I started a building work recently and appointed a builder who agreed by email to complete the job for a cash price.

I kept paying him to his bank account through my online banking.

Initially he demanded money for materials and supplied it and then kept on asking for more money for materials but suddenly disappeared with £6000.

He sent me an email stating that his mum was seriously ill abroad and he needed to travel urgently. He left the job uncompleted and I had to get another builder to finish his job.

He still keeps in touch with me by email and promising to pay me back when he returns to UK

he is giving me any date and time when he is going to return my money.

He further stated that he was out of income for long time and spent all money on his mum’s medical treatment. He doesn’t have any assets in UK and his family lives abroad.

Is it worth making small court claim?

I have all email evidence of agreed price and money I have already paid through bank transfer.

Any advice will be strongly appreciated.

moved you to the builders forum.

dx

your big mistake is using bacs transfer to pay

almost 99% of the time

removes any protection you might have had from the situation.

have a read of a few threads here , but I feel other than small claims court

your options are limited

Thanks for your reply.

Will I be successful with small court claim?

Can I make claim for cash payment?

What about if he doesn't have any asset in UK which I think he doesn't?

On the face of it you would have a good chance of success in the small claims court and the builder would be ordered to repay you the money (not sure what procedure is if builder now has no UK address though, that might be a complication).

if the builder is outside the UK now, and has no UK assets, it may not be possible for you to recover the money

it would have cost you the court fees

- over £400

- and you'd got nothing to show for it.

Do you know for sure he has no assets in the UK, or is that just what he is telling you?

However if you got the order and he had a CCJ against him in consequence it could be enforced if he returned to the UK in the future (within whatever the time limits and rules are for enforcement)

What country has he gone to?

"He further stated that he was out of income for long time and spent all money on his mum’s medical treatment"

makes me wonder if this isn't also a case of fraud that you could report to the police.

ie he deliberately obtained money by deception from you without any intention of using it for the purpose of doing the building work.

Even if the police couldn't do much now if it's formally reported and logged as a crime you could alert the police if you discovered he was back in the UK in the future.

lets face it,

you will win a court claim

but as he is a man of straw you wont see a penny of the money so not worth the expense.

You have failed to follow the most basic of methods of keeping on top of this job

- payment in instalments AFTER the agreed step has been reached.