Your advice on dealing with rogue builders/architects?

[stix]

At the beginning of this year my wife and I had a quote for a loft conversion from a specialist company that was recommended to us. We were pleased with the quote and the time scales we were (verbally) given:

From payment of 10% deposit:
- Architect in and plans drawn up within 2 weeks
- 4-8 weeks for planning permission and building regs approval (depending on how busy the dept were)
- start within 2 weeks of all permissions, etc.
- 6 weeks build time.

The contract was signed & deposit paid 23rd jan and the architect measured up the following week.

After a few phone calls a copy of the plans arrived 6 weeks later but not quite to the design that we had agreed. I phoned the building company and asked if they could make a few changes to the plans and I was told that the plans had already been submitted for planning permission, but not to worry as the changes I wanted to make would only affect building regs approval and the changes would be made before we got to that stage. I emailed them the changes I wanted making and phoned to check that they had been received, which they had.

Planning permission and building regs took 8 weeks, during which time my wife & I found out we were going to be having a baby at the end of the year . After making a few phone calls to the building company to try and get a start date from them and not getting any phone calls returned I finally received a call (22/5/07) to say they were making the requested changes to the plans for re-submission to building regs!!! I was told that this would take a further 3-4 weeks.

So, 3 weeks on from our last phone call (2 weeks ago now) I start ringing to get and update of the situation. I phoned everyday and was told the architect would call me later that day. Eventually, a week later, the architect phone to say that we should have building regs by the end of the week.

Yesterday I phoned the building company to find out if everything had been passed and was told that they would get the architect to ring me by the end of the day. I phoned the builders back at 4:45pm to find out why I had not received a call. I got an apology and a promise that someone would ring me the next day. I did not receive any phone call today!

I have phone the council today and found that planning permission has been granted and building regs were passed on 5/4/07 but they can't find any re-submission for the changes I had requested.

Both me & my wife are very anxious to get this work completed soon and my wife is getting quite stressed (not good for baby!).

What would you recommend I do now? Should I try another building company (and go through building regs again)? What are my rights regarding getting my money back? Should I go down to the company's head office and demand to see someone and try and get this sorted?

I'm so stressed at night I'm just not sleeping!


Sorry for the long post but I value your advice and would really appreciate any suggestions you may have.


Cheers
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Steve

Sorry to hear of your woes. Souds pretty much business as ususal for building companies these days. With the latest government pushes to build more houses, there is plenty of work around and often this leads to poor service.

I would cnsider writing to them laying down some very firm deadlines and detailing your concerns - or get your solicitor to write if you have one

 

[tim]

Steve

Sorry to hear of your woes. I would suggest giving ConsumerDirect a call - they are basically the revamped Citizens advice bureau and I have found them very helpful on a couple of occasions.

They can be reached here: http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk

I tried the site but for some reason its down at the mo but I imagine its only temporary.

Hope you get it sorted out soon.

Cheers

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Steve,

You are not alone, my build was due to take 10 weeks, we are now in week 14 and not even half way through, the builder is a nightmare, springs surprises on me with no notice, first week he was immaculately tidy, now there is rubbish everywhere. His favourite saying is "we can't do anymore" or "thats the best we can do", I now here from one of my customers who used the same builder, that they ended up exchanging blows over the final bill. I too struggle with sleep.
I'm seriously thinking about selling up once its done as I don't trust his building abilities anymore.

 

[stix]

Thanks for the replies guys

I have contacted Consumer Direct and they have suggested that, as I don't seem to be getting any response from phone calls, I make a visit to their offices to try and get some information as to why they haven't resubmitted my plans and get some fixed times down in writing.

If I got no joy from going to see them they then recommend doing as per Tony's suggestion and sending them a letter by special delivery with a 14-day response time.


Senior - I hope things get sorted for you too. We love where we live, although it's a bit small, so thought that a loft conversion would we a better option (and cheaper) than moving. This experience has really made me think twice about getting anything like this done again.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Mike B]

Steve/Senior

I know exactly how you feel but you boys have hardly started yet!!

We had a new roof put on our house - the builder was recommended and stated that the work should take 6 weeks but expected to be finished in 5.

In the end the the guy took 4 1/2 months!!!

Bottom line - check out the contractual side of things, preferably in advance (not too much help here I know), and make sure you know what you can do and where you stand at all times. Get absolutely everything in writing too. Especially, these days it seems, even the small details.

For instance, there has recently been a case over here in which an architect designed his "ultimate" bathroom, the tiles for which were custom made marble specially imported from Italy at £££££. Basically the builder had a c**p tiler who was incapable of getting a consistent gap between the tiles (up to 2mm variation IIRC), so the architect refused to accept the work and they ended up in court. Eventually they reached the high court, at which point the architect lost as the court ruled that 2mm was within a "reasonable tolerance" and if he had wanted anything different it should have been "specified in the contract".....utterly ridiculous!!

Have fun :wink:
Mike