Builder refusing to hand over keys

F

firsttimebuy

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I was hoping to get advice on this. Basically we sent our closing cheque to the builders solicitors yesterday and were hoping to get the keys today but the builder is refusing to hand them over. We got some extra work done on the house which totalled about €1,000 but it was terrible workmanship and we told the builder this ages ago. We are not going to pay them for this work as we are going to have to get somebody else in to rectify the job at our own expense. Now the builder won't hand over the keys even though he has been paid in total for the house just not the extras. Can he legally do this?

Also if we pay the money just so we can get the keys could we then persue them through the small claims court to get it back?
 
Yeah but surely she knows what the legalities are and can apprise you of these and your options!?
 
Was the additional work agreed as between the solicitors or between you and the builder directly? My point being that if you have satisfied the terms of the original contract then you should be allowed to move in.

That doesn't solve the practical difficulty of course as the builder is being..well..a builder....

you could pay the money without prejudice and then try and get it back, a small claims judge would be sympathetic i think.

Your solicitor should be threatening to sue for specific performance and saying that they will seek a mandatory injunction. Sledgehammer, particularly small nut.
 
Doesnt sound like you have a particularly useful solicitor there:eek: Ask the builder to point out in writing where in your contract it says you should pay him for work done before you get the keys of your property. Surely if you have fulfilled every legal obligation, he is by rights in illegal possession of the keys to your property. I got a little bit of extra work carried out before i moved into my place and i havent paid the builders yet. There was no issue of payment up front or anything like that!
 
If you own the house (or your bank owns it and you rent it off them ;-) ) then what is to stop you drilling the lock to break in? Only down side is you'll be out the price of a few locks.
 
I agree with a previous post.

It is highly unlikely that your contract for sale of the house was amended to inlcuded any provision for these extar works.

In this case they are with holding your keys illegally.

The extra work is a seperate contract to be resolved on its own merits.

Yes your solicitor seems completely incompetent based on the above also.
 
The attached paragraph is in all bog standard building agreements, the employer being the purchaser:

Extras & Variations
(d) If the Employer and the Contractor shall agree that any additional or alternative work shall be done, the Contractor shall carry out the same in a good substantial and workmanlike manner and the Employer shall if the Contractor so requires pay for the work before execution.

So, if the work is not adequate, get your snagger to submit his opinion.
 
Lads - before you go hammering the solicitor for being crap, remember

A. You have only a small part of the story.
B. You don't know who said what to whom.

The works were obviously going to be an issue so why did the purchasers pay over any money until the question of who was going to pay for/fix shoddy works was resolved? Perhaps the purchasers never told the solicitor?

Juke/Clubamn make the most sense on the previous posters.

Monkeyboy is wrong, wrong, wrong. On every point.

Ignore xavier. That advice is not going to advance anything.

Swordshead appears to have had a better experience with the builder but each case is on its own merits.

mf
 
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