The builder has left your renovation half done and badly done

The case, in five lines

What is brought

An action for performance of the contract for works, with the work carried out at the builder's expense and what was badly done demolished (Articles 1098 and 1124 of the Civil Code) or, if the breach is serious, an action to terminate the contract (Article 1124 of the Civil Code), in both cases with compensation for loss and damage (Article 1101 of the Civil Code). Where the work serves its purpose but is worth less, a price reduction as a form of compensation.

Before which court

The sección civil of the Tribunal de Instancia (the civil section of the first-instance court). As a consumer, you may choose between the court for your own domicile and the court for the builder's domicile (Article 52.3 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, the Spanish civil procedure statute). Verbal proceedings (juicio verbal) if the claim does not exceed 15,000 euros; ordinary proceedings (juicio ordinario) above that figure.

Deadline

A five year limitation period (Article 1964.2 of the Civil Code) running from when performance could be demanded: the agreed completion date, the day the abandonment became evident or the handover of the defective work. It is interrupted by an out of court claim (Article 1973 of the Civil Code) and by the request to negotiate under Article 7 of Organic Law 1/2025. In Catalonia, ten years. If the renovation required a technical project and falls under the Building Act, the specific action under that Act is time barred two years after the damage occurs, without prejudice to the contractual action.

Who can bring it

Claimant: whoever commissioned the work, whether the owner or the tenant who contracted it, even if the contract was verbal. Defendant: the builder with whom it was agreed, self-employed or a company, who is also answerable for the work of the workers and subcontractors he brought onto the job (Article 1596 of the Civil Code). If you contracted with a company, the company is sued and not its director, unless the director incurs liability of his own.

Financial risk

If the court considers that the defects were minor or that you were the first to breach, by stopping payment without cause or by throwing the builder off the job without a formal demand, it will dismiss the claim, may order you to pay the costs and may uphold what he claims: the outstanding price or, if he presents it as your withdrawal, his profit. The expert report is paid up front. And if the builder is insolvent, the judgment may never be collected.

You contracted for a result, and the WhatsApp quote is the contract

The Civil Code calls what you agreed a contract for works (arrendamiento de obra): one party undertakes to carry out a work for a fixed price, says Article 1544, and Article 1588 adds that it may be agreed that the builder contributes only his labour or the materials as well. From this comes the idea that decides the case: the builder does not undertake to put in a few hours in good faith, but to hand over a kitchen and a bathroom that are finished and fit for the purpose they were ordered for. The Tribunal Supremo (the Spanish Supreme Court) describes it as an obligation of result.

No signed contract is needed. The quote sent by message and accepted with a 'go ahead', the transfers made in his name and the voice notes discussing deadlines and quality make up the contract, and the judge reconstructs it from them. If, moreover, you contracted as a private individual and he did so as a professional, Article 60 of the consolidated Consumer Protection Act required him to tell you in advance the total price, or how it would be set, and the date of performance, and paragraph 5 of that article places on the business the burden of proving that it did so.

That matters when the extras appear. If the price was agreed as a closed figure and he now maintains that it costs more, it is for him to prove that you accepted the increase. And Article 1596 makes him answerable for the work of the people he employed on the job: if he brought in the plumber or the electrician, their mistakes are the builder's, and he cannot divert you towards them or require you to deal with each of them separately.

Finish at his expense, terminate or reduce: it depends on how badly he failed

Article 1124 lets you choose between demanding performance or termination of the obligation, with compensation for damages and payment of interest in either case. Article 1098 spells out what performance means in an obligation to do something: if the obligor does not do it, it shall be ordered to be done at his expense, and the same applies if he does it contrary to the terms of the obligation, and it may also be ordered that what was badly done be undone. A shower tray that slopes the wrong way is not fixed with silicone: it is lifted and laid again, and he pays for that demolition too.

Termination is the strongest remedy and the court reserves it for a serious breach, one that defeats the purpose of the contract. Abandoning the job for weeks with the kitchen unusable is such a breach. Poorly finished details on a job already handed over are normally not: there the proper remedy is repair or its cost, and seeking termination over minor defects is the quickest way to lose a case that was already won.

Between the two extremes lies the price reduction. It is not written into the articles on the contract for works, but the courts accept it as a way of compensating when the work serves its purpose and is worth less than what was paid. And when the contract is terminated with the job half done, what is settled in practice is an account: what the properly executed work is worth, set against what you paid and what it costs to undo, repair and finish. The expert draws up that account, item by item, and it is the one that ends up in the judgment.

