Hello all,
I have had a extension built. Basically several things have gone wrong, such as a cracks in external wall, badly blown render, crack in internal wall.
The cracks are straight through the breeze block they are not plaster cracks, these cracks have been caused by not fitting a wooden worktop with enough of an expansion gap (the worktop is wall to wall).
Also, the same builder built a garage and there are cracks straight thruoght the breeze block on three of four walls.
A structural engineer has critiscised the depth of the foundations, lack of expansion gaps and has said that althought underpinning is not required at the moment, if it does get worse I'll have to rebuild as the cost of underpinning will be 10K.
The builder has paid no VAT (will this come out in court?)....he insisted on just receiving cash and to be honest I was pretty naive and caved in...because they seemed to be doing a good job and I did not want to annoy them. I have handed him letters but he just ignores them.
I have held back £3500 and paid £35000 in cash to him. He is threatening to take me to court now. But I do not trust him to rectify the mistakes as I have given him the opportunity for the cracks (they have just got worse) and the garage and the things he has done have not worked.
What can I do? Do I have to pay him? Do I have to allow him to attempt, for the third time in some cases, rectify the issues?
Please help!
many thanks,
Fangio.
I have had a extension built. Basically several things have gone wrong, such as a cracks in external wall, badly blown render, crack in internal wall.
The cracks are straight through the breeze block they are not plaster cracks, these cracks have been caused by not fitting a wooden worktop with enough of an expansion gap (the worktop is wall to wall).
Also, the same builder built a garage and there are cracks straight thruoght the breeze block on three of four walls.
A structural engineer has critiscised the depth of the foundations, lack of expansion gaps and has said that althought underpinning is not required at the moment, if it does get worse I'll have to rebuild as the cost of underpinning will be 10K.
The builder has paid no VAT (will this come out in court?)....he insisted on just receiving cash and to be honest I was pretty naive and caved in...because they seemed to be doing a good job and I did not want to annoy them. I have handed him letters but he just ignores them.
I have held back £3500 and paid £35000 in cash to him. He is threatening to take me to court now. But I do not trust him to rectify the mistakes as I have given him the opportunity for the cracks (they have just got worse) and the garage and the things he has done have not worked.
What can I do? Do I have to pay him? Do I have to allow him to attempt, for the third time in some cases, rectify the issues?
Please help!
many thanks,
Fangio.