Good morning all, To update; I had a text message last night from one of the directors. It wasn't very legible but it did demand I pay £3500 by Friday (which is a different amount to the one in the past) or they will pass a debt of £7000 onto a collections agency and furthermore they will start tipping waste onto my property. I have not yet replied. I decided to check the letter I sent recorded and the Royal Mail site says it was returned to sender. I do know that they have seen the letter as another of their representatives called me and asked for a copy. I emailed it and he called me back to discuss it. They have not given any new information regarding the costs. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what would be the best course of action now? For reference, I have attached a copy of the letter below and a screenshot of yesterday's communication. Letter to respond to request for additional costs - 41 Watermeadows_Redacted.pdf message 15.9.23.pdf proof of postage.pdf

Evening, I wasn't sure how concerned people would be for an update, but; I sent the letter (recorded delivery) detailing my view and concluded the letter as you suggested. No reply which was nice, but it looks as if that is more to do with the mail strikes and people not being in to sign for the letter. One of their associates did call yesterday to discuss collecting payment and asked I sent him the letter so he could look into it. I forwarded the letter and we spoke on the phone after. He didn't so much contest the points made, more just overlooked them and said I should offer to pay half as a gesture of goodwill. I declined to make the offer. He then advised that when one of the directors returns from holiday I will have to deal with him instead and ended the call. I will update again if/when then the director returns.

Brill. Thankyou.

Obviously I have an Iphone! I will have a look to see if any of the paid apps work for the iphone.

They were not talking about late payment fees. They were suggesting that they had been lenient with the additional costs and they would find more items to add to it. Thanks both. Again, no I have no record. It was said over the phone when I called to ask what the additional costs relating to the work at the front of the property was for. I shall have a read about recording calls as this isnt something I thought about. Regards.

Thankyou. Good summary and I wholly agree with what you are saying. I appreciate you taking the time to give some neutral perspective. I am nervous that if I rub them up the wrong way, they will act on their earlier threat and look to add even more costs to the final bill. Does anyone have any experience to suggest there is any substance in this statement?

Ok. Thanks for that. May I ask if there was something specific in the information I sent that caused you to come to that conclusion? Earlier in the posts I felt your advice may have been that I should accept their bill. Also it felt like your view was that by calculating the costs myself, I was opening myself up to potential difficulties.

Apologies, to hopefully answer your questions: There is £3000 outstanding. I am open to paying some of it if it relates to the additional work that I agreed for them to do - however they have not disclosed how much this proportion is. With regard to the misinterpretation of drawings; The drawings specified a minimum depth of concrete (600mm). On the 24.9.22 they sent me a request asking for additional money as they had assumed/planned to pour concrete to a depth of 300mm (so wanted paying for the difference). Once I emailed them pointing out the minimum depth on the drawing that they had used to provide their quote, this amount was no longer asked for. No evidence of threats. It was done over the phone in reply to me asking them to correct some faulty work. It was a one off, but still not nice to receive. To answer your last question on post #14 - The final summary states "additional concrete to rear legs and front" and then lists a number of spoil costs and manday costs associated to this work. The work on the "front" was footings for a garage - part of the original price/quote. The work for the "rear legs" are what I agreed as additional work - This is what they completed before giving me a quote so I don't know how they are apportioning the costs. email 24.9.22.pdf

Thanks all, I will look into getting an inspection. I have attached the initial quote and the summary which was sent by email. I suppose my main question has been answered though and I don't have the assurance assumed I had from the quote for the work. UB Quote - groundworks.pdf summary final bill.pdf

You do raise good points although if I may address some of them. The work commenced soon after the quote was given and not that long ago - the exceptional circumstances you mentioned were already in play before they quoted. None of the materials used during their work increased in price during their work. The cause of their additional costs were attributed to; not reading the architects plans correctly and subsequently using more concrete than they had planned, having to dig down further than they expected due to the type of soil encountered (which was the same soil present when they carried two site visits) and re-digging the excavations in some areas after leaving them open for too long resulting in the side walls to collapsing. The first point was accepted by the ground workers - they tried to charge me extra to cover the cost for this earlier in the work but stopped doing so when it was clear they had mis-read the design. The third point was raised by their excavator driver who couldn't understand why he had been sent to site knowing that the excavations would collapse and he would be back the following day to re-dig them out. Can I ask, out of interest, if verification of costs is successful. Surely this relies on a vary prescriptive breakdown of costs from the supplier for it to be verified by a third party?

