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Builders public liability insurance
We employed a builder to build our house, he has caused damage to next door's property and the cost to put right his handy work will be £65k he gave us a copy of his insurance certificate it now turns out he only gave us page 3 knowing full well we would have trouble trying to claim on this. Does anyone know how to make him give us the correct information? we have tried the insurance company direct and they don't want to help as they know it will be a big claim and we have instructed a solicitor but he is just ignoring everyone he has even laughed at the fact our neighbour is 68 years old, he words are you can't touch me.
Is there a law to help in this situation because by law he has to have public liability insurance. Trading standard won't ge involved as we are the only ones who have made a complaint and they have to have 2 or 3 complaints.
Is there a law to help in this situation because by law he has to have public liability insurance. Trading standard won't ge involved as we are the only ones who have made a complaint and they have to have 2 or 3 complaints.
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Sorry to keep multi-posting here!!
but
you state "The neighbour has complained but the builder still refuses to give his details"
what details is it she doesnt have? You have his policy certificate.. and his address and tel no? You credit checked his company, have references etc etc
You surely dont need much more than that to get the legal ball rolling?
but
you state "The neighbour has complained but the builder still refuses to give his details"
what details is it she doesnt have? You have his policy certificate.. and his address and tel no? You credit checked his company, have references etc etc
You surely dont need much more than that to get the legal ball rolling?
The damage to the neighbours house is not structural just cosmetic, roof ridge tiles need to be replaced they used the wrong tiles, ventilation needs to be installed they did not do this, water damage repair to bedroom, bathroom, downstairs cloakroom and kitchen plus redocoration, soil pipe to be fixed as they broke this.
On our house this is what needs to be repaired. level slab, insulation board, lay screed, replace heating pipes damaged by plasterers, provide skirtings and architraves, replace glazing damaged by plasterers, adjust window heights, remove and reinstall staircase because of problems with head height, reinstall door set, reform opening for stairs, rear bedroom windows to be realigned (mirror windows two different heights) staircase string shruk at joints, broken plaster, ensuite partitions incomplete, extract duct incorrectly fixed (held in place by wire nailed either side), ensuite extractor duct behind door relocate and make good hole, coaxial cable hanging out of door frame remove and make good, studs do not reach the ceiling/components misaligned, waste pipe not in void (in the front room blocking downstairs window plumber called us as he was concerned) gap thru front bedroom floor, open board joints in dressing room, rafters not cut correctly need to be wedged and restain with galvanised steel, rafters not supported on ridge, new gable wall not constructed, insulation not completed, plaster boarding not finished, stud wall not built, chimney blocks not pointed, these are some of the issues there is two more pages plus the built the slab over a water main found this over recently
On our house this is what needs to be repaired. level slab, insulation board, lay screed, replace heating pipes damaged by plasterers, provide skirtings and architraves, replace glazing damaged by plasterers, adjust window heights, remove and reinstall staircase because of problems with head height, reinstall door set, reform opening for stairs, rear bedroom windows to be realigned (mirror windows two different heights) staircase string shruk at joints, broken plaster, ensuite partitions incomplete, extract duct incorrectly fixed (held in place by wire nailed either side), ensuite extractor duct behind door relocate and make good hole, coaxial cable hanging out of door frame remove and make good, studs do not reach the ceiling/components misaligned, waste pipe not in void (in the front room blocking downstairs window plumber called us as he was concerned) gap thru front bedroom floor, open board joints in dressing room, rafters not cut correctly need to be wedged and restain with galvanised steel, rafters not supported on ridge, new gable wall not constructed, insulation not completed, plaster boarding not finished, stud wall not built, chimney blocks not pointed, these are some of the issues there is two more pages plus the built the slab over a water main found this over recently
OK.. first things first.. and forgive me but you are starting to sound a little inconsistent now...
The house next door was apparently needing £65k of work to repair it.. mainly damage to roof and slab - you said.. yet now its just cosmetic stuff... If there is a broken soil pipe - I'm assuming the toilet its connected to is not being used!
