Small claims court - am I right to feel worried about this

HurdyGurdy

Long story short, we paid a surveyor £850 late last year to produce plans to have two rooms knocked into one and a small extension to be built. Despite telling me that the plans and supporting document had been submitted to the Council, I have copies of two rejection letters from the council to the surveyor. Both times the application was rejected because he hadn't provided any supporting documents.

We gave up asking him to do what he was employed to do, and have submitted a claim to Small Claims Court. His 14 day period to respond has now passed with nothing further heard from him.

I have this evening submitted a Request for Judgment.

I have a horrible feeling that the reason he had ignored all our requests to complete his contract, ignored our letter threatening court action, ignored our letter before action and hasn't responded to the notice of issue is because he knows that he can't be made to pay anything.

Is this likely to be the case, do you think?

They are a limited company - does that strengthen or weaken our case?

onlyroz

What supporting documents are required? Could you submit them yourself?

When we had a planning application submitted on our behalf by a loft-conversion company I got so fed up of waiting for them to submit the supporting documents (details of a new parking layout for our garden) that I did it myself.

You might find this approach more productive than trying to sue the surveyor.

LilElvis

If you want advice about action in the small claims court then the Consumer Rights board would probably provide a better response. Ask a board guide to move your thread there.

HurdyGurdy

I don't think we could do it ourselves. The document required were

the site location plan
the drawings of the elevations
the copies of the site/block plan
the copies of the drawings of the floor plans

And we're already well into the process of suing him, so we have to see it through.

Plus, after all the lies we've had out of him, I don't trust him an inch and don't want him doing any more work for us (if in fact, he's done anything at all so far - we've no evidence that he has).

HurdyGurdy

LilElvis wrote: »

If you want advice about action in the small claims court then the Consumer Rights board would probably provide a better response. Ask a board guide to move your thread there.

I must be losing the plot - I can't see who the board guides are! I have posted in consumer rights forum though . Thank you

onlyroz

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

I don't think we could do it ourselves. The document required were

1) the site location plan
2) the drawings of the elevations
3) the copies of the site/block plan
4) the copies of the drawings of the floor plans

I would have thought 1 and 3 would be available from the land registry (and should have been obtained by your solicitor when you bought the house). Surely 2 and 4 would be part of what the surveyor/architect was employed to do anyway? Otherwise, what has he actually done?

Guest101

Who did you address the letter (and the court papers) to?


Both need to be in the name of the limited company and served at preferably the registered address

DigForVictory

The court will try to be fair.
It'll likely not hurt your case with the ombusdfolk & may get him struck off various registers if it can be *proven* he didn't do the job to a professional standard.
So far, sounds good for you. Best of luck!

TBagpuss

Did he actually prepare the plans?
Do you have proof that you were paying him to prepare and submit them?

I assume that you have claimed agaisnt the company, not against him individually. If he diod not respond, then you should get judgement in default. Whether you can then get the money back will depend on whether the company has any money or assets.

HurdyGurdy

Yes, we have claimed against the company, and the papers were served at their registered address.

He did prepare a draft set of plans. We had an online meeting with him on something called "Real Time Board", where we could see the draft plans, told him what amendments we wanted, and watched him draw on the plans, indicating what the changes were (surreal experience!)

Following that meeting he was going to finalise the plans and send everything off to the local authority

And yes - we have a written quote of everything they were meant to do.

Last time I spoke to him, he told me that they had been really really busy, that they had had to take on more staff, and that they have had to open up a sub-office, that he had barely been in the office because he had been sorting all that out. (Like I care!)

So if he's got more staff, that will presumably mean more office equipment that bailiffs can seize if it comes to it (hellfire, I hope it doesn't). You could see us on "Can't Pay, We'll Take It Away"

Thanks for your comments and suggestions

BarryBlue

If you have paid him (or the company) to carry out a professional service and they have failed to do so, then they are in breach of contract, which is the basis of your Small Claims action. Many defendants do simply ignore such matters and have judgement entered against them, so that is what will happen if he does nothing.

Once you have judgement you can then apply for enforcement if he doesn't pay what the court orders. Why should you be worried? You have done the right thing, it would seem. Once you have judgement, move on with the substantive project using a competent company.