If your builder goes bust or walks off the job

If your builder stops turning up, act on three things the same week: secure the site, get the work done so far recorded and valued, and find out whether the part-built house is still insured. Then take legal advice before you end the contract or bring anyone else in. Most of the money lost in these cases is lost through paying ahead of the work, so the best protection is set up before you sign.

Two different problems

A builder can walk off the job: a dispute about money or variations, a better-paying contract elsewhere, illness or simply overcommitment. The business still exists and you can still hold it to the contract.

Or the builder’s business can fail. A company may go into liquidation, receivership or examinership; a sole trader may stop trading or become insolvent. Once a liquidator or receiver is confirmed as appointed, you deal with them rather than the builder. In examinership an examiner is trying to rescue the company, so the aim is different, and a sole trader who stops work has no such appointee. Your chances of recovering money depend on what is left.

Early on you may not know which it is. A builder who has stopped answering the phone may be in financial trouble. Search the company on the Companies Registration Office (CRO) register: check its status and its filings for any appointment of a liquidator, receiver or examiner. A receiver’s appointment can be filed while the company’s status still reads Normal, so look at the filing details and not only the status.

The first week: secure, record, stop paying

1. Secure the site. Lock or fence it, put away anything portable and make sure nobody can fall into open trenches or from scaffolding. An abandoned site still has hazards, and you own the land.
2. Photograph and video everything, dated: each room, the roof, openings, materials stacked on site, and the scaffold and plant still there.
3. Get the work valued. Ask your architect, engineer or quantity surveyor to inspect and record what was completed, what is defective, and what it is worth under the contract. That valuation is your evidence for every later step: what you owe or are owed, the insurance position, the lender and the new builder’s price.
4. Stop further payments. Don’t pay an outstanding invoice or a “final” request until the valuation is done and you have advice.
5. Write to the builder. Set out the facts: when work stopped, what the contract requires, and a reasonable date to return. Send it by email and post. If a liquidator or receiver has been confirmed as appointed, write to them instead.
6. Read your contract’s termination clause. Most standard building contracts set out when either side may end the contract, what notice is needed and how the final account is worked out. Terminating the wrong way can turn you into the party in breach, so get your solicitor to confirm the procedure before you send a termination notice.

Leave the builder’s plant, scaffolding and stacked materials where they are for now. Materials not yet built into the house may belong to an unpaid supplier under their terms of sale, or form part of what a liquidator collects. Record them, and ask your solicitor before you move, use or sell any of them.

The insurance gap

This is the risk people miss. If your builder arranged the contract works and public liability cover, as many main contractors do, that cover was arranged for their contract and their operations. Once they leave, it may stop applying to your site, or end altogether if the business fails. The part-built house, any materials you have paid for and your liability to visitors may then have no cover.

Do this the same week:

• Ask the builder’s insurer or broker, in writing, whether the policy still covers your works and for how long. You may not get an answer quickly, so don’t wait for it.
• Ask your own insurer or broker about cover for the works and site as they stand, and about public liability while nobody is working there. Tell them the house is part-built, unoccupied and that the builder has left. A policy that doesn’t know the facts may not pay.
• Plan cover for the restart. If you will finish the house by hiring trades directly, you are taking on the checks a main contractor did. Our guide to insurance when you project manage explains what to ask each trade. If a new main contractor takes over, confirm whose policy covers the works from day one, and that it includes the work already done, not just their own.
• Check any structural defects cover. If you arranged or were relying on a latent defects policy tied to the builder, ask the provider whether a change of builder affects it and whether inspections need to be repeated. See structural defects cover.

A part-built house with no roof, or with open window openings, is exposed to weather and theft. Agree temporary weatherproofing with your engineer and tell your insurer what has been done.

Then use What cover do I need? to make a checklist for the build as it is now, with the option to ask for an insurance callback.

Your lender

Tell your lender as soon as work stops. A self-build mortgage is released in stages, each usually against a certificate from your architect or engineer, and the lender will want to know how the house will be finished within the approved budget. Expect to show the valuation of work done, the price for finishing it and evidence of insurance. A higher price to finish the house is a common gap after a builder failure. Our guides to staged drawdown and funding a gap in the build cover what lenders ask for and where the shortfall can come from.

Restarting the build

Choose how to finish

You can retender the remaining work to a new main contractor, or finish it yourself by hiring trades. A new builder will price the risk of taking over someone else’s work, including defects they didn’t create, so expect a higher rate than the original tender for the same scope. Give them the valuation, photos and drawings so they price the real position. The project manage or hire a main contractor guide covers the trade-offs.

