LORD ROOFING AND GROUNDS WORKS LTD Refusing to Repair Poorly Laid Driveway and Using Intimidation to Enforce Payment

[BankFodder]

Whatever happens we must file and serve something – but it will depend on what they file and serve.

If you aren't certain of the terms "file" and "serve", "file" means to supply the documents to the court. "Serve" means to supply the documents to the other side.

If they do comply with the order it may be that they will send the documents on the 28th and they should arrive with you on the 29th or even 30th. I don't think we will be in a position to object.

4 January is a Tuesday and you should be prepared to send off your documents on Monday 3 – one set to the court and one set to the other side on the Monday – special next day delivery.
You can't afford to make a mistake on this.

 

 

I would also like to know how often they have used Covid as an explanation for some kind of action or non-action.

You made some reference to it earlier on in the thread that I would like it laid out please – bullet pointed chronology. Very important

 

Make sure you include the time you have spent on preparing your court bundle as part of your timesheet. It all counts

And you still haven't told us, on the third time of asking, whether they have paid your bankruptcy costs.

[BankFodder]

I'm still trying to find out if they complied with the order to pay you the costs in relation to their failed bankruptcy application.

This is the fourth time of asking you and I don't know why you appear to want to keep it such a secret.

I'm not asking you to show me your willy – just simply to tell me whether they've paid you.

Also, I hope you realise that over the coming weekend we will be putting your responses together and that means that you have to be in close contact. It has to be finished by Sunday night and I hope you realise that this means that I am spending some of the New Year's weekend putting in this work for you.

[Chipsticks]

Hello BankFodder,

 

They have still not paid the costs awarded to me by the statutory demand

 

I have been keeping a log of all the time I have spent thus far on the defence etc. I will begin compiling that into a spreadsheet in the categories you instructed

 

In terms of the COVID isolation and delays by Lord. Matthew Moore is the groundworks "director" and James Moore is the roofing director. All my correspondence initially had been with James Moore (as he is also the main director of the company), however he has continuously bounced me between his brother (Matthew) and other people in his company

 

• On Friday 18th June 2021 I received an email (below) which was their explanation as to why there had been delays in hearing from them and action on addressing the workmanship issues I raised

 

James Moore (Director)- "Matthew has been off since Monday self-isolating for his operation today. Richard Boucher from Tobermore will be attending the property on Monday/Tuesday.

Regards (My addendum: This man never arrived)

James"

 

• On 4th October 2021 after I sent an email with no response for some time, I received the following email. The explanation of COVID isolation

 

James Moore (director)- "For the record, I have responded, and clearly advised that I need to complete a site visit. I will be bringing my Senior Groundworks Manager, Lee Woodward with me. Keeping in-line with government guidelines, and my illness, I was not prepared to potentially put my staff at risk until I had been cleared with a negative Covid-19 test."

 

• And now, 7th December 2021 I received the following application for a set aside, explaining it was due to COVID isolation

 

"The claim was not replied to as the person dealing with it tested positive with covid. I have since taken on the roll (sic) and would like the process to start again so we can submit our side including email exchanges between outselves and the claimant. "

 

Anything else do let me know.

 

And thank you all on the site for your help!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Chipsticks

[BankFodder]

Thanks.

There is nothing which clearly suggests that it is the same person who has had Covid

I think we will have to take it face value

[BankFodder]

If you haven't received anything in the post tomorrow, I suggest that you telephone the court tomorrow afternoon to see if they have received anything – then again on Wednesday, on Thursday and on Friday. At about 3:00 PM each time.

[BankFodder]

I understand that you haven't received anything so far.

 

Keep on telephoning the court – and if they say they have received something then you need to get a copy of it quickly by email.

In terms of your own submissions, they will need to be in PDF format. If documents are being prepared in Microsoft Word format, then they will need to be converted to PDF.

[Chipsticks]

court telephoned today (and yesterday)

 

They have received nothing from Lord via email or post.

 

They are happy to accept delivery of documents/particulars/evidence etc. by email.

 

[BankFodder]

Thanks.

 

Let's keep checking but it's looking good

[BankFodder]

Here's an update on this ongoing story.

I'm updating this myself because it seems that the OP has dropped out. In fact he was acting on behalf of another family member.

The set-aside hearing was set for a date about 2 1/2 weeks ago but on the day in question, the OP had other commitments and was unable to assist his family member.

The family member was out of their depth.
The defendant building company told the judge that in fact they were owed about £8000 because they had been paid. Of course the £8000 had been withheld because the job was in such bad condition.
However the judge turned to the claimant and said is it true that the claimant owed £8000. The claimant was out of their depth became flustered and simply said yes that they did oh the £8000.

Of course that was completely the wrong thing to say. The claimant should have said that they didn't owe the money because the job had been carried out so badly that in fact it was the defendant who owed money to undo the damage and then to bring the job up to scratch.
However, the claimant didn't say that and on that basis the judge had really no choice other than to allow the set-aside.
Apparently during the telephone exchange, the defendant represented by James Moore who is the managing director of the defendant company started raising his voice and interrupting the judge and the claimant and the judge had to get quite angry to get him to shut up.

