Abandonment of works by the building contractor.
The contractor building my home has left the works unfinished. What can I do?
Query: More than a year ago I began building a house on a plot I own. I asked several building contractors for quotes and finally decided to hire one, as it inspired confidence, offered every kind of facility and gave me a really good price. Once we had signed the contract, we also hired an architect and a quantity surveyor to draw up the project and manage the works. Everything went well during the first few months; the only thing was that they asked me for the agreed payments earlier than we had arranged, but I didn’t think much of it. The fact is that after 6 months, with the works only half done, I had already paid the full budget for the house, and from then on they started failing to turn up on site and were not working at the expected pace, until eventually they stopped appearing at all. That was 6 months ago. I no longer know what to do, because they constantly give me excuses, promise to resume on a given date and in the end do not carry on with the works. I can’t go on like this. What can I do to get the works finished, especially as I have already paid for them in full?
We can see that the owner, with great enthusiasm and effort, decided to build a home and now has problems with the building contractor, for whatever reason. This is neither a one-off nor an exceptional case. It happens more often than we think.
What the owner should do is the following:
First, send a burofax (formal registered letter) to the building contractor formally demanding that it continue with the works, and stating that if it fails to do so within 10 days, the owner will seek termination of the contract for abandonment of the works, and informing it that it must remove all its tools from the site, specifying the day and time.
Next, the owner should change the locks (whether a padlock or door locks) giving access to the site, in order to secure possession of the works. If the contractor has not removed its tools, keep them safe so they can be returned to their owner.
An expert report should be commissioned, recording the works still to be carried out and the defects in the works (if any), which includes a budget comparing what has already been paid with what has actually been built, together with the necessary repairs, in order to determine the balance in the owners’ favour. That is the amount to be claimed in court.
Before continuing the works with another contractor, it is also advisable to have a notarial record of presence drawn up to certify the state of the works. In this way the real situation of the works is documented twice: on the one hand through an expert report and, on the other, reinforcing it, through a notarial record. All of this serves to prepare a lawsuit to be filed in court claiming the amount owed to the owner and seeking termination of the contract.
All this may seem complicated to the owner, but it is the only way to try to recover what has been paid for and yet not built, which amounts to a flagrant breach of contract by the building contractor.
Any questions?