Hiring someone else without first serving notice sinks many cases

The general approach of the Tribunal Supremo is that the builder is entitled to repair what he did badly himself, and that payment in money of what it costs for someone else to repair it is secondary. That rule gives way when he has been formally required to finish or repair within a reasonable time and has not done so, when he has abandoned the job, or when his way of working has shown that the repair cannot be entrusted to him. That is why the first letter is not a way of letting off steam: it is the piece that later allows you to pass him the second builder's bill.

The second danger concerns evidence. As soon as the new builder lifts the shower tray, the defect ceases to exist and all that remains is what you can prove. Before anyone touches anything, the expert the firm works with inspects, measures, photographs and values, and it is advisable to invite the builder to that visit so that he cannot later claim the report was prepared behind his back. If the builder disputes even the obvious, the firm reinforces it with a notarial record of the site (acta notarial de presencia).

The third danger is the one almost nobody sees coming. Article 1594 allows the owner to withdraw from the works of his own will even after they have started, compensating the builder for all his expenses, labour and the profit he could have obtained from them. If you change the lock or tell him not to come back without first having put the breach on record, he will present the break as your withdrawal and will claim, on top of the work done, the profit on the part of the job he never did. The prior formal demand is what turns your decision into a response to a breach rather than a whim that has to be paid for.

Withholding payment only protects you if you keep back what the defects are worth

Faced with defective work, the owner may refuse to pay the outstanding price to the extent of the defect. The courts accept this as a defence of an unperformed or badly performed contract, but on one condition: what is withheld must be proportionate to what is missing or wrong. Withholding everything over a few finishing details, or refusing to pay for items properly carried out, makes you the party in breach, and whoever seeks termination under Article 1124 must have performed his own side of the bargain.

Paying is not neutral either. Article 1592 says that whoever undertakes a work by pieces or by measure may require the owner to accept it in parts and pay for it in proportion, and that the part paid for is presumed approved and accepted. If the quote goes by items or by square metre, every payment for a stage that already looks wrong, made without a written reservation, is an argument for the builder. Any payment that has to be made is made on account, with a record of what is in dispute, and the work is not accepted without a written list of what remains outstanding.

And a third party may appear. Under Article 1597, those who contribute their labour and materials to a work agreed at a lump sum by the builder have no action against the owner except up to the amount the owner owes the builder when the claim is made. If the builder did not pay the tile supplier or the plumber he subcontracted, they may come to you for payment, up to whatever you still owed the builder. And if he gets in first with an order for payment procedure (proceso monitorio) for the balance, you have twenty days to oppose it on the basis of the defects: letting them pass gives him a title to seize your assets.

Five years to claim, but the evidence is lost much sooner

The action for breach of a contract for works has no special time limit in the Civil Code, so it is governed by Article 1964.2: personal actions with no special time limit are time barred five years after performance of the obligation could be demanded. This is a limitation period, not a strict expiry period, and that has two consequences: it can be interrupted and start again, and it is for the builder to raise it. The starting day is the day on which the obligation could be demanded: the agreed completion date, the day the abandonment became evident or the handover of the defective work.

Under Article 1973, limitation is interrupted by bringing the action before the courts, by an out of court claim by the creditor and by any act in which the debtor acknowledges the debt. A recorded delivery letter with certified content (burofax) interrupts it; so does a message in which the builder admits that he 'has to redo the bathroom'. And Article 7 of Organic Law 1/2025 adds that a request to negotiate that defines its subject interrupts limitation from the recorded attempt to communicate it, and that if there is no first meeting and no written reply within thirty calendar days of its receipt, the period starts to run afresh.

Two nuances, one territorial and one of subject matter. In Catalonia the general limitation period under its own Civil Code is ten years. And if the renovation required a technical project because it altered the structure or the configuration of the building, the Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación (the Spanish Building Act) also comes into play, with its one, three and ten year guarantees and two years to claim from the damage; that regime is explained in our guide on construction defects and, by its own wording, leaves the contractual action intact. Even so, the deadline that really bites is not the statutory one: it is the day someone finishes the work and the defect can no longer be seen.

Before suing you must negotiate, and how you do it decides the case

In civil matters, Article 5 of Organic Law 1/2025 requires, for a claim to be admitted, prior recourse to an appropriate dispute resolution mechanism, and it requires this in all declaratory proceedings, which is where this claim falls. There must be identity between what was negotiated and what is later claimed, even though the specific remedies may vary. The requirement is satisfied by mediation, conciliation, the opinion of an independent expert, a confidential binding offer or direct negotiation between the parties or between their lawyers.

