Run a small construction co. - client won't pay final invoice. - help RE: Small claims please ***Resolved***

[BankFodder]

Okay, the points you have made a fair enough.

Does this letter work?

 

Quote

I'm still waiting for you to raise specific objections to the work of the quality of the work which has been carried out.
Despite asking you many times to do precisely this you appear merely to have dodge the issue.

I'm fully aware of my responsibilities under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and if you can show in some way that I've fallen short of these responsibilities then once again you have an opportunity to let me know but so far you have not indicated anything.

You have asked me a question as to what I consider are my responsibilities. I have now told you for the second time in this email. If you don't understand what this response abilities are then you should probably look at the act in order to understand what your reasonable expectations are as a consumer of services.

At the time the contracted works were agreed and also while they were underway, there was never any discussion as to the need for drains to be tested.
I'm not aware that you have put this work in hand but in any event, it is also an implied term of any contract that accounts will be settled within a reasonable time.
I would say that our established practice whereby I supplied you with a weekly invoice and you settled the invoice within a very few days as laid down but can now be reasonably expected as a binding contractual term.

The invoice which you have so far declined to pay was submitted to you three months ago. You have only recently started talking about inspecting the drains and even then it has only really been in response to my letter of claim – which you suggest has damaged the bond of trust between us.

I can assure you that if the drains are tested and they are found to be wanting in some way that I will cooperate completely because as I have already explained, I'm fully aware of my statutory obligations to you and also I'm fully aware of best practice as a professional businessman who wants the best for his clients and also wants to manage his own professional reputation and the best way possible.

I'm not sure what else I can say to you except to remind you once again that my deadline for court action will expire on Friday.
I have already invited you to make a part payment in respect of work which you consider you are completely happy with and in exchange for that I would be prepared to extend by deadline the court action by a maximum of further 14 days.

Let me warn you that if you decide to make a part payment, it will only be accepted as being a payment on account. I will not be prepared to accept payment in full settlement of the invoice.

Once I issue the claim you should be aware that not only will you be liable for the claim fee and hearing costs incurred also the costs of any expert reports which might reasonably be requested or you might reasonably decide to commission.
I claim against you will also include a claim for interest which is currently awarded on the County Court scale at 8% per annum from the date that the outstanding sum was due.

Yours blah blah blah

 

[Kwabena]

I've adjusted slightly just to alter some timescales and correct some bits about work carried out as below.  Do you think I should mention that I am happy to take responsibility for the works I have personally carried out...it seems like this is a big hurdle for him to move forward in this discussion.

 

Quote

I'm still waiting for you to raise specific objections to the quality of the work which has been carried out. Despite asking you many times to do precisely this you appear merely to have dodged the issue.

I'm fully aware of my responsibilities under the consumer rights act 2015 and if you can show in some way that I've fallen short of these responsibilities then once again you have an opportunity to let me know but so far you have not indicated anything.

You have asked me a question as to what I consider are my responsibilities. I have now told you for the second time in this email. If you don't understand what this response abilities are then you should probably look at the act in order to understand what your reasonable expectations are as a consumer of services.

At the time the contracted works were agreed and also while they were underway, there was never any discussion as to the need for drains to be tested before payment.
I'm not aware that you had put this work in hand but in any event, it is also an implied term of any contract that accounts will be settled within a reasonable time.
I would say that our established practice whereby I supplied you with a weekly invoice and you settled the invoice within a very few days as laid down can now be reasonably expected as a binding contractual term.

The invoice which you have so far declined to pay was submitted to you over two months ago, and it took you three weeks plus an email from me  to respond about the drainage works which you now suggest has damaged the bond of trust between us.

I can assure you that if the drains are tested and the part I installed is found to be wanting in some way that I will cooperate completely because as I have already explained, I'm fully aware of my statutory obligations to you and also I'm fully aware of best practice as a professional businessman who wants the best for his clients and also wants to manage his own professional reputation and the best way possible.

I'm not sure what else I can say to you except to remind you once again that my deadline for court action will expire on Friday.
I have already invited you to make a part payment in respect of work which you consider you are completely happy with and in exchange for that I would be prepared to extend by deadline the court action by a maximum of further 14 days.

