Bad news update

Well, anyone who’s been following my trials and tribulations involving my house-build project is probably thinking that since there’s been no further work for several days there are problems. And indeed they’d be right. The problems have now turned into a major dispute between me and the builder that also involves the sub-contractor that the latter used to install the roof on my house.

It started with my noticing that the roof structure was not sitting correctly on the building’s walls and that dimensions that we’d agreed when we’d signed the contract had not only not been adhered to but were totally wrong. I started with a softly-softly approach to the builder who had clearly made some fundamental errors, if not outright mistakes when they’d designed the roof structure but was met with an entrenched response and a demand that I accept compromises in my house’s roof design that were designed to get them out of the trouble that they’d created for themselves and that I did not like.

Naturally this caused me to harden my own position and we are currently in a position of stalemate where no party is willing to make any concession. As a result I have conducted a detailed analysis of the building’s roof structure and am 100% confident in having identified from where the problems have arisen and who was responsible. The builder said that they would propose a solution that would meet the conditions that I laid down, namely that it had to be (a) practical and (b) aesthetically acceptable and I had to wait a few days for it to be delivered.

When it arrived I knew immediately from my calculations that it was totally unfeasible. For a start it involved an initial dimension that does not exist and can only be achieved by removing the whole roof structure and moving it back several centimetres, which the builder refused to do right from the outset of our discussions. I don’t know if they do not realise this or are just being disingenuous in the hope that I won’t notice, so I decided not to tell them.

Instead I fired off an email asking if this is what they proposed to do as part of their ‘proposition’. If they say ‘yes’, it means having to take the roof off and if so they can strip it completely and do the job again, properly according to the contract. If not, what they propose is, as stated above, totally unfeasible.

I’m 100% confident in my calculations and also have the evidence to back them up in the form of the plan that the builder gave to the roofing contractor who has then not abided by it. I’ve given up talking to the builder’s local manager who I’m pretty sure knows where I’m coming from and is desperately trying to mount a rear-guard action. Instead, on the advice of our local mayor in Fleurac who knows about these things, I’ve demanded a meeting with the party named in the contract who is legally required to act as an intermediary to try to resolve any dispute that arises during its execution and am now awaiting their reply.

What has astonished me, and I’ve told them so, is that even though I’d already raised my objections regarding the roof structure of the house, the builder still allowed the roofing company to come on site and tile the front part of the roof. This will undoubtedly complicate matters and make whatever the ultimate solution is that we decide upon even more costly.

I told them that this was hardly what I would have expected of a company with 40 years experience and if they think that it will put more pressure on me to press on with the now much-delayed build then they could not be more wrong. I’ve told them on several occasions that a house is only built once and if mistakes occur during the build they will have to be rectified before continuing and not left to be bodged once the house is completed.

I don’t think that it’s got through, unfortunately, but it doesn’t help me to get my house built in a timely way and according to the requirements that were set out and agreed when the contract was signed. I stated in my (registered) letter that I sent to the above-mentioned intermediary, that all I am asking for is that I get the house that I ordered and was agreed when the contract was signed, no more, no less. I think that’s perfectly reasonable, don’t you?