N9B form received. What to put in the defence statement

[Flynnboy2007]

• This is a duplicate of a thread in the welcome forum - I posted it there by mistake as a newbie and can't work out how to transfer it - Thanks
  
  I have received a small claims form with brief details of claim 'Landscape Garden Work - there is still an amount due ......'
  There are no particulars of claim attached or to follow.
  
  How do I fill in the defence section on the N9B form?
  
  The gardener started to carry out work for us in Nov 2009, and laid a new law and a patio in indian stone. This work was carried out to an acceptable standard. However we did agree that if the law 'did not take' as it was winter, the lawn would be relaid. There was still an outstanding amount of work which was laying granite set edging around the law, and building 2 raised beds from railway sleepers. The gardener then went on holiday from Jan - April 2010 which we knew about and was not a problem for us.
  
  The work started again in July 2010. We went away for the weekend and left the gardener to lay the edging around the lawn. He had not arrived when we left on the Friday. When we got back on the Sunday about two thirds of the edging had been laid and the standard of work was dreadful, and he had used cut up stone / cut up indian stone/ reused pieces of flag - basically a whole array of things that we had not agreed to and looked like old garden rubble. The finish was poor with uneven gaps, uneven levels, the double layer didn't match and basically looked very poor. When we complained to him he said he couldn't afford the stone we wanted on the quote he had given, and he would finish the edging by pointing the stones. He had also left a large board on the lawn with a cement mixer on it which once moved had damaged the lawn, dropped cement on the lawn causing damage and then said the damage was caused by our dogs.
  When he pointed the edging stones it looked worse. He did offer to come and relay the edging, but not supply the edging we had agreed on, but if we bought what we wanted he would lay it as part of the job. He also offered to patch the lawn where it was damaged. We had many discussions around the poor workmanship and substandard work, and eventually we asked him not to carry on with anymore work, as we weren't confident in the standard of work and he wasn't prepared to supply the materials we had agreed on (this was over a couple of weeks and a couple of letters sent by each party). We offered to pay him for the work he had completed before Christmas if he would give us a detailed breakdown of cost so we could work out the payment for 'acceptable' work and materials. He never gave us this and only ever said he would knock a couple of hundred pounds off. In both of the letters we received from the gardener he stated he would take us to the small claims court if we did not pay in full and even put it he would be proceeding with court action 2 days later.
  We asked him to come and remove his equipment and unused / substandard materials and agreed a date when we would be at work. We were also very specific about not wanting him to do any further work.
  The gardener came on the specified day and took his equipment and most of the materials, leaving long edging stones that we didn't want or agree on. He had also patched the damaged areas of the lawn to a very poor standard - patches were smaller than the area that had been cut out and it just looked awful.
  We wrote him a letter and hand delivered it as we had previously sent him a letter by special delivery detailing our issues with his work and materials that he had never picked up from the PO and was returned to us as not collected. He never responded.
  After 6 weeks of waiting for a reply to why he had carried out this work and too such a poor standard, we decided the best course of action was to pay him what we thought was fair (as we had never received a breakdown of costs) and hopefully that would be the end of it. In October 2010 we hand delivered a cheque for what we thought was fair. He never cashed the cheque.
  We paid him a total of approx 65% of the original quote (this includes the deposit which is not in dispute or part of the claim, and if he had cashed the Oct 2010 cheque) which, in hindsight, was probably more than the work / goods was realistically worth.
  After 5 years he has sent this to the small claims court. We are going to defend the claim due to the poor standard of work and the substandard goods supplied. We are going put part of the defence as that we have paid for the work we think was acceptable by hand delivering a cheque to his address, but it is out of our hands if he decided not to cash the cheque. His business address is his home address so he must have picked up the letter.
  
  I have a full details and timelines of letters discussions as the CAB told me to do this at the time. We have many photographs of the substandard goods, the damage to the lawn, and the poor finish. I have put all this into a very detailed and comprehensive defence pack.
  This is a very brief description of a long and detailed defence.
  
  Should I send this as the defence statement with the N9B form? If not what should I write in the defence portion of the form?
  I would be grateful for any help with this.