taking builder to court, help please?

[mishel02]

Hi

I had an extension built and a written quote and contract stating price of £15k and 5 weeks to complete. We had loads of problems with him, poor quality work project ran on and on, he asked for more moeny which we gave him (another 2k). Asked for more money and we said no and he walked off site. This was 15 weeks into the job. We asked him to come back and he said no, we sent him a letter containing quotes to finish the job, he still said he was not paying up.

 

We now are looking at taking him to court, we are going to have to pay another £8k to have the job finished and corrected. Building inspector said loads of things were wrong. We dont have that kind of money (my husband has had to retire due to ill health), we are going to struggle to pay all of the bills,

 

can anyone give me any suggestions, ive been told I can only claim £5k with the small claims.

 

I have checked the land registry and he owns his own home, what are the chances of getting any money back?

 

He seems to be in debt as there is an interim charging order on his house which was only registered last week, not sure what this means either?

 

Thanks

[loopinlouie]

Goodness, you dont need the stress do you. Was he a ltd company, do you have any letter heads showing quotes with ltd on them. If not you could go after him personally, but the charging orders are not a good sign.

 

Have you contacted trading standards?

 

Some good advice I am sure will come when relevant caggers come on line, best wishes xxx

[mishel02]

He was not a limited company and i could not find him registered with companies house.

 

I did contact trading standards and they also wrote to him but he simply did not reply to their letters, they told me to walk away but I feel like I need to do something

 

Thanks for the reply

[loopinlouie]

Seems your only option is court, you will have to pay the fees and if get judgement awarded in your favor, you may have a long weight to get anything, as frustrating as it is.

 

If not registered with companies house was he paying tax, they might be interested on this issue the tax office that is.

 

Wonder if hes a morgage on the house or paid off as in equity?

 

Some better advice if other avenues available would come along I am sure xx

[buzby]

Just a warning = he may be showing as 'owning his own home', in that he may be the actual beneficial owner, but not have the equity. In other words, you could win, seek to recover the money from his property, only to discover there is a 1st Charge in that any sale results in the Mortgage company getting their loan repaid, and you are behind them.

 

If he is in negative equity, this works against you so you might want to check what the inhibitions and securities are on the property -only if this looks OK is it worth proceeding.

[mishel02]

Thanks fopr your help, is there any way I can check if he has equity in his house?

[buzby]

Not easily (if at all). The LR will show you who the Mortgage is with, as to how much deposit he paid and the amount borrowed, the LR don;t know these figures.

[mcgu6240]

I don't know how much practical help I can offer, but as someone who has gone through - and still going through - the stress of cowboy builders I would at least like to offer support. Our cowboy cost us in excess of £70k and counting as ours was a new build. There was no chance that we could afford to take him to court for the full amount as the legal costs would have completely crippled us. However for my sanity I decided to fight back. Oh and Trading Standards- completely useless - well in my area anyway.

I am taking the builder to court for £5k - to begin with - and doing it through summary claims - why am I doing this- for the small reason I don't see why he shouldn't face justice in some way and to stop me feeling like a victim. He doesn't have a house (in his wife's name), but he has cars etc. I won't stop until I have made him bankrupt and make it harder for him to make other peoples' lives a misery and if I can stop in his tracks for a year then great. And make it difficult for him to get credit in the future. There are no guarantees of winning but we have all the evidence to back everything we are claiming and that's what you need to think about. If you can cope with the hassle and the stress of doing all this yourself

 

What we did was firstly have proper surveyor and structural engineer's reports, detailing both the bad workmanship and the amount of work still left to do. I don't know if these are necessary for your build - ours was a big project-but may stand you in good stead as these are independent professionals and courts like that. These are not cheap, but you may be able to claim costs. Keep all evidence of your attempts to get him back on site and rectify things. All invoices and copies of cheques you wrote out to him and list any cash payments. If you take on someone else to complete the job before any action, then ensure they provide you with detailed invoices and nothing claimed for is 'enhancing' the original build. E.g if you agreed a price with your old builder to have a 3k kitchen installed and you decide with the new builder that you'd like the 5k one then you may have difficulties, keep to the original plan. If you are going to await the outcome of the court then the above reports and/or quotes from at least 3 builders would help to show how much this is going to cost you.

 

Good luck and try the small/summary claims route. Why should these people get away with it as unfortunately if the individual does nothing then nothing gets done. Our builder's work appeared on TV also (not our house, we gave them contact details of another victim). You might want to search out other victims of his, they will be there.

 

Good luck finger.

[mcgu6240]

I should also have said that in many areas (not mine) there are Citizen Advice Bureaux who help people through the small claims process so check this out. Some courts have this service in house. Also if you are in a university town - and there is a law school they may have pro bono services. And check your house insurance some policies will cover you for legal fees.

[flyingdr]

Hi mishel02

 

If you have home legal expenses cover with your home insurance check with them. They have free legal advice and may cover any legal costs in the claim.

 

flyingdr