problems with our builder and my neighbour-help!

dipsy

New Member
May 17, 2010
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We had a loft conversion done in September and all went well-until now.

we had a damp patch on the new wall and got the builder in to have a look. They explained the what needed to be done and one of the things were a few broken slates on next doors roof whilst they were up there.
They also suggested we tell our neighbour that at some stage she would need to get the cement fillets redone on her own roof.

Now, we have a fantastic relationship with her so I asked the builder if they would do it whilst they were up on the roof if my neighbour wanted. They agreed and said the cost would be £500.

I spoke to her and told her and suggested that she may want to get her own roofers to have a look as well as it was a lot of money. I forgot to tell her about the slates as the builder had mentioned it in passing.

she has since got two roofers in and they have both told her about the broken slates and that her cement fillets were fine. and that our builders had left debris in her gutters.

When she told my dh he apologized and promised to get it all fixed asap.

few days later we got a letter saying she wanted to use her own roofer as she did not trust our builder and that we would have to pay!

we asked to sit down over a cup of coffee and said that in the first instance we would like the opportunity to fix the work and if an assessment by her roofer showed that it was not to standard then we would agree to her using him and we would sort it.she finally agreed but has served us yet another letter!

At the end of the day, our builder has agreed to fix it at no cost as it was his problem, but she is not budging as she feels the builder should have told her about the broken slates.

I have said sorry to her so many times and tried to make her see that i cant speak on his behalf but as a working mum with a 4 and 5 year old, i simply forgot to tell her.

she is holding that against us and is now refusing access to her roof -which means our roof cant get repaired.

where do we stand?we have offered to fix everything in the first instance which would not cost us anything. we have offered to pay for her own roofer if she is not happy with the works and feel we have been very reasonable.
can anyone advise?

:(