Gardening & Landscaping

Builder threatening to retrieve goods and break up garden

Anonymous user 11/03/2024 - 2.30 PM

Evening, My builder is threatening to retrieve goods from my garden which he part completed. This is lengthy and I apologise but this is really stressing me out now. We where quoted £12550 for a complete garden renovation due to water ingress so needed french drains, new patio, aco and retaining wall. Within the quote there was a labourer included fir some of the build. We where given a 3 week estimate. Started no issues then we had some more water ingress which delayed the builder and I asked him if he could still do it, he said it should be rained off but I was hesitant as he had excavated back and did not brace the banks. The delay was a month he was not here for that whole month and was here for around 4 days. Over the next few months he turned up sporadically sometimes for 4 hours sometimes for 30 mins. Because it was dragging on so much I ended up paying extra for back fill which he misquoted the amount even shoveling 7 tonne of it a day before ankle replacement surgery. He asked for final payment for materials but then informed us that he could not buy the last of the materials as there was no money in the job informing us he used that money to pay his lost labour. This was now 5 months since the start and was still not completed. Again due to him not being there I had to finish the retaining sleeper wall and back fill £600 of slate he quoted in the original price but could not pay for, all in a boot post op. He took money for grass and didn't pay it back, I ended up paying fir grass 3 times over. We later found out that the water ingress was due to a leak from a commercial property and seeked compensation from them, but needed an invoice from the builder. He held us to ransom saying that he will supply the invoice but he wanted £1200 and we can have the £1800 we had paid extra in materials, this did not include the work I had completed for which we had paid him to to and he had taken as labour in the final paper. We reluctantly agreed. He then walked of the job and we had to pay someone to finish it and rectify some stones that he had not laid properly so our costs where more than the £1800, so I have refused to give him all £1200 but £600 to.cover our extra costs. He has not agreed and said he is coming to now remove goods for the whole £3000 invoice. There a schedule of work and invoices but nothing about transfer of goods etc, we have invoices for the extra materials we paid as we did recognise that it was not his issue. In July during the build he said he was 2k down but I can't see how he can keep accruing loses as he was on concrete end of April. Can he do this, we don't know what to do.