Basement Services

Emil (who owns Basement Services) has helped us renovate two separate homes over the course of six years in North London.The first project (basement and kitchen extension) generally went well and the quality of work was good, although we did have some damp issues that, at first, he refused to rectify (but then ultimately did).On the second project, he did phase 1 (complete refurb of top floors, changing layout, installing 3 bathrooms), again, generally well. Then we decided to go with another firm to do phase 2 (ground floor renovation and basement extension). Unfortunately it seems Emil didn't take kindly to this, and has now really let us down.Specifically, he has refused to return to fix two leaking showers, instead sending me a long rambling message claiming that I disrespected his men and work (I didn't), underpaid him (I didn't), didn't explain which tiles to use (we did, his tiler just used the wrong ones so we had to buy more at our cost), and saying that he wasn't willing to pay money out of his own pocket to correct the problems with his work. He also asked me not to contact him again(!). He knows we have a 2yo daughter and another on the way within the next couple of weeks, and I made it very clear that not being able to use two bathrooms has been really difficult for us. I gave him over a month to correct the problem before giving up and going elsewhere. He ultimately suggested I contact his men directly to see if they'd be willing to come back in their own time and, unsurprisingly, they weren't particularly keen to do so.It's a real shame, because Emil's work is generally good and reasonably priced, he knows what he's doing, and I thought we had a good working relationship.My only other comment is that I sometimes found it difficult to work with Emil - he's quick to complain about relatively minor issues (e.g. about other contractors getting in the way or creating mess, or his men needing to move things around to make space) and even quicker to charge extras, some of which reflect genuine agreed additional work, which is obviously fine, but others were frankly petty - we spent several unpleasant hours discussing and negotiating these extras over the course of the two projects. This is ultimately why I chose to to go with another builder with more of a can do" attitude for the remaining work