how do we get the builder to speed things up?

Just wondering if anyone has any advice.

We bought a house in a new development this time last year. We were told it would be ready for Christmas but it only started being built at the start of December. Since then we've been told every month, i.e in October we were told it would be ready in March, December we were told April and so on and so on.

The house is fully built, and all that's left to do inside is the kitchen and the painting(both included in the price). Outside there's the tarmaccing athe front and the lawn seeding at the back and then the connecting of the services.

The foreman told us last week that "hopefully" it would ready by the builders holidays at the end of july but i don't like that word "hopefully". Surely it can't take another 6 weeks to do those few bits. He's always been very pleasant and we've always been very pleasant but I'm getting really frustrated now. How do we move things along faster or do we have just have to accept and wait.

Apologies for the long rambling thread but if anyone has any advice i'd really appreciate it.

oh that sounds so familiar although we were getting an extension not a new house, being told "it'lll be ready next week" for months by someone very pleasant until eventually you realise that the person is lying to you and you start seeing them as a little less pleasant!


I don't know what you do as builders seem to have ultimate control over these things unless you've a preexisting contract that reduces the amount they get paid if they go overschedule - but maybe someone else can help. I tried being such a pest that they just wanted to get rid of me but thats not great for your own blood presure and I think they're largely immune to it. I do sympathise though!

Jeez!!! How long is a piece of string

I do not know 1 person that has not had this problem but I know that's not much help. I don't know what way you have made payment arrangements with the builder, but I would hope it is staged and you were only paying up after each particular section was finished. If so, whilst I know you say he's very nice etc. you are going to have to get tough.

My builder was very nice, but like you, something that was meant to take 3 months went to 6 months. I got thick one day when he asked me for money yet again, when all he had done since the last time he'd received any money from me was order and hang the wrong doors. I said very calmly, "look this was supposed to be finished months ago and whilst at the time I gave it 1 month to go overdue, I never expected it to go on this length. I will pay you everything you are owed, but you are getting no more money from me until the cement floor is in at which stage I will give you another €5k and when the outside is pebble dashed & the gutters up I'll give you a further €10k and so forth." He got so mad and I saw another side completely, but I just replied, that I had no problem paying him and I was very satisfied with his work to date, but the length of time it was taking was unacceptable and you can get as thick as you like now, but I see this as my only option to get you to finish up quickly now. He didn't speak to me hardly for a couple of days, but he stayed on site and I paid him exactly as I said. He probably thought that I was the biggest b on the planet, but I never hired him to be my best buddy anyway, so I didn't care. I then also kept back €2k at the very end to make sure he came back and finished all the little things after the surveyor did his report. However, even though I wasn't happy with the paths outside (all lumps of cement stuck to it), I just gave it to him anyhow cos I figured I wasn't going to get much further and I just wanted it finished with.

When in the end he saw how willing I was to give him his money as I had stated, (even giving him cash & trusting him that he would not do me) he knew I was not trying to pull a fast one, that I had just used the best method available to me, to get him finished, and he was fine with it.

This is very long winded I know, but I hope it helps. Chin up, hard to believe now, but you will get there in the end.

Thanks TDON and Toby,

It's not stage payments, just paid the 10% Deposit and balance on completion. i think i'll give him a call tomorrow and just try and push the point a little. he strikes me as the type who'd be fairly immune to the pressure people put on him and i'm not sure either me or the other half are pushy enough to get really tough with him. hmmm, might get my dad on him, that could be another story altogether, LOL.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice.

You can call etc. but in reality there isn't much you can do.