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As an assignee or creditor as defined in section 189 of the CCA this applies to this new requirement on assignment of rights. This means that when an assignee purchases debts (or otherwise acquires rights under a credit agreement) it also acquires certain obligations to the borrower including the duty to comply with CCA requirements (such as the rules on statements and notices and other post-contractual information). The assignee becomes the creditor under the agreement. This ensures that essential consumer protections under the CCA cannot be circumvented by assigning the debt to a third party. 2. The Claim relates to an alleged Credit Card agreement between the Defendant and Bank of Scotland plc. Save insofar of any admittance it is accepted that the Defendant has had contractual agreements with Bank of Scotland plc in the past, the Defendant is unaware as to what alleged debt the Claimant refers. The Defendant has not entered any contract with the Claimant. 3. The Defendant requested a copy of the CCA on the 24/12/2022 along with the standard fee of £1.00 postal order, to which the defendant received a reply from the Claimant dated 06/02/2023. To this date, the Claimant has failed to disclose a valid agreement and proof as per their claim that this is enforceable, that Default Notice and Notice of Assignment were sent to and received by the Defendant, on which their claim relies. 4. The Claimant claims a Notice of Assignment was served on the 22/02/2022. This is denied. 5. The Claimant claims a Default Notice was served on the defendant. This is denied. 6. The Claimant is put to strict proof to verify and confirm that the exhibit *** is a true copy of the agreement and are the true Terms and Conditions as issued at the time of inception of the online application and execution of the agreement. 7. The Claimant further claims that the documents are sufficient to pursue a Judgement and are therefore copies of original documents in their possession. 8. Point 3 is noted and denied. The Claimant pleads that a default notice has been served upon the defendant as evidenced by Exhibit [***]. The claimant is put to strict proof to verify the service of the above in accordance with s136 and s196 Law of Property Act 1925. 9. Point 5 is noted and disputed. 10. Point 6 is noted and disputed. The Defendant cannot recall ever having received the notice of assignment as evidenced in the exhibit marked *** The claimant is put to strict proof to verify the service of the above in accordance with s136 and s196 Law of Property Act 1925. 11. Point 11 is noted and disputed. The Defendant requested a copy of the CCA on the 24/12/2022 along with the standard fee of £1.00 postal order, to which the defendant received a reply from the Claimant dated 06/02/2023. To this date, the Claimant has failed to disclose a valid agreement and proof as per their claim that this is enforceable, that Default Notice and Notice of Assignment were sent to and received by the Defendant, on which their claim relies. 12. Point 12 is noted, the Defendant doesn’t recall receiving contact where documentation is provided as per the Claimants obligations under CCA. In addition, the Claimant pleads letters were sent on dates given, yet those are not the letters evidenced in their exhibits *** (dates are wrong) 13. Point 13 is noted and denied. Claimant is put to strict proof to prove allegations. 14. The Claimant did not provide a true copy of the CCA in response to the Defendants request of 21/12/2022. Conclusion 15. Without the Claimant providing a valid true copy of the executed Credit agreement that complies with the CCA, the Claimant has no grounds on which to enforce this alleged debt. 16. The Claimant has been unjustly enriched at the expense of the Defendant by purchasing bulk debt at a greatly reduced cost and subrogating for the original creditor in trying to recuperate the full amount of the original debt 17. The Defendant was not given ample evidence to prove the debt and therefore was not required to enter into settlement negotiations. Should the debt be proved in the future, the Defendant is willing to enter into such negotiations with the Claimant. On receipt of this claim I could not recall the precise details of the agreement or any debt and sought clarity from the claimant by way of a Section 78 request. The Claimant failed to comply. I can only assume as this was due to the Claimant not having any enforceable documentation and issuing a claim in hope of an undefended default judgment. Statement of Truth I, ********, the Defendant, believe the facts stated within this Witness Statement to be true. Signed: _________________________ _______ Dated: _____________________
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Builder overcharged £45,000 and job not completed


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When you say the builder co-owns a house, do you mean that the house is in his name? What is the value of the house and have you any idea of how much equity he has in it.

 

This is going to be very complicated. Although you have given us the story, I think that we need a better analysis of where you are.

 

How much of the work has been completed?

How much of the work is yet to be done?

Which subcontractors have visited you and how much has each one asked for?

Is the main builder – the contractor that you dealt with – still demanding any money from you?

 

You have gone to a building disputes company – how much are they charging? Have you pay them any money yet?

