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Hi
We've got a dispute with a plumber who refitted our bathroom and did some other work. There are numerous instances of poor workmanship, which we can back up with opinions from other traders and in some cases info from manufacturers.
The plumber has been very dismissive of our complaints. He wanted his right of repair, but only proposed to put some of the work right, and even those proposals were bodge repairs. We felt this would leave us in a worse position, and so refused.
On another note, he told us he would have the work completed within a certain time frame, but he missed the deadline by around a month.
With have not paid anything yet. Initially he did not want payment until all matters were resolved. But recently he's been demanding payment and even adding late fees. Essentially, we're really stuck as to how to proceed. Do we:
1. Not pay / partially pay (for the elements we were happy with), and let him take us to court for the rest?
2. Pay the full amount under protest, and then pursue money back through the courts?
The problem with #2 is that our home insurance legal team have done financial checks and cannot take the case on because he doesn't show any obvious assets, isn't registered, etc. He has shown that he's happy to lie, and so we suspect if the decision were to go in our favour he would just lie and say he couldn't afford to pay. We've no idea how the enforcement side of things works, whether they can look at personal bank accounts, and if they'd be wise to him moving money to other accounts, etc. Or more generally how easy it would be for him to evade enforcement if he lost.
On the other hand, would option #1 leave us in breach of contract for non-payment? Or would that not apply because he has already breached the contract through the poor workmanship and time delays? When does poor workmanship become breach of contract? What do we need to do to evidence this? And can we use the delayed completion to demonstrate breach of contract?
Any advice would be a massive help.
Many thanks to anyone taking the time to read this.
(PS - we noticed this evening that he has his put his UTR number on his estimates and invoices. As we've only just realised we've not yet told the legal firm, but will do so in the morning. Could this UTR number help in any way?)
We've got a dispute with a plumber who refitted our bathroom and did some other work. There are numerous instances of poor workmanship, which we can back up with opinions from other traders and in some cases info from manufacturers.
The plumber has been very dismissive of our complaints. He wanted his right of repair, but only proposed to put some of the work right, and even those proposals were bodge repairs. We felt this would leave us in a worse position, and so refused.
On another note, he told us he would have the work completed within a certain time frame, but he missed the deadline by around a month.
With have not paid anything yet. Initially he did not want payment until all matters were resolved. But recently he's been demanding payment and even adding late fees. Essentially, we're really stuck as to how to proceed. Do we:
1. Not pay / partially pay (for the elements we were happy with), and let him take us to court for the rest?
2. Pay the full amount under protest, and then pursue money back through the courts?
The problem with #2 is that our home insurance legal team have done financial checks and cannot take the case on because he doesn't show any obvious assets, isn't registered, etc. He has shown that he's happy to lie, and so we suspect if the decision were to go in our favour he would just lie and say he couldn't afford to pay. We've no idea how the enforcement side of things works, whether they can look at personal bank accounts, and if they'd be wise to him moving money to other accounts, etc. Or more generally how easy it would be for him to evade enforcement if he lost.
On the other hand, would option #1 leave us in breach of contract for non-payment? Or would that not apply because he has already breached the contract through the poor workmanship and time delays? When does poor workmanship become breach of contract? What do we need to do to evidence this? And can we use the delayed completion to demonstrate breach of contract?
Any advice would be a massive help.
Many thanks to anyone taking the time to read this.
(PS - we noticed this evening that he has his put his UTR number on his estimates and invoices. As we've only just realised we've not yet told the legal firm, but will do so in the morning. Could this UTR number help in any way?)
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