Building control

If you change the builder after submitting your commencement notice, you must notify the building control authority within 14 days, with the new notice of assignment of the builder. On the opt-in route, send the builder’s undertaking with it, and if your assigned certifier also changes, the certifier’s notice and undertaking too. If you opted out of statutory certification (S.I. 365/2015, Article 6), the builder’s undertaking and assigned-certifier documents do not apply, but you still assign the builder, so check with your building control authority what the update needs. Ask your assigned certifier to inspect and record the work done before the new builder covers anything up. See the commencement notice guide and assigned certifier explained.

Health and safety appointments

As the client, you must appoint a project supervisor for the construction stage. Often that was the builder. If so, appoint a replacement in writing before anyone restarts work on site. The Health and Safety Authority’s guidance for home owners explains the client’s duties.

Getting money back

What you can recover depends on what you paid for and whether the business still exists.

• The builder still trades. You can claim the extra cost of finishing the work, and any overpayment, under the contract. Your engineer’s valuation is the starting point. Many disputes settle once both sides see an independent figure. Legal costs can exceed the sum in dispute, so take advice on whether it is worth pursuing.
• The company is in liquidation. A consumer owed money is usually an unsecured creditor. Secured and preferential creditors, such as banks, Revenue and employees, are paid first, so you may recover only part of your claim or nothing. Write to the liquidator with your contract, payments and the valuation. The CRO register gives the liquidator’s details.
• You paid a deposit by card. Ask your card provider about a chargeback, which can reverse a payment for services not delivered, including where a business has stopped trading. It is a card-scheme process, not a legal right, and providers set time limits, often 90 to 180 days from the payment or the agreed delivery date. Complain to the business in writing first; you usually need to before your bank will act. Bank transfers and cash have no equivalent.
• Small claims. The District Court’s small claims procedure handles consumer claims of up to €2,000 against a business, for a €25 fee. Most building disputes are larger.

Adjudication under the Construction Contracts Act 2013 is a fast route for payment disputes, but it excludes a contract for a house of no more than 200 square metres that one of the parties lives in or intends to live in. Many self-builds fall inside that exclusion. Your own contract may still have a dispute procedure, such as conciliation or arbitration.

Before you sign: limit what you can lose

You can’t make a builder failure impossible, but you can limit how much it costs you.

• Check the company. Search the CRO register for its status, its filed accounts and its directors. A company that has not filed accounts on time is a warning sign.
• Check registration and references. The Construction Industry Register Ireland (CIRI), which the industry has run on a voluntary basis since 2014, now operates as the Voluntary Construction Register. A statutory register under the Regulation of Providers of Building Works Act 2022 is expected to become mandatory for builders from 2027. Ask recent clients whether the builder finished on time and on price.
• Pay only for work done. Tie each payment to a stage certified by your architect or engineer, and avoid large deposits. If you must pay a deposit, keep it small and pay by card.
• Keep a retention. A percentage held back from each payment gives you a margin if something goes wrong. Agree it in the contract. See choosing a builder and contracts.
• Get the insurance in writing. Ask for current certificates of the builder’s insurance before they start, and diary the renewal dates. Confirm whose policy covers the works, and whether it names you. Our self-build insurance guide explains each type of cover.
• Pay for materials when they arrive. Paying a builder in advance for materials not yet on site is one of the most common ways money is lost when a business fails.

A worked example

This example is illustrative. Aoife’s builder stops work after the walls reach wall plate. She has paid €140,000 of a €320,000 contract, including a €15,000 deposit by bank transfer. Her engineer values the completed work at €128,000, so she has paid €12,000 more than the work is worth, and the work left is worth €192,000 at the contract rates. A new builder prices it at €205,000, €13,000 more.

Finishing the house now costs €345,000 (€140,000 paid plus €205,000) against the original €320,000: a €25,000 gap, made up of the €12,000 overpayment and the €13,000 higher price, before any legal costs. The builder’s company goes into liquidation, so she lodges a claim as an unsecured creditor, knowing she may not get much back. She tells her lender and her insurer the same week, arranges site cover and temporary weatherproofing, and notifies the council within 14 days of appointing the new builder. Had the deposit been paid by card, she could have asked about a chargeback. Had every payment followed a certified stage, she would not have been €12,000 ahead of the work.

Buying someone else’s part-built house? Use the unfinished-house purchase checks before committing to the sale.