Awarded CCJ against rogue builder. What now?

JohnIan77 · 22 November 2021 at 3:41PM

Firstly, thanks for your time in reading this and any help you can offer is much appreciated.

During the summer of 2020 we contracted a local builder to carry out a garage conversion and build a single-storey extension. We carried out checks on previous work etc and were pretty sure of this builder's credentials. To cut a long story short, we let him do the garage conversion first to satisfy ourselves that he could do the larger extension job and, once this initial job was finishing, we agreed for him to start the extension. I wrote up and we all signed contracts plus a Statement of Work. Anyway, the inevitable happened and half way through the extension the builder asked for an advance to help him with the expenditure on lantern roof, bifold doors and the materials to complete the job - we paid this (via bank transfer) in good faith and that was the last we saw of him. After that point he refused to respond to letters, calls etc... For 12 months we have been living with the shell of an extension and a garden which more resembles a World War 1 trench re-enactment than anything else.

Now, a year later, we have been awarded a County Court judgement and the builder has been ordered to repay monies owed to allow us to complete the building with another builder. The builder did not respond to any court documents.

However, the advice I'm looking for is what route to take at this point which will allow us the best chance of seeing some of this money paid back. I doubt very much that we will see any monies voluntarily repaid. I've researched online and there are a number of options, including Enforcement Officers but there doesn't seem to be much of a guarantee of anything.

What experience have people had and do you have any advice on our best way forward with getting some money back?