Issues with builders can affect anyone even big and well known organisations. Liverpool FC have a major project to increase the capacity of Anfield at a cost of around £100 million with completion due by the end of last month. The contractor has gone bust and the club don't known when the job will be finished, they'll lose millions for every game the stand remains unusable.   

I don't know if that came from the fb site but sometimes cases like this come up on my feed and I think how lucky I am having bought 4 houses and sold 3 without problems. Much too trusting of notaires, estate agents and vendors at the beginning. There but for the grace of god ...

That's fine if they are an honest company with assets but it's too easy for them to just close and open again using someone else to front the company.
It's still taking a couple of years to get a case heard.

  Reminds of a building company based in Shoreham, Sussex - Beamish Builders going bust on a regular basis and as always it was the 'little' people who got shafted at the back of the queue. 

When they ran out of family members to front the 'new' company they used their family pets as directors.

Golden Rule no. 1 for Joe Blogs - always check out previous work and I do mean 'check out'. Even if your French isn't that good, check out the eyes and body language of the owners of those properties and of course the builders themselves - this is never wasted time.

Golden Rule no.2 applies to both builder and punter - never commit yourself to large stage payments. As a punter you can be really hammered and same for a builder - always agree many small stage payments. In 89/90 I had a friend who was a 'sparks'. There was little work around and as is common with sparks a large part of a contract can be materials with labour maybe only 15%. He got hammered for £10K in materials.

Golden Rule no 3 - always check out insurance, never assume.

You should have insisted on small stage payments. You made a huge mistake in handing over 85% of the cost. He has you over a barrel. If you go down the lawyer route he/she is the only one who will win, I'm not even that even if you win you can claim legal expenses. I took out cover for €100K with my bank.

The builder of course. Like I said if you go to court there is only ever one winner - the lawyers. Once I started working for myself I always made sure the only thing I could get ripped off for was my labour, never materials. Handing over 85% was not clever. I don't know how big the job was but if the builder susses out your not street wise and scruples/integrity is something they don't have, you may well have a problem.

Back on the island I've seen the same builder do a really good job and a really bad job, the difference being one man would'nt for any nonsense, knew exactly what he wanted and the other had'nt got a clue. It's easy for Joe Punter to be intimidated.

You want a new slate roof - you do realise there are different grades of slate don't you? The rubbish will last a few years, the best for a hundred or more.

The biggest purchase by far for most people is a home. Since the turn of the century at least it's been possible to check out the best materials to build a home, the best designs, the best and worse places to build - how many ever really do the research?

How can anyone take a gamble with what will be the biggest purchase that 99% of people will make in their life.

How often did I see in French Life mags in the UK - part converted houses for sale. I knew it would be Brits who had taken on far more than they were capable of, ran out of money or simply could'nt cope. Most of what they would have done would be a bodge. I would never have touched one with a barge pole.

I do feel that not just Brits but a lot of those from northern Europe are enticed by a picture post card 'dream' - you can't live in a dream. All the b/s from estate agents about 'finding your dream home' - homes have nothing to do with dreams - end of. A home is a place you live in, not dream in. How many have bought a 'dream home' only to find it turned in a nightmare!

Still the French builders are allowed to use those awful honeycombed clay blocks. Internal walls are a joke, tiled floors - cold and noisy. And just like the UK have you seen the French programmes about cowboy built homes in France?

Then there are the 'hippy' types that build homes out of straw bales - just make sure that it's nowhere near a wood or forest. Timber houses - make sure there are no termites near you. Termites are the reason so many French homes have tiled floors.

Aercrete blocks are fireproof/insect proof with excellent thermal and acoustic properties. Are lightweight and can be used up to 3 stories. Just make sure they are built using the 'thin joint method'. Just don't expect any French builders to know much about them or how to use them correctly. Follow the guidelines from www.xella.com in the construction and you should have a year round internal temperature of 18/19C.

I want to find out if I can use the ultra lightweight German external insulation blocks as outer skin on 15cm wide aercrete blocks. The interior will be built entirely differently to the usual French way.