Let me warn you that if you decide to make a part payment, it will only be accepted as being a payment on account. I will not be prepared to accept payment in full settlement of the invoice.

Once I issue the claim you should be aware that not only will you be liable for the claim fee and hearing costs incurred also the costs of any expert reports which might reasonably be requested or you might reasonably decide to commission.
I claim against you will also include a claim for interest which is currently awarded on the County Court scale at 8% per annum from the date that the outstanding sum was due.

Yours blah blah blah

 

 

[BankFodder]

Why should you want to say that you are happy to take responsibility for certain works which you have carried out? You've already said that by saying that you consider yourself done by the obligations contained in the consumer rights act.

I don't think it's any more and I certainly don't think you should say anything such as – that you are happy to do something which almost looks as if you are putting yourself out and asking for some kind of forbearance.

As long as you are confident that when you issue the claim he won't defend on some aspects of the work which he considers to be inadequate.

Of course you will be able to demonstrate that the court that you have given him ample opportunity to make any concerns very clear before you issue the claim and that he has in fact forced you to litigate.

[BankFodder]

Once you have sent off the letter, check over the suggested particulars of claim below

 

 

Quote

The claimant carried out a series of agreed works on the defendant's property over a period of XXX weeks at a cost of XXX pounds per week to be invoice weekly and settled very shortly after.
This arrangement worked well for XX weeks and the defendant expressed no misgivings about the quality of the work.
On the submission of the final invoice value £XXX on XXX date the defendant has so far failed to pay despite the fact that there has now been a delay of three months.
The claimant has made extensive attempts to hold a dialogue with the defendant to understand what objections there might be. The defendant has broadly ignored the claimant's exchanges until the letter of claim was issued, but despite this, no discernible objections to any of the work have been made and yet the defendant continues to refuse to pay the invoice.

The defendant is fully aware of all works which have been carried out and has been supplied with all documentation.
The claimant seeks the value of the outstanding invoice £XXX plus interest to pursuant to section 69 of the County Court act 1984 from the due payment date – DD/MM/AA, plus costs.

 

 

[Manxman in exile]

Who produced the plan in #135 and does that plan relate to this project?  (I ask because it's not clear to me whether you have drawn on it in red and green just to highlight certain parts of the plan, or whether you are adding to the plan some features that are not already on it.  For instance, the green circle you have identified as "pump" is drawn around a circle already on the plan identified as "proposed manhole cover..."  So is the green circle meant to represent the pump, or is it intended to highlight the proposed manhole?)

 

And are the notes on the plan connected to the overall project you quoted for, and if so, where did the notes come from?

 

Apologies if I've missed previous clarification of this, but my understanding was that you originally quoted for a project amounting to about £80k - £90k of work, but that you only carried out £30k or so of this work - the balance being carried out by other contractors.  Is that right?

 

So who provided the project plans etc that the other contractors have worked to, and who was responsible for producing them?

 

(As I say - apologies if you have already covered this but I'm having a bit of difficulty getting my head around what your contractual relationship with your client is.  Perhaps it's common in the construction industry but I don't quite understand you providing a quote and project plans to a client, but you only undertaking a relatively small proportion of that work and the rest being carried out by other contractors.  Are those other contractors bound by your quote?  Are they following plans or advice that you have provided either to them or to the client?  Is the client querying work you have carried out, or are they actually querying the quality of advice from you and/or plans etc that the other contractors have been working to?

 

It just seems a rather odd and very awkward arrangement to me, with a lot of potential for misunderstanding between you and your client as to precisely what you are providing and what they are paying for.  It sort of sounds to me like they may not be complaining about work you have done as opposed to work you advised needed to be done by others?  For instance, I think you talk about work that you couldn't undertake because it was outside your area of expertise, but was this stuff that you had suggested, or planned, or quoted for?  I'm a bit confused...

 

Again - apologies if you've already explained all this and I've missed it.)