In a renovation case the best route is usually the formal demand itself: a letter that describes item by item what is missing and what is wrong, attaches or announces the expert report, sets a deadline to finish or repair and proposes the financial alternative. That letter does three things at once: it puts the builder on notice before the job is handed to someone else, it interrupts limitation and it evidences the prior negotiation. No prior negotiation is needed, on the other hand, to apply for interim measures before the claim or for preliminary enquiries (diligencias preliminares).

If there is no agreement, the claim is filed with the sección civil of the Tribunal de Instancia. As a consumer, Article 52.3 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil lets you choose between the court for your own domicile and the court for the builder's domicile. Up to 15,000 euros the case follows verbal proceedings; above that, ordinary proceedings. Costs in principle follow the event, and an unjustified refusal to negotiate may weigh on them: another reason why the prior letter should be serious and not a threat.

How we run the case, step by step

1. 1

   Fixing the state of the works before anyone touches them

   The expert the firm works with visits the property, lists what has been done, what is defective and what is outstanding, and values it against the quote. The builder is invited to the visit. Until then you do not clear rubble or let any other tradesman in.

2. 2

   Reconstructing the contract and the payments

   The quote, messages and voice notes, transfers and receipts are put in order, and we identify precisely whom you contracted with: the self-employed builder or his company. From that come the agreed price, the deadline, the specifications and what was paid against what was done.

3. 3

   Formal demand with a deadline

   A recorded delivery letter with certified content that itemises the work, sets a reasonable deadline to finish and repair, rejects the unauthorised extras and announces that, if he fails to comply, the work will be finished by someone else at his expense or the contract will be terminated. It interrupts limitation and opens the negotiation.

4. 4

   Documented negotiation

   If he replies, negotiation takes place on the basis of the expert report and any offer is assessed in writing. If he stays silent for thirty days, the prior negotiation is evidenced. Any agreement is signed setting out what will be done, by when and what happens if he breaches again.

5. 5

   Finishing the work with someone else, on paper

   With the demand ignored and the state of the works recorded, the job is given to a second builder under an itemised quote the expert can compare. His invoices prove what it costs to undo, repair and finish, and the difference over the agreed price.

6. 6

   Claim before the civil section and enforcement

   We seek termination or performance at the builder's expense, the cost of undoing what was badly done, the extra cost, the proven damages and interest, with the expert report as the central evidence. Once judgment is obtained, it is enforced against his accounts and assets.

The law that applies

• Art. 1098 CC. If the person obliged to do something fails to do it, it shall be ordered to be done at his expense. The same applies if he does it contrary to the terms of the obligation, and it may also be ordered that what was badly done be undone. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1124 CC. The power to terminate is implied in reciprocal obligations. The injured party may choose between demanding performance or termination, with compensation for damages and payment of interest in either case, and may seek termination even after opting for performance if performance proves impossible. The court orders termination unless there are justified grounds allowing it to set a time limit. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1592 CC. Whoever undertakes to carry out a work by pieces or by measure may require the owner to accept it in parts and pay for it in proportion. The part paid for is presumed approved and accepted. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1594 CC. The owner may withdraw of his own will from the construction of the work even after it has begun, compensating the builder for all his expenses, labour and the profit he could have obtained from it. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1597 CC. Those who contribute their labour and materials to a work agreed at a lump sum by the builder have no action against the owner except up to the amount the owner owes the builder when the claim is made. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1964 CC. Mortgage actions are time barred after twenty years. Personal actions with no special time limit are time barred five years after performance of the obligation could be demanded; in continuing obligations to do or not to do something, time starts running each time they are breached. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 60 TRLGDCU. Before the consumer is bound, the business must provide clear and comprehensible, relevant, truthful and sufficient information on the main features of the contract, including the total price or, where it is subject to a quote, the way it is determined, and the date on which it undertakes to perform. The burden of proving compliance with these information duties lies on the business. BOE-A-2007-20555
• Art. 5 LO 1/2025. In civil matters, prior recourse to an appropriate dispute resolution mechanism is a condition of admissibility, with identity between what is negotiated and what is litigated, in all declaratory proceedings under Book II and in the special proceedings under Book IV of the Civil Procedure Act, save for the excluded subject matters. It is satisfied by mediation, conciliation, a neutral expert opinion, a confidential binding offer or direct negotiation between the parties or their lawyers. It is not required for enforcement claims, prior interim measures or preliminary enquiries. BOE-A-2025-76

Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).

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