Mediation or Small Claims Court?

HurdyGurdy

In August we engaged the services of a firm of architects to produce plans to be submitted to the council for two rooms to be knocked into one, and a small extension to be built to "square the rooms off".

The plans have never been submitted correctly to the council. On the architect's instructions, I paid the £172 planning fee to the council, but the architect never contacts us with updates or information.

The council planning department have forwarded me copies of two rejection letters sent to the company, one on 28th October, and the second on 1st December. Both letters had advised that the application could not be processed because they had not submitted the necessary accompanying documents, and the second letter stated that if the correct documents were not submitted by 15th December, the application would be withdrawn.

On December 18th, we left a message on the firm's answering machine advising that we had spoken to the council, and that we knew that the firm's application had been rejected twice, and finally we received a phone call from The Boss, adamant that he had uploaded the documents to the planning portal at the same time as submitting the application. He was going to speak to the planning department as soon as he ended the call to me, and would update me that evening.

We have heard nothing from him. Following that phone conversation, the Council's planning department confirmed that no documents had been uploaded to the portal - only the application and a letter stating that the accompanying documents would be submitted by post.

So, we are now in the position of being unable to get any response from the architect, having paid him a £250 deposit, and a further almost £580, plus the £172 fees to the council, and have nothing to show for it. I have emailed him saying that if he didn't contact me and let me know what was happening, I would have no alternative but to take legal action to recover the money I have paid to him, plus the fees I have paid to the council. The deadline I gave him for responding to me was today.

So now I have to carry through my threat.

I have looked on gov.uk for advice on using the small claims court, and it is suggesting that mediation might be a better, and cheaper, alternative to small claims.

I can't decide if this is the best way to approach it. I think we have given them plenty of opportunities to contact us and to update us - or better still, to get the ruddy plans passed so we can start contacting builders, so would like this resolved as soon as possible.

Any views, or advice on which would be the best approach to take?

HurdyGurdy

This is the timeline of events, since we first met with the surveyor. I don't know if this information is relevant or not.

_______________________________________

6th August 2015
Email from Mr S (the surveyor) confirming he will come to our house the following day to discuss our plans for the kitchen work. A quotation was attached to the email.

7th August 2015
Mr S came to the house to discuss our needs

9th August 2015
Email from Mr S confirming his attendance at the house the following day to carry out the survey. A £250 deposit was requested, which we attempted to pay but account details provided were incorrect.

10th August 2015
Mr S came to the house to carry out the survey.
Later that day, HurdyGurdy emailed Mr S requesting correct bank account details. Mr S replied, attaching their Agreement Form in PDF format which he had been unable to have signed when he was at the house, asking us to print, sign, scan and return to the office. This was done, and the £250 deposit paid to the bank account of Mr B (who we think is the firm’s owner). The survey information was passed to the office and the job had been programmed into their workload. We were told that Mr B, Mr A or Mr H would contact us once they had started to prepare the drawings.

20th August 2015
Email to Mr B asking for an update, as we had not been contacted by them.

21st August 2015
Email from Mr B advising that the drawings would be available for an online meeting “early next week”

25th August 2015
Agreement reached via email that the online meeting would take place at 5.15pm on 26th August.

26th August 2015
Online meeting between Mr and Mrs HurdyGurdy and Mr B, using Real Time Board. Plans were viewed, amended and agreed. Mr B requested a further payment of £564.50, which was made immediately.

2nd October 2015
Email to Mr B requesting an update.

6th October 2015
Email to Mr S (the surveyor) asking if he could find out what was happening with our plans as we had not heard anything from the firm at all, since the online meeting.
Reply from Mr S advising that he does not work for the firm any more, but that he has spoken with Mr B, who advised him that he “thought the drawings had been sent out”, but would check and would give us a call. Whilst speaking with Mr S, Mr B stated that he had “tracked down HurdyGurdy’s email to him of the previous week”.

