Extension really badly finished - builder threatening court action

dirtyepic

jockettuk wrote: »

Mabey its in northampton as theres less chance of it being in the local newspapers were you live so people dont get to see how and why someone would not want to employ him again in the future..

if it goes to court in northampton ring your local paper and invite them down to watch and do a story on him.. that would shock him ha ha

I have just found out that its using the Northampton County Court claim form because the builder starting procedings on-line.

Phew!!!

So there's one tiny bit of good news so far this morning!!

I''ll keep you all posted! It keeps me going and gets me more optimistic coming on here and reading everyones thoughts and advice.

Thanks

T
aka dirtyepic

dirtyepic

Oh my god, I have just found out that the builder is having serious financial problems. That'll be why he's suing us for over £1000 more than we actually owe him.

I have found out through a work colleague who knows a close friend of his. So I know this isn't solid information but it's worth bearing in mind when I go to visit my solicitor.

I am also going to the National Federation of Builders, which he is a member of, to query the competencies of himself as a joiner/plumber etc as he claims and also the competencies of his workforce.

I am feeling tons better knowing that I can question certain areas of his work to the governing body he is a member of who, in turn, recommend the work of all of the builders on their 'books'.

Watch this space.

Contacting solicitor and insurance this afternoon to see if our legal cover will cover the cost of the solicitors fees etc.

Cheers y'all

dirtyepic

dirtyepic

Right. Done it all that was to do today.

Called trading standards and explained all situation. Its out of their hands now but the guy is very interested in how we get on so I'll keep in touch.

Called Insurance company but, typically, our legal cover would only cover us if we were the claimants.

Got appointment with Solicitor sorted for next tuesday at 4.30pm.

Got loads of positive feedback from work colleagues (I work for a international construction consultancy) they have been so helpful and supportive. But that doesn't help at 4.15am when I can't sleep and start crying does it?!!! Hopefully, I will find strength not to let him get to me again.

Replied online with the acknowledgement of service to the county court in Northampton to allow me 28 days to get my defence sorted.

I honestly don't think that the builder expected me to go this far. He always treat me as some weak individual (last night I was!!!) but now its gone this far I aint backing down now. Funny thing as well, he has only named me personally as the defendent, not my husband and I.

Do you think he has something against me? Will have now!!!

Bye for now,

keep you all posted.

dirtyepic

CharleneUK

Updates? Don't forget about us! We're all rooting for you!

tiamai_d

Oh my god! Just read all your posts, what a nasty little man!

I hope that when he does take you to court, the court will decide in your favor and then he will be out of pocket even more with court costs!

I'll be watching with interest!

Squiffy

dirtyepic wrote: »

Called Insurance company but, typically, our legal cover would only cover us if we were the claimants.

Could you possibly counter-sue for breach of contract on his side? After all, he hasn't completed the works you agreed to for the price you agreed to.

Would be worth taking this possibility up with your insurance company.

asp746

just come across this thread. what a nasty little man he is. i've just gone thru similar thing but nowhere near as costly as yours.


anyway, how's everything going??

dirtyepic

well hello again, it has been a while!

update so far - we have had to employ a solicitor, at great cost, to take up our case but we are trying to keep the costs down as much as we can by doing copious amounts of research (aided by very good and supportive friends).

We have found out that his business accounts to the end of 2006 weren't exactly flourishing.

He has a small outstanding CCJ for £3500 which doesn't bear well for us if we countersue.

He had a bankloan of £970,000 to Bank of Scotland, he had stock worth £998,000. Which I then found out he had a development of 7 apartments on the go. I checked the plans online and found out where they were. I then found out through Land Registry that he has only sold one but when I had a look at them they are all occupied. So I have been busy.

I decided not to counter-sue, although after reading some of the latest posts I may now call the Insurance this week to see if I will be covered that way.

Back to our defence, I don't know how much I will be able to disclose, but I will let you know that we have sent the claim back to Northampton County Court explaining we can't defend the claim because the builder didn't specify his particulars of claim. He didn't itemise the supposed £6060 we owe him therefore we don't know if we agree or disagree with his claim! He also decided to charge us interest at a hugely inflated rate. It looks like he just made up a figure and threw that on as well.

I am totally sure that he only decided to invest a couple of hundred pounds
in taking us to court to frighten us into paying up.

Well he did frighten us at first but I am so glad we didn't give in (as if I was tempted) - no bully will get the better of me these days.

When I find out what Northampton County Court comes back with, I will let you all know.

Thanks again for all you support

T

dizzie

Wishing you all the best with this one (how awful this must be).

I contacted tradings standards when a joiner we had employed tried to lay our oak floor by gluing it onto the uneven concrete floors of our old cottage. They were sticking up like blooming gymnastic springboards, and then in one desperate attempt to get them to stick, he poured bucket loads of black tarry glue into all the gaps beneath them, banged our radiators on full blast...and did a runner (leaving a note to send cheque to him in the post - cheeky monkey). The heat just liquified the glue which oozed out everywhere, so I arrived home to oak planks sticking up like flippin' icebergs in a black sea! :eek: :eek:

The wood was ruined and we had to buy more and start over again. Trading standards said that legally we were obliged to give him a chance to come back and rectify the work (which of course he never did).

My best advice is to keep records of telephone calls, letters (put as much in writing as possible), take photos/videos of the shoddy workmanship; keep copies of your estimates/quotes for the original work which will hopefully detail what he was meant to do. I think you've already got quotes from other tradesmen to correct the work, so that's good...looks like you are doing everything right.

And if he comes to your home and starts with any threatening/unpleasant behaviour, report him to the police for harrassment (which is a criminal offence, rather than a civil one).

Let us know how you get on.

dirtyepic

Hello everyone, I am back again with further updates of this flippin ever-ongoing saga!

Oh yes and Happy New Year to you all!

Over Christmas we received a letter from our Solicitor explaining that we have been listed for an Application Hearing and it has been transferred to our local County Court. I am to attend this on 18 February 2008 at 12pm.

Can't say I am looking forward to this.

Now, if anyone can help me here I would be eternally grateful, I was under the impression that I had to complete or reply to an Allocation Questionnaire after the Builder had submitted his. Now the builder has submitted his and he still didn't include all of the particulars of his claim so we still cannot defend it.

I have now got to go and see the solicitor again to discuss this further!

Its all getting rather complicated. The solicitor has said, 'As stated previously this is simply an allocation hearing rather than anything else and therefore it will not be the case, I assume, that on the day matters will be dealt with, however I would be grateful if you could contact me to discuss matter further.'

Now is it just me or does that sound a bit ambiguous? It doesn't fill me full of hope in his assumption that matters will not be dealt with at the hearing!!

Anyway just to let you know. I still can't have a shower, our basin is still not fixed to the wall sufficiently and the bath is not fixed to anything therefore moving the pipework if used. The kitchen is still all skew-whiff and still plaster walls and cement floor.

Still it didn't stop me having a lovely Christmas and New Year (and obligetary hangovers!) hopefully next Christmas and New Year will be even nicer with our finished bathroom and kitchen!

2008 - the year of the positive thoughts!

Ha ha ha !!!

Kind regards

T
aka dirtyepic