Tradesman accepts he damaged our house - but still wants paying

[connie_cat]

Hi,
I hope you can advise us. We employed a trades person to do some work at our house. He did the work, but in the process damaged our roof. He accepts fault. Quotes to repair the work are a few hundred pounds - this is less than the cost of our original work. We are not paying his bill until our roof is repaired.

He is telling us to claim through his insurance. I have been in touch with his insurance and I need to provide photos of the damage and provide a couple of quotes for repairs. It all seems a bit of a pain having to get all these quotes, etc and is taking some time.

But in the mean time he still wants paying. He is saying that we owe him money and if we don't pay up, he will take us to small claims court. So that he is not out of pocket, I have paid the materials portion of the invoice. His labour costs are still outstanding.

Am I obliged to pay him, even though he has damaged our house? Can I just get a roofer in to repair the work, and deduct the cost from what is owed?

Thank you

[efpom]

You do not claim on his insurance, he claims on his insurance.

You get a roofer in to repair the damage and deduct that cost plus damages for distress and inconvenience, from the monies otherwise owing.

You need your roof to be fixed ASAP

[connie_cat]

Thank you EFPOM. I have not yet paid, and am trying to get quotes to repair the roof. But his public liability insurance company (a big well known company) seems to be pressuring me into paying him. They sent me this email today:

Our policyholder has called today to advise that you have withheld payment for the works he completed until the claim is finalised despite his telephone calls to you requesting payment of his bill.
I have confirmed to our Insured that this insurance claim is entirely separate to the original contract works and therefore legally you are not able to withhold payment and he can take whatever legal recourse to recover the sums owed.

It is noted that you have not responded to our previous request for information in our email of 30.9.19.
Please see below a copy of the email for your ease of reference. We await your response in order to progress your claim.

I don't understand. The insurance company is pressuring me to pay the tradesman ASAP. They seem to think I want to progress my claim with the insurance company (but I never told them I wanted to make an insurance claim). This feels like bullying by a big insurance company.

[efpom]

The insurer's letter is complete tosh.

You have a legal duty to minimise your loss. You do that by repairing the roof as soon as possible, so as to prevent further damage to your property, and so reduce the amount of your claim against the tradesman.

The tradesman has insurance to indemnify him for the claim against him. The insurer is entitled to stand in the tradesman's shoes, in defending your claim against him. What the tradesman (in reality, his insurer) is not entitled to do, is demand that you pay for the works in full, as a precondition to him settling your claim against him.

You are withholding monies, from the tradesman, on two grounds.
1) Because his work was clearly unsatisfactory.
2) Because you need funds to put right the damage he caused, to prevent further damage.

[ostell]

And you will pay him when you have received the money from his insurers, money that was originally to pay him.