Help needed to defend small claims court non payment for bad decorating

darren108

Hi we are in need of help :-(
We are being taken to court by a decorator for non payment.We have so far refused to pay as he has done such a poor job.We have offered him the chance to come and put right the work but he just keeps demanding the money have filed a counter-claim to put the work right .But we are really scared of going to court .how can i put across how bad the decorating was?i have been told to get an expert witness but car not find one :-(.Should i have paid maybe? will the judge look at it as a simple non payment and make us pay?

InsideInsurance

You need to submit your evidence with your defence, namely photos of all the problems. I wouldnt expect an expert to be necessary to be able to show that they've painted over the windows or put up wall paper crooked or whatever the problem is

darren108

Hi we have already put in a defence and counter-claim to cover the cost of redecorating again .But have not filed evidence i think you do this when the court replies with a date and place .Or i hope that is how it works as we have over 100 photos and three new quotes showing it needs redecorating

MamaMoo_2

darren108 wrote: »

Hi we have already put in a defence and counter-claim to cover the cost of redecorating again .But have not filed evidence i think you do this when the court replies with a date and place .Or i hope that is how it works as we have over 100 photos and three new quotes showing it needs redecorating

As you haven't actually paid him, counter claiming for the cost of redecorating won't get far, as you would be expected to use the money you withheld to do this (otherwise, you're getting betterment, in this case your house decorated for free)
A reasonable counter claim would be the cost of redecorating minus the money you have already withheld from him.
So if redecoration would cost £1000 and his original amount due was £800, you'd counter claim for £200 as you already have the £800 due to withholding payment.

darren108

Hi sorry i did not make that very clear . Yes i am only claiming the difference in cost . as to redecorate the next decorator has to rub down all the extra paint that was done mainly glossing as it is pealing off as no preparation or undercoat was used .But we are also claiming cost of wallpaper that we paid for and kennelling our two pets as we had to do this in the first time as well due to dust and hair wet paint .We added up the total cost a took of the amount first decorator quoted .We are hoping this is ok

MamaMoo_2

Sounds perfectly reasonable.
Have you got it in writing from the original decorator that he refuses to repair his muck ups, as that will be advantageous for you

darren108

not really but we gave him an option to redecorate and said we would be happy to pay his reply was
1. pay
2. refuse to pay
3. negotiate a final fee.
he did not refuse to redecorate but did not offer to either,He just gave us the three options above.

He also states in a later letter that we never gave him the opertunity to redecorate but we have

we feel like victims one of those rogue trader programmes, but are scared we will have to pay for it i really hope the law is fair

ValHaller

darren108 wrote: »

he did not refuse to redecorate but did not offer to either,He just gave us the three options above.

Do you have a copy of the letter in which you gave him this option?

You have doe the right thing by giving the option to rectify - in situations like this you write a letter and keep a copy so the other side does not have a leg to stand on in court.

darren108

thankfully we have kept all correspondence and we even sent another letter trying to resolve the matter .we said if he walked away and let us have another decorator put right the work we would cover the extra costs