Small court case against lanscaper

szczszcz

Hi.I've been advise to ask for her on this formus as my friend found it very useful. We had a garden done just before the lockdown(garden is our world as our daughter was told to shield due to FAR TO MANY health issues).It turns out the landscaper used the wrong method and did not prepare the base according to the standards.We did point out also that the idioan stone was also lied uneven, apttern was a bit wonky but he came with a funny excuse that turns out to be just not right but at the time we didnt know. He left and we paid, I just wanted him out to be honest with the whole lockdown and letter about shielding that we got for my daughter.After two weeks most of the slabs turned out patchy, he never came back to finish the bit behind the shed, it just looks like a patchy cow.He got cross at first when we rang as said that something is not right. He said we need to wait for patches to dry out, of course it never happened.Then he came to replace 3 slabs(we bought 2 news ones and one was reused.He used the right method this time and no patches appeared on new slabs, the reused one is still patchy.It looked like he will redo it but then he turned the corner and said that he wont and send us an email saying that he will not reply to our msg and to contact his lawyer.Lawer doesnt reply to our emails, we also rang.We've send 2 official letters to the trader that he signed for but still no reply.
We got quotes to redo the garden, almost 5K!!!!Every single landscaper said that its badly done and he is known for being cheap and using cheap materials and thats why he probably didnt prepare the base in a correct way to safe some money.  It was a cash job and he never gave us any invoice.We've got his quote, email saying that he's done it, neighbours could confirm seeing his van as well.We got an advice from the lawer and he said that we have a case but I dont really want to spend any more money on it.Cour case fees and we were thinking about expert opinion that will be around 700 pounds is enough.

I just can't believe that he can ignore us like that when it's very obvious that he did not do the paving according to British standards.Is there something he know that I dont that he is so confident or is he just so rude???
Maybe anybody else had a similar situation and can help and advice.We never had a situation like that and we are not picky people but I will not drop this one as its a garden for my daughter whos got special needs and he even didn't lay the artificial grass under her swing evenly, its all bumpy.Ptachy flags, unfinished behind the shed, grout too wide or not groud at all...How can people provide service like that and then not reply to you at all when it all goes wrong?
Also i was considering a lawyer but that will be between extra 1000 to 2500 pounds depending how long will it take,.Is that a must?Do you think having a lawyer will help dramatically?

JJ_Egan

British Standards for paving ??

What did he charge you for this work .

waamo

You don't need a lawyer and you don't need expert opinions. This is a small claim not a murder trial. It's supposed to be simple. All you need is evidence it's a botch job. That can be as simple as your own pictures showing what's wrong. A quote showing what remedial work to fix it would also be good.

ToxicWomble

So you tried to do it on the cheap by doing a cash job and are now not happy with the outcome.
If others quote £5k and he was paid £2k (you don’t say how much you paid him) - it could be argued that you got what you paid for.
Good luck

pinkshoes

Why on earth do you have a lawyer?? Complete and utter waste of money.

Just get 3 quotes to complete the job to a satisfactory standard then send him a “Letter before action” giving him 14 days to get in touch and complete the job to a satisfactory standard, or you will take him to court for the cost to rectify it. Let him know the cost of the three quotes.

Send with proof of postage (free) then wait.

How much did you pay him to do the job? Did you get other quotes at the time?

If he does not respond then just start a claim in the small claims court. You do not need a lawyer for this - it is straight forward.

SteveVy

Be aware whilst everyone here is saying you don't need a solicitor you might in fact need one if he has one.

I've recently taken someone to a small claims court and had no choice but to pay for a solicitor as the defendant had one who made several claims I could not respond to due to the technical language used and also numerous letters referring to court proceedings.

Be aware it cost me £3,000 in solicitor fees and this was with a 50% discount on all work they did for me

waamo

SteveVy said:

Be aware whilst everyone here is saying you don't need a solicitor you might in fact need one if he has one.

I've recently taken someone to a small claims court and had no choice but to pay for a solicitor as the defendant had one who made several claims I could not respond to due to the technical language used and also numerous letters referring to court proceedings.

Be aware it cost me £3,000 in solicitor fees and this was with a 50% discount on all work they did for me

You should have asked on here. You may well have been able to do it yourself with help. £3k on a lawyer will mean you don't get a lot back. Claims under £10k really shouldn't need one and the process is designed so that they are discouraged.

tacpot12

Far too many people engage a solicitor, sit back, expecting the solicitor to do all the work, and then are surprised to receive a massive bill. Solicitors are professionals in business on their own account, and have significant costs to cover. So don't use them to do work you can do. Pay them for their legal knowledge and expertise as and when you need it. 

When you take a case to court, one of the main jobs you need to do it identify the relevant laws and any relevant case law. You can do a lot of this yourself, but in a complex or valuable case you will want a solicitor to check that you haven't missed any key case law. For disputes with tradesmen, I would expect you to only need a small amount of actual legal advice, so perhaps incurring £200-£400 in solicitors costs. But if you ask them to run your case for you, it will cost thousands and you are paying them for work you can do for free - you will probably do a better job of it as the case is more valuable to you. 

szczszcz

JJ_Egan said:

British Standards for paving ??

What did he charge you for this work .

I've paid 4300 and fixing it will cost us 4500-4800 depending which quote we will pick,
Gues sthe cheapest one is the one we have to go for.
there are standards you need to go with, so indian stone needs to be liad on a full mortar bed and there something with the distance within the flags, bits and bobs you need to know if you are doing the job.I had no idea about any of it

szczszcz

ToxicWomble said:

So you tried to do it on the cheap by doing a cash job and are now not happy with the outcome.
If others quote £5k and he was paid £2k (you don’t say how much you paid him) - it could be argued that you got what you paid for.
Good luck

you can't really argue that as we paid 4300 so it not a that much of a difference. Quotes to fix it are in a region of 4500-4800. I still cant see how a professional landscaper could do a job against the instructions from the supplier. I wouldn't say a word if I got somebody to do the job without any experience and paid him 2K but if you are taking a trader who assures you he has been in the business for 12 years, paid him that much money ....just not right

szczszcz

pinkshoes said:

Why on earth do you have a lawyer?? Complete and utter waste of money.

Just get 3 quotes to complete the job to a satisfactory standard then send him a “Letter before action” giving him 14 days to get in touch and complete the job to a satisfactory standard, or you will take him to court for the cost to rectify it. Let him know the cost of the three quotes.

Send with proof of postage (free) then wait.

How much did you pay him to do the job? Did you get other quotes at the time?

If he does not respond then just start a claim in the small claims court. You do not need a lawyer for this - it is straight forward.

we've paid £4300 and fixing it will post us £4500, they will need to remove old slabs as they may be stained so they cant guarantee that stains wont show.I've send him a letter before action, no reply so I've send another one giving him extra 7 days, still nothing. Got a signature for both so I know he got it. He send us an email before I've even send those letters to contact his solicitor directly as he wont reply to our massages .He didn't give me an address for the correspondence when I emailed him asking for it. I've emailed the solicitor and attached both letters. He only provided phone number for solicitor but of course they wont speak with me, I rang 3 times and asked them to confirm that they have received the email, I feel like a right stalker but I think I did all I could do to get in touch and sort it out without court.