Claim for Landscape services work

[sanepersongonemad]

Hi Guys

Could do with some help.

 

i purchased a new property in april and as it was a new build the garden was just standard with no grass etc.

i found a company on gumtree and then also found it on facebook.

 

 

A young guy came out at the start of may and gave me a quote.

He also told me he had a kid and a pregnant girlfriend and due to personal issues, that resonated with me and i gave him the job.

I had to pay him the materials money by bank transfer upfront which seems common practice with labour at the end of completion. I paid him £1400.

 

After the payment he proved difficult to get hold off.

something didnt feel right but i tried to ignore my gut feeling as i knew there was now nothing i could do.

 

i was glad when he finally did turn up.

my ground was uneven so in order to add the turf it needed levelling.

he was here with another labourer and it seemed after 2 days they gave up and laid the grass unevenly on net.

i told them this was not right and the ground was uneven

but he said hed be back to fix it when the delivery of the decking would arrive.

 

so now it became very hard to contact him.

when i did speak to him, it was always the decking was out of stock.

 

 

when i asked him to come and fix the grass at least he said it would not be worth his time to come and fix it

and would only come when the decking arrived.

 

 

I soon realised it was never going to come and he had ran off with my money.

subseqently the grass on the very uneven net surface also died.

 

i did everything to contact him but it was impossible.

the phone number he gave to me was his girlfriends mother

and his girlfriend was also uncooperative.

 

i then decided to write to the address he had written on the quote and had added my phone number.

I was shocked when a lady rang me and said it was her address i had written to

and said she had also been a victim of this gardener and he had ran off with £600 of her money

 

 

The cheek to give me the address of someone else he [problem]med instead of his own is beyond comprehension.

 

I found his real address on gumtree and it was confirmed by this lady who was also trying to retrieve her money back.

I once again sent a letter - no response. I sent a letter before action - no response.

 

From what i understand this is a regular [problem] of these two.

Also the mioney i transferred was into the gardeners girlfriends account

and not his as he had me believe. so they are both in it together.

 

I rang the police to report the theft and fraud and they wont do anything.

 

From what i understand now, is that the 'gardener' is actually classed as unemployed

and so even if i now progress to court action i wont be able to get my money back.

he lives with his girlfriend and her parents.

 

 

Apparently they are well aware that it will be difficult to retrieve the money

due to the unemployed status so continue to do this and noone can stop them.

 

i cannot afford to get my garden done and the thoughts of outdoor alfresco occasions are well out of my mind.

i was also out of work at the time so struggled financially during this period.

needless to say the garden i could use before has been completely out of bounds since may.

 

dont really know what to do.

all i know is they shouldnt be able to do this to people

and make in one week more than i do in a month from stealing.

 

any thoughts guys?

 

 

not sure if its now worth paying the court fee then the hceo fee if if theres little chance of retrieval.

 

 

thanks

[Conniff]

Personally I would carry on with it and get him into court even if your paid £5 per week from his benefits.

[unclebulgaria67]

Phone the DWP benefit fraud line to report that he is earning money through cash jobs while claiming benefits.

 

You are unlikely to get your money back,so might as well grass on him. The money into his girlfriends account may be so this money is not seen by anyone checking his account.

 

You could see if you can get local council trading standards interested, given there are at least 2 victims. If they take him to court, you can ask for restituition.

[sanepersongonemad]

iv reported it to trading standards via cab. im happy to get £5 a week! but i read somewhere its hard to get your money back if the persons on benefits?

[sanepersongonemad]

does anyone have any further advice?

 

 

iv just started the moneyclaim form but i am stuck on it.

not sure what to put in terms of the date money was owed to me

or daily interest which i wil be claiming for.

 

 

i am not sure what to write to summarise in the short statment either as i dont want to write too much.

 

 

whats worrying is that this 'company' is still on yell.com and no doubt theyl keep doing this.

 

 

i have anither gardener now who promised the work to be completed in 3 weeks

but has taken 2 months and never turns up when he says he is going to,

usually once a week instead of every day and just for a few hours b

ut i have decided to be patient with him and be amicable as the stress drains me out.

 

 

i definantly want my money back from these guys who have ripped me off.

i dont care if its £5 a week.

