Suing a tradesman for delays and inconvenience

Mickey666

I basically agree with all of the above.  However, that's not to say that the THREAT of legal action might not yield a result.  After all, plenty of disputes end up with out-of-court settlements.  Just be prepared to have your bluff called.

HappyFish2021

What's the situation now with small claims courts if you lose? I think the law has changed on this recently. Do you have to pay the other side's costs? It used to be you did not have to. 

MattMattMattUK

HappyFish2021 said:

What's the situation now with small claims courts if you lose? I think the law has changed on this recently. Do you have to pay the other side's costs? It used to be you did not have to. 

They do not usually get awarded costs or only minimal costs if it stays in the Small Claims Court, they can not claim for legal fees for example. They generally only get awarded cost if the claim was vexatious or malicious. Is the value of your claim under £10k? If is it likely would stay in the Small Claims Court. 

HappyFish2021

MattMattMattUK said:

HappyFish2021 said:

What's the situation now with small claims courts if you lose? I think the law has changed on this recently. Do you have to pay the other side's costs? It used to be you did not have to. 

They do not usually get awarded costs or only minimal costs if it stays in the Small Claims Court, they can not claim for legal fees for example. They generally only get awarded cost if the claim was vexatious or malicious. Is the value of your claim under £10k? If is it likely would stay in the Small Claims Court. 

Yeah it would be small claims tier. I knows it always used to be not the case but it's just I'm pretty sure I saw a post about law changing very recently so you did have to pay other side's costs but cannot find any more information on this anywhere.

Jumblebumble

Aylesbury_Duck said:

In summary, with difficulty.  It's almost impossible to accurately value a house at a particular point in time unless you have a proceedable offer at that time.  e.g. I might value my house at £500k but have just one offer of £470k, in which case it's worth £470k.  If I have no offers, its value is undetermined, so I have no way of knowing if its value is greater, less or the same as it was at another point in time.

As to your inconvenience, you can claim your real and evidenced costs.  If you needed to stay in a hotel for a week because the original ready date was missed, for example, you have an evidenced cost.  You have a duty to mitigate those losses, so you can't book into the Ritz and expect the builder to pay any more than a basic hotel's costs, for example.

I would contend that a proceedable offer does not quantify the value of the house
You might have someone offer as a cash buyer 30K above everyone else and then pull out just before exchange.
Not until the money is handed over is the value of the house  determined 

Aylesbury_Duck

Yes, you're right.  Until completion the money might still be fictional.

davidmcn

Jumblebumble said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

In summary, with difficulty.  It's almost impossible to accurately value a house at a particular point in time unless you have a proceedable offer at that time.  e.g. I might value my house at £500k but have just one offer of £470k, in which case it's worth £470k.  If I have no offers, its value is undetermined, so I have no way of knowing if its value is greater, less or the same as it was at another point in time.

As to your inconvenience, you can claim your real and evidenced costs.  If you needed to stay in a hotel for a week because the original ready date was missed, for example, you have an evidenced cost.  You have a duty to mitigate those losses, so you can't book into the Ritz and expect the builder to pay any more than a basic hotel's costs, for example.

I would contend that a proceedable offer does not quantify the value of the house
You might have someone offer as a cash buyer 30K above everyone else and then pull out just before exchange.
Not until the money is handed over is the value of the house  determined 

All academic anyway, as "I could have sold for £x more if you had been faster" isn't going to be a valid claim. Which tradespeople would take on work if they were bearing that sort of risk?