Sub-standard workmanship

Hi all I’m new to this site and would love some feedback regarding English so called “builders” over here in France.

We called an English builder through the FindaTradeinFrance.com to come and quote for a new roof for our renovation project as we do not speak good French at all yet! What a mistake we made! Didn’t start off well. He didn’t turn up for the quotation appointment. He then rearranged the appt. and got lost trying to find us and let us down again! He came the next day! His start date to carry out the works was the back in September 2013 when we purchased the property as the roof was leaking like a sieve! Eventually he started in November! As we do not live here full time yet we were assured of photos of the works being carried out. We had to chase him many times for photos. We got some eventually! Scaffolding went up in December 2013! Anyway to cut a very long story short we are here at the property now in October 2014 and we are still waiting for him to complete a snagging list which he been back twice maybe since his completion of the roof. We have had many leaks on the roof to the boiler house still now and many problems with his roof tiling and guttering. He even used the original tiles from the roof on the new roofs even though we were quoted for a complete new roof on the main house and boiler room. Attached photos of the rubble, broken tiles, wood that he left where they fell! He did not take any rubbish away with him including a broken coffee flask! We have certainly learnt our lesson and in the future will not be employing any more English builders here in France! We also did not receive a desenale!

This man does not deserve to be working in France!

Hello Lynn, seems we started very similar discussions within a few hours of eachother. There are a lot of ham-fisted charlatans preying on the ex-pat market's reluctance to engage with French artisans, and the usual 'Due Dilligence' in researching companies with which to do business is essential (references / examples of similar work / insurance cover etc)....... but as you'll see from our experience - this doesn't protect you from one rogue / unsupervised employee who can make a complete lash-up of the whole project in very short order.

I'm sure Nick will have seen client's projects get into difficulty / delay due to just one defective element which can be very hard to guard against. For domestic scale projects, insisting on independent professional sign-off for staged payments / Dispute Resolution / Arbitration procedures seems top heavy, but I'm beginning to wonder......

I should add that there are many fine ex-pat tradesmen and working with them can be a relief.... these companies are extremely irritated by the 'cowboys' who damage the British reputation....but until we can find a way to openly 'blacklist' the rogues (without getting into legal trouble) - it's back to basics: proceed with caution.

Hope your issue resolves itself satisfactorily; ours? Well, the company is doing its best to find a solution.

Perhaps you might tell any English speaking newbies that the average French firm of couvreurs will strip and relay the roof of a big five bedroomed house in two to three days and for the most part they don't use scaffolding!

Thanks both for your advice that we have taken onboard.

Yes Nick unfortunately we have as we had to make stage payments as the work progressed and not being in the country didn’t help! We have only held back €300. We have had some good advice from another English sparky here who says did we get a desenale? We did not get one and it was never mentioned by him. We have contacted him on this most recent visit to our house now and he has assured us that he will be back to make the necessary snags right, but as of today he hasn’t surfaced! Insurance wasn’t mentioned by him either!

What a total mess. The guy certainly has no right to call himself a builder nor yet a couvreur. You say he didn't have a décennale. Do you have assurance juridique on your home insurance? I certainly wouldn't pay and would write to him saying that the work is substandard and you will not pay until the work is corrected to the standard expected of an artisan in France and send the letter by "lettre recommandé avec avis de reception"

Have you paid? - It's a serious question and I hope you have not paid, that way you still have some hope of getting him back to correct the issue.

If you have paid, is the builder insured, and can you make a claim against his insurance?

Having looked at his work though, I would severely doubt that he has insurance.