Want To Sue The Builder But Confused.

Naomim

Hi Looking for a little advice.

Bit of background; we instructed a builder for various works on our house, building extension, installing utility and downstairs w/c and installing en-suite upstairs. When they asked for payment for materials we paid. They missed many of their own deadlines given to us in writing and eventually we sacked them from the job under the consumer rights act 2015.

However there was still a lot of work incomplete, they'd failed to buy enough roof tiles to complete the roof, which subsequently leaked. We had to source and buy the rest of the tiles ourselves and arrange a roofer to put it right. We've had to have the whole house re-wired, the utility room & downstairs w/c & upstairs en-suite not anywhere near completed - no chinaware even supplied. They didn't tell us the building regs hadn't been sorted and we've had to sort this out with the council. One point that sticks in the throat is that one of the payments we made at their written request clearly stated it was for the supply of the kitchen. This never turned up and we had to purchase this ourselves. So we feel we've paid for it twice.

So if I total all the cost of everything, kitchen, re-wiring, roof tiles & roofer, carpenter, plumber it comes to about £21000

I want to take him to court but have two problems:
1) he's moved and we don't have his address. We know the area he's moved to, just not the exact address. We do have his father's address. We believe his father is involved as he gave us the original "VERBAL" quote and when we ordered the kitchen it was under the father's name and address.
2) obviously this is too much for small claims but would it definitely go to multi- track? I've looked into multi track and basically it looks so confusing!

Thanks

Naomi

steampowered

Naomim wrote: »

1) he's moved and we don't have his address. We know the area he's moved to, just not the exact address.

The court rules say that may sue an individual being sued in the name of a business at the "Usual or last known residence of the individual; or principal or last known place of business" - click here and scroll to paragraph 6.9.

Of course you should take reasonable steps to try and establish the correct address before you issue the claim, but if that fails go ahead and issue on the basis of the above.

We do have his father's address. We believe his father is involved as he gave us the original "VERBAL" quote and when we ordered the kitchen it was under the father's name and address.

Who was your contract actually with - the father or the son? For obvious reasons you need to sue the correct person.

2) obviously this is too much for small claims but would it definitely go to multi- track? I've looked into multi track and basically it looks so confusing!

No, a claim of £21k will go to the fast track. The fast track is the usual track for claims between £10k and £25k.

In the fast track, the loser is usually ordered to pay the winner's legal costs.

As this is a fast track case, there will be a number of legal hoops to jump through. It might be worth using a solicitor. Your legal costs should be recoverable from the builder if your claim is successful.

If you want to run the case without using a solicitor, and you win, you'll be able to claim costs for the time you spend dealing on the case at the litigant in person rate which is currently £19 an hour. So make a note of roughly how many hours you are spending on it. And if you want to take this all the way it will take you a lot of hours.

Naomim

steampowered wrote: »

The court rules say that may sue an individual being sued in the name of a business at the "Usual or last known residence of the individual; or principal or last known place of business" - click here and scroll to paragraph 6.9.

Of course you should take reasonable steps to try and establish the correct address before you issue the claim, but if that fails go ahead and issue on the basis of the above.

I'm sure I read somewhere (possibly this site) that you can also send the paperwork to an address you know they are associated with. ie: parents address. I am endeavouring to find his address but no luck so far.

steampowered wrote: »

Who was your contract actually with - the father or the son? For obvious reasons you need to sue the correct person.

It's complicated and we should have heard the alarm bells ringing and run for the hills.. but we didn't The son quoted us in writing under one company name. He had a "breakdown" & the company went bust (we didn't know the company was dissolved). His father came to our house and verbally quoted the same job at a bit higher price. When it came to the job about to start, the son was there and all the paperwork was under a different company name. Stupidly we didn't have a signed contract - only a quote and schedule of works. The son has undertaken all the work. The father not showed his face once yet when we bought the kitchen, they sent us the receipt and it was under the father's name at his address and under the previous companies account name.

steampowered wrote: »

No, a claim of £21k will go to the fast track. The fast track is the usual track for claims between £10k and £25k.

In the fast track, the loser is usually ordered to pay the winner's legal costs.

As this is a fast track case, there will be a number of legal hoops to jump through. It might be worth using a solicitor. Your legal costs should be recoverable from the builder if your claim is successful.

If you want to run the case without using a solicitor, and you win, you'll be able to claim costs for the time you spend dealing on the case at the litigant in person rate which is currently £19 an hour. So make a note of roughly how many hours you are spending on it. And if you want to take this all the way it will take you a lot of hours.

Ideally I'd like to do it all myself as I just don't think we can afford a solicitor. We've had to re-mortgage just to get the works put right. However, I'm a full time working Mum so not sure I'd have the time or energy to give this my full attention.

I suppose a solicitor could indicate whether it would be worth taking action.

Naomi

steampowered

Naomim wrote: »

I'm sure I read somewhere (possibly this site) that you can also send the paperwork to an address you know they are associated with. ie: parents address. I am endeavouring to find his address but no luck so far.

It is worth having a read through paragraph 6.29 of the link I gave you. This was a link to the Civil Procedure Rules, which are the definitive rules used by the court.

The default rule is that you have to serve on the "Usual or last known residence of the individual; or principal or last known place of business."

If you cannot locate such an address, it is possible to serve proceedings through an "alternative" means. I guess this could be an "associated" address. However, you need court permission to do this. That would mean an application to court to try and convince a judge that you have done everything possible to find the correct address. This adds delay and potentially an additional court hearing to the process.

