Small claims - is it worth it

Emma647

Hello - Im looking for some advice if possible. We paid £8,500 to a builder towards new doors and a new roof for a conservatory. Paid in January, he was due to start in March - delayed us twice due to rain and was due to start early May. The day before he text to say hed be another week and then a day before that we had an email to say he was going into liquidation. He was then uncontactable. The email said we would hear from liquidator in two weeks, its now 5 and we have heard nothing. Company is still active on companies house but he has set up a new business. We have written twice and had no response. Left a factual review on his new company and he called and threatened us with the police for slander. So frustrating  - we are considering small claims but is it worth it? Please help....

born_again

If they have liquidated the business then there are no funds.

Was this a limited company?

Police will not deal with slander, that is a civil offence.

Aylesbury_Duck

As above, it's likely the money is now out of reach.  How did you pay?

Time to do some homework.  Small claims action would cost you £455, so you'd need to be confident in exactly what business you were suing and whether it has actually closed.  Even if the business is still operating and you win the case, does it have the funds to pay?

Ignore the police threats, he's bluffing.

DE_612183

Check with companies house - see if they have asked to close the company - you can oppose this. You can ask who the liquidator is, but my guess is that they are not doing that just closing the business down.

If the business gets liquidated I'm not sure if he can be a director of another company.

Emma647

Thank you for the helpful advice. So far there is no appointed liquidator and we have no means of finding out as the builder has disconnected his phone. Impossible to work out how we can even estimate whether its viable to go through small claims as we cant ascertain any information.  Feels like total fraud to me but I dont know how we prove that 

born_again

How did you pay?

Hoping it was via card, chance to get money back. Guessing it will have been bank transfer, no chance of getting back.

Ectophile

DE_612183 said:

Check with companies house - see if they have asked to close the company - you can oppose this. You can ask who the liquidator is, but my guess is that they are not doing that just closing the business down.

If the business gets liquidated I'm not sure if he can be a director of another company.

Anyone can be a director of multiple companies, unless a court bars them from holding a directorship.

user1977

Did you actually pay a limited company? Was that who your contract was with, did you get details of where your payment was going?

Emma647

Yes it was a limited company. We have received information from the liquidator today - Appears he owes over £90k to 10 consumer creditors - me being one of the 10 Outrageous someone can take your deposit with probably no intention of doing the work

Aylesbury_Duck

How did you pay?

DullGreyGuy

Ectophile said:

DE_612183 said:

Check with companies house - see if they have asked to close the company - you can oppose this. You can ask who the liquidator is, but my guess is that they are not doing that just closing the business down.

If the business gets liquidated I'm not sure if he can be a director of another company.

Anyone can be a director of multiple companies, unless a court bars them from holding a directorship.

You are automatically banned from operating a company with the same/similar name and/or trading styles.

The liquidator, not just the court, will decide if your conduct was unfit and so should be banned from other directorships for 2-15 years.