Did I hire a cowboy?

[Wilko]

Yes - withholding monies needs a planned approach as it can backfire. Is there a contract with staged payments? That may be helpful. Either way, in my view it is best to be calm and polite (and persistent) to explain to Mr Contractor why the job is not yet complete. Your aim is to keep him engaged and positively motivated to finish the job properly. Hopefully he will not ask for full and final payment yet.

 

[Binnygreen]

According to citizens advise, because he didn't give us anything in writing, our 14 day cooling off period has been extended to 12 months and 14 days under the new consumer rights act. They advised me not to pay him and said I'm within my rights to tell him we have changed our minds and no longer want to proceed, it would then be in the hands of the judge to decide if he took us to court.
Obviously our main priority is to have safe electrics and be able to redecorate the house. I'll see what tomorrow brings and hope that he gets in touch. Since my original post we have discovered more issues, one of them being that the floor boards in every area they worked have been literally ripped up, they are all torn and shattered, some have huge holes in!! I'm remembering why we put the job off for so long now!

 

[Pete999]

According to citizens advise, because he didn't give us anything in writing, our 14 day cooling off period has been extended to 12 months and 14 days under the new consumer rights act. They advised me not to pay him and said I'm within my rights to tell him we have changed our minds and no longer want to proceed, it would then be in the hands of the judge to decide if he took us to court.
Obviously our main priority is to have safe electrics and be able to redecorate the house. I'll see what tomorrow brings and hope that he gets in touch. Since my original post we have discovered more issues, one of them being that the floor boards in every area they worked have been literally ripped up, they are all torn and shattered, some have huge holes in!! I'm remembering why we put the job off for so long now!

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To be honest, busted floor boards is a common occurrence nothing a visit to B&Q couldn't solve, although he should have repaired them, imo

 

[Kate]

Do NOT withhold payment. Make a "token" payment, to cover some materials or something. Withholding is the worst thing you can do. By doing a token payment they cannot start any proceedings for non payment. If you get any correspondence reply to each and every one, even if it's just to acknowledge it and state you are getting help with the matter.
First step of any complaint is to give the contractor a chance to rectify the problems. But have before and after photos incase it's not to your standard. It may very well be that the contractor left someone he trusted in charge while they were on holiday, and that the trust was misplaced.
I don't know much about the procedure for this exactly, but I have a gambling addict in my immediate family and am familiar with complaints/debt collectors.
Have you looked to see if your home insurance has legal cover? Could be an idea to talk to them

 

[hightower]

Have you heard from the contractor? That's the ONLY place to start in my opinion, and I'm pretty sure ELECSA will tell you to get stuffed if you don't first raise your concerns with the contractor. As others have said, he may well be horrified when he returns and bend over backwards to help you.

According to citizens advise, because he didn't give us anything in writing, our 14 day cooling off period has been extended to 12 months and 14 days under the new consumer rights act.

I'm pretty sure this is for door-to-door sales. So if he came to give an estimate, and then you phoned him back a day later to accept the job this doesn't apply (could be wrong, been a while since I read the consumer rights etc). If he rocked up, said £3k, and you said "great, start right away" then I think that's when the cooling off period can be extended etc. Also, if you do use the "cooling off period" I think he'd be within his rights to come and rip out all his materials, and you'd probably be in for a world of pain with the mess he could potentially create.