It's complicated and we should have heard the alarm bells ringing and run for the hills.. but we didn't The son quoted us in writing under one company name. He had a "breakdown" & the company went bust (we didn't know the company was dissolved). His father came to our house and verbally quoted the same job at a bit higher price. When it came to the job about to start, the son was there and all the paperwork was under a different company name. Stupidly we didn't have a signed contract - only a quote and schedule of works. The son has undertaken all the work. The father not showed his face once yet when we bought the kitchen, they sent us the receipt and it was under the father's name at his address and under the previous companies account name.

This sounds a bit tricky. I'd probably suggest looking at the most recent documents - what name was on the receipt?

Ideally I'd like to do it all myself as I just don't think we can afford a solicitor. We've had to re-mortgage just to get the works put right. However, I'm a full time working Mum so not sure I'd have the time or energy to give this my full attention.

I suppose a solicitor could indicate whether it would be worth taking action.

I think you may underestimate the time and complexity of resolving a fast track case yourself. Small claims are easy, but a fast track like this sounds complicated. It will take a lot of time for you to get up to speed - things like preparing your evidence and researching the court process are very time consuming.

If the case is disputed, there is a good chance that you will need to formally instruct an independent expert (likely jointly instructed by you and the defendant) to examine the building work. You'll have to pay for this up-front.

If you are having the work re-done - will that damage your chances of proving the builder's work was defective? Make sure you take lots of photos etc. before the defective work gets fixed.

If you do not use a solicitor, and you lose the case, you will be liable for the builder's legal costs - if you can't afford your own solicitor you wouldn't be able to afford that either.

I think it is worth going to see a litigation solicitor at this stage, so that you can get an idea of your chances of success and a steer on the way forward. If the solicitor feels you have a strong case they may agree to take the case on a "no win no fee" basis.

cheesy87

Hi Naomi,

Really interesting reading your story as I'm also in the middle of the process with small claims (Money claim online) to claim from a dodgy builder I used last year to do house improvements. I'm now at the point where the court has issued the judgement for the monies and because he's not responded to any comms, I can issue a warrant for the monies. I believe this basically means bailiffs try and get the money or goods to be sold for the money, but I'm similarly cautious in that I'm not convinced it's his correct address. I also have to pay another £77 to issue the warrant.

Does anyone have any experience with successfully claiming when an address has changed? How much effort will the court actually make to chase the money?

Sarah

steampowered

cheesy87 wrote: »

Hi Naomi,

Really interesting reading your story as I'm also in the middle of the process with small claims (Money claim online) to claim from a dodgy builder I used last year to do house improvements. I'm now at the point where the court has issued the judgement for the monies and because he's not responded to any comms, I can issue a warrant for the monies. I believe this basically means bailiffs try and get the money or goods to be sold for the money, but I'm similarly cautious in that I'm not convinced it's his correct address. I also have to pay another £77 to issue the warrant.

Does anyone have any experience with successfully claiming when an address has changed? How much effort will the court actually make to chase the money?

Sarah

The court will not make any effort to enforce the judgment. Enforcement is entirely up to you.

Is your judgment above £600? If so, I would suggest sending it to HCEOs. They will attempt to enforce the judgment on your behalf. My understanding is that they tend to be quicker and more effective than the county court bailiffs you would get with a basic warrant of control.

Bailiffs can't do much if you do not have any address for the defendant (it doesn't necessarily need to be the same address you used for court proceedings). The bailiffs should attempt to locate the defendant but there is no guarantee they will find him.

Do you have any alternative assets to enforce against - for example do you have the builder's account details? If so, you could seek a third party debt order over that bank account.

unholyangel

Naomim wrote: »

I'm sure I read somewhere (possibly this site) that you can also send the paperwork to an address you know they are associated with. ie: parents address. I am endeavouring to find his address but no luck so far.




It's complicated and we should have heard the alarm bells ringing and run for the hills.. but we didn't The son quoted us in writing under one company name. He had a "breakdown" & the company went bust (we didn't know the company was dissolved). His father came to our house and verbally quoted the same job at a bit higher price. When it came to the job about to start, the son was there and all the paperwork was under a different company name. Stupidly we didn't have a signed contract - only a quote and schedule of works. The son has undertaken all the work. The father not showed his face once yet when we bought the kitchen, they sent us the receipt and it was under the father's name at his address and under the previous companies account name.




Ideally I'd like to do it all myself as I just don't think we can afford a solicitor. We've had to re-mortgage just to get the works put right. However, I'm a full time working Mum so not sure I'd have the time or energy to give this my full attention.

I suppose a solicitor could indicate whether it would be worth taking action.

Naomi

I think personally I would name all parties involved (companies and individuals) and let it be worked out in court which party/parties have liability.

When did you agree the contract? You may want to research the consumer contract regulations - the builder should have provided you with certain information in a durable medium before the conclusion of the contract. Part of this information would be the traders identity and geographical address (and if they were acting on behalf of another trader, the identity and address of that trader).

Naomim

Thanks all for the replies, I know it's been a long time but things have moved on (if not forward).

We used a tracing company and found the builders new address. We also instructed a solicitor to write to him & his father once again offering to go to arbitration. They had until today to respond so I'm patiently waiting to see if they do. We had taken lots of pictures so I hope we have enough to prove their negligence.

We can't afford to instruct the solicitors to cover everything but I felt an official legal letter to start off was the best option.

So for now a waiting game.

Naomi

Naomim

The solicitor contacted us today to inform us the builders haven't been in touch to confirm receipt of their letter. So I'm assuming we can move forward directly towards court action. I'm going to read up more and see if that's the case but in the meantime if anyone knows please let me know.

Thanks

Naomi

waamo

Yes you can issue a claim. As a private individual with no legal training the courts allow a huge amount of leeway for not getting things exactly right.

steampowered

Yes, you can issue a claim.

If you want to do it yourself, you need to be prepared to put a lot of time in to understand the process.

You also need to be aware that - as this is fast track - you will be liable for the builder's legal costs if you lose the case.