12th October 2015
Email to Mr B asking for an update on our plans

14th October 2015
Telephone call by Mr HurdyGurdy to the firm’s offices. Reached an answering machine and left a voicemail asking for a call back.

19th October 2015
Further email to Mr B requesting an update on the status of the plans.

23rd October 2015
Email to the firm’s sales email address, rather than Mr B’s personal work email address, stating we have left messages and have emailed, and had no response, and requesting someone contact us that day to update us on our plans.

Email received from Mr B, attaching an undated copy of the Planning Letter, advising that the planning application had been submitted to the Central Bedfordshire Council via the Planning Portal, and requesting we make payment of £172.00 to the Council, and then email a copy of the receipt to the firm. This was done immediately.

4th December 2015
HurdyGurdy telephoned the planning department at the Council to ask about the status of the plans. Was advised that “the paperwork was sent a while ago to the firm”. The member of staff was unable to say when this was done, and was unable to give HurdyGurdy any information, instead advising her to contact the firm.

4th December 2015
Email to MR B from HurdyGurdy advising of the contact I had had with the planning department and asking him to contact us immediately

15th December 2015
Email to MR B (giving him the benefit of the doubt) advising we had been experiencing some difficulties with our email provider, and asking him to re-send any reply he had made to the email of 4th December.

17th December 2015
Email from HurdyGurdy to the planning department at the Council, outlining events to date, and requesting they advise me of their decision on the plans submitted.

18th December 2015
Email received from the planning department, attaching a copy of the second rejection letter which had been sent to the firm on 1st December. The application had been rejected because:
the site location plan had not been received,
the drawings of the elevations had not been received,
the copies of the site/block plan had not been received,
the copies of the drawings of the floor plans had not been received.

The letter advised that if these documents were not received by 15th December 2015, the application would be withdrawn and returned to the firm.

18th December 2015
Telephone call by Mr HurdyGurdy to the firm’s office. Reached the answering machine and left a message stating that we had been in touch with the Council and were aware that the application had been rejected twice, and asking for a telephone call.

18th December 2015
Telephone call from Mr B to HurdyGurdy. HurdyGurdy advised of the information received by the planning department. Mr B stated that all the documents had been uploaded to the planning portal at the same time as the application had been made. He suggested that the problem may have been with the council’s IT system, which may have not accepted the large files. Mr B said that he was going to call the planning department immediately to find out what was happening; that he was going out of the office that afternoon and that if he hadn’t managed to speak to the planning department, then he would ask Mr A in the office contact them. Mr B said he would telephone Mr and Mrs HurdyGurdy that evening with the outcome of that contact. No telephone was received that evening, or subsequently.

18th December 2015
Email from HurdyGurdy to the planning department, asking if the information had been received by them, as requested in their second rejection letter, within the timescales.

18th December 2015
Email to HurdyGurdy from the planning department, stating that no plans had been received, only the application form, and the fee submitted electronically, stating that the attachments (ie the plans) would be submitted by post.

21st December 2015
HurdyGurdy was forwarded a copy of the first rejection letter which had been sent by the Council to the firm on 28th October 2015.

21st December 2015
Email received by HurdyGurdy from the planning department stating they had checked the planning portal and nothing other than the planning application had been submitted

4th January 2016 – 10.20am
Email to Mr B advising that if no response was received from him within 48 hours, we would take legal action to recover the money paid to him as well as the planning fees that have been paid to the council.

unholyangel

You need to send a letter before action before even contemplating court - whether that be mediation or an actual hearing.

And you will also need to give a reasonable deadline. 48 hours (even if it wasn't so soon after the holiday period) is not enough.

paddyrg

From hereon in, use the registered post, give reasonable deadlines (14 days should be fair for a posted considered response), send a copy of your timeline, exactly what you are claiming for (ie a number in £ of direct costs, you cannot add anything for distress etc., so itemise it and be clear), and a 'letter before action'.

They'll either agree, negotiate, or hide, but it sets things up clearly for if you do go to court.

knightstyle

Is he really an architect? If so make a complaint to RIBA