Hi All,
Need some help please, does anyone know if there is any sort of free or cheap legal advice available to tradesmen?
I've got a customer who is holding back about £12,500 net from me based on some spurious level that has never been given to me.....
I've built a garage and run my slab in at the same level as the house DPC - and they are now saying that they wanted it built higher than this. Apparently for the rest of the project (a large extension etc) they are looking to level a site out that already runs out by about 800mm - and that everything has to be lower because of the garage being lower. Apparently they don't want any steps on the ground at all or within the new extension.
I had a meeting with them and the project manager yesterday and he is angling for a release of some money but not all.....I don't understand how they can do this? During the conversation they kept referring to this particular step as a datum point where everything would work back from, I kept pretty cool and didn't really say a lot (because I didn't want to loose it), but just pointed out at the end that no one had ever discussed a datum with me, the woman then agreed that this particular point was not actually a datum and that they were looking for an 'optimum level' for the whole site - surely if they still don't know what this is then how can I? There was a ground survey done before the project started, but even the architect has confirmed that no reference to the survey has been made within the plans and in his opinion the garage was independent of any levelling of the site anyway. Even the PM has said that he can see no evidence of a datum mentioned......
Essentially they are saying they will release some money until they decide that the levels work or don't work....hopefully the PM will prove that they do and it will blow over, but even if they don't how can this be my fault?
Surely if he wanted it another 3ft higher (just for example) he couldn't just do this as planning would object to the ridge being much higher....
The joke is he said that he loves the job that we have done?!!
Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated, I can't eat or sleep at the moment, i'm sick to my stomach!
Although my turnover is quite high I can't really swallow the loss of this magnitude from my cashflow.
Need some help please, does anyone know if there is any sort of free or cheap legal advice available to tradesmen?
I've got a customer who is holding back about £12,500 net from me based on some spurious level that has never been given to me.....
I've built a garage and run my slab in at the same level as the house DPC - and they are now saying that they wanted it built higher than this. Apparently for the rest of the project (a large extension etc) they are looking to level a site out that already runs out by about 800mm - and that everything has to be lower because of the garage being lower. Apparently they don't want any steps on the ground at all or within the new extension.
I had a meeting with them and the project manager yesterday and he is angling for a release of some money but not all.....I don't understand how they can do this? During the conversation they kept referring to this particular step as a datum point where everything would work back from, I kept pretty cool and didn't really say a lot (because I didn't want to loose it), but just pointed out at the end that no one had ever discussed a datum with me, the woman then agreed that this particular point was not actually a datum and that they were looking for an 'optimum level' for the whole site - surely if they still don't know what this is then how can I? There was a ground survey done before the project started, but even the architect has confirmed that no reference to the survey has been made within the plans and in his opinion the garage was independent of any levelling of the site anyway. Even the PM has said that he can see no evidence of a datum mentioned......
Essentially they are saying they will release some money until they decide that the levels work or don't work....hopefully the PM will prove that they do and it will blow over, but even if they don't how can this be my fault?
Surely if he wanted it another 3ft higher (just for example) he couldn't just do this as planning would object to the ridge being much higher....
The joke is he said that he loves the job that we have done?!!
Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated, I can't eat or sleep at the moment, i'm sick to my stomach!
Although my turnover is quite high I can't really swallow the loss of this magnitude from my cashflow.