Problem with gardener and possible legal action

bringingit

Hi, I'm hoping to get some advice on my situation with a gardener. I'll try to keep it short but it's a bit of a long story.

I found someone to sort out my garden with some turf and patio slabs through a recommendation on a local Facebook group. We messaged initially on WhatsApp and he directed me to his Instagram page, Gary's Gardening, and we then communicated via WhatsApp and Instagram DM. This was in March, and we agreed a price of £3,250 and that the job would be completed during the last week of April. He asked for a £800 deposit which I paid.

On his Instragram page, Gary promotes Paul's Paving. The job didn't get completed during the last week of April, and Gary had several excuses, mainly blaming suppliers. Gary showed up a couple of times over the next couple of weeks to do bits of work, but not much progress. In mid-May, Paul's Paving turned up and did the patio slabs part of the job. Paul demanded payment, and sent me a couple of messages demanding payment that day, which I stupidly did, paying the balance of £2,350.

Below is a list of some of the things that have happened.

1. On 24 separate occasions, Gary has messaged to say he's coming round to do the work, but not showed up.
2. Gary had a pile of soil/mud delivered and dumped on my driveaway, and it took him 7 days to come back and move it from the front to the back (during this time, the weather was mixed and the front area of the house is a mess.
3. Gary had rolls of turf delivered and he didn't come round to lay it. I had to move it from the front to the back, and as he didn't come back it died and he had it removeed 21 days later.
4. On one of the occasions Gary turned up, he piled all of his rubbish, weeds etc. into an industrial sized, extremely heavy bag on the front lawn which is shared with a neighbour. It took 23 days for him to get a waste company to remove the bag (with the dead turf mentioned above) and it has destroyed the grass it was on top of.
5. Gary had more turf delivered, which he laid 3 days later. He didn't order enough, so there's a gap down the side of the garden.
6. The soil work has not been completed.
7. One of the patio slabs Paul put down has cracked, and several of the slabs are wobbly and don't look like they'd be put down correctly.

Paul said he would come round at the weekend to fix the problems but didn't turn up. I haven't seen Gary for 3 weeks and his messages are sporadic. Gary has said he's having health problems but I'm not sure I believe him. He's told me he's been abroad on holiday, and his open Facebook profile shows that he's been at the cinema and playing golf.

So, it's been 11 weeks that I've been messed around, the job is not complete and the work that has been done if of a very poor standard. I've been extremely reasonable, and I've asking Gary what his plan is to sort this out and he's ignoring me.

What are my legal next steps? I feel like I should threaten Gary with small claims court to get my money back for breach of contract. Some thoughts

1. Can I claim the full amount from Gary? My agreement was with him, but most of the money has been paid to Paul (I did confirm with Gary that he was happy for me to do this before I paid).
2. I don't know if these guys are sole traders, or if they are actually set up as businesses at all. I had a look on companies house record, but I couldn't find anything.
3. I don't have an address for any of them. Gary claimed to send me an invoice/receipt at the beginning of this, but he didn't. Google brings up nothing. I have found from an open Twitter profile an address he posted in 2015 (it was a receipt where he was asking for a refund - ironic) and Zoopla says that property was sold in 2017. Can I send him a letter before action by email only and ask under pre-action protocol for his address, and say that otherwise I'll use last known address which is the one I found on Twitter?

Also to note, he's blamed two different turf companies for some of the problems. I contacted the second one, who said he had cancelled the order 4 times and didn't pay until they threatened him with legal action and he's now banned. I'm wondering if sending some type of action will spur him into action to complete the job or agree to some type of refund.

I'm at my wits end with this. It's thoroughly ruined the last few months and a big part of the experience of sorting out a new home for my family. Any thoughts on next steps and what I can reasonably do would be very much appreciated. Finally, I'm slightly worried about some sort of retaliation from my interactions with Gary and Paul thus far, especially as they know my address, if I do start some type of legal action.

Aylesbury_Duck

The simple, quick answer is that you can't instigate any legal action against either of them without addresses.  

Time to do some detective work.

macman

I'm sure you realise this now, but by paying the sub-contractor direct you have made a claim much more difficult. You had no contract with the subbie whatsoever, on the basis of what you have posted.
As others have said, you need a) an address for the main contractor, and b) to find out if he is a sole trader or a limited company, in order to use the small claims process.
Once you have this info, send him an LBA by post, with proof of posting (not a WhatsApp, text or email).
But the reality is that you are very unlikely to recover your losses, whether you get him a CCJ or not.

Ath_Wat

How to put this...did they seem to be the kind of people that have addresses?

bringingit

Hi, thanks for the responses and the healthy dose of realism. First, yes lol I think they have addresses.

I think I need to focus on Gary as he is the person I had the agreement with, and correct to consider Paul a sub contractor (that I paid based on Gary’s instruction). I’m wondering if a LBA would at least spur some action - either coming to complete the crap job or some sort of partial refund (too optimistic?). As I said above, the turf company had to threaten him with legal action to get their payment.

back to the subject or sole trader or limited company and address. I’ve checked companies house search and can’t find anything. Tried googling and social media and all I could find was an old address which I’m not 100% sure was his. I’ve tried to find previous customers but can’t find the recommendation or anyone to contact. When we first met he told me an area he lived, but that’s not particularly helpful.

Any other thoughts on next steps or how to possibly find the address would be much appreciated. I have name and phone number. Also is there other things I should be doing to check if he’s registered as a company?

user1977

You could check how much tracing agents would charge to (try to) find him. You don't really want to find a limited company (especially if there's not been any suggestion that you were contracting with one), you want to sue him personally.

pinkshoes

You could try posting what you know on here so we could help you trace him and find an address?

You can sue him for the cost to finish the job. Not the full amount. E.g. if another professional gardener says it will be £500 to finish what you asked for then chass him for £500.

Ath_Wat

bringingit said:

Hi, thanks for the responses and the healthy dose of realism. First, yes lol I think they have addresses.

There are plenty of people doing this kind of jobbing landscaping work out of white vans who don't.  This is a risk you take when dealing with them.  Well, one of the risks.

mobileron

Get someone else to call him and ask for a written quote,if u stll have a phone number.

bringingit

Thanks again for the responses. Assuming I can find the address, any comments on the best course of action? Again, I’m hoping a change of tone from myself or a letter will actually spur some action.

Appreciate the point on claiming the amount to put things right. If I want to make a small claim do I need to prove these costs have been paid? Can I try to claim anything for being messed around, time spent chasing etc.?

Many thanks

MalMonroe

Hi,

Have you reported this person/ad to facebook? That's something that needs doing. And also to Instagram although they're basically the same company.

Also have you reported the whole matter to Facebook? After all, you would never have bothered with this 'gardener' if the ad had not been on Facebook and I think that they should take some responsibility. 

It's digusting that people can be scammed like this if Facebook takes no responsibility. 

To be honest, I really doubt that any letter from you will spur anything. They have your money now and they can just disappear. But FB should have a record of their IP address, at the very least, and may be able to chase them from that. 

But definitely please do report this person if he's still on FB, try to save others. Sorry this happened to you.