Help! Tradesman damaged my property!

swim55

I was wondering if anyone could help or offer any advice on the following:
We had a Plumber in to fit a new boiler in our rental property, once he had fitted the boiler my partner went to inspect the work before arranging to pay him. When my partner arrived our tenants were clearing up a lot of mess and debris left by the plumber. (Annoying but not the end of the world) but the tenants were also unhappy and rightly so that the plumber had used their expensive white towels and left stains on them.

My partner then went into the loft to find lagging strewn all over the place and rubbish (as in his lunch wrappers from Tesco!!) hidden under things he hadn't tidied or put away properly and other bits of rubbish screwed and hidden in a cupboard door (which didn't originally have any screws on it) Then, on inspecting the boiler my partner and the tenant noticed a leak.

He called the Plumber and raised these issues with him straight away. He was quite rude and aggressive and basically didn't want to know. We asked him to come out ASAP to fix the leak. He was also due to fit a new shower in the property but we said after the mess and damage that he's already caused we would find an alternate Plumber to do this. When we said that he wrote in a text message that if we were to go and find a new Plumber to fit the shower he would charge us an extra £250 on top of the bill.

Writing this down and looking back it all sounds crazy! But that's what he said!

So we agreed he could come back and fit the shower. The tenants called straight away when they got home after the plumber had been to fit the new shower and sent us pictures of the landing carpet that had multiple burn and scorch marks in it! One so deep that it had burnt through the carpet and into the underlay. The scorch marks are a perfect match for a soldering iron! Again we called the Plumber straight away and asked what on Earth had happened!

He then got very aggressive, demanded payment immediately, refused to give any of his insurance details or any further information to us. We explained he had caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage! The whole of the stairs and landing carpet will need to be replaced! And he doesn't care, kept demanding we pay he. We offered to pay for his materials which is about 2/3 of the final bill so we had some money to replace the burnt carpet and he's demanding we pay in full.

We've spoken to citizens advice and they advised us to send him a letter recorded delivery outlining the issues and what we were prepared to pay. You have to sign for it and He hasn't collected this from the post office!

We've also spoken to our insurance company and do have legal cover up to £250,000 and have discussed this with a legal adviser.

The plumber has now enlisted the help of a debt collection company who have sent us a 'Letter before action' it's worded in such a way that they assume we can't afford to pay the bill, which isn't the case. We have never refused to pay the bill, we've only tried to pay part of the bill to cover our own additional costs of replacing the carpet!

Does anyone have any advise on where to go from here? Do we pay the bill and then try and claim damages from him? Would that work? Do we keep on offering to pay the lesser amount? We of course have photographic evidence of all the mess and the burns and scorch marks in the carpet.

knightstyle

First thing is to check he is on the Gas safe register as he must have worked on the Gas supply. If not report him straight away. If he is what other trade bodies is he a member of?
Next get estimates for cleaning up and repairs to carpet and send him a bill, when he ignores this a letter before action followed by a court claim for your money.

DoaM

Well done for persevering with that wall of text - I gave up after the first couple of lines.

marliepanda

DoaM wrote: »

Well done for persevering with that wall of text - I gave up after the first couple of lines.

You didn't want to 'pulmb' the depths??

swim55

Sorry, my first post and I was writing on my phone.

Thank you for the constructive reply! We will get a quote for replacing the carpet and await his refusal to pay for it!

unholyangel

How old was the carpet and what did it cost from new?

While you are entitled to withhold an amount required to put things right, there shouldn't be any element of betterment (ie deducting the value of a brand new wool carpet when the carpet he damaged is a 8 year old cheap/basic one) and if you are deducting that from the balance owed to him then there would be no need to take him to court.

It would then be up to him to file against you in court (and pay the associated fees) at which point you would file a defence that you exercised your right to set off.

eschaton

swim55 wrote: »

Sorry, my first post and I was writing on my phone.

Thank you for the constructive reply! We will get a quote for replacing the carpet and await his refusal to pay for it!

All phones have a text return button as you have already found out.

Posting a wall of text is just lazy. I gave up after 2 lines.

J_B

I read it all


But


I always remember what someone told me on usenet once ..


You don't gat charged extra for white space!


Anyway, back on topic - ignoring the legal bit's which I'm not qualified or knowledgeable enough to know about ...... once you pay, you lose all bargaining power.


Simple as that!

swim55

The plot thickens; the plumber is now trying to charge us VAT on one of the invoices after telling us he isn't VAT registered.

Does anyone know how to check if a company is VAT registered.

There isn't a VAT number on his invoices and he has verbally told us he isn't VAT registered.

(now putting in extra returns)

comeandgo

If there is no VAT number he can't charge VAT. Where do you find such cowboys?

swim55

They came recommended by our Letting Agents!!

Also edited to add extra returns in original post!