 

 

i believe he lives with the girlfrineds parents and has kids with the girlfriend.

i tried everything even offering instalements as a repayment but every good deed was meant with a cheek

'wev spent the money and theres nothing you can do' words to that effect

but it was on text so i know thats pointless.

 

 

dont know what else to do.

 

 

would appreciate the advice thanks

[dx100uk]

name and shame will probably hurt him more than a ccj

 

 

dx

[sanepersongonemad]

yes but i also want my money back.

 

 

i am happy to name and shame as hes doing it to others.

 

 

hes so cheeky that he gave me his address as somebody elses who hed ripped off!

 

 

police are not doing anything .

 

 

can i get help with the moneyclaim form?

 

 

i will be paying hceo to enforce judgement no doubt but i just want my money back.

[citizenB]

You just need to submit a brief outline of the situation for your actual claim. You will then "beef it up" when it comes to submitting witness statements.

 

The basis of your complaint appears to be that you have paid a substantial sum of monies for materials not purchased and work not done. So that should be reflected in your claim.

 

When you submit your witness statement you would need to include copies of money transfers/cheques - dates etc and anything else to back up your claim.

 

If you want to draft something and pop it in your thread for others to comment, that might be the best way forward.

[sanepersongonemad]

ok thankyou il try that.

[sanepersongonemad]

On the x of July, I paid x by bank transfer £1384.00 as per x request to buy materials to landscape my garden after having a quote from x. Labour was to be paid at the end of the completed work. After tremendous difficulty contacting x after I had transferred the payment and which prior to this x was very contactable, i eventually had some turf delivered which was laid incorrectly into the ground which died as a result and withered away and has had to be completely removed and with several rolls left on the side which had been wrongly ordered as extras by x.

 

I had requested black decking tiles which x had said approximately made up £1100 of this £1384.00. x said it was readily available and immediately. However, once x had laid some partial grass, on a very uneven ground which wasnt even level, x said the decking was out of stock. That was on the 20th July. I continued to try and contact x repeatedly for which x ignored my calls and messages.

 

When I finally made contact with x, x once again then guaranteed it would be in stock in a few weeks and and then eventually gave the date of the 14th August. I contacted x several times in this period asking if he had ordered the decking. x proved very difficult to contact mainly ignoring me but once responded saying I will have it on the 14th August.

 

I still haven’t heard from x and despite calling x repeatedly, x has failed to answer or respond to my messages or my calls and have proved impossible to get into contact with, although I am aware he has been receiving all these messages. It seems now clear x is unwilling to provide the goods or services I paid for. x has left my garden out of use since the end of May this whole time period, which prior to this was useable. I had also at the time asked x to come and sort out the garden grass and ground out as its dangerous being so uneven while you waited for the decking but x said he would do it only when the decking has arrived.

 

I have tried relentlessly to contact x for which I know he is receiving the messages. I have also wrote 3 letters to x. The address he had given me was that of somebody else he had done this to taking £500 off her and not providing the goods also. The two further letters i sent by recorded delivery are to his address and he has failed to respond. In these letters i also offered to accept instalments and would have reached a repayment agreement but i understand by text message that the girlfriend and him have spent the money and 'theres nothing i can do'. It seems x has decided to keep my money and ignore my messages and failed to provide my goods or the service I had paid for.

 

i have also reported this to the police and have a crime reference number.

 

 

what do uou guys think? is this right?

[citizenB]

The draft above would be more suited to your Witness statement - you need to thin it right back to just the bare bones for your Claim.

[sanepersongonemad]

ok so something as simple as i got a quote for garending services from x totalling 1384. The defendant has failed to provide the goods and services i have paid for and also did not provide a cancellation cooling off period under the consumer contracts information cancellation and additional charges regulations 2013. I am reclaiming my money back plus interest

?

[citizenB]

I have alerted others on the site team to look in on you

[AndyOrch]

ok so something as simple as i got a quote for gardening services from x totaling 1384. The defendant has failed to provide the goods and services i have paid for and also did not provide a cancellation cooling off period under the consumer contracts information cancellation and additional charges regulations 2013. I am reclaiming my money back plus interest

?