So, This is not a commercial venture, this is my own house that I bought and intend to move into once the work is complete. "In line with" - my own words - they sold me their service based on it being complete to the price quoted. They have sent a bill which does not discriminate between the true additional work that I agreed on (but didn't receive an additional quote for), and what they consider additional work that they quoted me on (but didn't discuss an increase in price to complete). Therefore I don't know how much they are apportioning to the work that I am happy to pay for, and how much they are just wanting to recover for lost profit. To answer your second reply; I don't know why I haven't mentioned them. I suppose it is because I don't see how that would help me resolve my issue at this point. My first priority is to the safety of my family. I work away a lot, they know where I live, they have been threatening over the phone. A dispute over money isnt worth the safety of my family. I am after all just trying to establish where I stand in this dispute. I could completely be in the wrong and I will just have to take that as a lesson learnt. I don't want to appear as if I am dragging them through the dirt to benefit my cause. I hope you understand this second point.

Hi, I could do that. The trouble is that most of the work is in the ground so difficult to assess. However although some of their work was not great, my issue isnt with that specifically, it is with the additional charges for work that was agreed in the original quote. I hope that clarifies it a little. Mark.

Hi, Thanks for the feedback. You comment on the status of the work "quotation" and I mentioned this point as several sources seem to indicate that estimates are a rough idea of price whereas quotes are binding and form the basis of a contract/agreement. They were not the cheapest but reassured me that they would ensure the work was carried out in line with the quote. They were therefore specific in the quote as to what work it did and did not cover. My main driver for going with them was reassurance that I knew the cost of the work. The quote was given to me in advance of the work following a review of the drawings and two site visits. The part about the quote not being received, was for a piece of additional work they carried out that I knew about. The issue I have is that they have added costs for "additional work" which was not additional but just harder than they anticipated when quoting. I hope that clears it up a little. Mark.

Hi all, I have an issue with some builders who carried out some groundworks for me and just looking for guidance on how I can end what has been a bit of an ordeal. After viewing the architects plans and the site the quote was submitted and the builders were engaged to carry out the work. The groundwork was difficult and messy and during the poring of the concrete I could see that they were losing interest and the quality was being effected. Building Control then suggested a change in the planned subfloor. The builders requoted for the new flooring and I suspected that they were overcharging to recover profit margin they had potentially lost through pouring the concrete. At this point, after a discussion on the way forward, we both agreed they would complete the concrete footings and I would then engage other builders to continue with the extension (including the new subfloor). The builders submitted a breakdown of costs so we could agree on what they would complete (and the cost of this) and what they wouldn’t complete (and the cost of this). It appeared fair. To accommodate the change suggested by Building Control, the builders did carry out some additional work (2x 5m long footings) which I was happy for them to do. I knew roughly what the cost would be based on our conversation at the time, but I did ask for it to be put in a quote. They subsequently completed the additional work before submitting the quote. They completed the work before giving me the quote as they wanted to offload the plant (excavator) and it was a relatively straight forward task so it was done in a day. I estimate it at c.£1700 based on knowing the time they took and the materials used. On completion of all their work they have now submitted a final bill which includes “additional costs” to the tune of £5805. The work they are invoicing at £5805 includes additional time and material not only for the work I described above, but also for labour and material needed to complete the concrete footings that were part of the original job – they have described this as such in their email. The builder has told me that the footings took longer, they had to dig more than they expected and that they ended up using more concrete. I was out the country when the final work was done and I had no conversation about paying extra at the time. I am concerned that since the relationship has broken down (the company owner has been threatening when I complained about some poor work they left), they have said that should I contest the additional charges they will find more additional costs to add to the bill! I don’t want to get into a tit-for-tat argument with them. My additional concern is that the quote I have from them, clearly states “quote” on the letter head content and has a quote number. The email it arrived on it was generated from one of these auto-generators (https://invoice.2go.com/) and the auto generated email subject states “estimate”. Is this potentially a grey area that could lead them to dispute the quote? Many thanks for your help in advance.