Help with tradesman

Bluedragon1

Hello. I just need some support as am getting mentally and physically worn down with this.

I stupidly paid a private contractor upfront by bank transfer at the start of this month to extend a dropped kerb at my property and had to send several emails to get a receipt which I eventually got. It was booked in for September 23rd. We asked our neighbours to move their vehicles and waited but no-one arrived. At around mid morning until lunchtime I sent several emails asking if the work was going ahead and made several calls to the office with no reply.

I then sent an email asking for my money back as the contract had been broken to which I then received an email from the tradesman saying he had covid and was self isolating until this Friday and was working from home. I then had within a couple of minutes of this email a really unpleasant phone call from him saying he was ill with covid and that he would reschedule this Friday and to not threaten him with trading standards and he did not give refunds. He kept calling me dear throughout the call aswell in a really derogatory way. I was so upset on the call and afterwards I had to finish work early. I did try to tell him on the call that I didn't know he had covid and had thought the worst as no-one had contacted me but he didn't listen and made me feel like I had done something wrong for daring to ask why the job had not been done.

Well my husband did speak to trading standard's after hearing about what happened and the trader has been sent a 14 day response letter on their advice to either do the work or refund the money. My concern is I just don't think he is going to respond and HD may potentially call me and be rude again and I face the prospect of potentially going all the way down the court route which I am not sure I have the stamina for as I suffer with anxiety and I am also afraid he is going to come after me as he has my address if it does go that far. I don't know whether it's best to just cut my losses and end this nightmare now. It's already affecting my relationship with my husband as I am so stressed and I have our little boy to look after too.

Any advice much appreciated as I feel I am in a black hole that I can't get out of at the moment and in the meantime my kerb still needs sorting.

[Deleted User]

At this stage, all you can do is wait until he responds. He was due to do the work on Friday, but that's now looking in doubt given the hasty intervention with Trading Standards. 

If he does come, I would suggest just being strictly professional in your dealings with him, or have your husband deal with him.

If he doesn't, then you'll need to look at small claims. Unless he is a certified lunatic, he won't 'come after you'.

Aylesbury_Duck

I think you've been a bit hasty, wanting to cancel the contract because he didn't turn up on the day.  He could and should have told you, of course, but by emailing him to call it all off on the same day, then going to Trading Standards immediately, you've made a tricky situation an awkward one.

Personally, given that you need the work done, I'd just leave it where you have done and hope he does the job.  If he doesn't, then you have to decide whether or not to pursue things further and whether that's worth the stress.

One final point: Have you got permission to extend your dropped kerb?  Many local authorities require you to obtain permission before installing or extending a dropped kerb.  You don't want to go through all this hassle and expense, only to find that the council force you to undo it all and put it back the way it was.

Bluedragon1

The company state they are a local authority approved company for doing dropped kerb work so I assumed it would be OK. I would agree that I have probably got trading standards involved too early but not much I can do now I guess except wait and see.

MattMattMattUK

Bluedragon1 said:

The company state they are a local authority approved company for doing dropped kerb work so I assumed it would be OK. I would agree that I have probably got trading standards involved too early but not much I can do now I guess except wait and see.

They can be local authority approved and indeed they are required to be to work on the public highway, which the kerb is classified as, but you also need to have obtained the relevant consent first, unless you specifically asked the company to do this for you. 

sheramber

I have recently had a dropped kerb installed.

You need to check that the highways department are agreeable to a dropped kerb being installed. 

The contractor then needs a permit before he can go ahead, which entailed submitting a large form with details of the work involved.

In my area( don't know if it applies everywhere) the contractor must complete the work within 15 days of getting permission.

 

Aylesbury_Duck

Bluedragon1 said:

The company state they are a local authority approved company for doing dropped kerb work so I assumed it would be OK. I would agree that I have probably got trading standards involved too early but not much I can do now I guess except wait and see.

You need to speak to the local authority.  You haven't applied for consent, so unless the contractor has done so (doubtful, if you didn't ask him to), you probably don't have permission to extend your dropped kerb.  If you go ahead without that consent, you'll be paying to have it reinstated.

m0bov

You need to approach the council, you can't just go direct to the contract. You don't own the curb, neither do they. Did they ask if you had permission? I would check ASAP in case you end up having to pay to put it back!