I E Legal Solicitors formal demand letter advice

ciderboy2009

There's more info in an earlier thread by the OP - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5740210

steampowered

bery_451 wrote: »

Hi coming back to this thread can anyone advise.

My advice would be to write a short letter (or email) in response, simply covering the following points in a short and concise way:

- The company is in breach of its contract with you.
- Briefly describe the problems with their work.
- State that you have suffered £xxxx of costs as a result of their breach of contract (e.g. state the amount you had to pay to a third party to fix the problem).
- Offer to pay the balance, in full and final settlement of your claim against the company and the company's claim against you.

As I mentioned above, you can only refuse to pay the £8,000 to the extent you incurred extra costs, getting to where you should have been in the first place.

You don't need to say anything more and you don't need to provide photos. You aren't even required to respond at all - you could simply ignore this if you wanted, though I would advise sending a short reply.

You then sit and wait.

If the window company wants to make a settlement offer of partial payment, let them make that offer. If they don't do anything, let them not do anything. If they want to take you to small claims court, let them tell their story to the judge and you do the same and the judge makes a decision on whether you have to pay or not.

steampowered

bery_451 wrote: »

Yes they supply and fit/new windows and doors instead of cleaning them.

I cannot see justification for their £8000 claim as they fitted half of the house and the remaining half of the house is incomplete unfinished. They took the remainder items back with them so we dont have them no more. So not understanding on how they value their claim at £8000 :huh: £8000 claim is assuming they delivered all the items and fitted them to whole house completing it right?

You agreed to pay £8,000 for a particular service.

As you didn't get that service, you can counter-claim for the cost of putting right their breach of contract.

However, you are not permitted to off-set the value of the products that were not used in the house. It doesn't matter what the value of the items was.

bery_451

steampowered wrote: »

You agreed to pay £8,000 for a particular service.

As you didn't get that service, you can counter-claim for the cost of putting right their breach of contract.

However, you are not permitted to off-set the value of the products that were not used in the house. It doesn't matter what the value of the items was.

However they took back half the items that were not used in the house. There was a reply earlier in this thread mentioning those items are for my property only hence useless elsewhere. If that is the case then why did they take those items back with them instead of leaving them here at my property? I expect those items to be here at my property as they are claiming for the full £8000 alleged debt however half the items are not here.

It is like they are claiming a full £million for a personal custom Bugatti Veyron yet they strip half the car away including the engine that were all customised to my taste displaying my name initials on them. :huh:

ciderboy2009

OP - based on your earlier thread it is possible that the window company feel that your earlier actions were in breach of the contract hence why they pulled away from the job.

You really need to speak to a legal professional about this and not try to get legal advice from a public forum. You were advised to do this over a week ago. Have you?

bery_451

Im looking for a legal professional, dont know which one to choose. Can anyone recommend a legal professional? Does solicitor has to be local? This is my first time hence the questions.

bery_451

ciderboy2009 wrote: »

OP - based on your earlier thread it is possible that the window company feel that your earlier actions were in breach of the contract hence why they pulled away from the job.

You really need to speak to a legal professional about this and not try to get legal advice from a public forum. You were advised to do this over a week ago. Have you?

Can you please remind me of what I said in that earlier thread that caused me possibly breaching the contract?

ciderboy2009

bery_451 wrote: »

Im looking for a legal professional, dont know which one to choose. Can anyone recommend a legal professional? Does solicitor has to be local? This is my first time hence the questions.

Stop wasting your time on here and start making some calls.
Local would preferable if you would want face to face meetings.

bery_451 wrote: »

Can you please remind me of what I said in that earlier thread that caused me possibly breaching the contract?

It's not so much what you said but your actions - if you get yourself legal representation then they will explain it to you.

Greta_Sharbo

bery_451 wrote: »

Im looking for a legal professional, dont know which one to choose. Can anyone recommend a legal professional? Does solicitor has to be local? This is my first time hence the questions.

Contact the law society - they can provide contact details
This was suggested a fortnight ago.

http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk
https://www.lawscot.org.uk

steampowered

Given that this is a small claim (meaning that legal costs are not usually recoverable from the other side), you may run this case yourself if you wish. It is not mandatory to use a solicitor.

The key will be whether you are (1) organised enough to make sure you meet deadlines, and (2) able to present clear evidence (e.g. photos) as to why the work was not up to scratch.

I would be tempted to make a reasonable settlement offer to this company of £8,000 less whatever you had to pay the third party.

If that offer is not accepted, I would sit tight until such time as this company issues legal proceedings against you. Until the solicitor knows what the company has written in a formal court claim form, it will be difficult for them to advise you.

The only thing a solicitor could do right now would be to write a stroppy letter to the company explaining that they are in breach of contract.