On your house
• has the LA building inspector seen the staircase with lack of head hight?? I'm guessing not!
• has the inspector seen the extractor duct held in place by wire and the extractor duct fitted behind a door and the stud walls not reaching the ceiling and the rafters not cut correctly and the rafters not being supported?
Have you contacted your building inspector??? There are a lot of issues with YOUR build and I'm assuming the £65k figure quoted is to finish and complete YOUR work... Some of these issues should be covered by the Building regulations and therefore the LA inspector should not have approved them if he has seen them.
You cannot move into the house whilst its in this condition... clearly...
It still doesnt sound like £65k of work...
How much money is left owing to the builder? Or have you paid him everything? How much was the total quote for the work.. If the builder quoted you £50k (for example) then the repair work cant be £65k. .unless he has demolished more than he has built!!
Is the builder still working there?
You have a big headache ahead of you sorting this mess out - I would contact the LA to start with - and see if any of the defects have been 'passed' by them. Then you need to decide whether to get another builder to finish the work or give the other guy a chance to put it right
The house next door was apparently needing £65k of work to repair it.. mainly damage to roof and slab - you said.. yet now its just cosmetic stuff... If there is a broken soil pipe - I'm assuming the toilet its connected to is not being used!
On your house
• has the LA building inspector seen the staircase with lack of head hight?? I'm guessing not!
• has the inspector seen the extractor duct held in place by wire and the extractor duct fitted behind a door and the stud walls not reaching the ceiling and the rafters not cut correctly and the rafters not being supported?
Have you contacted your building inspector??? There are a lot of issues with YOUR build and I'm assuming the £65k figure quoted is to finish and complete YOUR work... Some of these issues should be covered by the Building regulations and therefore the LA inspector should not have approved them if he has seen them.
You cannot move into the house whilst its in this condition... clearly...
It still doesnt sound like £65k of work...
How much money is left owing to the builder? Or have you paid him everything? How much was the total quote for the work.. If the builder quoted you £50k (for example) then the repair work cant be £65k. .unless he has demolished more than he has built!!
Is the builder still working there?
You have a big headache ahead of you sorting this mess out - I would contact the LA to start with - and see if any of the defects have been 'passed' by them. Then you need to decide whether to get another builder to finish the work or give the other guy a chance to put it right
There is no law requiring your builder to have Public Liability insurance. The only insurancce legally required is Motor and Employers Liability.
Public Liability insurance is not going to help you on the work that you have commissioned unless the policy also includes defective workmanship AND the description of the business on the policy covers the type of work he has done for you.
Your problem is far too complex for this site you need expert trade reports and legal advice from people who have valid Professional Indemnity insurance i.e. you can sue them if they give you wrong advice.
Public Liability insurance is not going to help you on the work that you have commissioned unless the policy also includes defective workmanship AND the description of the business on the policy covers the type of work he has done for you.
Your problem is far too complex for this site you need expert trade reports and legal advice from people who have valid Professional Indemnity insurance i.e. you can sue them if they give you wrong advice.
hi,
By law the builder does have to have public liability insurance this was confirmed by Kent and Essex police. We do have his full details but not his insurance policy number / brokers telephone number he gave us page three so it has been nearly impossible to find out but we now know who the broker is so the net is finally closing.
On the repairs most of the large building work has been done but everything is not finished properly the repairs cost more than the actual building work we have paid for most of the work and then some as the way the build works was only logical to him ie he did work that should not have been done to get more money out of us.(ie to be seen to get the building complete) The neighbour does not want to involve their insurance company. Back to the solicitors we go - with a bit of luck we might get lucky.
By law the builder does have to have public liability insurance this was confirmed by Kent and Essex police. We do have his full details but not his insurance policy number / brokers telephone number he gave us page three so it has been nearly impossible to find out but we now know who the broker is so the net is finally closing.
