Suing a plumber in a small claims court

ImranQ

Jenni_D said:

OP has not done that - or at least that's not how I read it. They've engaged initial services per their home legal protection policy as part of their home insurance.  

Correct..

ImranQ

pinkshoes said:

No one is defending the plumber; merely requesting more details.

As you have now engaged the services of the no win no fee solicitor you will need to continue as otherwise you will find a fee is due. Check the small print you agreed to in the T&Cs. 

As the claim is only for a smallish amount of money, you may find their fees eat into this. Again, check the T&Cs you agreed to. 

The invoice is from the business so this is who you go after. I assume the business has assets? If not you may find he could wind the business up to avoid paying.

That’s fair enough. If I can get a CCJ and force him to shut his business down, then that will alone be a great result! 

I’ve also spoken to Checkatrade and Gas Safe and they say anyone with CCJs against their names will be removed from their Registers.

gvndsoni20

ImranQ said:

pinkshoes said:

No one is defending the plumber; merely requesting more details.

As you have now engaged the services of the no win no fee solicitor you will need to continue as otherwise you will find a fee is due. Check the small print you agreed to in the T&Cs. 

As the claim is only for a smallish amount of money, you may find their fees eat into this. Again, check the T&Cs you agreed to. 

The invoice is from the business so this is who you go after. I assume the business has assets? If not you may find he could wind the business up to avoid paying.

That’s fair enough. If I can get a CCJ and force him to shut his business down, then that will alone be a great result! 

I’ve also spoken to Checkatrade and Gas Safe and they say anyone with CCJs against their names will be removed from their Registers.

I woder how did you end up with this as in similar situation. @ImranQ

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ImranQ

gvndsoni20 said:

ImranQ said:

pinkshoes said:

No one is defending the plumber; merely requesting more details.

As you have now engaged the services of the no win no fee solicitor you will need to continue as otherwise you will find a fee is due. Check the small print you agreed to in the T&Cs. 

As the claim is only for a smallish amount of money, you may find their fees eat into this. Again, check the T&Cs you agreed to. 

The invoice is from the business so this is who you go after. I assume the business has assets? If not you may find he could wind the business up to avoid paying.

That’s fair enough. If I can get a CCJ and force him to shut his business down, then that will alone be a great result! 

I’ve also spoken to Checkatrade and Gas Safe and they say anyone with CCJs against their names will be removed from their Registers.

I woder how did you end up with this as in similar situation. @ImranQ

Hi,
I ended up using my household insurance legal services. So, my insurance company used the services of a company called ARC Legal Assistance which in turn used services of a solicitors company. I think ARC must have some sort of deals with insurance companies and solicitors companies. Initially when you contact ARC, they will asses your claim and tell you the likelihood of you succeeding in winning the case. If the case has a high certainty then ARC will take the case and pass it off to a solicitor company on their books.

Once the case is passed off to the solicitor the solicitor will ask you to give them all documentation, invoices and communications (txt messages, emails etc..). If you have a timeline of events and communication this will help your case a lot. You will also need 3 other estimates from plumbers to complete the work so if you are going to use the legal services, you should get these anyway. Even if you take it to a small claims yourself, you will need all this anyway. I ended up with two quotes as the work I had was specialised and needed a plumber with certain qualifications and some plumbers I contacted simply refused to come out. 

Anyway you get allocated a paralegal under a solicitor who does all the work but I will say the turnaround is extremely slow in them replying to you. As an example it took around 3 months to resolve the case and after the solicitor sent out the notice of legal action, the plumber settled fully literally on the last day!

Note that my insurance premium was not affected by using the Insurance legal services. Additionally you may have an excess to pay. You may want to confirm all these with your company as it may be different..

I should mention that in hindsight, I personally wouldn't use the legal services for such a simple case in the future and would do it on my own after now knowing the process and requirements. I would like to emphasise again that you need as much documentation and communication as possible as well as two to three quotes to win the case through your legal services or if you do it yourself. 

Hope this helps. If you have any specific questions, please ask.
Regards,
Imran