Damage caused by builders, what's fair re. small claims

plumbdog

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

So I understand. You are/will be going to the small claims court in relation to being compensated for the original job, which you declined to have rectified by the builder? If so, is part of that claim not the slabs reportedly damaged (slabs I assume were not installed) during that job? As for what you did or did not do with the damaged slabs is really neither here nor there if you ask me as long as you have the evidence.

My only similar vaguely similar experience was a contractor causing a leak that caused property damage. Images of said property damage was all that was required.

Yes, had I been able to act a bit quicker with the claim I would have had no qualm claiming something for the slabs because the plan was still to have them replaced so it would have been straightforward (I assume). They were not part of the job. Whether it does matter that I did away with them in the meantime is what I'm trying to get it. I can see why the trader says not, & if he's in the right then fair enough, it's difficult with the terrible attitude he has had to tell when he's blagging & when he's right, as everything is just a matter of "not paying that no chance" and playing down the damage (I have photos). Presumably your damp damage needed rectifying, but this is a bit like if you had had the leak cause damage to your extension, which you then demolished.


Just to be clear the main job was not rectifiable (by anyone) so replacement was the only option, and if you saw the work then loss of faith was clear grounds not to let them redo either.

snowcat75

No one on here has the full picture, so its not really posible without the facts.

If the builder had damaged the slabs by doing something stupid, ie Putting an excavator or useing them to knock up cement on etc, then the builder would or could have been at fault, however if they had just cracked with normal foot trafic then chances are they were not laid correctly.

Iv had plenty of times (and not just the building trade) where Iv pulled workmanship appart, Unless someone or a company has been removed from a job over a serrious issue (massive breach of saftey or simlar) then standard practice would be to allow them 14 days in writeing to rectify and then if it is still not a satisfactory outcome, then it should move on to the next level.

As you have now removed the slabs its debatable on what the monetery cost is, reuseing S/H concreate slabs is often more costly than buying new, places like gumtree are full of Free to collector because of the cost of removal.

Again were cluless on the full story, the slabs could be £150 sq/m flagsones or 1850s stafordshire blues at £5 a cobble, but again they could be £5sq/m from B&Q which when removed are worth the sum total of aggrigate.

I feel this story has 2 sides to it.

plumbdog

Fair enough, you do only have my word. I'm not leaving out any key detail, it's as simple as I've outlined, nothing extraordinary about the slabs, it's purely that it spoiled a run of work that would not have needed to be changed/replaced otherwise. Equally you only have my word it was unnecessarily careless, but the rest of the workmanship & way of working was, and the person who re-did the work disagreed that it was unavoidable as did anyone else who saw/quoted for it. My argument is also that damage likely to occur could have been warned about (suggest I may want to lift the slabs & replace after for example). It's not that I think it's exceptional for damage to occur, but there was no apology, or acceptance that it mattered in the slightest. From other elements of the work and attitude of trader I'd have no problem claiming that balance of probability is on my side that it was not an acceptable way to leave a job.


There are always 2 sides but I can only say that I wouldn't bother trying to think up ways I can wring extra money out of someone - presumably if I was planning to go to court and ask for a ridiculous sum then I would soon be told differently, & I have no desire to look like an idiot or be labelled unreasonable/dishonest. I just wanted to look into how these things work, and if they work against me, that's absolutely fair enough.


Actually a 'sorry your slabs have given in the course of this, what do you want doing, shall I at least straighten them as best I can, or if you want them re-doing here's a fair quote' plus a good job of convincing me he could have done the work well & he may have got an extra job out of it. Better than going on the offensive, surely.