Hi, I'll try and keep this short and hope someone can offer advise. My son was a sub-contractor (plumber) on a large block of flats, the main contractor decided to remove all plumbers and appoint one company rather than several subbies. My son submitted his last invoice and should have been paid after 14 days, when he wasn't paid he tried phoning, then emailing and then texting the main contractor, all these were ignored, so eventually started a small claims against them for £1289. (he followed the correct process in issues letters, etc) The contractor has now submitted a counter claim for £2650, stating that the work was substandard and they would be seeking the cover the money. I phoned their head office (my son at this point was out the country and asked me to deal with it) I spoke to there commercial manger, who had signed the counter claim. Now my point is that the main contractors PM on site, had dismissed all plumbers but had asked my son to stay on because he knew his work was of a high standard, (all work was QA by the site PM) and also asked my son to look after the site apprentice, but 2 weeks later when the new plumbing subcontractors arrived the main office overruled the site PM and my son had to leave site. So I argued that the site PM, who was in the best position to know who was working to what standard clearly didn't feel that my son's work was substandard and if he did why ask him to look after the apprentice? I was also concerned that the counterclaim was the first he had heard that his work was substandard, and he had made numerous attempts to contact them but they had not taken any of these opportunities to reply and inform him of the issues. Its standard practise to get trades to return and do snagging I also asked if the were looking to recover money from all the plumbers, which he said they were, so I said ok, which ones, because me son is in contract with all of them....he then said well they will but haven't yet, he then offered to drop the counterclaim if my son dropped his claim. So it's clear that the counterclaim is only being used to bully my son into dropping his claim. The commercial manager was not aware my son had remained on site and been asked to look after the apprentice, so asked if he could check and then phone me back. When he phoned back he said the site PM denied that what I had said was true, so I offered to give him the apprentices number and he could phone and ask himself who he worked under, as I knew it was my son at the direction of the site PM, he refused to take the number but said he would offer to drop the counterclaim and give my son £289 to drop his claim. I wanted the offer in an email which he did, after I emailed back to turn down the offer he increased it to £500.....is this now an admission of guilt? I haven't put the defence in for the counterclaim yet and I'm tempted to point out that it seems its an abuse of the system and being used to bully my son...but not sure if this would be wise. I've also asked for the report that detailed the work was substandard or failing that a breakdown of how they arrived at the £2650, but they are unwilling or unable to provide this.

HI IM WONDERING WHAT IS MY BEST OPTION IVE RECIEVED A LETTER YESTERDAY FROM MARSTON REGARING ANGLIAN WATER BILL ITS A NOTICE OFF ENFORCEMENT I HAVE RECIEVED U MUST PAY OR ARGEE A PAYMENT ARANGEMENT BY 16TH OFF MARCH . IVE READ NOT GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS COMPANY AND IM REALLY WORRIED I CURRENTLY WORK PART TIME WAS DOING FULL TIME HRS BUT PUB I WORK IN TRADE HASNT BEING GOOD SO CUT MY HRS DOWN . i currently live wth a guy ..do i have to declare his income to them if i phone them up ...?. im wondering if to go to my local court office on monday morning as im not very good dealing with stress off baliffs visting my home and asking them for help ..i would sooner pay them a amount i can afford .. any advice will be welcome .the debt is 1.400 .. ive only just got on top off my rent areaeas .and nearly finshed paying rossindales off from last yrs council tax ..and now this worry