money. Even then, you'd probably be lucky to get back 10% of what you paid. If he has gone bankrupt, then the guys who work for him are unlikely to finish off the job if they're not being paid.

Time to get in other builders, and get quotes on finishing it off.

Oryx

Did you take out any insurance for the build, or was that your builders responsibility? (I did self build so we self insured). Is he registered with any of the regulatory bodies? Im just asking as I dont know if there is a set up in place that covers people caught in this situation. Id be checking small print of any insurance or contract you do have just to see. Unfortunately if there is no cover to bail you out, you cant get blood from a stone, and if he is bust, you will have to look elsewhere to get your build finished, and bear the additional cost.

Id imagine in the current climate you wont be the last this will happen to.

Avns1s

Firstly OP, sorry to hear about your trouble.

The risk of builders going AWOL or in the current climate is precisely why a customer should never even have them paid for the full amount they have completed.

"Retention" money makes sure not only that they will do the job relatively well (usually!) but also means that they are never holding money belonging to the customer.

I think this story should highlight to all using builders in the current climate to ensure that they are never overpaid for the work done to date.

Sorry again OP but I'd say you'd be as well to "chalk this up to experience" and move on to get other quotes to finish the job and I hope that the amount wasn't too much.

Sponge Bob

Big problem for you if you do not own the site .

Big problem for builder if you do. Send a legal demand for "specific performance" or "completion" within 28 days and if not complete then the contract is void and you can then get another builder to carry on in his place while suing him .

Your solicitor will do this for you . His 'lads' are probably owed money by him and as you are down 1/6th of the budget the same 'lads' will probably work for at least 1/4th less to bring the budget back on track again .

Could be worse TBH .

The \/\/anderer

Thanks for the replies.

Luckily we were only having a small extension built, so the amount of money involved is not huge. We have found someone to finish off the job for us. Basically we've lost about 3 or 4k. Not too bad, but nothing we can do really. Just want to get the work finished, and put it all behind us.

Lesson learned. Be careful about paying people in advance!