good builders...

[active8]

A bit embarrassing but.......................

Due to some restaints from my bank I am going to have to stop the work at my house for a while which means i am going to tell the builders they are to stop until further notice... they are good builders and they will be a bit pee'd off when I tell them as they are booked with me for another two to three months...so if anyone wants a couple of great builders that dont yet know they are available now...I can strongly recomend them and so can a lot of other people... I cant advertise on here so any interested parties please PM me and I will pass on the details. Dept 24 and close by.

Heres hoping I can soften the blow....

A8

[Bastet]

I think it's bad enough that you've created this situation, albeit with your banks help, but to then delay giving your builders all the facts as soon as you know them just makes it worse.

Be honest & up front with them - they could well have other works they can pull forward with enough notice from you, but if you leave telling them until the last minute they'll be unemployed for a week or two & looking to you for recompense and reasonably so! It's not your place to soften the blow or choose their clients for them.

[montagrier]

bastet...have you ever thought of taking up preaching? You would be good at it I am sure.

monti

www.renovations24dordogne.com

[Chezstevens]

I happen to agree with Bastet. Your have entered a contract with the builder - funds should be in place. Sometimes our funds have spent 18 months earning interest before the builders do the work at the devis price. Any books would have told you this. You need to inform builder soonest before he loses out. If you are lucky he will understand - if you are not, any future works will attract a 50% charge upfront as the word gets around.

[Just Katie]

Hi Active8 (oh I get it now[:)])

As usual we are off topic and for once it's not my fault. You have not disclosed enough info for anyone to judge.  There may be unforseen works who knows?

Anyway, even if you have got your sums wrong it is pretty decent of you to tell them and worry about getting replacement work.

Sadly many builders get stung by 'clients' who let the job ride, then pick holes and don't pay up.

I hope it goes well for you anyway!

Oooops and your builders.

[Heath]

I hope you can get them back when you're ready!

Whereabouts in 24. what do they do and I assume they are legal and insured - I'm a contractor and currently looking for 'macons'.

[Dick Smith]

My son is a builder and he has a name for people who agree estimates when they can't pay for them - and you expect us to be on your side! Why do you think so many Brits have to put money up front nowadays?

[Alane]

We know nothing about the circumstances that have caused this person to have to lay off his builders, a dozen scenarios that might make a previously solvent individual suddenly lacking cash spring to mind,  and yet people are ready to pass judgement on him even though he is trying to do something to help the builders concerned.

Plenty of people would just have kept making excuses for non payment to get as much work done as possible before making the builder wait for their money.

Active8 - I hope that you find someone to take on the builders.

 

[sharkhunter]

Alane, i agree with you. There could indeed be several reasons for the cash to go belly up!! To be fair as well i think that a reserve fund should have been in place for this event and the builders should have been warned as soon as this fund was in danger of being breached.

 By the same token, the customer is not just binning his builders, which some do, at least he is actively trying to make amends and finding employment for them perhaps by way of apology.

Has anyone asked if he has spoken to his builders since the posting to see how things went?? i also noticed that he has made a few postings, nice welcome to the forum.

And in answer to Dicks quote, i too am in the building trade and its common practice for customers to pay up front both in France and the UK. Thru experience i have lost money buying materials and not getting paid, this in turn results in asking the customer to either open an account with a builders merchants or paying up front for some material costs and having stage payments from there on, Hugh.

To lose time is nothing, to lose your own cash is hard to swalllow.

[Bastet]

I'm sorry I thought this was a forum where people post & expect others to reply with their opinions and offer advice where needed. Which is what I did.  How does that make me a preacher? How is your comment in anyway constructive?

From your signature link it looks like you run a company involved in the construction industry (your home page menu links weren't working when I visited your web-site to see the type of services you offer).Would you not be seriously miffed if a customer had contracted to employ you for 3 months, without ensuring they had funds in place to finance the project? I realise occasionally life throws up some nasty surprises, which can throw a spanner in the best of plans, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be honest and straight with people.

[Bobc]

As ever on this Forum, an interesting thread:

"A bit embarrassing but.......................

Due to some restaints from my bank I am going to have to stop the work

at my house for a while which means i am going to tell the builders

they are to stop until further notice... they are good builders and

they will be a bit pee'd off when I tell them as they are booked with

me for another two to three months...so if anyone wants a couple of

great builders that dont yet know they are available now...I can

strongly recomend them and so can a lot of other people... I cant

advertise on here so any interested parties please PM me and I will

pass on the details. Dept 24 and close by.

Heres hoping I can soften the blow....

