Obtaining garden slabs that are owed to us.

CTM80

We engaged the services of a landscaper to upgrade our patio and garden path up to the shed and greenhouse. We have paid the full amount in the quote but he miscalculated by about 10 slabs how many were needed.

He tells us that the additional slabs, sand and cement have been delivered to his own property, but they have yet to be delivered to our property, five weeks on. He hasn't asked for more money, in fact we have offered extra to him upon their delivery plus more when the work is completed. But we haven't even heard from him in nearly 4 weeks. He has a lot of personal stress going on - ADHD, his wife undergoing cancer treatment, plus his full time job 100+ miles away (he has given up landscaping: we are his final customer) - and previously blamed trouble with labourer reliability for the slabs not being delivered to our house in the first place.

If the slabs are our property and are sitting on his front drive, can we just turn up and take them (so long as we let him know that we are planning to do so)?

flashg67

I imagine he might be relieved to have someone collect them, given some notice. but what about getting them laid - has he been paid for that too?

TheSpectator

It's not 100% clear what the position is - you say the 'additional slabs' are at his property so does that mean the work with the non-additional slabs has been completed or has no work been done?

Why would he get them delivered to his property? Seems a bit sus to me.

CTM80

Thanks for the replies.

flashg67 said:

I imagine he might be relieved to have someone collect them, given some notice. but what about getting them laid - has he been paid for that too?

Well we have already suggested we come and collect them to make things easier but he has not been responding to messages. We suspect he doesn't even have the slabs. He has received ALL the money quoted for the job.

TheSpectator said:

It's not 100% clear what the position is - you say the 'additional slabs' are at his property so does that mean the work with the non-additional slabs has been completed or has no work been done?

Why would he get them delivered to his property? Seems a bit sus to me.

Yes all slabs have been laid apart from these additional ones. We had been informed that a labourer would be here when the slabs were delivered to our house. He changed the delivery to his address when he was notified that the labourer couldn't attend. He said that: "Someone had to be there as the deliveries are roadside only." No further explanation has been forthcoming.

TheSpectator

CTM80 said:

Thanks for the replies.

flashg67 said:

I imagine he might be relieved to have someone collect them, given some notice. but what about getting them laid - has he been paid for that too?

Well we have already suggested we come and collect them to make things easier but he has not been responding to messages. We suspect he doesn't even have the slabs. He has received ALL the money quoted for the job.

TheSpectator said:

It's not 100% clear what the position is - you say the 'additional slabs' are at his property so does that mean the work with the non-additional slabs has been completed or has no work been done?

Why would he get them delivered to his property? Seems a bit sus to me.

Yes all slabs have been laid apart from these additional ones. We had been informed that a labourer would be here when the slabs were delivered to our house. He changed the delivery to his address when he was notified that the labourer couldn't attend. He said that: "Someone had to be there as the deliveries are roadside only." No further explanation has been forthcoming.

I'd wager a bet that the slabs don't exist.

CTM80

TheSpectator said:
I'd wager a bet that the slabs don't exist.

Yes, this is definitely a possibility, but if we allow for odd behaviour due to his ADHD and other stresses I mentioned, and assume for now that he DOES have them, can we just turn up and take them from his drive?

TheSpectator

CTM80 said:

TheSpectator said:
I'd wager a bet that the slabs don't exist.

Yes, this is definitely a possibility, but if we allow for odd behaviour due to his ADHD and other stresses I mentioned, and assume for now that he DOES have them, can we just turn up and take them from his drive?

Playing Devils Advocate, what proof do you have that those particular slabs, if there are any, belong to you. Without proof you cannot just take something and even if you did have proof it's a grey area as far as the law is concerned.

Grumpy_chap

CTM80 said:

We engaged the services of a landscaper to upgrade our patio and garden path up to the shed and greenhouse. We have paid the full amount in the quote but he miscalculated by about 10 slabs how many were needed.

He tells us that the additional slabs, sand and cement have been delivered to his own property, but they have yet to be delivered to our property, five weeks on. He hasn't asked for more money, in fact we have offered extra to him upon their delivery plus more when the work is completed. But we haven't even heard from him in nearly 4 weeks. He has a lot of personal stress going on - ADHD, his wife undergoing cancer treatment, plus his full time job 100+ miles away (he has given up landscaping: we are his final customer) - and previously blamed trouble with labourer reliability for the slabs not being delivered to our house in the first place.

If the slabs are our property and are sitting on his front drive, can we just turn up and take them (so long as we let him know that we are planning to do so)?

Did the landscaper miscalculate by 10 slabs too few to do the job, or 10 slabs too many?

CTM80

TheSpectator said:

CTM80 said:

TheSpectator said:
I'd wager a bet that the slabs don't exist.

Yes, this is definitely a possibility, but if we allow for odd behaviour due to his ADHD and other stresses I mentioned, and assume for now that he DOES have them, can we just turn up and take them from his drive?

Playing Devils Advocate, what proof do you have that those particular slabs, if there are any, belong to you. Without proof you cannot just take something and even if you did have proof it's a grey area as far as the law is concerned.

Yes this was what I thought. We're having a family disagreement about it. Do you have any expertise in this though or is it just a gut feeling like my own? The counter-argument is that at least there's no breaking and entering involved if they're on his drive or (i.e. not-fenced-off) front lawn. If he's got slabs there that match the ones owed to us, who else would they belong to if he no longer does landscaping? Does giving him advance notice that we are coming cover us in any way?

Grumpy_chap said:
Did the landscaper miscalculate by 10 slabs too few to do the job, or 10 slabs too many?

10 slabs too few.

The_Unready

Who'd be a builder? Countless numbers of them have potential life-limiting conditions and close family members with serious illnesses. It sounds like a very traumatic profession!

Flugelhorn

The_Unready said:

Who'd be a builder? Countless numbers of them have potential life-limiting conditions and close family members with serious illnesses. It sounds like a very traumatic profession!

I was thinking the same!

One of the locals had propped the old garage door against a neighbours fence and left it there for weeks - apparently that builder was really ill too