Breaking Contract, Refusal to complete Work, Additional charges not discussed.

We hired Colleen Lawrence, owner of Building Project Innovations (BPI for short), to do renovations in our home in Cape Town. She sent us a quote and we approved the amount by paying the 80% deposit (which should have been the first RED FLAG for us) of R42 000. They started with the agreed work but a few weeks later we had an argument about the quality of workmanship mostly concerning the application of a product named Coprox. This is when our nightmare began. Colleen Lawrence informed the cupboard maker subcontracting for her, Igshaan Williams from NI Interiors, to withhold our cupboard doors and is using it as leverage against us. In the meantime she has amended the original quote to new totals and terms that were never discussed or agreed on. Furthermore, she began invoicing us on services she has already performed and we were never informed that we’ll be invoiced or that the services were payable. The additional charges she has come up with, on top of the original quote we accepted, is just short of R11 000. Firstly, amending prices after the original price was agreed upon is a direct breach of the South African Consumer Act. Secondly, performing services without informing the client it’ll be an extra chargeable amount is also a direct breach of the South African Consumer Act. She is now demanding that we first pay this newly amended amount before she will complete the outstanding work. According to her own terms on her invoice it clearly states – 80% before work starts and the remaining 20% AFTER completion of all work. Yet she refuses to honour her own terms and effectively took R42 000 from us and left us with an uncompleted painted interior house and a kitchen without cupboard doors. Her team started with renovations in the beginning of Feb 2016, it is now almost 4 months later and we’re still suffering while she is happily continuing with her life. I hope Hello Peter helps people steer clear of this person and her company!