A8"

From an artisans point of view you would not be my most popular client.

Presumably your financial problems have been brewing for a while and

have not happened overnight.

On the other hand, if your builders are any good and French registered

then they will have future work that they can bring forward. Given that

the French holiday season is almost upon us, it may not be the end of

the world.

As others have said, your main problem may be getting your original builders, or any others, back to do any work for you.

As an aside, if you have signed devis with these builders (assuming

that they are registered in France) then they could sue you under the

French legal system.

Regards,

Bob Clarke

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/grindoux

[tj]

A8

bet you wish you hadnt posted now :)

no sympathy here as usual,

what you should have done maybe was keep quiet, have them finish the work, not pay them, and let them sue you , hahaha

[Bobc]

"Alane, i agree with you. There could indeed be several reasons for the

cash to go belly up!! To be fair as well i think that a reserve fund

should have been in place for this event and the builders should have

been warned as soon as this fund was in danger of being breached.

 By the same token, the customer is not just binning his builders,

which some do, at least he is actively trying to make amends and

finding employment for them perhaps by way of apology.

Has anyone asked if he has spoken to his builders since the posting to

see how things went?? i also noticed that he has made a few postings,

nice welcome to the forum.

And in answer to Dicks quote, i too am in the building trade and its

common practice for customers to pay up front both in France and the

UK. Thru experience i have lost money buying materials and not getting

paid, this in turn results in asking the customer to either open an

account with a builders merchants or paying up front for some material

costs and having stage payments from there on, Hugh.

To lose time is nothing, to lose your own cash is hard to swalllow.

www.renovations24dordogne.com"

I am a bit puzzled by your postings.

We have replies by two people with different aliases but with the same website link, www.renovations24dordogne.com.

This site has a very smart front page but none of the links work and

the page is lacking in company details, Siret/TVA numbers, etc.

If you are a registered French enterprise, why would you want clients

to open an account at a builders merchants for materials. They will end

up paying the full rate of TVA for projects which qualify for the

reduced rate of 5,5% had you purchased and supplied the materials.

In our area, the only ‘artisans’ who do this are the ‘gardeners’ who are carrying out building work on the black.

Regards,

Bob Clarke

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/grindoux

[Cassis]

I don't think anyone of us should judge the original poster without knowing the reasons for the funding going belly up or how long the problem has been brewing and whether they could have given earlier notice to the builders.  If the proper funding was never in place then it's fair to have a dig.  But we don't know the circs and we don't know that the poster has 'created this situation' or whether they are a victim of circumstance.  Go easy! 

[sharkhunter]

Bob, i take it you are infering something here with your post direction. The fact of the matter is the site is being set up for me by a web site manager and is a recent acquisition  to help me find work. The rest of the links and Siret numbers will be on shortly, i'm sure you will be glad to hear, and recent work completed and on going work will be there too, along with attestations from previous clients, whom are very happy to give support and welcomed the opportunity to have their photo taken for publication on our site. The pictures will show us on site working with the customer there too and also the finished project.

Next, if you read my posting you will see that i mentioned the UK too, and its possible that i was infering that customers open accounts with merchants there, however i was not. I was talking about customers in France. Not all Artisans are registered for TVA, me personally, i am a micro enterprise just starting off and hoping to step up a regime when i can get enough work, re web site!!! I am sure you must be aware that as a micro i have a ceiling to my earnings and if i buy materials then charge them back then this will be taken into account for my earnings.

And to your next 'accusation' , i am a joiner, not a 'gardener' and do not like the inference on your part. I am also registered by the chambre de metiers, here is my siret number please please check it out, i insist  483148961. From this you will see that i do not work on the black and am in fact fully registered. Perhaps you should move from ' your area ' if it is that badly infested with gardeners working on the black

And finally, you typed, ' i am a bit puzzled by your postings ' firstly i posted only once so no need for postingS and second, the reason there are two different people with different aliases is because  there are two different people with two different aliases. The secret is that we both own the web site and both offer our services on it, or will do when it is up and running and we both offer our opinions on this forum and as such should not be held suspect by anyone, far less someone who doesn't know us from Adam.

No apology necessary, i'm sure you acted in good faith, Hugh.

[Heath]

You are required to show your Siret no. on all advertising including websites. I would suggest that you leave the link off your posts until the site is complete and legal.

I cannot see that for someone sourcing their own work that a micro-entreprise is viable. The ceiling on earnings is 27500 Euros which is less than 600 a week and the cotisations are the same as a TVA registered business. If you have to buy tools and run vehicles it makes a lot more sense to be able to claim the TVA back. You would probably need an accountant but at least you don't have to worry about the ceiling and what you do with the extra!