Anyway the result is that the set-aside was allowed, the claimant had to submit an amended particulars of claim by today – 1 February 2022 and the defendant to provide a defence 21 days later.
The amended predictors of claim has now been prepared and has been filed with the court today and is being served on the defendant this afternoon.

 

Claim number 242MC258 amended POC.pdf

 

 

Of course none of this was helped by the fact that the claimant's helper originally made a catastrophic mistake in calculation of the value of the claim by attempting to claim back not only the cost of remedial work but also the entire cost of the contract even though most of that had been withheld.
The defendants realised this at the last moment and this was part of their basis for resisting the set-aside.
It was clear that the judge was not impressed and probably helped to undermine the judges confidence in the claimant's case.

This has now been addressed in the amended particulars of claim which now concern both the front drive and the rear patio together where as the original claim consent only the rear patio.

The reason that the original claim did not combine the two contracts is because on the original calculation which had mistakenly included the entire contract price, the total came to more than the small claims limit. It was for this reason that the claim was divided into two parts.

Now that the claim has been properly calculated, it is well within the small claims limit and so it makes sense to get the whole thing out of the way at one go.

 

[BankFodder]

Also if people read back through this rather lengthy thread, they will see that at one point when the claim was trying to sort it out by discussion, the defendants tried to strong-arm the issue by trying to make the claimant bankrupt.
The bankruptcy was set aside. The defendant was criticised for being heavy-handed and an order for costs – £192 was made against them in favour of the claimant.

The order was made several months ago and it has been disobeyed by the defendant.

The claimant has now written to Lord and very generously given the notice that they have five more days to pay or that the bailiffs will be instructed.

So that is Friday 4:00 PM and after that it will be a form N323 to apply for a warrant of control against the defendants Lord roofing and groundworks Ltd

 

[Kestrel123]

Hello,

 

I am taking over from Chipsticks with regards to this thread. I'm writing to provide you all with a high level summary of what has happened so far.

 

1. Lord made an application to the court on the 26.11.21 to set aside the judgement which was made previously in default as Lord did not attend the court hearing or submit a response. The judgement was that Lord was required to pay £3,081.12. Their reason for not attending was that the person handling the claim came down with Covid. On the application to set aside the judgement it mentioned a lady who worked for Lord would be dealing with the claim, whose name is Kelly Sloan.

 

2. It was ordered that the defendant must by 4pm on the 28.12.21, file at the court and serve on the claimant their evidence in support of the application including the reasons for not responding to the claim and their defence of the claim. The Defendent failed to meet the deadlines of the 28.12.21 by 4pm. I spoke with the Court to find out if any evidence had been submitted, and they confirmed that evidence had not been submitted and they had been granted an extension to submit their evidence by a new date, 13.01.22 and that the new court date hearing would be 18.01.22. Lord submitted evidence that stated that they were happy to deduct the repair costs from the outstanding balance. I previously explained to Lord that the repair costs were for the rear patio only and not for both contracts and that the claim was only for the rear patio. My response to the defendant's submitted evidence in summary was that I made an error with the initial claim total value and advised what the total claim value should be.

 

3. On 18.01.22, Kelly Sloan did not attend the phone hearing, but the managing direction James Moore did. The judge did not listen to what I had to say, and focused on the mistake with regards to the incorrect figure. The Judge ordered that amended particulars of claim were to be submitted to the court by 01.02.22.

 

4. Amended particulars of claim were submitted to the court 01.02.22. The front drive and rear patio are now combined. In summary, Total value of two contracts for the front drive and rear patio = £7,888.00 + £2,650.00 = £10,538.00. I paid deposits equal to £1,577.60 + £530.00 respectively totalling £2,107.60. I witheld £8,430.40 as the work was defective. I have received three quotations for the repair works. Company 1 = £14,800.00, Company 2 = £14,280.00 & Company 3 £15,300. I prefer company 3 as they appear to be the most reputable and knowledgeable. I'm seeking to recover the deposits plus the cost of remedial work so that the final cost to myself totals £10,538.00 being the original total contract price.

 

Money withheld and therefore not claimed = £8430.40

 

Balance of remedial work = £6,869.60 (Remedial work £15,300.00 - money witheld £8,430.40)

 

Independent Report which confirmed defective work = £355.00

 

Total Claim = £7,224.60.

 

5. I also sent copies of the quotations to Lord via Email to which James Moore responded saying that they were comical and that he could write me a quotation for £50,000.00.

 

6. The defendant applied to the court last year to make be bankrupt whilst I was trying to have the work rectified by the defendant. I issued an application to the court to set aside and on the 12.10.21 it was ordered that Lord's statutory demand was to be set aside following the hearing of myself in person and due to the fact Lord did not attend the set aside hearing or provide contact details. On the 28.01.22 I sent an email to James Moore the director of Lord reminding him of this judgement and I received payment from Lord of £195.00 on the 03.02.22.