 

I'm amazed that CA sent you to trading standards. I know that CA are not very good but to send you to trading standards when it is clear that trading standards are not interested in dealing with these individual matters, is pretty shocking.

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Well clearly you had better not pay any more money to anybody else.

 

I'm sorry to say that although you don't deserve any of this has happened to you, you have certainly invited it – and you seem to throw money around quite easily. I don't know what you imagined that the building disputes company would do. Please would you name them here.

 

We can certainly give you advice here – but one of the things you need to realise is that if you bring any legal actions then we will help you do it yourself but we don't provide representation and we don't refer people on to lawyers. This website is all about self empowerment. If you are prepared to pursue your own actions then you stand a chance of getting some of your money back.

 

The next thing to understand is that when we recommend that people take legal actions, we recommend that they sue for sums less than £10,000 because under the small claims rules, even if you lose then you don't bear the other side's costs unless you have mitigated unreasonably. If you Sue for more than £10,000 then the chances are you will be allocated to the "fast track" and that means that if you lose, you will have to bear the winners costs. This often encourages a well resourced opponent to splash out on a lawyer to essentially frighten you into withdrawing or to making a compromise which you need not otherwise make.

 

I think the first thing to do is to list out all of the agreed work which still needs doing.

List out all of the work which has been done but is of poor standard.

 

You need to get an independent quote for doing the work which still needs doing and another independent quote for making good the poor standard work.

 

When you've done that come back here. We will then help you decide whether or not it is worth bringing a legal action.

 

I would not bother to bring any legal actions against the subcontractors. There would be problems in doing that. First of all you don't really know who they are if they have any assets. Sensors to sue people who have got no assets and who are very likely to try and avoid any enforcement procedures once you had a judgement against them.

Secondly, by attempting to sue one of the subcontractors you would then essentially be admitting that you had a contract with that subcontractor – and if it then turned out that they put in a counterclaim for money which they said you owed them, you would be at risk of losing and then having to pay that money.

 

You have identified the builder. You have identified the fact that the builder has an asset and I think you're best off keeping all of your quarrels with that builder. It is also fairly clear to me that that builder is operating in a way which is helping him to avoid tax or national insurance responsibilities – and at the end of the day that is something which will help you – although you should keep that up your sleeve for the moment.

 

Get the quotations which I have suggested and come back here. Stop chucking money around.

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The original agreed work with the builder – was that set down in writing?

 

At what point after that did you ask for the aerial et cetera to be fitted?

 

What evidence might you be able to produce to show that that was part of the original contract?

 

You have a copy of the cost breakdown which includes VAT 40%?

 

Who are the building disputes company? You haven't answered this question

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I don't think you should worry about naming companies. As long as you are straight dealing with everyone – then you have nothing to lose. You should put up the names of all the companies that you deal with – why not? We don't do secret squirrel stuff here.

 

I think you may have difficulty getting your money back simply on the basis that you have overpaid them. We will have to look at that more carefully later on. However, if you simply try to claim £45,000 then as I have already said you will end up on the fast track and if you lose, you will end up paying the other side's costs and it seems to me that you have paid them enough money already. From what I understand so far your chances of winning simply on the basis of an action for overpayments would be 50-50. I would never advise anyone to bring action on those odds – especially on the fast track.

 

I think the thing to do is to start recuperating money for poor work. So I think that you need to start identifying work which has been poorly carried out, getting quotes for remedial work – and then suing for that money. Your chances of winning on those issues is pretty high – better than 80% an important thing is that it is likely to be for sums which can be kept on the small claims track.

 

If you identify different areas of work which are inadequate and the cumulative cost of repairs or making good comes to more than £10,000 then we would look to bring an action for each one separately.

 

You will have to let us know what has been said. Make sure that each area of inadequate work is identified on its own and the quote for remedial work for each area is presented separately in a detailed breakdown. You may well need to get more than one quote for each piece of remedial work because you will need to show the court that comparative quotes say broadly the same thing and that you will be suing for the cheapest of them.

 

In terms of the aerial fitter, we will need to have a look and see whether it is possible to argue that this work is part of the original agreed contract. If it is not then you may have to pay it but we will say that the work is subject to section 15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 – that where a price for services has not been agreed in a reasonable price will be implied. In this case, you will have to get independent quotes for the work which has been carried out in order to show that the price that your man is claiming is unreasonable.

 

I suppose that you will think that I'm adding to your woes, that I had better spell it out for others who are considering the same kind of building work.

