Dispute with tradesperson. Looking for advice

Beckz1205

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice regarding a dispute with a tradesperson (electrician/plumber).

We paid him via bank transfer between October and November 2025 for a mix of electrical, plumbing and plastering work at our property. The payments were made in stages as the work progressed, rather than in one lump sum. We felt comfortable doing this as he had previously carried out work through his company at my mum’s workplace, so there was an element of trust and familiarity.

The plastering work was completed, but a number of electrical and plumbing jobs were left unfinished.

In January, we were still waiting for him to return and complete the work. He kept giving excuses (saying he was ill, etc.), so we gave him the benefit of the doubt and more time.

By February/March, we started chasing more seriously, particularly for the Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) for the consumer unit he installed. At that point, he stopped responding altogether.

Since then:

• The electrical and plumbing work remains incomplete
• We have not received an Electrical Installation Certificate for the consumer unit
• We now need to pay £263 for an independent inspection just to check the consumer unit is safe
• We will also need to pay another tradesperson to complete and potentially rectify the work

We sent a formal letter by Royal Mail Signed For, which he eventually received and signed for. We gave him 14 days to respond, but he has completely ignored it.

Our issue is that we’ve already paid him, and now we’re being forced to pay again to get the work completed and made safe, which we can’t really afford.

We are now planning to go to our bank to try and dispute the payments (we’re not claiming fraud, just that the service wasn’t completed/provided properly).

My questions are:

1. Do we have a strong case for a bank dispute given it was paid by bank transfer?
2. Should we proceed to small claims court if the bank can’t help?
3. Is there anything else we should be doing at this stage to strengthen our position?

Any advice would be really appreciated — we’ve tried to handle this properly and give him every chance to resolve it, but we’ve just been ignored.

Thanks in advance.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I don't think the bank will cover this on a bank transfer.

Yes to small claims, it's an obvious breach and the cost of having everything under the contract completed is a fair and simple claim as damages.

As the party making the claim you need to prove your case so make sure you have everything documented correctly.

Do you know if this tradesperson a sole trader or a limited company?

GDB2222

If you have paid a limited company, you should bear in mind that it’s extremely easy for the tradesman to abandon that company, without any money in it, and start a new company. So, you can win the court case but not get any money back.

eskbanker

We sent a formal letter by Royal Mail Signed For, which he eventually received and signed for. We gave him 14 days to respond, but he has completely ignored it.

In terms of formality, was this a Letter Before Action(/Claim), clearly explaining that failure to resolve would result in legal action? If so, then you should follow through with whatever you said you'd do, but if it wasn't structured like that, then such a letter would be the required step ahead of pursuing him in court…

Beckz1205

I don’t know if he had a company as such as when we looked on companies house there were a few dissolved. He just gave his bank details and we paid. Like I said he had a full time job working for a company that did work at my mums work place and he said he was qualified to complete the work we required.

Beckz1205

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81968171#Comment_81968171

yes the letter was sent before action/claim- this is what we said:

If we do not receive a response within this timeframe, we reserve the right to escalate the matter by:

• Disputing the payments through our bank
• Reporting the matter to **Trading Standards via **Citizens Advice
• Pursuing recovery of our costs through the Small Claims Court

We were going to try reclaim the costs through the bank but unsure if this would be possible as it was via bank transfer

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81968205#Comment_81968205

There are plenty of posters who are better informed on legal matters than I am, but to me that bullet list doesn't really emphasise that the letter is an immediate precursor to legal action, when it also mentions other avenues, even though they're not really applicable as a means of resolving this dispute…

Beckz1205

sorry think I misunderstood what you meant. It wasn’t an official LBA as such. We just composed a formal letter and sent it to him.

Beckz1205

so we’ve gone about it the wrong way?

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81968262#Comment_81968262

Not necessarily, but neither your bank nor Trading Standards will be able to intervene, so mentioning those didn't really help address the issue, and the tradesperson will know that.

If you're going to pursue him via small claims, IMHO it'll be worth sending another letter that is clearly highlighting that it's the final step before initiating the action. However, as mentioned above, it's critical to identify the entity with whom you contracted, as the court action would fail if you pursued the wrong one…

Beckz1205

I spoke to citizens advice and they were the ones who mentioned trying reclaiming though the bank first, reporting to trading standards and also sending a letter highlighting this would be the action we would be taking?