Grrrrrr

[purplecat]

Roofers Due: 1st Jan
Roofers Arrive: 23rd May
Head Roofer Goes on Holiday: 1st June
Remaining Roofer: Not seen since
Massive Thunderstorm: Today
Roof: Leaks
New Paintwork: Damaged

This entry was originally posted at http://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/44482.html.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

How badly damaged?

I suppose it's good to know that in these straitened economic times roofers obviously don't need to work, but that is hardly a silver lining on the present thunderous cloud.

[lsellersfic.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how badly damaged. On the face of it, it's nothing that half an hour and a paint brush won't fix, but that assumes the plaster doesn't blow out or continue to stain through a new coat.

I think the problem is that our particular roofers are known to be good with slate rooves and can pick and choose their jobs and their timing. They are also lousy at communication. I phoned the "emergency number" I was given for "Razza" and he said he'd phone me back in ten minutes. That was an hour and a half ago. I'm also sure he's supposed to be here while the boss is away, but I wouldn't swear to it.

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Snarl!

[purplecat]

I was snarling most of yesterday evening, in between messing around with the placement of bowls and buckets. I'm prepared to believe they are excellent with rooves (they came highly recommended) but pretty much everything to do with their "customer service" drives me up the wall... and of course the new paintwork wouldn't have been in place if they'd started when they originally said. Grrrr....

[fredbassett]

ARGH!!!

[purplecat]

At the moment the damage seems to be fairly minimal, but it's made me nervous about lot of other things - like we are clearly going to need the scaffolding for longer than originally quoted and I wonder who's going to end up paying for that.

[fredbassett]

You should refuse to pay extra for the scaffolding if they disappear of the job for days at a time. They can't just deviate from the quote because of their own delays.

[purplecat]

Scaffolding provided by a different firm, at their recommendation obviously, but who we had to deal with separately, so I forsee potential trouble there. I'm not even sure who is responsible for telling the scaffolders when to remove it, or even if someone needs to contact them and tell them there's a delay. Worst case scenario would be to come home one day to find no scaffolding and the roof still only half done because it cost a couple of thousand just to erect the stuff.

If I can get hold of "Razza" I might see if I can get an answer from him about that. Otherwise I'll need to pre-emptively phone the scaffolders and find out what the situation is.

[fredbassett]

Oh bugger, yes, that does complicate matters. I think you just need to make it clear to both parties that you don't expect to pay extra because of third party delays.

[telperion-15.livejournal.com]

Oh, FFS!

[purplecat]

Hugely frustrating and very difficult to take it out on them since the head guy is on holiday and the assistant's excuse was that his father-in-law is terminally ill. Makes it difficult to let full rip with the "why has my roof now been left a week in a non-water-tight state?"

[fififolle]

Bloody hell!! That's just... ARGH!
Stuff like that is just so suckish. I hope you get some joy out of them for it!

[purplecat]

It'll be a relief when the roof is done. I just hope it actually gets done fairly soon.

[chainmailmaiden]

It certainly sounds like you're getting a very unsatisfactory level of service off them. Do you have any form of written contract with them? If so it might be worth having a look at the Ts&Cs to see what they say, or having a look on their website (if they have one) to see if their Ts&Cs are posted on there. Even if you don't have a written contract though, it doesn't matter as you don't actually need one in law for a contract of this type to exist, a verbal agreement is fine.

Under any service contract it is implied that the works will be carried out in 'reasonable time' and I think it would be fair to say that this has not been the case here. First with the delay in them starting the work and then in the delay in them making your roof waterproof again. I realise that you would probably want to avoid taking them to court to resolve this, but it would seem that you have a reasonable case for breach of contract on their part and would be entitled to claim damages for putting right the paintwork.

I'd also suggest that if they don't fix things very shortly you would have a case for repudiating the contract. In which case you should be able to claim any additional costs incurred in finding another builder to finish the job, in addition to the damages. Again, you might not want to actually go that far - and you'd certainly need a solicitor's advice before embarking on such an action, but it may be a point worth considering using in any negotiations with them. I'd certainly suggest trying to get the cost of the redecorating knocked off your final bill if nothing else.

[purplecat]

At the moment the problem is at the level of a lot of annoyance and about half an hour with a paint brush (probably), so we don't want to make too big a deal of it at the moment, although the threat that we might may prove useful. I believe head roofer is due back from holiday today, so if he isn't on our roof tomorrow morning I shall be phoning his wife his business number.