- Original Poster
- #1
Looking for some advice regarding a contractor carrying out works at a factory.
We enlisted the services of a building contractor to fit out office partitioning, mezzanine floor along with some other smaller items for our new factory building. We paid an initial deposit of 20% of the total job cost. This began on 27th July
As the job has "dragged" on it has become almost impossible to tie them down to a revised schedule.
Originally they submitted a schedule of works which gave us the building finished at the end of August. This was missed, which was fine at the time as we realise things can take longer.
In the middle of the works we met up and he asked if we could pay some more monies as the mezzanine supplier had asked for more monies up front than he had catered for. Seen as there was activity on site we did this.
Work then continued very intermittently with 2 people on site maybe 2 or 3 days out of a week but with gaps of 5-6 days in between.
Then the difficulty in contacting the main man started. We realised that the schedule was way out and we wanted him to update it so we could make plans at our end. We are not under pressure to move from our current building so we could, to some degree, be quite flexible.
After 2 weeks of no contact apart from emails to say I will call you later today (no calls !!) we received an email to say the mezzanine floor company had gone bust and taken all his money and he was tracking down the owner and seeking legal advice. Again we tried to call to discuss with him to no avail and then sent an email asking who the supplier was. Needless to say no response.
We then get an email last week to say the other items on the contract would be completed last week, effectively leaving the mezzanine as the only outstanding item. Again this was not done and nothing occurred on site.
So my question..... what is our legal position with regard to cancelling the contract and going after him for monies paid ? I would estimate they have completed 25% of the total project.
We are in a position to just get another contractor and then pursue him separately but would like to know the possible options before implementing this.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
We enlisted the services of a building contractor to fit out office partitioning, mezzanine floor along with some other smaller items for our new factory building. We paid an initial deposit of 20% of the total job cost. This began on 27th July
As the job has "dragged" on it has become almost impossible to tie them down to a revised schedule.
Originally they submitted a schedule of works which gave us the building finished at the end of August. This was missed, which was fine at the time as we realise things can take longer.
In the middle of the works we met up and he asked if we could pay some more monies as the mezzanine supplier had asked for more monies up front than he had catered for. Seen as there was activity on site we did this.
Work then continued very intermittently with 2 people on site maybe 2 or 3 days out of a week but with gaps of 5-6 days in between.
Then the difficulty in contacting the main man started. We realised that the schedule was way out and we wanted him to update it so we could make plans at our end. We are not under pressure to move from our current building so we could, to some degree, be quite flexible.
After 2 weeks of no contact apart from emails to say I will call you later today (no calls !!) we received an email to say the mezzanine floor company had gone bust and taken all his money and he was tracking down the owner and seeking legal advice. Again we tried to call to discuss with him to no avail and then sent an email asking who the supplier was. Needless to say no response.
We then get an email last week to say the other items on the contract would be completed last week, effectively leaving the mezzanine as the only outstanding item. Again this was not done and nothing occurred on site.
So my question..... what is our legal position with regard to cancelling the contract and going after him for monies paid ? I would estimate they have completed 25% of the total project.
We are in a position to just get another contractor and then pursue him separately but would like to know the possible options before implementing this.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
