A trader failing to complete agreed work

When a trader stops before completing agreed work, the first question is what remains outstanding and when it should have been done. A consumer service may have an agreed completion date or be subject to a reasonable-time requirement. ^[1]

Separate delay from abandonment

List completed stages, unfinished items and any explanations for absence. Keep promised return dates, requests for access and messages about missing materials. Explain changes requested by the customer that may have affected the programme.

Reconcile payments with the agreed stages. An advance payment may not correspond to the value of work actually delivered, but that difference needs evidence rather than an estimate made in anger.

Give the next communication a clear purpose

Ask the trader to confirm whether and when the work will resume. Obtain advice before giving a final deadline, terminating or engaging someone else, particularly where the trader alleges unpaid sums.

Defective building work may exist alongside non-completion. Service deposits concerns recovery of advance money. Keep replacement quotations itemised so completion costs can be distinguished from upgrades or work outside the original agreement. That distinction matters when calculating a proposed claim.

Describe the remaining job in concrete stages List what the trader promised to deliver and mark which elements are complete, partly complete or untouched. Use the agreed scope and authorised variations as the reference. A statement that the project is only half finished can hide disagreement about how much of the difficult work has already been done. For a fitted room, distinguish structural preparation, installation, connection, finishing and certification where relevant. Photographs and dated progress messages can help an adviser understand the state of each stage when attendance stopped.

Identify dependencies that may explain the pause. Missing materials, access restrictions, another trade's work or a customer decision can affect the programme. Preserve the messages showing who was expected to resolve each issue and when. Do not assume every absence means abandonment, but do not treat an indefinite promise to return as a workable completion plan either. The useful question is what prevents the next agreed task from happening and whether the trader has given a credible explanation supported by the actual project history.

Check what was promised about completion Locate any fixed completion date, estimated period or statement about a date being particularly important. Show when that information was communicated and whether later events changed the arrangement. A consumer service without an agreed time may be subject to a reasonable-time requirement, but reasonableness depends on the service and circumstances. Business Companion's services guidance makes that distinction. Provide the adviser with the original timing promise and later exchanges instead of calculating delay solely from the first day somebody attended the property. [1]

Explain the practical effect of the delay with specific information. The unfinished work may prevent a room being used, leave belongings in storage or require a separate appointment to be postponed. Keep receipts for expenditure said to result from the delay and identify alternatives considered. Avoid adding every inconvenience to a monetary demand without a basis. Some consequences may support urgency or a negotiated solution even where recoverable loss requires closer assessment of causation, foreseeability and the response reasonably taken by the customer.

Ask for a completion proposal that can be checked Request confirmation of whether the trader intends to resume, the proposed dates and the tasks to be completed on each visit. Ask how outstanding materials or access issues will be resolved. If the answer depends on another person's attendance, seek a coordinated proposal rather than separate assurances that each trade will appear sometime next week. Record the response and any missed commitment. A dated programme gives both sides something concrete to assess and can help distinguish a recoverable scheduling problem from continued failure to perform.

Reconcile payments against the contractual schedule before deciding how to respond to a demand for more money. A stage payment may be tied to an event rather than a percentage of visible work. Identify the trigger and whether it occurred. If the trader says non-payment caused the pause, preserve the demand and your explanation. Obtain advice where payment rights and performance are disputed together, rather than assuming that either all remaining money must be paid immediately or every outstanding obligation can safely be suspended.

Prepare for a change of contractor carefully Before setting a final deadline or ending the arrangement, have the contract, delay history and proposed communication assessed where necessary. The appropriate step depends on the seriousness of the failure and the legal basis relied on. Ask a potential replacement contractor to quote for the actual unfinished scope separately from correcting defects or adding new work. Identify any materials already on site and questions about their ownership. A replacement should not begin from a vague instruction that makes the resulting cost impossible to compare with the original agreement.

If a replacement is properly engaged, record the condition at handover and the work subsequently required. Keep keys, access arrangements and relevant technical documents organised so the project can be completed safely and efficiently. Maintain separate figures for the original price, amounts paid, unfinished work and reasonable additional expenditure being claimed. Continue preserving the first trader's communications, including any offer to resume. The eventual complaint or claim should explain both why the original performance failed and why the chosen next step was a reasonable response to that specific failure.