Hi It was my structural engineer who applied for planning not the builder. I will call the planning dept, there is no harm in asking. After doing some googling yesterday I think she is his long term partner but yes it says she is the Director and I signed the contract after the company had dissolved. I don’t know if the son-in-laws are correct but I didn’t she was involved in the company until yesterday. Yes, I will contact companies house re: all of the above and I will also write a letter to the partner as suggested. I will also keep a paper trail. The deposit was £23520. Should I ask her to reply within 14 days or just leave the timescale open? Thank you.

Thank you. No I didn't realise Sam Busby was a Director and yes she was his partner. I haven't spoken to her personally the info re: not wanting to speak about the deposit came via the son-in-laws. Should I send a registered letter to her? Yes I will definitely be contacting companies house. Yes mostly completed by one of the son-in-laws but he finished up in May as I couldn't keep paying out more money. I moved back 3 weeks ago and there is still a lot of internal work to do. Yes I did require planning permission, I didn't use the council inspector though, I used a private one but there no harm in asking. Thanks

Hi Thank you for your reply. Yes it looks like the company was dissolved when the contract was taken out. The link is below. The second company was started by his son-in-law after his death. I will contact companies house. BIGGIN RENOVATIONS LTD overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK FIND-AND-UPDATE.COMPANY-INFORMATION.SERVICE.GOV.UK BIGGIN RENOVATIONS LTD - Free company information from Companies House...

Hi Stu Thank you for replying. 1. contract was done over email so not hand signed but is on company letterhead and was done by main builder. 2. Contract is in the dissolved company name. 3. Contract stats payment terms are 20% deposit plus VAT to secure start date paid to Biggins Renovations, followed by 10 weekly payments of 7% to our non VAT registered contractor and 10 % on completion with a lifelong guarantee on construction and 6 year guarantee on everything else. 4. Yes one was my main builder the other was helping the main builder project manage their builds. 5. No clauses. 6. Initially £101,920, then revised which was agreed revision whilst he was alive. 7. Yes that’s correct, it’s ironic that the extra costs quoted by sonin-law was around the amount I paid for the deposit. 8. Yes I did ask, no it hadn’t been used for my build, the son-in-laws said they had no access to his bank account and that I his wife was refusing to discuss the situation, they later told me that they found out he was in a huge amount of debt. Any help is appreciated, thanks

Hi I started building work in late December of 2021. The main builder/owner suddenly died at the end of January with my deposit in his bank account. The contractors that worked for him carried on with my build (two of which were his son-in-laws) but mid-way through started saying that the build was under quoted and that they will walk off the job if I didn't pay the extra. This was at a stage where my house had no roof and was looking quite derelict. Due to the amount of stress and anxiety this was causing me I had to beg and borrow extra money (which I have to pay back) so that I could get my house to stage where I could move back in. What I wanted to find out is can I get my deposit back via his estate? I did have a contract in place but have subsequently found out this his company was dissolved and that he was in a huge amount of debt. Any help would be appreciated Thanks