An abandoned or half-finished job is a breach of contract, and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you a route through it. The order you take the steps in matters more than most people realise.
The sequencing rule, which is where cases are lost
Under section 49 every contract to supply a service includes a term that the trader must perform it with reasonable care and skill. Where work is defective, section 55 gives you repeat performance: the builder must put it right and bear all the costs of doing so, including labour and materials.
Only then does price reduction under section 56 become available, and section 56(3) is specific: you can move to it where repeat performance is impossible, or where the builder failed to do it within a reasonable time or without significant inconvenience to you.
Citizens Advice puts the same rule plainly: you have to give the trader a second chance to finish the work, unless you made it clear that it was important the work had to be finished by a certain date.
That exception is the actionable part. If the deadline was made important at the time of contracting, you do not have to give a second chance. This is why recording a completion date, or making time of the essence in writing, changes your position so much.
Two related points. Where the contract fixed no completion time at all, section 52 supplies a reasonable time. Breach of that term gives price reduction only, not repeat performance. And where the builder has walked off site entirely, that is a straightforward breach: damages, recovery for money paid for nothing, and treating the contract as ended.
Do not withhold payment as leverage
This is counter-intuitive and it is the instinct almost everyone has.
Which? advises against it: withholding money might help with negotiations, but it could equally produce deadlock, and it could put you in breach of your own contract. That would allow the trader to take legal action against you and would leave you weaker if you went to court yourself.
Follow the payment schedule, and pursue the remedy separately.
The escalation ladder
1. Complain in writing, citing section 49. A dated letter or email becomes evidence. Photograph everything, and keep dated notes. Citizens Advice publishes template letters for poor quality work and for delay. 2. Require repeat performance with a specified reasonable deadline. You usually must offer this before anything else. Consider making time of the essence in writing. 3. Ask for the trader's complaints procedure, and whether they belong to a trade association with a dispute scheme. 4. Get an independent expert report. For building work this is close to essential. It converts "I think it is bad" into evidence, and the cost is potentially recoverable. 5. Trade body or alternative dispute resolution. See the currency point below before relying on this. 6. Section 75 claim to the credit card issuer, if any part of the price went on a credit card. 7. Letter before action, which the pre-action protocol requires and which courts penalise claimants for skipping. 8. Money Claim Online, if it still cannot be resolved.
The ADR rules changed on 6 April 2026
Most pages on this subject are now out of date, and this is worth knowing before you rely on a dispute scheme.
The Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes Regulations 2015 have been revoked. They are replaced by Part 4, Chapter 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, in force from 6 April 2026 and implemented by SI 2026/263. The substantive change is that provider accreditation moved from voluntary to mandatory: providers are prohibited from carrying out consumer ADR without it.
There is a transitional window. The prohibitions are disapplied for ADR started between 6 April 2026 and 5 October 2026, or, where a provider applied for accreditation before that date, until the application is determined.
The practical consequence for you, in the middle of 2026: before relying on a trade body's dispute scheme, ask whether it is accredited under the DMCC Act 2024. Some schemes are currently operating on transitional relief. Note also that the old gov.uk guidance page on consumer ADR is marked as withdrawn, so anything citing the 2015 Regulations is stale.
Section 75 is the strongest single route
Where any part of the price was paid by credit card, the card issuer is jointly and severally liable with the builder for breach of contract, and the claim covers the whole cash price provided it is more than £100 and not more than £30,000. There is no minimum card payment.
It is often the fastest route, and it does not depend on the builder cooperating. If a claim is refused, complain to the issuer first, which has eight weeks, then take it free to the Financial Ombudsman within six months of the final response.
Court, and two things to check rather than assume
The small claims track limit in England and Wales is currently £10,000, though a consultation on amendments to the relevant civil procedure rules was live in 2026, so treat it as the current limit rather than a settled one.
Court fees changed on 13 July 2026, with a large number of fees rising. We are deliberately not publishing a fee table here, because any figure copied from a page written before that date may be wrong. Check the current fees on gov.uk or in the EX50 leaflet before issuing.
On timing: a claim in contract must generally be brought within six years, and the clock runs from the date of the breach rather than the date you discovered it.
If the builder has gone bust
Section 75 is the answer where any part went on a credit card, and it works precisely because the card issuer remains liable regardless of the builder's insolvency and recovers from the trader itself.
Beyond that, recovering money from an insolvent company is a different and much harder problem, involving liquidation, creditor ranking and in some cases restoring a dissolved company to the register. It is not something to attempt from a consumer FAQ, and we are not going to improvise it here. Take proper advice.
Documenting early is what makes any of this work.