 

You got involved in a building work contract of fairly high value. You then absented yourself from the work site for large periods of time so that you exercised no supervision over what was happening and you had no one else do it for you. If you had exercised supervision I don't know whether you feel that you would have been competent to make any judgement as to the quality of what was happening or whether you feel that you would have had the strength to challenge the builder for the repeated absences which it seems he was charging you out at £180 a day.

 

You didn't keep any account so you were chucking money at it without keeping tabs on what you are paying.

 

You started agreeing to payment arrangements which were clearly intended for tax reasons or for national insurance reasons which may or may not have been completely proper.

 

No doubt you have learned lessons from this although I can imagine that you may not ever be commissioning any building work of this scale again. However, other people who read the thread ought to understand a little bit of some of the very basic ways that they should look after their own interests. It's not hard.

 

How much of this money do you have receipts for?

 

Have you kept any logs of dates when the builder was not on site?

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Of course, if you want to make progress with this then you will need to engage with this thread

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Okay, I now understand that included in the works which were carried out were the fitting of an aerial and extenders into the loft area.

 

I've looked at the builders quotation and it seems to me that it is easily possible to say that these works were not included in the original quotation. Your position so far has been that they were. However, although the original quotation refers to "electrics" I think that this refers to electrical wiring and not the installation of an aerial system.

 

In order to reduce the amount of problems that you have and also I think to show that you are prepared to make a stand, I think you should deal with the aerial fitting separately.

 

It certainly seems to me that the amount of money which is being asked – about £800, is very high for the aerial work. I would suggest that you write back to the aerial fitter and say that you have now looked again at the quotation which was originally given to you and that you now accept that the aerial work was not part of the original contract as you had at first thought.

 

However, you consider that the amount of money you being asked is unreasonably high – and that you would draw their attention to section 15 of the supply of goods and services act 1982 in which it says that where a price for services has not been agreed then a reasonable price will be implied.

 

Tell the aerial fitter that because of this you will now be seeking independent quotations from aerial fitters for exactly the same work and you will then revert to him.

 

I suggest that you obtain two independent quotations for the equivalent work and then send your aerial fitter a cheque for a sum of money which falls in between the two independent quotations. This means that if you have one quotation for £200 and one quotation for £240, that you should send your aerial fitter £220.

 

You would in that case tell the aerial fitter that you consider that this is a reasonable price based on independent quotations and that if he has any issue with it then he is free to start an action in the County Court for the balance – but you will defend vigourously.

 

I think this will have the effect of starting to be proactive about this – because so far it seems to me that you are on the run. This will send a message to everybody – including a court that you are perfectly prepared to pay a reasonable cost – but that you are now prepared to stand your ground.

 

Another advantage of this approach will be to reduce the amount of money in dispute and that will make it less worthwhile for the aerial fitter to sue you and also reduce the coffee in the event that you lose.

 

We will deal with the other people who are after you separately. We will also consider what position you should take against the main builder who organised the job and the subcontractors who are now saying that they were working directly for you rather than for the principal builder as part of the main quotation.

 

When you have drafted the initial email to the aerial fitter, please let us know and we will advise you as to whether we think it is suitable to be sent.

 

I think you need to get a move on with this because I understand that the aerial fitter has already proposed to bring a legal action. Don't forget, that the aerial fitter has carried out some of the work and so he is entitled to some kind of payment – and so you should make this payment as quickly as possible and then let him argue the toss about the rest.

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I've amended your suggested letter:

 

 

Dear aerial installer

 

I have examined the original quotation for the renovation of my house and have concluded that the work you carried out was not included in the original contract.

 

However your invoice is excessive. It is clear from the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 that where the price for services has not been agreed then a reasonable price will be implied.

 

As you know, you did not provide a quote for the work in advance and nothing was agreed.

 

I propose to contact two companies to give quotes to me for the work which you have carried out.

 

Then, I will then make a payment to you for the average of the two quotes.

 

I will be in touch with you when I have received the quotes but probably in the next 10 days.

 

I understand that you are proposing to bring a legal action. That's a matter for you but you should understand that you are required to comply with the pre-action protocol for this kind of thing.

 

In any event I suggest that you wait for the outcome of my research into reasonable prices.

 

Best wishes,

 

And by the way, it is the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. The consumer rights act merely introduced a change to the wording – only a small change.

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I think now we will need to turn our attention to the plasterer.

