Help, advice on taking someone to court

susiebear_3

Hello there, I need some help. I paid a handyman to do some work at my home, and although the job has been done, it left some damage to things, and the house alarm he fitted now doesn't work. I have contacted him over and over by phone and i think he has now changed his number or blocked me. I am thinking of taking him to court, all I have is his girlfriends address, he never gave me his, could I take him to court through her address and even issue a ccj to him at her address? I did write to him once at this address and she sent it back saying he doesnt live there :-(
Thanks in advance

susiebear_3

I can see I have put this in the wrong place grrrr, it was the only time I could see an option to start a threat, if anyone is able to move it, please do, sorry x

InsideInsurance

Have a look at https://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/c_starting_court_action.pdf

If they are a sole trader you can issue against their last known address but at a later date they can effectively get the thing restarted if the papers went to the wrong address.

How did you first find this person? What paperwork do you have?

Evidently you need to be careful not to throw good money after bad

vuvuzela

susiebear wrote: »

Hello there, I need some help. I paid a handyman to do some work at my home, and although the job has been done, it left some damage to things, and the house alarm he fitted now doesn't work. I have contacted him over and over by phone and i think he has now changed his number or blocked me. I am thinking of taking him to court, all I have is his girlfriends address, he never gave me his, could I take him to court through her address and even issue a ccj to him at her address? I did write to him once at this address and she sent it back saying he doesnt live there :-(
Thanks in advance

Unfortunately for you, you need to find his address and not his girlfriend's to even start the process correctly.

alphabet_soup

Without taking the mick, have you tried googling the phone numbers you have for him? If he's registered with certain sites, it might bring up his address too. If you have a bit of a dig about, you might be lucky

susiebear_3

Thank you all for replying, you will all think I am very stupid now as i have no paperwork, i paid him cash for the work, didn't even get a receipt. I found this guy through his girlfriend, its a bit of a story but thats the only address I have for him. I am fairly certain they live together from the things he was chatting about in my house, but of course I can't prove that. I was told if I did this and got a CCJ on him at his gf address it could affect her credit rating, which I would feel bad about. I just want him to pay, not someone else. Should I give up? Am i wasting my time here?
I did google his number and his name but I found nothing at all

Equaliser123

How much are you talking about? Have you tried writing to him at his girlfriend's address?

You could sue him there and IF he acknowledges service then it is valid. If he simply ignores it and doesn't live there then you will have to start again.

susiebear_3

Thanks Equaliser, well the jobs he done I paid him total of £500 but i need to pay someone else to repair the alarm he done and repairs to the damage he done while fitting alarm, so I guess we are talking about £1000 by the time I have finished. I am a fool for just using anyone, I was trying to save money haha what a joke!

InsideInsurance

susiebear wrote: »

I was told if I did this and got a CCJ on him at his gf address it could affect her credit rating, which I would feel bad about. I just want him to pay, not someone else. Should I give up? Am i wasting my time here?

Credit ratings are personal not at an address level. Assuming he and his girlfriend have no shared financial products then any action against him has no impact on her irrespective of if they share an address or not. If they do have shared products (eg a shared current account) then the CCJ would impact them both again irrespective of if they have a shared address or not.

Without knowing details and doing some digging myself then there is no way to know if you are throwing good money after bad but on the basis of no paperwork, paid in cash, unknown address etc it isnt stacking up as a strong case.

susiebear_3

Thanks for your help, I was fairly certain I was fighting a losing battle, but I wanted to check before I gave up.
I will definately learn from this! :-)