Small Claims Court - Driveway Trouble / Rouge Builder

kiteboywales

Hi all - I have been having a complete mare with my drive. I wont go into the full story  But April 2022 - new concrete drive laid.

First part of drive laid using a certain concrete mix looks great but went off really quick and they had to work hard to get the imprint in.. 2nd part of the drive - they had a different companys concerete mix and looked awful and I knew it wasnt right inmediately (but I couldnt walk on to inspect it) but as agreed to the drive guys terms I paid the best part of 7K on the last concrete pour. That was the fatal mistake on my part.

Back and forth for ages then September 2022 the drive guy said he was taking the concrete company to court for an additive added wrongly to the mix  which made the job go all wrong.
Fair enough he was taking court action. Again back and forth for ages.

Finally he came back May 2023 - he ripped up my drive - also made me send him photos and videos so he could prove to the concrete company  he was taking legal action against that he was back and doing the job and then I assume he would get compenstation off them....it sounded like he was claiming for a lot of stuff off them to be fair too (travel, disposal etc)

When he turned up I decided to open the wall to my drive up a bit as it was really tight getting in. I did not ask him - just did it. He then said it changed the job dramitically due to the slopes of the ground. OK I agreed to put the wall back up and its back in the same position so he can put his concrete up against now.....just finish it...I will deal with the wall myself again.

Even though hes said he would come back when the wall was rebuilt I havnt heared off him and hes not responding now.....so Ive paid him 7K for rubble essentially.

Now Im determined to try and pursue this through the courts - 7K is a massive amount of money for us really

What makes matters worse is I thought he was getting paid twice for the job. Once from me and once from the concrete company he was taking action agaisnt. So decided to email the concrete company myself to find out what compenstation he has been paid just trying to get the facts together as I could sense trouble comming.

It turns out it was all lies. They never had any complaints about the concrete and even found the order for me and how much he paid for the bulk of the concrete - about £900!!

So hes been leading me on all this time. I have all texts from him right from the start and its all there blaming this additive. All nonsense.

Is it worth taking to court do you think or is it a case of throwing good money after bad.....proper lost sleep thing this has been for me.

Any help would be really appreciated as Im fuming with myself for paying him when deep down I knew.
Thanks
 

Alderbank

Interesting story but all the shenanigans between him and the concrete supplier are completely irrelevant.

In practical terms the first question for you is whether the drive guy or his company has £7,000 in assets

kiteboywales

Not sure if it make any difference but I paid via bank transfer to him as an individual - probably irrelevant too but I have no idea really if he has assets.... he has a van worth about 1K...... but one of his workmen said when he was here that he had a lot of houses - like 10 or more but again may not be in his name too - so not sure really......I was led to believe he was well off essentially

cjdew

kiteboywales said:

Not sure if it make any difference but I paid via bank transfer to him as an individual - probably irrelevant too but I have no idea really if he has assets.... he has a van worth about 1K...... but one of his workmen said when he was here that he had a lot of houses - like 10 or more but again may not be in his name too - so not sure really......I was led to believe he was well off essentially

It doesn't matter if someone has assets, they may not be there's or mortgaged to the hills. 

The crux here is you paid for the work, i find it highly unlikely you are going to see anything back to be honest. 

Not sure what driveway type you have had but seems odd someone who continue with a wildly different "look". So i would say they knew exactly what they were doing and were hoping you wouldn't notice. Using the concrete additive as a decoy story.

Unfortunate I don't think they are coming back if it has taken this long. 

Do they have an online presence? Embarrass them that way via a review as one laat attempt, including photos 

Aylesbury_Duck

It sounds like he's too embarrassed to return.

Cutting through all the to and fro with the concrete company, the upshot is that you paid £7000 for a drive you don't have.  The rest of it is not relevant to your case, which is against your contractor.  Any lies or dealings he has with the supplier is his problem, not yours.

Assuming you have his trading address, all you can do is send a letter before action setting out what you want and giving 14 days to providing that resolution or action towards it, and taking him to court if a response isn't forthcoming or satisfactory.

Alderbank

Aylesbury_Duck said:

It sounds like he's too embarrassed to return.

Small Claims Court - Driveway Trouble / Rouge Builder

I agree, I'm sure he is red-faced.  That's why he is a rouge builder!