Customers employing micro-entreprises should be aware that whilst they benefit from no TVA on labour they are paying the full amount on materials, whereas in many cases (most renovations), if they use a TVA registered company they will pay TVA at the reduced rate of 5.5% on labour and materials. From the point of view of CGT, if you supply the materials to your builder they won't appear on his invoice so you won't be able to deduct them from the CGT bill if you sell.

[Chezstevens]

Several posters state that it is normal to pay upfront. No it is not - the only builder we had in France that demanded 30% upfront went bust 3 months after our work was done owing money to the french taxman. All our artisans have been french. All our other artisans have been paid at the end of the job; or, if a large job (£30K plus) have had stage payments after the work has been done, and supported by photos.

[Dick Smith]

Hugh - when you get your website designer to finish your site get him to change 'testamonials' to 'testimonials'.

[sharkhunter]

Dick, its all in  hand, i gave him the low down last week at a meeting, Hugh.

To the poster who mentioned about web sites needing siret no's to be legal, apologies for not taking note of your name, i didn't realise this to be fact and shall have words with web designer asap, thank you, hugh.

[Dick Smith]

Sorry, Hugh, I didn't know that.

[Miki]

[quote] You are required to show your Siret no. on all advertising including

websites. I would suggest that you leave the link off your posts until

the site is complete and legal.[/quote]

Although I would agree that running a building company on a micro

enterprise is fraught with problems and really not viable for any 

serious company, I would like to know where it states that one must show SIRET numbers on websites and in adverts to be legal ?

Sure a certain French based monthly paper asks for them but take a look

through the local rags etc. I can take a look through the weekly freebies 

in our part of Brittany and I rarely, if ever, see any of the Artisans

adverts offering their Siret details and as for the rest of the

enterprises within, again, nothing !

If it is written somewhere, the law could sure make a few quid from our

3 local rags and the Artisans etc and our local national paper

as well shows very few Siret numbers !

So Heath, can you elucidate further ?

[Nick Trollope]

[quote user="Heath"]

You are required to show your Siret no. on all advertising including websites. I would suggest that you leave the link off your posts until the site is complete and legal.

[/quote]

Sorry, this isn't true.

The only paperwork that must carry a SIRET (or SIREN) number is "official" (invoices, devis & the like). Advertising (in any form) does not need it, although some publications insist on it (quite rightly, too).

In this day and age, anyone who leaves their SIRET no off a website deliberately is being a bit of a plonker, IMHO, but he/she can't be compelled to include it.

 

[Heath]

[quote user="nicktrollope"][quote user="Heath"]

You are required to show your Siret no. on all advertising including websites. I would suggest that you leave the link off your posts until the site is complete and legal.

[/quote]

Sorry, this isn't true.

The only paperwork that must carry a SIRET (or SIREN) number is "official" (invoices, devis & the like). Advertising (in any form) does not need it, although some publications insist on it (quite rightly, too).

In this day and age, anyone who leaves their SIRET no off a website deliberately is being a bit of a plonker, IMHO, but he/she can't be compelled to include it.

 

[/quote]

Fair enough, a matter of legality is probably not the case but it is certainly strongly recommended and, as you say, you wouldn't want to leave it off the front page of a website for fear of someone thinking you may be operating illegally - heaven forbid, I could list quite a few

[active8]

Sorry its my mistake...I thought I had posted this on living france seems it went astray and went to the womens institute instead...

What really happened was my bank told me my funds that were tied up long term would be released on the 1st Aug when in fact they cocked up and it will not be released until 1st Sept...Not infact my cock up...

While you women were nagging the world with what other people should and should not do...I found a job for the builders and then they are coming back here and then after they finish here they are going on to another job that came up due to my hard work in getting this sorted...My builders are very happy, very nice and human.

Why cant people just answer the question... surely some of you need to find a hobby or something... living in france didnt quite work for you cos you brought so much of your British angst and noseyness with you... My only saving grace was that Val 2 didnt come on and tell me how hard it is to get work and make ends meet legally in france...

for those who have been nice...thank you.

A8... worried about some members on this forum.

[Nick Trollope]

Then perhaps you should be more forthcoming with the truth, in the first place. Or get used to the brickbats.

I, for one am suprised by this drivel, my posting was factual, to the point and didn't mention you (perhaps thats the problem?). If I was concerned about your animus, then I might throw my arms up in horror and run away. As it happens, I ain't.