Help with Builder Dispute after House Extension

TopOfTheTown86

Hey there,

We are currently involved in a messy dispute with our builder. He is pursuing final payment but honestly the timeframe and quality of work does not deserve it. For the record this is not us trying to get out of paying. Every tradesman and company who has worked on the house has been paid promptly and in full. He currently has just under 90% of the money but is looking for the rest. Unfortunately some of the work was very poor and we currently in the process of trying to correct it. It was verbally agreed to be a 3 month job but we ended up asking him to leave our house after just over 12 months. We understand delays happen in construction but he took the piss out of us completely throughout the build. He knew we were living in the house and removed our central heating with the plan for it to be put it back on within the following 3 months...He went on to leave us without heat for over 11 months without any contingency. It was a constant stream of lies and drama trying to deal with him. Even all the other contractors we brought in thought it was disgrace what was happening. In the end we gave him multiple chances to at least finish his work to a decent standard but he was refusing to do this and also just couldn't. We asked him to leave the house and started contacting people to come in and fix stuff for us. I stupidly never signed a contract with him about a timeframe but the same can also be said for prices and payments to him. Nothing was ever signed by either party. Even some of the materials he claims he paid thousands for we could see that they were not new and were definitely pulled out of other jobs so I know he doesn't even have receipts for some of the claimed expensive materials such as steel.

We are just worried that if it ends up as a legal matter will the judge just take his side and we are made pay what he thinks he is owed??? I do have emails where as far back as last November he was assuring us he would be gone soon but was still in our home this July tormenting us! As I said this is not some ploy not to pay, the money is already going towards paying other people to fix the work and we will keep all the invoices. We started this soon after he was fine from the house. We just wanted to move on with our lives after over 12 months of unbelievable stress.

The final part is the engineer involved is very close to the builder and we only realised a few months in just how close and we had already handed over a massive lump sum payment. The engineer is demanding the builder be given a chance to rectify the work and then get fully paid. Firstly he had over 12 months to do this, we flagged the bad work with him countless times and secondly why should he get paid?? He went 9 months over schedule, constant lies, horrible to deal with and then left us with bad work. We have been asking people in the industry what they think and they said we have been doing the right thing removing him from the house and getting proper tradesmen in. Also we now know of multiple other jobs where this builder/engineer combo pulled these kind of stunts but unfortunately none of the people involved want to speak up and just want to move on. The builder is not a nice person and some people just don't want want to deal with him which is 100% their decision.

Our solicitor has recommended we get an independent engineer to come in and review work but we have been trying for weeks to get someone but can't. As I said we are so eager to fix our home we have done a bit of the work needed already. I do have all the bad work documented in photos and video.

Any advice appreciated! Stressed out of our mind when we should be over the moon with our new home. Once again this is not a plan to avoid paying him a few pound. He does not deserve it and it needs to go towards paying proper tradesmen to correct the bad work.

enricoh

Tell him you'll are waiting for an engineers report and nothing is happening til you get it. If you are in Dublin try fellas around the midlands etc they mightn't be as busy as Dublin fellas.

What was the spend on extension 50k? 250k

TopOfTheTown86

Thanks for the advice, I'll try other counties so and hopefully get someone to look at the work!

His fees for the basic build to builders finish excluding everything such as windows, etc was around the 100k mark. We paid separately then for everything else, we wanted to go with him for everything else but smelled a rat when we realised how much he inflates the cost of some things. We have no issue with builders making their money and adding a few pound on but he was adding sometimes 200% the cost to stuff! As I said he has most of the money 8 months now, it's our own fault we kept throwing money at him to try move the job along but it made no difference! Also he was the most expensive quote but we really liked him and he sold us with all his lies and bullshit. The cheek of him to try come back for money and hint at legal action. I don't think he has a leg to stand on but just worried the courts won't see it that way.

AndrewJRenko

Did you pay the engineer or did the builder? Sounds very cheeky for the engineer to be going waaaaaay beyond his scope and advocating for the builder. Ask the engineer if this constitutes professional advice from him.

TopOfTheTown86

When we priced the builder, he was a bit steep but he told us he knew a great engineer he could bring on board to cover all engineering needs both structural and bank sign offs. He said he would cover his costs in the cost for the main build. This was the deciding factor for us going with him. We only realised how close they were a few months into the build, the engineer sided with the builder on absolutely everything. Not once did he ever agreed with us and some of the work he signed off on was shocking. We have looked up the chartered engineers regulations etc and he breaks a few of them including conflict of interest.

Also I meant to say after the builder stated he was paying the engineer, we were then hit with the bill for an engineer we didn't bring in or want! We gladly would have paid for an impartial engineer to help us during the build.

We are trying to find another engineer to do a report for us but are struggling!

enricoh

In that case I wouldn't even spend money on another engineer. Call his bluff, tell him you'll see him in court.

The pair of them are busy milking the next victim n just chancing getting the last cherry out of ye.

A lad I know got fleeced for extras, yer man hit them for 60k extra when 10 was more accurate. He paid him 20, builder aggressive to his missus. He rang the builder to say call anytime he sees his van there, if he calls again to his missus he'll be at his house that evening.

Never heard from him again.

TopOfTheTown86

That's mad that you mentioned getting the last cherry out of me! The engineer has come back again with a reduced bill for his "services". Chancing his arm for a few pound. He and the builder are both refusing to release any certs which I need for my new BER unless I pay them more money. Basic extortion. Just gonna go through solicitors now.

Spear

This has nothing to do with DRP. Moved to a forum that's related to the topic instead.

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122560066#Comment_122560066

Let the engineer know you’ll be reporting his conduct to CEI, including the close ties to the builder if the certs are not released. After the certs are released, his fees will be paid, which are not part of the contract. As a sweetener, you won’t pursue the builder for the cost of correcting the shoddy work.

Bit late now, but letting the builder bring in an engineer was opening the door to this type of bull.

baxterooneydoody

Tell them you'll see them in court, they won't push it, they've got as much as they can out of you, get someone reputable in to sort what needs to be sorted and use the remaining money to pay them

gandalfio

Been there and bought the t shirt. Forget about him. Cut all contact and move on to someone that you trust will complete the job. It might cost you more money, but takes away a huge amount of stress having to deal with the scumbag.

TopOfTheTown86

Thanks for all your replies, some good advice and information!

Yeah we really should have smelled a rat when he brought in the engineer. Some of it is definitely our own fault for being too trusting. We found out during our build that the builder was at the same time doing a lot of work on the engineer's house at the same time. Has to be a conflict of interest!

We have multiple good trustworthy tradesmen who have already started doing the correction work for us. We are gladly paying them. The difference dealing with decent professionals is unbelievable.

We want to cut ties with the builder and engineer completely but it is killing us that they have all our information relative to a new BER rating as our aim was the green mortgage rate. The builder has all our certs including our window certs, boiler passport and more.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122560589#Comment_122560589

You have rights under GDPR to any information they have that includes your personal data, such as name and address. Send both builder and engineer a Subject Access Request under GDPR for a start.

Big Gerry

If you didn't sign any contract then legally I don't think the builder has a leg to stand on if he comes after you for money.

screamer

each story has two sides so i won't comment on that but as for BER, contact a BER assessor and explain the situation and see if they can help