Hi all, just wondering if I could get some advice for a tricky situation .
I am helping out family with a HMO property they bought near my place. We got a builder in to make it HMO compliant, and he said he could do the job, the contract stating part of the job being to make the doors fireproof, compliant to a HMO standard. He said he would do the job in a few weeks but it took him four months and unfortunately the fire door inspector stated the doors are not fireproof because the builder had trimmed the top to fit the door in. Once the doors are trimmed at the top, the warranty goes and they lose their fireproof status. The issue we have is that the builder already made mistakes in other parts of the house requiring him to redo the work, and he has been quite aggressive on the phone when we have asked him to do this. To be fair to him, he did come back and try and correct these but only after a long conversation and him becoming angry over the phone. We have already paid him for most of the work, with a small amount remaining. We do not want to pay him the small remaining amount (the cost to replace the fire doors is much more expensive) until the issue is fixed, but the cost is so much larger he is unlikely to agree. I am a bit worried about him becoming aggressive and threatening if we don't pay the money, especially since he has a key. Anyone been in a similar situation and know how to deal with it?
Jonathan