[Kwabena]

@Manxman in exile

 

That drawing is just a bog standard (well below average if I'm being honest) architectural drawing that was drawn up for the job as instructed by the client so that builders can quote/work from it.  It was drawn before we even went round for an initial visit

 

The key should explain the details I added...it was just to show Bankfodder the extent of the drainage works we carried out as I didn't think it had been clear before

 

Have a look at the note circled in biro...the drains were unknown and the circle on there was just a (wrong) guess by the plan drawer as to the position of the existing drain

 

We were only ever doing this on a dayrate basis....we had agreed to get it to a wind and watertight stage and go from there.  They knew it would be cheaper to employ plasterers, decorators, kitchen fitters etc direct rather than going through us so it was never the plan for us to do all of the work.

 

The subbies that had already been on site with us were trades that we would work with anyway wether it was quoted or not.  They were paid direct by the client rather than through me.  I only charged for my labour and the two people I have working for me...everything else was paid directly by the client to the relevant sub contractor

 

There doesn't appear to be any concerns over the standard of work,  just a sense of injustice that they paid a lot for the drains and I guess they want to blame me for this.  It's easy for the people who eventually fitted the pumped drain to come in and say it should have been done differently,  especially as I'm sure that the client would have been questioning them and wanting to hear that answer anyway.  As I said above I'm not convinced anyone has actually done a drain survey and made any solid suggetions as  to what this other solution should have been. 

 

We inspected all posibiliites..lifted the neighbours drains, checked all levels with a laser looking for some way to connect without using a pump...then discussed options with building control and client and it was deemed a pump was the most suitable/only option

 

Hope that answers your questions..feel free to let me know if not!

[Kwabena]

They have offered to pay full amount, minus a £400 deduction for materials left on site.

 

I disagree with the £400 deduction but am tempted to take the offer...any thoughts?

[BankFodder]

Well at least you are getting a result and you have called their bluff.

This is where it has been going all along .

They really thought that they would get away with everything .

In terms of the materials left on site, I don't really understand what the situation is with them so maybe you could explain specifically.

 

 

Also, how was their offer made? Was it made in full and final settlement? Was it made without prejudice? Was it made in confidence?

Maybe you can post up the full text of their offer

 

 

 

[Kwabena]

 

I'll post it but it's not pretty reading!  Obviously I disagree with a lot of these points...but ,  I can understand how they would feel these ways about things due to the lack of ongoing dialogue throughout this project...They aren't aware of things that come up on a day to day basis that cause delays and changes to plans so would be left 

 

I won't bother rebutting any of these on here unless asked as I'm not sure how relevent it is...Just to put it out there though...we have done four other large project on this day work basis  (although wont do any more) and on every other occasion have left on good terms, been recommended by them and have been invited back to do more work for one.

 

On thing I would say is that he says the £400 is in liue of the lights and the materials left on site...I have already taken off the £160 bookkeeping charge to pay for the lights

 

**** 

 

I can see that you are not responding to the reasonable requests for information that has been requested.  And to be honest from the exchange of emails between yourself and us, your tone is unhelpful.  During this exchange we have tried to keep a professional dialogue going with you and to try and get you to understand our view point but that is just not happening.  

 

From earlier in this exchange you were vocal in your opinion on us and how we have treated you, now I can no longer be silent.  Throughout this build you have been more worried about your subcontractors than your client, us.  We have tried to be a good client by paying on receipt of invoice and dealing with any queries or requests promptly so you can get the build complete.  This has not been reciprocated.   Your responses have been vague with a lack of commitment to time or cost, and as a result incurring additional costs for us.

 

You still haven’t confirmed what you are taking responsibility for and you continue to be vague in your response.  As a result we can only conclude you are taking responsibility for all works completed whilst you were on site, as well as when payments were made directly to the other contractors by us.  This is the only conclusion to be drawn from the lack of a response.  

 

There was a clear expectation that you would complete a working drainage system, in line with the quote you submitted and the discussions on site.  When we hired you we were expecting and were lead to believe that you were a contractor with the necessary experience and knowledge to undertake our extension and all the works discussed.  This has not been the case.  When discussing issues you have implied that you have given us the information and that its up to us, at no point did we feel that you were responsible for the build as the contractor.  This is one of our main exceptions and which we felt you let us down on. We still cannot understand your decision making process as you were frequently asking us to make decisions on small insignificant items but on other larger items we were totally disregarded.  

