I wanted to get my house build by a builder. I enquired with the architect and he offered his own service for building up the house.
Just because that architect (I'll use word builder here onwards) is one of our distant relative, we didn't go for any paperwork.
he declared that he will charge Rs 800/Sq ft for slab area. The total area of plot was 207 Sq yards. Slab area came out to be around 1550 Sq ft. Thus I was supposed to pay him around 12.40 lakhs for construction which included
- Building, Doors + Windows, Sanitary work, Paint, Kitchen (Simple), Bath fittings, Main Gate etc and finally approved completion report from govt authorities.
When half work was done; Only building was up with some flooring + Main Gate was in place, he changed his track and starting playing foul with us. By this time I had paid him around 11 lacs for which I have receipts hand written by him only.
Bad quality material was used in the construction of house, due to which there are many cracks in the building already. No walls are properly straight and flooring in rooms is not done properly either.
In the beginning of Oct'09, which was 5 months after he started the work (Mar'09), he said that he had asked rate of Rs 800/Sq Ft for the WHOLE plot area.
Since then we have been trying to resolve the issue with the mediator relatives, but he started inflating his expenditure so that he doesn't need to pay back the money.
Recently we asked mediators to help us end the contract with him, so that we can get the rest of work done by someone else. He sent us detailed expenditure on a plane piece of paper where he inflated all his expenditure to add it to more than 13 lacs. Basically his intentions were not to pay back us anything.
While inflating he didn't really think much and he showed very high quantities of material used in construction so far. I showed this to another builder and he told us that if we bring him to court he will fail to prove that in a small plot like this, how did he use so much of quantities of material.
Though our intention is not to get him to court, because we had no paper work done. All we have with us is
- Receipts of money received by him
- Detailed descripttion of materials used (Though it is not signed, but handwriting of this and receipts is the same)
Still we have sent him a lawyer's notice mentioning all possible reasons to sue him and asking him to return the money back.
My questions are:
1. What steps can he take from here?
2. Is there any other simpler way to get the money back?
Thanks in Advance,
Vikram
