I recently got a builder to build a sun room in my house which he did. It wasnt perfect and he missed bits n pieces but i chose not to be too fussy.
I had got him through by seeing his work elsewere.
After the sunroom, i then got him to do a very small bathroom toilet. He quoted me , which i agreed.
he was alright till about few days into the job. After taking the second installment he did a runner and did not respond to any phone texts whatsoever.
I got his wife involved and he emailed (after 2 days) that he cannot provide what we want on the price he quoted and he wants us to find someone else to complete it
He has taken a good chunk about 55% of project cost and says he may return five hundred dollars.
The sunroom quote references were all documented but the bathroom work is all verbal. i do have a bit of documentation with me.
can someone pls advice what would be the best way to go now, to get the builder to respond. I am ok to take legal action as long as it doesnt involve too much cost.
I will give him one last chance ( i have given him plenty on text and email ) on email tomorrow, but i suspect he will not move so i am preparing for what next to do.
I know it ll be a long road ahead in getting any dollars out of him but its hard earned money and dont want to go waste
What should be first step , as in were do i head to now?
just did a search n saw a dispute tribunal court, would this be the small courts? or is it different,
he is not a member of any such organisation . . . he is just a carpenter turned builder one man company band hiring contractors sort of guy. so i dont think i can go to any organisation...
so just to confirm, is dispute tribunal the place to start. I can start typing all instances one by one 2moro as documentation for evidence.
Small claims is the way to go - you will get all the info here - http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/civil/about-civil-law/where-a-claim-is-heard
The key to a successful claim is a good summary of EVERYTHING you have discussed with the "builder" - ie keep a Word document outlining every phone call and email on a day by day basis, keeping copies of your emails. The more info you can provide the stronger your case (been there, done that, won that...)
His status doesnt matter - you contracted him to do the job, he didnt deliver Good luck - Grant
perthman - thank you so much for the link and the positive words.
it really helps
the dispute tribunal is a good option for me as it says it can handle upto fifteen k, which is more than what i want...
but what i really fail to understand it, all of a sudden the builder has bailed out, after taking money, which is a bit painfull , esp wen u have built the trust over somebody
I was really let down, but the comments are encouraging, so i m gonna buckle up cause i want to give this a shot.
i hope i get a decent outcome.
others new to the thread, please feel free to guide and write your experiences., cause those stories will help me to b prepared for what i should expect going to a court.
Oh ! also, I have a lot of texts sent to builder and his wife over all this time on my phone - I three G S , is it possible to some how extract all that n put it on a word or notepad?
You probably also want to get another quote for doing the work. It is possible they terribly underquoted due to an error on the builders part, and it was never realistic to get the work done for that. I had heard there was a contractural mistakes act, which I had heard applies to retailers (eg they advertise a product at the wrong price, where they don't have to honour that price if a genuine error). Not sure if it applies to services though. The thing with any building work is to get at least 3 quotes, if one is a lot cheaper or more expensive than an error , you look at why that is.
mattwnz: You probably also want to get another quote for doing the work. It is possible they terribly underquoted due to an error on the builders part, and it was never realistic to get the work done for that. I had heard there was a contractural mistakes act, which I had heard applies to retailers (eg they advertise a product at the wrong price, where they don't have to honour that price if a genuine error). Not sure if it applies to services though. The thing with any building work is to get at least 3 quotes, if one is a lot cheaper or more expensive than an error , you look at why that is.
mattt - i agree, i definetly do that, but this particular instance, the particular work in dispute was stage 3 of the works. stage 1 and 2 were completed to a "ok" level of satisfaction. stage 3 was a runner, and whats more hurting is that the builder is all mum about it and doesnt want to answer phones, meet in person and talk about it , despite multiple offers of coming to party and discussing what went wrong were, and to get to know his view point.
any easy way to extract msgs from i phone three gee ess? i tried to run cydia n got a app but it didnt work. n now i wana remove it n dunno how.. grrr.. anyways. think its not a good day today for me...
If you have an android, I used a app called SMS Backup to provide evidence at a tenancy tribunal case today. It was to prove phone calls but looking at it now I see it downloads all the SMS's also. I am sure iphone will have something similar
beachgeek: If you have an android, I used a app called SMS Backup to provide evidence at a tenancy tribunal case today. It was to prove phone calls but looking at it now I see it downloads all the SMS's also. I am sure iphone will have something similar
thanks geek! - m going straight to app store now :)
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