On the repairs most of the large building work has been done but everything is not finished properly the repairs cost more than the actual building work we have paid for most of the work and then some as the way the build works was only logical to him ie he did work that should not have been done to get more money out of us.(ie to be seen to get the building complete) The neighbour does not want to involve their insurance company. Back to the solicitors we go - with a bit of luck we might get lucky.
If you have paid the builder for work you didnt ask for - you are stupid
If you have paid him most of the money - yet a 'repair' bill is expected to be £65k - you are stupid
The £65k I suspect is not entirely REPAIR work.. but actually but actually part of the cost of the work still to do on the job.. and the 'snagging list'.
If you had used a reputable builder - you could have asked for a JCT contract and built in an amount of money to be held as a retention until such time you are happy with all of the works completed.
If you have page 3 of his insurance documents - there would be some kind of reference or policy number on there - although again I think it odd that you dont have a copy of the actual certificate of insurance and just some random page with no details on it.
And to add to the above posts - the Public Liability insurance is unlikely to cover poor workmanship.
Your neighbour is the only person who can make any claim for their property.. so you will have to deduct their repairs from your £65k bill.
£65,000 is a hell of a lot of money.... we built our first house - walls and roof on.. for £55k... so I suspect also that unless you have severe fire or flood damage then the amount is a bit over inflated.
You also need to contact the LA Inspector to see if he has passed the works that are apparently defective.
If you have paid him most of the money - yet a 'repair' bill is expected to be £65k - you are stupid
The £65k I suspect is not entirely REPAIR work.. but actually but actually part of the cost of the work still to do on the job.. and the 'snagging list'.
If you had used a reputable builder - you could have asked for a JCT contract and built in an amount of money to be held as a retention until such time you are happy with all of the works completed.
If you have page 3 of his insurance documents - there would be some kind of reference or policy number on there - although again I think it odd that you dont have a copy of the actual certificate of insurance and just some random page with no details on it.
And to add to the above posts - the Public Liability insurance is unlikely to cover poor workmanship.
Your neighbour is the only person who can make any claim for their property.. so you will have to deduct their repairs from your £65k bill.
£65,000 is a hell of a lot of money.... we built our first house - walls and roof on.. for £55k... so I suspect also that unless you have severe fire or flood damage then the amount is a bit over inflated.
You also need to contact the LA Inspector to see if he has passed the works that are apparently defective.
Sorry Amy1000 the police have mis informed you - check with a solicitor. I have been a commercial insurance broker for over 30 years and there is no legal requirement for the builder to have Public Liability insurance. The only insurance required by law in this country is Employers Liability and Motor RTA cover.
We did not ask the builder to do additional work, he was supposed to build to plans and building regs.
Our plans have full planning permission and where drawn by a reputable architect.
We did check the builder out and have a Build contract in place as drawn up by the federation of master builders. The £65k is what a court appointed chartered surveyor has given as the amount to repair the damaged and finish the build, the builder has been paid over £32k not all of the monies as per the contract we have held money back - somethings were fully paid for as they were 3/4 finished but the 3/4's done will take more to repair than they did to actually build. The builder placed piles of materials over the slab so you could not see the damage. You asked why we continued we contacted the builders insurance company last December to check he had valid insurance I was told by Aviva he had hence this is why we continued. Aviva is now giving us the run around. We now have the brokers details and a policy number - so hopefully things will be resolved soon. The builder was also stating that the problems on site were down to the architect as per the surveyor report this is not the case the architect caused some problems as there was some errors most were down to the builder.
The newly built house is joined by the roof to the next door property this property is owned by my partners mother who is 68 years old and does not want to claim on her insurance when it was the builder who damaged her house - this is her decision.
I think that calling people stupid when you are not fully informed of all the facts is very rude. I posted on this site for help and advice.
We are working class people trying to get on the housing ladder who have been conned, stolen from and defrauded by a cowboy builder, hindsight is a great thing.
Thank you to the others ofr your comments.
Our plans have full planning permission and where drawn by a reputable architect.
