HELP - Suing my contractor - is it worth it?

Felics

Hi all,

I have a question about an issue I faced with a contractor/floorer I used for some renovation in my house. Ultimately, I had to ask him to leave to due him taking nearly 3x as long as he’d promised he would and the quality of work being very poor.

I’ve decided to go down the small claims court route and have issued a “letter of action” from my solicitor. Funnily enough, he has emailed me a letter of action for breach of contract (which I found worrying and amusing in equal parts).

I’ve never had to take some to the SCC so I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this and give me some advice. I’ve laid down some of the facts of how this situation arose below.

Any help would be really appreciated as I’m slightly worried that he’s also trying to sue me for terminating the contract.

·        I contracted the said floorer (CD) to repair, sand and relay some reclaimed flooring in the whole of my house. I paid him a deposit direct to his personal account. The total job was at a cost of £6210. I paid him £1400 deposit.

·        The scope of work was emailed to me highlighting what he would do. He also noted in this email work would take 5-8 working days at the absolute max.

·        Work started on 3 June (therefore with an end date of 12 June) and progressed very slowly.

·        On 9 June I raised my concerns on two things, the timeline and the lack of quality in the relaying of the floorbarods (uneven flooring, rotten boards being used, very large gaps etc.)

·        CD assured me these would be fixed. However, he was largely absent whilst his two man team performed a lot of the work. They were clearly not the best workers as I could see the lack of quality in their work.

·        On 10 June, I raised the point again with CD (raising them also via message). I asked him to keep me up to date with all stages of the process as I could see there were areas that were being overlooked and huge lapses in the quality of the finish. The team seemed very inexperienced too (for instance, I had to stop one worker using my personal kitchen utensils to cut flooring).

·        On 11 June, I spoke to CD again to highlight the pace of the project. As I had already paid a significant deposit, I was in a predicament as to whether I should let CD and his team continue works. I did not want to lose out on a significant sum of my deposit so decided to discuss this with CD to see if he could alleviate my concerns.

·        At the end of Friday 12 June, I went to review the work that had been completed over the last two days. I was extremely unhappy with my findings and messaged him to discuss. I didn’t receive a positive response so I messaged CD again on Sunday 14 June, asking CD to tell his workers not attend on the coming Monday until we could agree a resolution and direction to the work.

·        CD attended my property on Sunday 14 June to discuss the issues I had raised. He agreed to rectify all these issues and I sent him a follow-up email to confirm these points. He agreed to them but was reluctant to give a revised end date via email. He had told me during his visit he would finish in another week (19 June) and I have messages with him confirming that he would finish the top floor on so and so date. He also stated he would work later in the day (i.e. 9-7 which he never did).

In any case I agreed to let him continue with the top floor only.

·        CD and his workers arrived the following Monday (15 June) to my property to continue works. He mentioned to his workers that they would have to work another week possibly with no pay to rectify the poor work. The subsequently argued, the workers left and I later found out that they had stolen his vans and tools as retaliation.

CD decided to stop work during this day and leave in the morning due to the situation (i.e. having no workers and a stolen van).

·        Although I empathised with his situation, I still needed work to carry on, so on the Tuesday work continued. However, CD did very little work that week. He was working alone and clearly had other stresses on him due to what had happened. Police visited the property to take a statement from him RE the theft of his van an enquire about CCTV in my property (I have none).

·        Over that week, I raised the point on timeline numerous times with no clear answer, again VERY little had been done and there was huge amounts left to do. CD would regularly leave the house and once left to tow his van after they had found it abandoned. As I was renovating the whole house I had to delay contractors from starting due to their being no floor!

·        19 June came (2.5 weeks into the job) with and not one room in house had been completed. As it had been a strange week for CD due to the theft and the loss of his workers, I decided to consider my options (to my mistake) over the weekend and inform CD that there was a hard deadline of next week (26 June).

·        He began work again on Monday. On the Tuesday (23 June) he found what he said was live woodworm. I was sceptical and asked him why he hadn’t spotted this earlier given that he had been handling it for 3 weeks now. He had no answer. He said it would be better if he stopped as it would cost me more in the long run to continue and then replace them. He asked me to get in experts to confirm his findings. He would come back once they had  sprayed the wood (if necessary).

·        I did get in two experts who said there was no woodworm present. As I had now lost another three days I decided to then terminate any contract with CD due to missed deadline and lack of quality (all evidenced).

 

Sorry I’ve tried to summarise as briefly as possible but as you can appreciate this is a situation with lost of turns. The main facts are there.

My Q is do I have a case in the small claims court? Also what can I do to beset prepare for this to make it easier and have the highest chance of success in my claim?

I will be pursuing CD directly as payments were made into his bank account and not going to sue his LTD company (for obvious reasons).

 

martindow

You must have written evidence from independent and qualified people as evidence of the poor quality and workmanship.  You also need quotations for completing the work so you can evidence your loss in ££.  I would concentrate on the quality and workmanship rather the time taken which seems relatively unimportant.

The other issue with claims is whether the person is willing or able to pay up.  Sometimes 'winning' is just the start and you are unlikely to get money from someone with no assets and possibly other debts.

Edit: I've just read the end of your long post about a limited company.  I don't know the answer but if you open the claim against the wrong entity - the individual or the company - it will fail at the first step. 

Felics

Thanks martindow - I have evidence from other floorers commenting that the work had fallen below reasonable quality expected. In addition to cost of remedial works.
The timing was a big factor given that he quoted based on 8 days and I went with him on this. nearly 4 weeks in nothing has been completed.
Also as I have paid directly into his personal account, I will be going after him personally as opposed to a LTD company.

davidmcn

Felics said:

Also as I have paid directly into his personal account, I will be going after him personally as opposed to a LTD company.