 

It would be helpful if you could set out in summary what the situation is with the plasterer.

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Thank you. what about the aerial man . Have you had any kind of reaction?

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Ok well I suggest that you send him a message immediately and point out to them that under section 15 of the supply of goods and services act 1982, where no price has been agreed then a reasonable price will be employed.

tell him that you are taking immediate steps to ascertain what the normal price is and if he won't wait and wants to begin a legal action then that is his choice but that you will point out to the court that firstly he has not followed the pre-action protocol correctly and secondly that you have tried to be reasonable that he has rushed into court and started an action.

 

tell him that once you've discovered what a reasonable price is that you will pay that to him regardless of whether or not he has started a legal action and then he can continue for the balance and that you expect that he will lose.

 

Tell him that it's his choice.

 

Tell him that this message will be shown to the court at the inevitable hearing.

 

put in hand the business of getting two independent quotations as quickly as possible.

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The plasterer has had a solicitor's letter sent to me stating that I employed him directly and gave him instructions, even though I never talked or messaged him. He has stated that if I don't pay him the £1440 that he has invoiced that he will take legal action to recover it.

 

The plastering is definitely included in the builder's original quote. I have already paid £35,000+ in excess of the original quote.

 

Also, the amount that I have been invoiced/paid for plastering is very high for the work which has been done.

 

The plasterer is close friends with the builder and evidently went to the same solicitor at the same time too.

 

There are problems with the plastering - it is possible to see the boarding beneath on one of the walls and parts have totally missed being plastered.

 

At the builder's direction I have previously made two payments to the plasterer totalling £4080.

 

Please will you make sure that you have all of the invoices provided to you by the plasterer.

 

If there are any missing then you should write to the plasterer immediately and say that you are considering what he has said that it appears that not all of the invoices are in your possession and can you please let you have copies of all of them.

telling him that once you have all of the copy invoices in your possession that you will then consider his request.

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It's fine

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The plasterer, why not.

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I think you are wrong and that you should follow our advice closely. I thought that. you had already requested the plasterer's invoices?

 

Have you organised the aerial quotes yet?

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A great shame that we didn't have these close earlier and the average payment hadn't been paid to him. That would have reduced the problem and made it more manageable.

 

Have you got a cheque book yet?

 

Please will you post up the claim form here in PDF format

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The problem is that without the written quotes that I have been asking you for, if in the end the quotes are different once they have visited the house and understood the work correctly then it will throw everything out of kilter.

 

This is why it is extremely important that you get these written quotations. Now that a claim has been issued against you, you need to get onto this.

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Don't worry about whether he has legal representation or not. Even if you lose the case, you will not be liable for his costs so that will simply be something that he decides to treat himself too.

 

Please make sure that you get the written quotations for the equivalent work as soon as possible and then we will help you draught a defence.

I am quite sure that the others are all watching to see what happens.

 

Don't worry about it.

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in terms of the others, I wouldn't worry about it. Don't do anything but you certainly should be getting copies of the invoices from the plasterer. Let us know how that goes.

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What about the builder? I think I should make a £10,000 claim against him in respect of overcharging. Even if that is just for the unfinished extension. He has charged £10,000 more than he quoted for that and not finished it. I had a quote today of £6000 to finish it (which I think is high and I will be looking for other quotes). If I don't take action against him I am leaving myself open to him and his two building labourers taking action against me for the wages they have invoiced me for. If the labourers do take me to court, which they have said they will, having an action against the builder will be a strong defence.

 

I'm not sure taking a defence only strategy is putting me in a strong position, and I would like to recoup some of the money I have been overcharged.

 

This will also put me in a stronger position with the plasterer.

I'm really not quite sure what to say to you.

 

You have managed to get yourself into a terrible hole already by mishandling the entire project of modifying your new home. This is partly because you undertook a project in which you have absolutely no experience.

 

Now you have come to us for help but instead of accepting our help you want to ignore what we say and instead you prefer to go off at full pelt, once again in an area of activity which you have very little or maybe no experience at all.

 

Of course you can go on to deal with the problem in any way you want. However I have to say this if you decide to ignore the advice which is given you here then I don't think we can help you any further.

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well apart from anything else, don't you think it is absolutely absurd not have the invoices for a job which either you are considering paying or else you're considering not paying?

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I have already explained to you that you must write to him and simply say that you have lost all the invoices and that before you can deal with this claim please supply you with copies of all of them.

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Any movement on this?

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