Money Claim/CCJ Received by Builder

villa852010

I have received a money claim letter from my last builder requesting £10k for unpaid work, from my knowledge this is a requirement before a CCJ is submitted.

After my initial builder was unable to complete the work, I was put in a position I had to retender the work, after a few quotes I found a builder stating he can complete the works for £12k (labour only). We agreed and set an agreement in place listing all the jobs required to be completed and was given a deadline of 5 weeks by the builder. I paid him every Friday £2400 for labour only, as materials was purchased by myself on request.

After 4 weeks the builder decided he did not want to complete the job, which put me in a position of looking for another builder to complete the work, with many builders charging a premium to complete someone else’s work which is understandable.

A week later after I had given the builder a negative review on a trade website, I received an invoice to pay for additional work which is already listed on the initial agreement and VAT, which I have in writing from the builder before the work started that the cost was £12k and no VAT is required.

After the builder decided not to complete the job, I did send a letter stating he has 14 days to respond to complete the job, or any costs occurred above the initial £12k agreement will be recharged to him.

Can someone advise on what the best way to go about this is, do I wait for the CCJ and submit a dispute and potential of reclaiming costs of completing the remainder of the work?

Your help and advice is much appreciated.

Regards

DaftyDuck

I think, to give good advice, we'd need to know why:

my initial builder was unable to complete the work

and the second

builder decided he did not want to complete the job

But, if it was a quote from second builder for £12,000, and you'd paid him £2,400 per week (:eek: :eek:) for four weeks.... well, he's probably on a hiding to nothing.

villa852010

The first builder started off well but then he stopped attending the site, or would come once a week, then towards the end he wouldn't attend for a few weeks, so we told him to either finish or we would find another builder.

The second builder in my opinion realised he was unable to complete the work within the time frame, as he went away on week 4 fine, and come Monday in week 5 he contacted me for the key (property is vacant) but as he only worked 4 days a week (tues to fri) we did not leave the key at the property on the Monday, so he returned Tuesday picked up his a equipment and left. After trying to contact him for a few days he sent a text message stating he wouldn't return due to the work being more than he originally thought. Though he visited the property twice before giving a quote.

villa852010

Regarding the quote, he traded as a company, so thought was acceptable as other traders were quoting circa £15k

DaftyDuck

OK, well, I'd suspect he's really just firing off his excessive bill as a defence against you charging him for any costs you might suffer over the £12,000, that you threatened him with.

I've no idea what the work entailed, what detail was in the contract, what was done , or what was paid for. So, it's difficult to see if he is owed any money at all, or if you have any real reason to chase him for further expenses.

It's always best to have a very clear list in a contract of what is to be done and what it'll cost. Not always easy or possible though.

I suspect he's sent it as you have, in effect, threatened him first.

Doozergirl

I'd write back offering to report him to the VAT office. Either for being regisitered and not charging it, or vice-versa. Play straight or not at all.

I'd ask for a breakdown of how they think the £10k applies and I'd set a comprehensive spreadsheet showing what was quoted against what was carried out and what was paid. You want to show that you have paid fairly, regardless of his decision to walk, just in case he follows through.

The moral of the story is not to pick the cheapest builder.

The other moral is to think about VAT. If someone takes £2400 labour only a week, they are above the VAT threshold and should be charging it.

If you do something that isn't straight, it is pretty hard to get out of it straight.

Risteard

Doozergirl wrote: »

The other moral is to think about VAT. If someone takes £2400 labour only a week, they are above the VAT threshold and should be charging it.

You can't possibly extrapolate his annual turnover based simply on what this person paid per week.

Clive_Woody

A bit more info about the money claim process at the link below. If he has actually started with the claim, with the court, then you should not ignore this as it could result in a judgement being made with no defence from you.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/small-claims-court

Most likely it's a letter before action intended to try and frighten you. If so I would proceed as advised regarding asking for a breakdown and reporting him to the VAT office.

leveller2911

Risteard wrote: »

You can't possibly extrapolate his annual turnover based simply on what this person paid per week.

There is logic in what Doozergirl is saying.

If the builder turned up with 2 men , worked a week and charged £2400 theres a good chance her should be registered for VAT and don't forget its labour only. Even if he was only working every 2 weeks (with 2 workers ) on a labour only basis his turnover would be around £62.5k and no builder works on labour only for 52 weeks of the year because they make a profit on supplying materials. The vast majority of clients don't want to supply materials for a good reason, if there are any problems down the line the contractor can blame the poor materials supplied by the client.

We had a similar thing with a guy who supplied our skips. He wasn't vat registered but claimed to have 50 skips, even stored 24 of them in our yard . Each time he lifts a skip he charges £200 so even if he only used each skip once a week his turnover would be around £500k a year and he isn't vat registered. Obviously he has to pay a tipping charge for emptying the skips but VAT is based on turnover and not profit.

There are a lot of people out there who should be vat registered but aren't. I can't imagine there is a special dispensation for waste contractors with regards to vat registration, our previous skip supplier was charging vat.

Doozergirl

Risteard wrote: »

You can't possibly extrapolate his annual turnover based simply on what this person paid per week.

I'd say I can. I've been doing this long enough. The only people I deal with who aren't VAT are my subbies. They do their own work where they may supply materials, but as soon as you start to employ and purchase materials, you are knocking very quickly on the door of the VAT threshold in this game - without earning a large salary. Anyone who deems to call themselves a builder should be in that category. A good builder definitely will be.

Anyone who turns over £2400 in labour a week over a four week payment is either terrible at what they do if they can't sustain that over a period of time, or they are, or should be charging VAT and submitting returns. Any which way, they're a problem.

Not charging VAT and then charging it proves this guy isn't an exception to the rule.