We did check the builder out and have a Build contract in place as drawn up by the federation of master builders. The £65k is what a court appointed chartered surveyor has given as the amount to repair the damaged and finish the build, the builder has been paid over £32k not all of the monies as per the contract we have held money back - somethings were fully paid for as they were 3/4 finished but the 3/4's done will take more to repair than they did to actually build. The builder placed piles of materials over the slab so you could not see the damage. You asked why we continued we contacted the builders insurance company last December to check he had valid insurance I was told by Aviva he had hence this is why we continued. Aviva is now giving us the run around. We now have the brokers details and a policy number - so hopefully things will be resolved soon. The builder was also stating that the problems on site were down to the architect as per the surveyor report this is not the case the architect caused some problems as there was some errors most were down to the builder.
The newly built house is joined by the roof to the next door property this property is owned by my partners mother who is 68 years old and does not want to claim on her insurance when it was the builder who damaged her house - this is her decision.
I think that calling people stupid when you are not fully informed of all the facts is very rude. I posted on this site for help and advice.
We are working class people trying to get on the housing ladder who have been conned, stolen from and defrauded by a cowboy builder, hindsight is a great thing.
Thank you to the others ofr your comments.
There seems to be some more facts coming through now amy1000 that were not mentioned in your original post...
"We did not ask the builder to do additional work, he was supposed to build to plans and building regs. "
IF you have not asked for extra work - and he has done extra work - he does not get paid for it. Simples.
"Our plans have full planning permission and where drawn by a reputable architect.
We did check the builder out and have a Build contract in place as drawn up by the federation of master builders."
A good start yes... but why has he built over a water mains? Was this shown on the plans? The architect should have picked up on this.
"the architect caused some problems as there was some errors most were down to the builder."
This doesnt make sense.. the architects work was done way before the builder got started - so dont see how he can have caused errors down to the builder? Non-sensical.
"I think that calling people stupid when you are not fully informed of all the facts is very rude. "
Well it would have helped if you had given us the full facts in the first instance.
You have not once mentioned the Building Inspector giving approval on the work done to date and I have recommended this to you. HAS HE APPROVED the work done so far? He will have made stage visits to the site to check the slab, foundations, insulation, etc.
"We have been conned"
Yes.. - though 'stolen from' isnt exactly accurate. unless of course you are now saying the builder has also taken belongings or money of yours unrelated to this issue.
"We did not ask the builder to do additional work, he was supposed to build to plans and building regs. "
IF you have not asked for extra work - and he has done extra work - he does not get paid for it. Simples.
"Our plans have full planning permission and where drawn by a reputable architect.
We did check the builder out and have a Build contract in place as drawn up by the federation of master builders."
A good start yes... but why has he built over a water mains? Was this shown on the plans? The architect should have picked up on this.
"the architect caused some problems as there was some errors most were down to the builder."
This doesnt make sense.. the architects work was done way before the builder got started - so dont see how he can have caused errors down to the builder? Non-sensical.
"I think that calling people stupid when you are not fully informed of all the facts is very rude. "
Well it would have helped if you had given us the full facts in the first instance.
You have not once mentioned the Building Inspector giving approval on the work done to date and I have recommended this to you. HAS HE APPROVED the work done so far? He will have made stage visits to the site to check the slab, foundations, insulation, etc.
"We have been conned"
Yes.. - though 'stolen from' isnt exactly accurate. unless of course you are now saying the builder has also taken belongings or money of yours unrelated to this issue.
No the architect did not put a water mains on the plans but the builder hid this fact from us he also covered this area with soil so it was not picked up by building inspector, who inspected the property regularly he pointed out things to be corrected the builder simply ignored his instruction, we also add these to the snagging lists. The builder had next stage work done and just covered over the things to be addressed.
There were items on the plans in the wrong place or missing this was down to the architect but any decent builder would have flagged these up not hidden them.
The builder has also stolen from us which is another issue but still part of the problem.
There were items on the plans in the wrong place or missing this was down to the architect but any decent builder would have flagged these up not hidden them.
The builder has also stolen from us which is another issue but still part of the problem.
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