Rights of consumer

Aylesbury_Duck

Dewdrops1420 said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

Undervalued said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

Is there any way to claim money or complain free of cost as I don’t want to lose 205£ over this but at the same time don’t want to leave them free as they have messed up my patio? They living in council home is like a blow to us as we were really going forward with the court case.

Claiming money can now only be done by small claims action, because you've exhausted all other options.  It's not possible to pursue court action without cost.

Complaining is free of charge, but it sounds like you've already done that on their facebook page.  There is no other body or ombudsman you can complain to.

Based on everything you've told us, the pragmatic way forward is to write the money off and move on.  You don't appear to have a strong case in the first instance, the company refuses to engage with you, you don't want to spend money on court action and your detective work suggests it's unlikely they'd pay up even if you were to win the case (which looks far from certain).

If you need to pursue court action to satisfy yourself of having tried everything, then do so, but temper your expectations of a positive outcome.

I need 2500£ to fix this patio and I don’t have any money left and I’m worried what will happen and how to deal the puddling patio once the weather becomes rainy and cold. Here people are not accepting that my patio is pudding from the photos so I’m wondering will the court send anyone to my home to confirm if they cannot ascertain from the photos?

No, it doesn't work like that.

You would need to get a report from an independent expert about what is wrong and what needs to be done to fix it. The cost of the report will be added to your claim if you win but that does of course increase your risk should you lose (or if you win but can't enforce the judgement).

At county court level it is normal just to have one expert report, not ones commissioned by both sided. So it needs to be from somebody who is clearly expert and impartial - i.e not a mate of yours!

I have the report from two different landscapers . Is that not enough? 

What do the reports say?

The report mentions how the current patio will have problems as it has no proper drainage in place which is resulting in puddles on the back patio and the sides . How this issue can be rectified?

ok, that's a start.  And they've quoted £2,500 to re-lay it with proper drainage?

Dewdrops1420

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

Undervalued said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

Is there any way to claim money or complain free of cost as I don’t want to lose 205£ over this but at the same time don’t want to leave them free as they have messed up my patio? They living in council home is like a blow to us as we were really going forward with the court case.

Claiming money can now only be done by small claims action, because you've exhausted all other options.  It's not possible to pursue court action without cost.

Complaining is free of charge, but it sounds like you've already done that on their facebook page.  There is no other body or ombudsman you can complain to.

Based on everything you've told us, the pragmatic way forward is to write the money off and move on.  You don't appear to have a strong case in the first instance, the company refuses to engage with you, you don't want to spend money on court action and your detective work suggests it's unlikely they'd pay up even if you were to win the case (which looks far from certain).

If you need to pursue court action to satisfy yourself of having tried everything, then do so, but temper your expectations of a positive outcome.

I need 2500£ to fix this patio and I don’t have any money left and I’m worried what will happen and how to deal the puddling patio once the weather becomes rainy and cold. Here people are not accepting that my patio is pudding from the photos so I’m wondering will the court send anyone to my home to confirm if they cannot ascertain from the photos?

No, it doesn't work like that.

You would need to get a report from an independent expert about what is wrong and what needs to be done to fix it. The cost of the report will be added to your claim if you win but that does of course increase your risk should you lose (or if you win but can't enforce the judgement).

At county court level it is normal just to have one expert report, not ones commissioned by both sided. So it needs to be from somebody who is clearly expert and impartial - i.e not a mate of yours!

I have the report from two different landscapers . Is that not enough? 

What do the reports say?

The report mentions how the current patio will have problems as it has no proper drainage in place which is resulting in puddles on the back patio and the sides . How this issue can be rectified?

ok, that's a start.  And they've quoted £2,500 to re-lay it with proper drainage?

Yes, that’s what he has written 

Aylesbury_Duck

Well then, the ball's in your court.   If you want to proceed with small claims, you claim for £2500 and include the report as evidence.

powerful_Rogue

Curious as to how you know it's a council house. Could he not have had the right to buy, so owns it outright?