 

Your work ethic since we agreed to go day rate has been somewhat disappointing and we feel that you have taken advantage of us in how you have managed the work. Taking 3 days with 3 people to dig a soak away and taking 7 working days to do the breakthrough was unbelievable.  Having had building work done before we feel that this was overly lengthy and we believe if you had been working to a fixed price your work rate would have been better.

 

Because of your belligerent attitude and lack of ownership we feel we have been unable to raise any issues as your attitude has been condescending and at no point have you taken ownership as the contractor. 

 

Having your terms and conditions 2 weeks before start on site is hardly good business practice and left us in a position of either we went ahead or left at such a late stage of finding another contractor.  You had already delayed the build by 2 months from the original start date because you fitted in an additional 4 week project elsewhere.  

 

When you talk about terms and conditions, you have failed to take in consideration what we were receiving as a service.  We hired you on the basis that you were a competent contractor, what in fact we received was something different.  At every stage there was no responsibility taken by yourself for the build.  We employed you as an experienced builder and from our perspective this has not been the case, as well as having limited skills in your team you also had limited access to other contractors.  When told what materials were needed, we have ordered them and on frequent occasions has had to chase you for the information so that the materials were on site in time, even when the suppliers were chasing you and complaining about a lack of response.  Again this incurred additional costs due to the increase of prices in January 2022 of 8% on average.  

 

During your last few weeks it was also rather obvious that your time on site was limited as **** was here mainly by himself as a labourer.  Over the course of the build your time keeping has been inconsistent and not in keeping with what you said would happen. Whilst we appreciate that there was planning time for you as you leave early to pick up you child and you said you would use this time later in the day to plan, the amount of days that you and your team were off site before 4.30 was significant.  This would have been acceptable if we were not paying day rates, we do not feel that over the course of the build we have had full value from this.  Taking into consideration your teams timekeeping both at the start and end of the day, we feel that we have been used and disrepected.  In addition, I am sure that you did take phone calls for other work whilst on site which you appear not to have taken into account.  

 

You were asked in December to provide a fixed price or a fixed timeline, neither was delivered.  This has incurred us additional cost in the region of £1,000.  

 

It became clear over the Christmas period that you were not to be relied upon to make deadlines and to keep to your commitments.  At this point we insisted on a time plan which was vague and unprofessional. At this point we felt we had no choice to get the work done as quickly as possible and to get you off site, hence we tried to keep our distance and to be honest not say what was on our minds. Taking 13 weeks to handover a partially completed building was poor.

 

Your email says that you are not are not prepared to accept payment in full settlement of the invoice - you’ll need to clarify as I’ve assumed this is not what you intended to write.  

 

I would suggest that you reduce the invoice by £400 in lieu of the lights, the unopened materials you left on site and which were paid from your accounts (and which only you can return) and hours left from site before “day rate” completed.  You have declined the option to pick these materials up over the last 2 months.    

 

The payment can be made upon receipt of an amended invoice.  

 

If not, we can proceed to court and utilise the mediation that will be offered to try and resolve this issue.  

 

[Kwabena]

Just to put this thread to rest...I've accepted and received payment of all of the total, minus the £400 as per their offer.  It was pretty exhausting going through this, and I don't think I could have done it without all the help from this forum.  

 

I'm going to make a donation towards the running of this site as I think it is a great free resource for people in need of help with this kind of thing and I really appreciate all the help I have been given

 

 

 

[BankFodder]

Yes, the whole thing was very drawn out and I'm quite sure that that was the deliberate intention of your client .

Well done on getting the payment that you did. I'm sure that it's much more than your client expected to have to pay you .

If you want to go back and sort out the materials which are still on site or which should still be on site then. Please let us know .

To get that, your client is the bailee of those items and has responsibilities to them and to you

 

 

 

[honeybee13]

Well done, I'm pleased you've resolved this. Thank you for coming back to tell us.

 

I agree with BF, from the beginning I've felt they were trying to spin this out and not pay what they owe you. I'm sure that standing up to them and BF's legal knowledge and  reasoning have led to your success.

 

HB