Shop owner disturbed asbesots during furniture delivery - advice needed

Emanu

Hi, we bought a wardrobe from an antique shop. But before buying it we asked the shop owner to come and check the feasibility of the delivery because we live at the 4th floor of a block, the stairs are narrow and also our door. He came and confirmed that it was an easy job and there weren't problems at all to deliver the wardrobe. We paid the amount. He rescheduled several times the delivery. Without notice he came yesterday to deliver the wardrobe, calling us 5 minutes before. During that call I told him that on the stairs of the communal areas there was Artex containing asbestos on the ceilings, therefore I asked him to be very careful and not to touch the ceiling. He agreed. 
Then he arrived with a van and the move of the wardrobe turned out to be a nightmare. He completely made a mess on the stairs leaving them dirty and scratched in several parts, ruined the wardrobe itself, scrathed our new wooden floor in the hallway leaving a deep mark on 3 wood tiles. On top of that - the most dangerous thing - he scartched the asbestos ceiling in the communal areas (I have to stress that I told him at least 4 times to be really carefull and avoid touching it). As a result, the management compan got us to pay £300 + VAT to encapsulate the asbestos urgently. The shop owner came to clean the stairs himself with his own hoover or dustbin and got somebody to attend the scratch on the wood floor but insisted that there was no asbestos in the staircase (which is ridiculous given that we have a mandatory yearly asbestos risk assessment proving the presence of asbestos in the Artex ceiling in the communal areas) and refused to pay for the damage he caused or even give a discount on the wardrobe that he ruined. Is there a way we can force this dodgy individual to pay for what he did? The wardrobe cosed us £250 and the asbesots work £360. Any advice is welcomed.  

Aylesbury_Duck

Letter before action setting out the costs you've incurred, and small claims court if you need to.

tacpot12

Send him a letter before action, then sue in the Small Claims Court. Should be an easy case to win as you have the Management's company's bill already. You will need photos of the damage to the  wardrobe. I'd advise you to take lots of photos from different angles, then pick the best photo that shows each area of damage; damage is notoriously difficult to capture on film.

Emanu

Thanks so much, this is very helpful 

Frank99

Would not worry too much about the ceiling if it is artex as they generally contain about 1% asbestos, we have a couple in our home, this is only an issue if you take out the ceiling releasing the spores, i think as you warned him you should be entitled to all you costs back as this was a communal area. Did you pay on a credit card, if so maybe section 75!

dreamypuma

Slightly different perspective...

Given the OP's concerns about the potential awkwardness of delivery (so much so that "we asked the shop owner to come and check the feasibility of the delivery") - Wouldn't it have been prudent for the OP to have disclosed the perceived risks of asbestos and possibility of disturbing it from the outset rather than during the call 5mins before arrival?

At least this way the vendor would have been fully aware of the potential gravity of the task. Maybe it would have altered his view on the risks, and agreement to proceed?

Norman_Castle

As above, 5 minutes before arriving the wardrobe will be on the van along with someone to help lift it up the stairs.

Emanu

dreamypuma said:

Slightly different perspective...

Given the OP's concerns about the potential awkwardness of delivery (so much so that "we asked the shop owner to come and check the feasibility of the delivery") - Wouldn't it have been prudent for the OP to have disclosed the perceived risks of asbestos and possibility of disturbing it from the outset rather than during the call 5mins before arrival?

At least this way the vendor would have been fully aware of the potential gravity of the task. Maybe it would have altered his view on the risks, and agreement to proceed?

Norman_Castle said:

As above, 5 minutes before arriving the wardrobe will be on the van along with someone to help lift it up the stairs.

Oh but we did tell them. One of the main reasons why we got him to come over and check was to make clear that he had to deliever the wardrobe without touching the ceiling as it contains asbestos... He was fully aware, just careless and unprofessional, BTW after he did it he tried to convince us for like 2 days that there was no chance there was asbestos in the ceiling and then when shown the asbestos survey that the damage "just touched the paint but not the asbestos underneath" which is just ridiculous

dreamypuma

Emanu said:

dreamypuma said:

Slightly different perspective...

Given the OP's concerns about the potential awkwardness of delivery (so much so that "we asked the shop owner to come and check the feasibility of the delivery") - Wouldn't it have been prudent for the OP to have disclosed the perceived risks of asbestos and possibility of disturbing it from the outset rather than during the call 5mins before arrival?

At least this way the vendor would have been fully aware of the potential gravity of the task. Maybe it would have altered his view on the risks, and agreement to proceed?

Norman_Castle said:

As above, 5 minutes before arriving the wardrobe will be on the van along with someone to help lift it up the stairs.

Oh but we did tell them. One of the main reasons why we got him to come over and check was to make clear that he had to deliever the wardrobe without touching the ceiling as it contains asbestos... He was fully aware, just careless and unprofessional, BTW after he did it he tried to convince us for like 2 days that there was no chance there was asbestos in the ceiling and then when shown the asbestos survey that the damage "just touched the paint but not the asbestos underneath" which is just ridiculous

Thanks for clarifying. It just wasn't clear in the first post. 

I which case, I'd progress with an LBA, with a view to Small Claims if he doesn't play ball.

Good luck. 

ThisnotThat

Emanu said:

dreamypuma said:

Slightly different perspective...

Given the OP's concerns about the potential awkwardness of delivery (so much so that "we asked the shop owner to come and check the feasibility of the delivery") - Wouldn't it have been prudent for the OP to have disclosed the perceived risks of asbestos and possibility of disturbing it from the outset rather than during the call 5mins before arrival?

At least this way the vendor would have been fully aware of the potential gravity of the task. Maybe it would have altered his view on the risks, and agreement to proceed?

Norman_Castle said:

As above, 5 minutes before arriving the wardrobe will be on the van along with someone to help lift it up the stairs.

Oh but we did tell them. One of the main reasons why we got him to come over and check was to make clear that he had to deliever the wardrobe without touching the ceiling as it contains asbestos... He was fully aware, just careless and unprofessional, BTW after he did it he tried to convince us for like 2 days that there was no chance there was asbestos in the ceiling and then when shown the asbestos survey that the damage "just touched the paint but not the asbestos underneath" which is just ridiculous

It's not that ridiculous.

Does nobody have a sense of perspective nowadays?

It's a small scratch on a ceiling that has a very small amount of asbestos in it.  That's it.

It's not like he unleashed Ebola on everyone.  Jesus.

Emanu

It's a small amount but potentially deadly and in a communal area! We asked the health & safety guy to come and check and he said there was a damage to be repeared. We trust the opinion of a professional!