Alderbank

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Well then, the ball's in your court.   If you want to proceed with small claims, you claim for £2500 and include the report as evidence.

I'm not sure that report would be compelling evidence.
No mention of a fee so I think it is one builder commenting on the work of a competitor (any sucking of teeth?) and providing a free estimate to do the work twice as well for half the cost. His incentive is the prospect of being awarded the contract so he is in no way independent.

There are independent consultants who provide landscaping reports for legal cases and my opinion is that the OP must use one of those.
Examples (I'm not recommending any, these are just random picks) include
https://gkwilson.co.uk/ or https://alansargent.co.uk/expert-witness/

Unfortunately there will be a fee  but I think this is unavoidable to show independence.
MCOL rules allow the claimant to claim up to £7,500 (I think) in expert fees but sadly the OP would have to pay up front then hope they can recover their costs.

Aylesbury_Duck

Alderbank said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Well then, the ball's in your court.   If you want to proceed with small claims, you claim for £2500 and include the report as evidence.

I'm not sure that report would be compelling evidence.
No mention of a fee so I think it is one builder commenting on the work of a competitor (any sucking of teeth?) and providing a free estimate to do the work twice as well for half the cost. His incentive is the prospect of being awarded the contract so he is in no way independent.

There are independent consultants who provide landscaping reports for legal cases and my opinion is that the OP must use one of those.
Examples (I'm not recommending any, these are just random picks) include
https://gkwilson.co.uk/ or https://alansargent.co.uk/expert-witness/

Unfortunately there will be a fee  but I think this is unavoidable to show independence.
MCOL rules allow the claimant to claim up to £7,500 (I think) in expert fees but sadly the OP would have to pay up front then hope they can recover their costs.

You're absolutely right.  But then, I've never been convinced that OP has a genuine problem to start with.  Add in that they don't want to spend any more money, that they believe the tradesman is unlikely to have the means to pay, and that after 26 pages of advice they still don't have a coherent plan or an understanding of how the small claims court works, my advice is that they need to let it go.  They seem intent on pursuing it, though.  I can understand that they want to have exhausted all options, so proceeding to court satisfies that.  Doing so with what they have limits their costs to the court fee.

Dewdrops1420

powerful_Rogue said:

Curious as to how you know it's a council house. Could he not have had the right to buy, so owns it outright?

I searched their address in google and it said the property was purchased last in 1995 and the father gardener is 1977 born so no way he could have bought the house so I researched for council houses and found the house in the list and it had a number as well. I called up council and they said they will give me a call and took the address. The operator said she can’t give details due to data protection act but the person who is going to call  me can provide as I said I’m going to sue them and want to know the legal implications as I believe this is council home and also running a business from the same address. Is it legal? That was my query.Also companies house said if I file the case I can stop them from closing down the company if I provide them with the proof about the lawsuit against the company .

Dewdrops1420

Also is there any chance that I can complain about their zero accounts to HMRC by showing proof of their work from fbpage and how they are fooling by filing micro entity accounts with zero assets or liabilities? 

comeandgo

Dewdrops1420 said:

Also is there any chance that I can complain about their zero accounts to HMRC by showing proof of their work from fbpage and how they are fooling by filing micro entity accounts with zero assets or liabilities? 

No, you have nearly a year after the company year end to file accounts.  If they are late in filing companies house will be letting them know and fineing them.

Dewdrops1420

comeandgo said:

Dewdrops1420 said:

Also is there any chance that I can complain about their zero accounts to HMRC by showing proof of their work from fbpage and how they are fooling by filing micro entity accounts with zero assets or liabilities? 

No, you have nearly a year after the company year end to file accounts.  If they are late in filing companies house will be letting them know and fineing them.

They have already filed and has kept it as zero even after taking exorbitant money from us and posting the photos of few of the works done by them. Can I complain that they are cheating HMRC by filing false accounts . How can they file as zero when they have done some work?