This past Saturday we had a meeting with the architect and our (former) builder. Not in a very friendly mood, our brick-stacking friend, but perhaps he was intimidated by the team of Polish builders on site now finishing his work at lightning speed. The long and short of it was that he doesn’t have the money to pay us back the full sum he owes us (being about €30,000). However, he is more than willing to pay the money back in instalments of €5,000 per month, over six months.

I can fully understand anyone not having €30,000 cash lying around, but if you don’t have access to that kind of cash I don’t see how you’ll be able to spare €5,000 per month. That’s a lot of money to have left after paying for rent and vittles. The first payment is due on 1 August, and I’m quite anxious to see if it materialises. I have a sneaking suspicion the builder’s enthusiasm for this scheme is merely a way of buying time.

Meanwhile, we need this money to pay the Polish builders. Their bills run at around €5,000 per week, so we’ll need to get the bank mobilised as soon as possible.

Categories: Construction, Finances
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So where are we? Somewhere up Shit Creek and arguing about who lost the paddle, basically. Our builder has, apparently, run out of funds, a sizable portion of which fleet-footed funds having been intended to finish this phase of our construction work.

So we have walls, which nearly reach the empty space where the roof should have been by now, and an impressive collection of rubble and bric-a-brac. We have a replacement builder lined up, but of course he would like to get paid as well.

The architect estimates the value of the outstanding construction work at around €30,000. Somehow, we have to find a way of transferring funds from builder 1 (who does not have them) to builder 2 (who would very much like to have them).

We have a meeting with builder 1 and the architect this coming Saturday, and we’ll see what can be sorted out. I don’t have high hopes, but presumably one of these options will be the outcome:

1. Builder 1 finds a way to repay us the full amount of the outstanding construction work.
2. Builder 1 and builder 2 agree upon payments directly between them in installments.
3. We instruct our lawyer to swoop in and try to squeeze the full amount from builder 1.
4. I bean builder 1 with the first handy bit of rubble I can lay my hands on, and hide the body in the windmill.

Of all the options, number 4 appears least likely to get us our money back, but should be the most satisfying of all by far.

Categories: Construction, Finances
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