Who was your contract with?

macman

Are the invoices from his company, or him as a sole trader? I presume you got invoices for part payments made, or at least receipts?
Which name is on the quote?
It sounds as if the 'workers' were not his own staff, but sub-contractors.

anselld

You say you have paid £1400 of a £6210 total ie 22.5%.   Some work has obviously been done and presumably some proportion of that is to an acceptable standard.  So the question is, does the acceptable proportion of work amount to more or less than 22.5% of the job?  

You cannot really expect to recover the £1400 if he has already completed at least that proportion of the job to a satisfactory standard.

macman

As above: if he cannot complete at least 22.5% of the job after 20 days on site, then he is never going to be able to complete it.
What you need to do is find another contractor who can quote you a realistic sum to complete the work within budget.

greatcrested

Felics said:

Thanks martindow - I have evidence from other floorers commenting that the work had fallen below reasonable quality expected. In addition to cost of remedial works.

Good. Hopefully

* these floorers are 'reputable' ie preferably members of an appropriate trade body. That will carry much more weightwith the judge

* the 'evidence' is written, and unambiguous

* the costs are clearly to complete the work as originally defined in the initial contract and based on the current state of the work. If the work so far is totally unacceptable, the quote remedial might include undoing what's already been done, otherwise it will be for building on the work to date.

As you've already had a solicitor send a Letter Before Action I assume you've discussed all this with him?

A solicitor (as doubtless he explained) will be expensive going forward, and you cannot reclaim those costs in a Small Claims Hearing, so DIY is probably the only economic approach. SC Heaings are esigned to be informal and easy for litigants, but you need to have your claim very clearly stated (as briefly as possible), and supporting evidence also clearly listed and submitted.

Of course, if he serves a claim on you first (presumably for the outstanding amount unpaid from the contract? Is that what his letter demands?), then you will need to

a) enter a defence and

b) enter a counter-claim, rather than starting your own legal action.

Wanderingpomm

Felics said:

Thanks martindow - I have evidence from other floorers commenting that the work had fallen below reasonable quality expected. In addition to cost of remedial works.
The timing was a big factor given that he quoted based on 8 days and I went with him on this. nearly 4 weeks in nothing has been completed.
Also as I have paid directly into his personal account, I will be going after him personally as opposed to a LTD company.

Those ‘comments’ will need to be in writing 

Felics

macman said:

Are the invoices from his company, or him as a sole trader? I presume you got invoices for part payments made, or at least receipts?
Which name is on the quote?
It sounds as if the 'workers' were not his own staff, but sub-contractors.

Unfortunately no invoices directly from him, just payments directly to his personal bank account

Felics

greatcrested said:

Felics said:

Thanks martindow - I have evidence from other floorers commenting that the work had fallen below reasonable quality expected. In addition to cost of remedial works.

Good. Hopefully

* these floorers are 'reputable' ie preferably members of an appropriate trade body. That will carry much more weightwith the judge

* the 'evidence' is written, and unambiguous

* the costs are clearly to complete the work as originally defined in the initial contract and based on the current state of the work. If the work so far is totally unacceptable, the quote remedial might include undoing what's already been done, otherwise it will be for building on the work to date.

As you've already had a solicitor send a Letter Before Action I assume you've discussed all this with him?

A solicitor (as doubtless he explained) will be expensive going forward, and you cannot reclaim those costs in a Small Claims Hearing, so DIY is probably the only economic approach. SC Heaings are esigned to be informal and easy for litigants, but you need to have your claim very clearly stated (as briefly as possible), and supporting evidence also clearly listed and submitted.

Of course, if he serves a claim on you first (presumably for the outstanding amount unpaid from the contract? Is that what his letter demands?), then you will need to

a) enter a defence and

b) enter a counter-claim, rather than starting your own legal action.

Sorry for the delay (it has been manic):

"As you've already had a solicitor send a Letter Before Action I assume you've discussed all this with him?"
Yes - correct.

"A solicitor (as doubtless he explained) will be expensive going forward, and you cannot reclaim those costs"
Exactly - as adivsed by my solictior he stated it would be cheaper to do so to.

"* these floorers are 'reputable' ie preferably members of an appropriate trade body. That will carry much more weightwith the judge

* the 'evidence' is written, and unambiguous

* the costs are clearly to complete the work as originally defined in the initial contract and based on the current state of the work. If the work so far is totally unacceptable, the quote remedial might include undoing what's already been done, otherwise it will be for building on the work to date".

I have two statements - one on letterheaded paper (email to me) from one floorer and another via email. Both explaining the issues with the current flooring and the cost of redoing. My problem or worry is whether I would have to ask these floorer to appear in court so the judge could question them? I'm not sure if they would be happy to do that as it does seem as though it would not be worth it for them (especially as I haven't used either of them to complete the works yet).

"...but you need to have your claim very clearly stated (as briefly as possible)"
This might be a problem as the devil is in the details I feel. I have about 5 pages on A4 which I think is a little bit too much. But due to the complications of the case (i.e. CD's workers stealing his van and tools during their time at my property) I feel it necessary to go into these details. Is this wise? Or should I make the details of the case more succint? 

Also just an updated, CD sent me a "letter of action" via email stating due to me terminating his contract unfairly, he would be suing me for £2.5k. Following my own LOA, he has now responded to this directly to my solicitor and now increased his claim to £6.5k. Is this something I should bring up in my case. The time between his intial emailed LOA and his second LOA was around a week. Costs for his claim increased randomly by almost 3x. Can I raise this to cast doubt on his credibility?

Again thank you all - your advice is invaluable to me - many thanks