Letter before action?

lottieholder

My son is starting a new business, to be honest it's on a shoestring budget.  It requires a boat with an outboard engine.  He has spent the winter and spring renovating a boat to make it serviceable for the job.  Last year he spent a considerable amount of time painting a luxury yacht for the customer of a marine outfitter. The deal was for a reconditioned outboard motor in return for the work.  

He has now got to the stage where he can start working but it turns out that the motor has never been reconditioned and is not fit for purpose.  The outfit he did the work for are now blocking him.  I'm not sure if he can deal with this through the small claims court

lottieholder

Sorry, I was interrupted so didn't finish the message.  To continue....

or if/and "Letter before action" would concentrate their minds and get a resolution faster.  If LBA then how to phrase it.

Help!

Alderbank

So your son has a contract with the marine outfitter where he was to supply certain services and they would supply outboard motor serial number xxxxx which had been 'reconditioned'?

His claim will be that the motor has now been supplied but has not been 'reconditioned' as specified in the contract, so he is claiming the cost of bringing the motor to the 'reconditioned' condition described?

That sounds a reasonable claim for the small claims court. I assume the cost will be less than about £10,000?

As evidence for his claim he will need an independent third party's report that the motor does not conform to contract, and also at least one and preferably three estimates of the cost to bring the motor to the agreed spec.

Out of interest, how is 'reconditioned' defined in the contract?

Voyager2002

He has to send a Letter Before Action before bringing the case to a small claims court. Yes, there is a possibility that the letter will concentrate their minds and make them respond sensibly.

Alderbank has given good advice on the points that the letter should cover.

Bookworm225

lottieholder said:

. The deal was for a reconditioned outboard motor in return for the work.  

was the deal in writing?
of course do send a LPA, but be prepared for a battle if the "deal" was verbal.

born_again

Might be a bit of play on words, but did they say they would get it reconditioned before passing it to him. Or did they say that they have "This reconditioned motor" which may have been done years ago. You can have?

Before any action how does he know it has not been reconditioned? Proof will be required.
What exactly is he claiming money wise?

lincroft1710

An LBA in such a case is not so straightforward.

If your son has nothing in writing or an e-mail trail or there is a definition of "reconditioned" relating to this deal, then he may struggle to get a favourable judgement. He also needs to state what outcome he is looking for. The other side could argue the deal was for an OB motor which is what he has got and it had been reconditioned at some time in the past

Bear in mind, it could take at least 6 months before the case came to court and even if he was successful in his claim, a further 6 months before he got any money, if that is what is he is seeking

penners324

An alternative would be to hand the engine back and send the company an invoice for all the work he did

Mistral001

I would deal with the marine out-fitter face to face.  Letters and emails are too easy to ignore.  

BTW what do you mean by "not fit for purpose".   Does it not work?  Does it work but does not have enough HP, or too much HP for your son's boat.  

DullGreyGuy

lottieholder said:

My son is starting a new business, to be honest it's on a shoestring budget.  It requires a boat with an outboard engine.  He has spent the winter and spring renovating a boat to make it serviceable for the job.  Last year he spent a considerable amount of time painting a luxury yacht for the customer of a marine outfitter. The deal was for a reconditioned outboard motor in return for the work.  

He has now got to the stage where he can start working but it turns out that the motor has never been reconditioned and is not fit for purpose.  The outfit he did the work for are now blocking him.  I'm not sure if he can deal with this through the small claims court

Did he inspect or test the motor prior to agreeing to the deal? 

What was the discussion on the motor? As others have eluded to, I could have a motor, get it reconditioned and then leave it in the leaky corner of the shed for 7 years and it would still be a "reconditioned outboard motor" in principle. 

penners324 said:

An alternative would be to hand the engine back and send the company an invoice for all the work he did

And what was the agreed rate? In principle it'd need to be the value of the motor but thats clearly open to interpretation given they feel they've given him what they promised and he feels they haven't 

lincroft1710

penners324 said:

An alternative would be to hand the engine back and send the company an invoice for all the work he did

The agreement was for an OB motor, there was no agreement for OP's son to be paid monetarily