Building work

Tamblo

I arranged for a builder to do a new tarmac drive last Aug. A deposit of £950 was paid and I assumed the work would be done in A few weeks . It’s now April and it’s still not done. The builder has been stating since Aug that it was due to covid which in part we accepted. We was told in March that the VC work would be completed in early April. Two weeks into April I text builder asking for a date to which he said he has a date and would send that night . After another week and numerous texts asking for the promised date we still had no date. My wife called him and after they had words he offered us our money back. After another week we have had no refund and he does not reply. Yes we signed a contract but his communication is terrible and we have now got another builder who has already given us a date. I don’t think legally we can do anything to get the money back based on him not communicating and offering us a refund which now looks like he has changed his mind .I will put my thoughts on checkatrade but looks like we lost £950  

FreeBear

Tamblo said: I don’t think legally we can do anything to get the money back based on him not communicating and offering us a refund which now looks like he has changed his mind .I will put my thoughts on checkatrade but looks like we lost £950  

There is plenty you can do legally to recover the deposit in full. If you paid by credit card, contact your card provider and instruct them to do a charge back (might be able to do the same with a debit card). Alternatively, write to the builder stating "14 days to refund in full" before filing a small claims via MCOL - The process isn't difficult, and any fees incurred can be added to the amount you are claiming. The only danger is if the builder doesn't have any cash or assets to seize, you may struggle to get the money back.