Poor communication and very overpriced - avoid!
This builder was asked to inspect a water leak in our downstairs bathroom and told us that this was probably the flat roof and he would have to erect scaffolding to inspect it and provide a quote. We needed to get on with the work as it was midwinter and the problem was getting worse, so we reluctantly agreed to this, but he didn’t provide us with a quote for the scaffolding beforehand, or the terms and conditions of its usage.
It took three weeks before the scaffolding was finally erected and another week before the inspection took place. He then provided an unexpectedly high quote for carrying out the work so we told him we would need to get more quotes. He was clearly unhappy about this and told us that we wouldn’t be able to use his scaffolding for other people’s inspections or to carry out the work. He then FINALLY gave us a quote for the scaffolding which was also unexpectedly high and much higher than any of the FREE quotes we then received from several local reputable builders (as was his quote for the repairs). When we made him aware that his eventual quotes for the scaffolding and the works were clearly unreasonably high he then refused to take down the scaffolding until we had paid him the (unreasonable) amount for that. After frequent emails and consultation with Citizen’s Advice, Trading Standards, HSE and my solicitor he finally agreed to lower his price slightly and take down the scaffolding, but we have now discovered that we still actually had to pay him significantly more than he paid the scaffolding company despite his email saying “Unfortunatley this is the lowest we can settle due to our scaffold cost”!
We are now 3 months on from the original callout after a lot of distress, £810* out of pocket for the inconvenience of scaffolding which was in place for six weeks and we couldn’t use (and for which the builder has not paid for regular inspections despite him using it), and we still haven’t received the pictures which he took during his inspection and there is further water damage to the bathroom due to the works not being completed.
We are very distressed by the way we have been treated by this builder and would definitely not recommend to anyone.
The only chink of light in this dark tunnel is that we are 'just' *£810 out of pocket whereas it would have been over £6K (compared to using other local builders) if we had actually agreed to him carrying out the work, so I guess that's a phew!