Bathroom Fitting

Bathroom fitter disappeared off job - advice required

Anonymous user 09/03/2024 - 3.03 PM

We booked a bathroom fitter to start work on 1st July. He quoted £2900 for an extensive refit which would take 9 days he said; essentially gutting the existing bathroom and refitting new suite, electrics, plasterer, tiling etc etc. We’ve paid £1400 to date. We went on holiday from Monday 1st to July 8th to get out of his hair and let him crack on. So a full 7 days. We were told by the time we’d come back, the new suite would be in but tiling wouldn’t have started - fair enough. Here’s where the problems start. Our neighbours messaged to advise that he hadn’t turned up Monday, Tuesday and in fact only arrived on the Wednesday afternoon. Worked 1 1/2 days (well, the electrics and plaster did) and then nothing. We returned the Sunday evening to find half the existing tiles off the wall, bath and basin out but old toilet still in situ as he didn’t want to leave us without one(I’m 7 months pregnant). He then failed to turn up until the Wednesday saying that one of his family had been ill. Fair enough. We asked at that point what would be complete, considering he then advised he would be away for two weeks from the 16th on holiday. He promised that the new suite would be in (bar shower and basin) and the new plyboard would be laid on the floor so It was clean for us to use - I’ve not had a shower in over a week now. He also promised he’d work the weekend to get it complete in time. He disappeared Friday afternoon at about 3pm - things all over the floor still and when I contacted him to ask where he was, he said he had to go to another emergency job (bearing in mind our bathroom looks like a squat). I asked what time he was arriving Saturday morning, no reply. Saturday came and he didn’t turn up. Apparently - according to a text - he was in hospital at an appointment and would call us - he didn’t. Today he’s not turned up again. The bathroom is a state, there are nails sticking up from the floor, the old toilet is leaking from when he moved it out and back again but also doesn’t flush properly, so we’re having to use a bucket of water. As he’s on holiday on Tuesday, we’ve made the decision to get someone else to complete the work. It’s far from hygienic, smells disgusting, is filthy, and due to his unreliability we don’t know when he’ll actually arrive to complete the work after his holiday. Plus going a month without washing facilities is unreasonable. We don’t feel we need to pay anymore of the £2900 seeing as he’s had half already and he personally has done 3ish (at a push) days work out of the 9 quoted. Where do we stand? He says he won’t return our key until he’s paid for his labour and we think we’ve given him enough considering he’s not delivered on any of the promises he’s made. Thank you so much in advance.