We have just had £24k's worth of work done on a house by a builder. We are overall very pleased with the work, but there are one or two snagging issues. Firstly a drive way has been cracked from having a skip on it that is too heavy. Also one of the new rooms doesnt get warm enough.

We sent him an email with the snagging list on it last night, and paid him everything bar £1k. He has emailed back today saying we have no right to withold the £1k etc etc, however he has agreed to come out and look at the issues.

Was I wrong to withold £1k (the cost of what I think it will be to resolve the issues?)

Ta

Surely he can have the £1k when the job is finished i.e. your snagging list is sorted. Dont cave in until you are satisfied the work is complete, once he has the money you will have difficulty getting him back.

I'd have withheld the full payment until the job was finished to your satisfaction.

I'd have withheld the full payment until the job was finished to your satisfaction.

That's unreasonable & not the way it works

Withholding £1k seems about right

I'm glad it's not just me who thinks its reasonable to withold some cash until snagging completed.

Thanks for the reasurrance.

Not unreasonable. Most building contracts allow for the provision of a retention, usually about 5%. This is withheld for 12 months and then when all snags are complete, its released.

I think you were pretty fair in withholding the £1k. Withholding full payment would have just really pissed the guy off. I would imagine it's difficult to have £24k worth of work done without there being one or two snags to sort out.

That said, the snags you have mentioned sound like they might be a little bit more than £1k to sort out – especially the driveway – ooer.

Just try and keep things amicable between you but be firm in insisting these things are fixed. If you have a falling out, you run the risk of him saying to himself that it's not worth sorting it for the £1k.

Don't see how a room not getting warm enough is a builders fault though – surely he will have simply built to regs? Or did he advise on heating requirements – is he qualified to do this?

Still think withholding £1k is fair upon satisfactory completion though, but not all that sure if your idea of problems are all his problems though.

No certainly you were not wrong. In most construction jobs the retention is 2-5% depending on the size. This is held back for exactly these reasons. He would probably not come back to look at your snags if you had paid him the full amount straight away.

If the cold room is a big problem and you suspect there may not be adequate insulation tell him to get it tested with a heat detecting camera ( i forget the real name).

If it was his skip he should most definitely should have protected the driveway, did he put the drive in or was it there already? At any rate he should have put ply wood under it to protect the ground. That is common sense.

Skip on driveway, you could have applied for a highway skip licence, from the local authority,so thats a problem between whoever decided to place the skip on your drive and the skip owner.

As for the room notgetting warm enough,whoever specified the system need to sort it out,just be glad the builder is coming back, a few wouldnt,as the potential liability seems to exceed the £1000 pounds being with held.

Surely this depends on the contract between you & the builder. If you used one of the JCT's it would include a clause on retention so you'd be covered.

Should you not agree what you are going to withhold at the start of the job pending satisfactory snagging ?

Re the room heating – as long as the builder constructed it and used correct materials as specified in any drawings that were prepared then he really can't be at fault. Unless he puts it in the wrong way around like the builder did at my brother's house LOL.

If the cold room is a big problem and you suspect there may not be adequate insulation …..

I would have thought that it would have been fairly obvious to building control that the insulation was inadequate or incorrectly installed.

I would have just rung him, before any payment to dicuss the 2 issues, then proceeded depending on answer.

Would you be happy to be paid less than you expected?

i do building work, mostly for myself but occasionally for other people. when working for others, stage payments are agreed beforehand, on a straightforward extension this would be brickwork to wall plate, roof, 1st fix and completion with a 5% retention on the whole contract (not just the final stage). there is always a snagging list and i don't expect to get my 5% until the customer is happy and have never not been paid.

as for the site, you are entitled to expect it to be left as it was found.

I would have thought that it would have been fairly obvious to building control that the insulation was inadequate or incorrectly installed.

How do you know building control saw all of the insulation going in??? I work in commercial construction, building schools and the like, building control does not come in until the building is completed or near enough completed. I am however not sure about domestic regulations, possibly there was a clark of works but the OP does not mention this

How do you know building control saw all of the insulation going in???

I dont know, i didnt say i did know, i said i *thought* they would have done a visit at some point to check insulation.

Sorry if i upset you.

dont know, i didnt say i did know, i said i *thought* they would have done a visit at some point to check insulation.

Sorry if i upset you.

Sorry i didn’t mean for that to come across scathing or condescending or seem dicky 🙂

Its OK, its only the 4th of Jan, you can be excused 😉

This is what I do for a living & reckon you are going about it in the wrong manner by notifying him & paying him as you did.
If I was in his position I would have preferred you spoke to me about it & I would have offered to rectify the faults if I felt they were my fault, even if they were not I have still done what was required if it was not too costly to me.
Putting things in writing seems aggressive to me, you cannot beat talking face to face about a dispute,if that does not work then put it in writing. The rad size is not a big thing, I'm sure he would have fitted it foc if you supplied a new one to replace the one he fitted, after all they're not expensive & it cannot be his fault if he followed the spec on your drawings.

The skip thing, well it may or may not have been his fault, you need to decide with him, who hired it , you or him? did you say where to put it? Is it just a couple of slabs or is it tarmac? would it be costly to put right? do you really think it is his fault? why did you not state your concern at the time or mention it as soon as you noticed?
If you really feel it is his fault, then stick to your guns, if you feel it may be partly your fault & they guy has done a good job, give him a break.

Getting things ironed out at the end of a job all depends on your relationship with him throughout the job, if you were a nob he'll likely tell you to go forth & multiply & shove your grand where the sun don't shine, but if you had been nice I'm sure he would bend over backwards to help you, that's how I look at it, I've never had to experience the first example.

I always suss out my customers during our first meet & if they appear to be nobs, I don't hold back with the price, generally I don't get the job for the obvious reason, but if I do, it would more than cover me for the reason you first stated.
I do also consider that if I don't get a job it could be that they think, I'm a nob, after all it's a two way street.

If the next time you get a quote & you feel it's excessive, you now know why. 😆 Always be nice to your tradesmen, ask, don't demand, unless they take piss.

Thanks for all the comments.

The build was done over approx 2 1/2 months withs staged payments, and a final payment on completion of approx £6k he left in a hurry on Xmas eve, leaving a few nigly little jobs and the big ones above. We said we would email a snagging list once we had 'lived' in the house for a week or two.

He sent his final bill on Christmas day requesting final payment, so we waited a few days and wrote back advising the snagging list and advising we would send final payment minus £1k for the snagging, thats when he started getting a little upset, although we had always mentioned about final payment being after snagging prior to him leaving.

It was his decision to put the skip on the drive as he said it made it cheaper for him… the skip co refused to take a skip one day as it was too heavy. He also had to remove a 6ft stone post to get the skip out and now says he wont put it back.

The heating – He employed a plumber to work out the size of radiator needed, the temperature rises slightly from cold when the heating is on, but not enough, it appears to be a size of radiator issue mainly, as well as him needing to fill some holes etc.

We are giving him opportunity to finish everything before getting building regs out again…

Stand your ground if you feel it is all his fault, you appear to be being reasonable, get him to repair the skip damage if he hired it, if you hired it then I would say it's up to you. I kinda get the impression you hired the skip & he just said "put it there, it'll be cheaper for you", if that is the case then it's not his fault, you could have put it somewhere else, but then he would have charged you more.
Get him to get the plumber back at his expense.