A contractor walked off the job: is that a breach of contract, and what can I claim?

When a contractor stops turning up, the legal question is not whether you are annoyed — it is whether their conduct amounts to a breach serious enough to end the contract, and what that entitles you to.

Abandonment is usually a repudiatory breach

A contractor who makes clear, by words or conduct, that they will not complete the work has usually repudiated the contract. That gives you a choice:

• Accept the repudiation — treat the contract as at an end, and claim damages for the cost of putting yourself in the position you would have been in had they finished; or
• Affirm the contract — insist on performance and keep the contract alive.

In practice almost everyone accepts the repudiation, but you should do it clearly and in writing. Ambiguity — continuing to chase them to come back while also hiring someone else — can be used against you later.

Not every delay is repudiation. A contractor who is late, or who has paused work over a genuine dispute about payment or variations, may not have repudiated at all. Look at what the contract says about time, notices, and suspension before you act.

How damages are measured

The starting point is the cost of completing the work with a replacement contractor, less whatever you would still have had to pay the original contractor under the contract. Add to that:

• the reasonable cost of rectifying defective work they did do;
• losses caused by the delay, where those were within the parties' contemplation when the contract was made (lost rent on a property you could not let, for example);
• wasted expenditure you can prove.

You cannot recover for distress or inconvenience in an ordinary commercial contract. Consumers occasionally can, where the very object of the contract was peace of mind or enjoyment, but the sums are modest.

Your duty to mitigate

You must take reasonable steps to keep your loss down. That means getting competitive quotes rather than engaging the first available contractor at any price, and not using the situation to upgrade the specification. A court will only award the reasonable cost of completing what was agreed.

Keep records of every quote you obtained, including the ones you rejected and why.

Deposits and stage payments

If you paid in advance for work not done, that is recoverable as money paid for a consideration that has wholly failed, on top of your damages claim. Check whether the deposit was held under any scheme or guarantee: some trade bodies and finance providers offer protection that is quicker than litigation.

If you paid by credit card and the contract value was between £100 and £30,000, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 may make the card issuer jointly liable — a route worth exhausting before you spend anything on lawyers.

If you are a consumer

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 implies terms into every contract for services with a consumer:

• the service must be performed with reasonable care and skill (s.49);
• where no time is fixed, within a reasonable time (s.52);
• information you relied on when deciding to engage the contractor forms part of the contract (s.50).

Your statutory remedies are repeat performance or, if that is impossible or not done within a reasonable time, a price reduction — up to the full price. These sit alongside your ordinary damages claim; they do not replace it.

What a solicitor will want from you

• The contract, quote or estimate, and any written variations.
• A dated record of what was done, and photographs of the state of the work when they left.
• All messages around the abandonment, especially anything showing they did not intend to return.
• Quotes from replacement contractors, and evidence of what you actually paid.
• Details of the contractor's legal identity (Companies House, if a company) and any trade body membership or insurance.

This guide is general information about the law of England and Wales. It is not legal advice. A claim for breach of a simple contract must generally be brought within six years of the breach.