Dear all, I've just discovered that the sub-floor and joists that were replaced only 6 years ago in my Victorian house have rotted again, I'm told by an independent building contractor, due to inadequate damp protection. A master carpenter/joiner replaced joists/sub-floor and oak flooring only SIX years ago, due to the originals rotting. My question is can I reasonably expect the carpenter to contribute to the cost of this new work, which will essentially be to rip up what he did 6 years ago, beef up any existing damp protection and then rebuild the floor from the ground up? I feel he bears the responsibility for not highlighting the need for adequate damp protection in the first instance. Many thanks.

Hi all, I hope I'm posting in the correct forum, if not then please move it to the correct forum My partner is a professional carpenter. Last week he did a small job for someone who wanted some decking repaired. Customer stipulated that he didn't want the whole thing replacing, which is what my partner recommended, due to rot. So my partner said he could take some of it off and replace the broken boards. The customer was satisfied with the repair job and so was his wife, and paid my partner in full, by cheque. The cheque cleared, but a few days later the customer text my partner saying he wasn't happy with the quality of the work and could he come back and have a look at it. As my partner now works full time for the ambulance service to make ends meet, and the carpentry work is now only part time, he has been unable to go back and inspect the work, but sent an e-mail detailing that he was satisfied that he had done a good job and that had the customer not been happy then why didn't he say so at the time? He claims that the repairs are unsafe and the workmanship is poor. The photos he has sent don't look good to be honest but he has taken the photos in such a way that you can't fully see the whole thing in true context. The customer has now sent a very long e-mail detailing problems and saying that if he doesn't received a full refund by 12th July then he will take him to small claims court, and that any further contact from my partner by email, phone or post will incur a £10 charge! My partner had very little to work with and did the best he could considering the customer didn't want the entire decking replaced, and simply repaired. The customer was happy with the work when asked to inspect it. My question is, can the customer really take him to small claims court over this? What grounds does he have to do this?

I had some work done by a carpenter on my home and basically he gave me the run around for over 3 weeks. I paid him for materials some of which he provided. but when I added up what he had bought against what he had charged there was a shortfall of £154 which I deducted from the final bill. He said he would provide receipts which he did not After 6 days he filed a case against me at the county court and I have until the 20 December to answer it. BUT the cheating sod wrote to me and asked me to settle the bill and I wrote back to him, more fool me and told him that I had never refused to pay the balance(meaning the difference between what I calculated and what he could prove) providing he provide receipts. The B*****d has used this to get a judgement for payment. What can I do? How have they made a judgement like that when I was preparing a case? and is all now lost? Please advise, I am fuming