Any help with a dodgy builder and his solicitor appreciated

tootle25

Hi guys,

I don't know if we're in the right place but I could do with some help.

A builder ripped us off by taking 20k and not actually starting any work. He says we breached the contract as we were supposed to pay him more money upfront for materials. Nowhere does it say this in the agreement and we paid him £19,730 for him to just clear off.

We've contacted him via our solicitors and he has instructed a solicitor. His solicitor says they are not prepared to communicate and we should issue proceedings if they think we have a claim. Obviously this guy has wiped us out financially and we're worried that if we spend more money in court that he will just make himself bankrupt or something similar.

Isn't there something which is supposed to stop court proceedings being issued without trying to negotiate before going to court?

Thanks very much for anyone who can respond. Any help will be appreciated and make my wiifey feel a little better.

Mrs.D

Sorry to hear about your trouble

A couple of thoughts...

Do you have a written contract in place? If so, what specifically does it say? Did it include timescales for starting work? Payment schedules etc? £20k seems like a lot for 'upfront' materials.

You may covered for legal disputes under your house insurance. Might be worth checking?

Is the builder a member of any federation etc? I know the Federation of Master Builders has a dispute resolution process. You are supposed to demonstrate to the court that you have tried to resolve the dispute outside of the court prior to taking action.

Might also be worth contacting CAB for free advice?

Do you know how financially stable the builder is? Court cases can be costly. Even if you were to win, you need to bear in mind how likely the builder is to pay up.

Would you be prepared to let the builder do the work? The only reason I can think (from what you've said) that the builder is claiming that you breached the contract is because you've now said that you wouldn't want him to do it? Understandable, but I'm not sure how this would sit in terms of contract law.

Tozer

More details needed.

Is there a contract (JCT or otherwise)? If so, what does it say?

On what basis do his solicitors say that there is no claim?

You are right that the 'overriding objective' of the Civil Procedure Rules is to try and avoid litigation. That said, they are not obliged to negotiate with you.

What do your solicitors advise?

bingo_bango

This may be caught under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regs 2008 (Reg 3(3)(a)). As such, your local Trading Standards can look at this for you, but call them sooner rather than later as the earlier they can get in, the more chance they have of actually resolving this for you.