Neighbour has removed chimney breasts without notice!

George_Michael

Annie1960 wrote: »

You're not understanding the concept of licensing.

If all builders had to be licensed, like a driving license, they would be forced to comply or face criminal action.

And you're not understanding the reality of life. Criminal action is only useful if the authorities have the manpower and resources to enforce action.

If drivers don't want to bother with a licence then it's extremely hard for the authorities to do anything about it so why do you think the licensing of builders would be any different?

There have been plenty of estimates and surveys concerning unlicensed drivers and the figures are generally around the 1 to 1.2 million mark for the UK. It's only the people who want to obey the law that do so, so I'll ask again.
Why do you think that the licensing of builders will be any different?

Do you honestly think that the cowboys who do shoddy work, don't following building regulations, don't have insurance and don't have a registered place of business, instead of which only use a mobile phone for contact will be in the slightest bit worried about a registration scheme?
After all, there are already professions where registration is legally required (gas safe, minicab drivers, etc) yet there are plenty of people doing these jobs without registration.

moneyistooshorttomention

OP - It sounds like you need to be very sure to have a good "paper trail" of things re this neighbour of yours.

Included in this paper trail being giving deadlines for responses/actions by (say 2 weeks might be considered reasonable by a small claims court judge??).

You're now into covering your backside territory to make sure you can get the money he owes/will owe you out of him. I'm wondering if you can add a figure into the bill you will present him with for your inconvenience? After all - you're having to spend time/effort on dealing with this that you could otherwise spend earning money and/or Having A Life.

George_Michael

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I'm wondering if you can add a figure into the bill you will present him with for your inconvenience? After all - you're having to spend time/effort on dealing with this that you could otherwise spend earning money and/or Having A Life.

If claiming via the small claims court or moneyclaim online, you can normally only claim for provable losses. Things such as inconvenience or stress can't be claimed for.
If the OP is self employed and they need to spend time on the claim paperwork rather than their employment then they may be able to claim for this.