 

7. Lord are required to file evidence or a counterclaim by 4pm on the 22.02.22.

[FTMDave]

Well done on getting paid your costs - I bet Lord never had that in mind when they launched their bullying bankruptcy claim!

[BankFodder]

Thank you for this very useful summary. It's an excellent summing up.

You have submitted your amended particulars of claim and so there is very little to do now other than to wait for their amended defence – and they will probably file a counterclaim as well.
We'll see.

In the meantime, I think it's very important that you show yourself as being completely upfront and squeakyclean about this.

This means that I think that you should write to them and renew your invitation to them to make their own comments on the report that you have already supplied to them several months ago and also I think you should renew the invitation to them to arrange for their own completely independent inspection of the work so that they can compile their own report.

You may be hesitant about this but there is no disadvantage to you. I think you can make it clear in your invitation that particularly, the managing director James Moore is not invited onto your property and that the inspection should be carried out by an independent expert although that independent expert may be accompanied by a member of Lord roofing – possibly Matthew Moore.

I would suggest that you use pretty well the same wording as you did in the original invitation to comment on the report and also the same wording as you used in the original invitation to carry out an inspection.

I suggest that you prepare those written invitations and post them up here in draft format so that we can check them and make suggestions and then you should send them off.

I think this needs to be done quite quickly. I think that the invitation should be prepared and sent off by Friday which is not too bad. It gives you a clear three days and seeing as the wording has by and large already been prepared in the previous invitations, it shouldn't cause any problem.

Also, please will you upload a copy of the amended particulars of claim here in PDF format.

[Kestrel123]

Hello, Please find attached the PDF, you requested for me to put on the thread.

 

Claim number 242MC258 amended POC.pdf

 

[BankFodder]

Thanks.

Now let's get the drafts of the invitations to comment on the report and also the invitation to inspect sorted out.

Once that's done, you can relax until we see their amended defence. As I said, it's important that we get this invitations out quickly

[Kestrel123]

Quote

 

Dear James, 

 

I would like to give you the opportunity once again to carry out your own independent inspection if you wish but they should be by appointment and I would require advanced details of the person carrying out the inspection along with any fees and also any undertaking by you to provide me with a copy of the report whatever its conclusions are. 

Your independent inspector can be accompanied, if you wish, by one member of your firm but given the difficult situation between us, there should be someone other than yourself. I would require advance notice of the identity of the person who would be accompanying your independent inspector.

Once again I would like to reiterate that on the 16/09/2021 I emailed you giving you the opportunity to do so, but you did not respond to the offer.

 

Kind regards, 

 

xxxxxxx

 

 

[BankFodder]

That's fine. I've added a couple of extra sentences in red.

That is exactly what is needed and if they don't respond then you will include this letter in your court bundle and make it clear to the court that you have given them various opportunities.

Can you please post up the letter inviting them once again to provide comments on the independent report which you have obtained.

[Kestrel123]

Hi, do you want me to attach the engineer's to the letter ?                                                        

[BankFodder]

Good idea, enclose a copy of the report with the letter. Post a draft here

[Kestrel123]

Hi Bankfodder, Letter one below giving another opportunity to carry out their own independent inspection.

 

Dear James, 

 

I would like to give you the opportunity once again to carry out your own independent inspection if you wish but they should be by appointment and I would require advanced details of the person carrying out the inspection along with any fees and also any undertaking by you to provide me with a copy of the report whatever its conclusions are. 

 

Your independent inspector can be accompanied, if you wish, by one member of your firm but given the difficult situation between us, there should be someone other than yourself. I would require advance notice of the identity of the person who would be accompanying your independent inspector.

 

Once again I would like to reiterate that on the 16/09/2021 & 23/09/2021 I emailed you giving you the opportunity to carry out your own independent inspection, but you did not take me up on this offer.

 

Kind regards, 

 

xxxxxxx

[Kestrel123]

Hi Bank Fodder. Letter two inviting Lord to comment on the report again.

 

Dear James, 

 

I would like to give you the opportunity once again to comment on the independent engineer's report which I supplied to you on the 10/09/21. I would like you to address the report in writing point by point should you wish to comment on the report.

 

Once again, I would like to reiterate that on the 20/09/21 & 23/09/21 I invited you to make your own independent comments on the report which you have not done. 

 I attach a second copy of the report in case you have lost the first one that I gave you.

Kind regards, 

 

xxxxxxx

Edited February 8, 2022 by BankFodder
Edits in red

[Kestrel123]

Hi Bankfodder, just to let you know, I emailed the two letters you told me to send to James yesterday. 

[BankFodder]

Great. Well done .

Put a note in your diary for the filing date for their defence.

Nothing to do until then

 

 

[Kestrel123]

Okay that's great. 

[Kestrel123]

Hi BankFodder, Just to give you an update that I have sent the email you advised me to send.

I am also waiting for the Engineer to get back to me, I will let you know when he does.