 

A lot better...keep it to the bare facts (you only have so many characters to type out your particulars if using MCOL)...I would drop the cooling off period..that comes later...and you claim interest through the MCOL input dashboard...stating the number of days and calculation of interest per day.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[sanepersongonemad]

Ok Thankyou. Shall I go with the above or wait? Also with the interest I'm not sure how many days to put or when the money was due to me as he just stopped replying and ignored me and it took me a while to realise that he'd ripped me off feel so tempted to knock his door but as a 5ft girl whose only beating has been with an egg I don't think its a good idea. Feel sp angry thar he was fed a full lunch the few times he was here followed by ice creams and cokes and teas non stop and my philosophy is keep ur workforce happy and theyl work harder as theyl be happy at work. More fool me.

[AndyOrch]

Interest runs from the day you paid him and/or the day he breached the agreement....no room for sentimentality in this game

[AndyOrch]

Have another go at your particulars and post here before submitting your claim.

[sanepersongonemad]

Ok Thankyou. Not sure what else to put apart from the top and with regards to the intrest he just stopped replying at one point. I definatly have no sentimentality towards him. So disappointed that people do this especially when he knew my financial situation and I took a chance on him as he told me he was struggling and has kids. He was to be paid labour at the end of the job but seems he decided to keep the materials money instead. How cold and he's done this to one other at least. Yet the company is on yell.com

[AndyOrch]

On the (insert date) I employed the services of (Insert Defendants name/or and Trading name) for landscaping work to be carried out as per the agreed quotation.

On the x of July, I paid to the defendant by bank transfer £1384.00 for materials to be purchased in advance. Labour was to paid separately on completion and satisfaction of works.

The defendant failed to purchase materials or complete the works.

 

The claimant therefore claims £xxxxx.oo plus section 69 interest at a rate of 8% from (insert date )to date of judgment or payment.

[sanepersongonemad]

That's great Andyorch. He didn't even provide the material apart from the grass which was useless and dangerous as the ground was very uneven but worse still he laid it on net so the grass had no contact with the ground to root in so it died. I know this is going to be a long process but I'd like the chance of my money back.

[AndyOrch]

I have amended the above.

[sanepersongonemad]

thanks so much. i have submitted it now thanks to your help on money claim.

when do i need to send all the other bits of information? do i have to send anything now?

i highly doubt hel respond as he never did to my letters. but i am happy to go through all means such as hceo to get this money back as for me having looked through my quote he did not even give me a cooling off period. i initially had a quote in may. then in july the same day he quoted me the same day i paid him! i must have been stupid! but i was bought in with his 'summer time is our busiest period' rubbish and having to decide between a honeymoon or the garden in our new home whilst i was redundant, we went with the garden and thought wed just have a little party for our friends and family as we had a registry wedding all by ourselves. ironic how we never got to use the garden at all or have the honeymoon.

[AndyOrch]

thanks so much. i have submitted it now thanks to your help on money claim.

when do i need to send all the other bits of information? do i have to send anything now? No

i highly doubt hel respond as he never did to my letters.Good you will get default judgment in that case but i am happy to go through all means such as hceo to get this money back as for me having looked through my quote he did not even give me a cooling off period. i initially had a quote in may. then in july the same day he quoted me the same day i paid him! i must have been stupid! but i was bought in with his 'summer time is our busiest period' rubbish and having to decide between a honeymoon or the garden in our new home whilst i was redundant, we went with the garden and thought wed just have a little party for our friends and family as we had a registry wedding all by ourselves. ironic how we never got to use the garden at all or have the honeymoon.

 

The court will advice of procedure...but basically he has 19 days to acknowledge service and if defending a further 14 days to submit a defence...but just await acknowledge of service for now and keep your eye on MCOL and check the status.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[sanepersongonemad]

hi

so the claim was issued on the 30 nov and it said to wait 5 days after this and then 14 days after this. so i believe i am right in entering judgement by default today which i have now done. (i had a letter to say when i could do this but i cannot find it). i had no response at all from the defendant. what happens now please? the status says judgement requested now. it also gave me a choice of payment immediately or installments. i applied for immediately as i am struggling without my money and i already offered him this option before i took these steps which was completely ignored. thanks

[AndyOrch]

So you will have a forthwith judgment...this normally allows for a short period for payment...but there is nothing stopping you executing the judgment when you are ready and have allowed a little time for payment.

 

Regards

 

Andy