Car respray gone horribly wrong.

[Orbital]

Hello everyone,
First time posting.

I am desperate for some legal advice, Not sure if I have posted this in the correct thread but nevertheless.

Context
I have worked on my classic car for the last 7 years and worked extremely hard with a lot of blood sweat and tears to finally get it to a point where it was ready for a full respray.
Spent a long time asking around locals and looking up reviews to find a Paint/Body shop for it to go to.

Finally found a local place with solid reviews, Once I was happy with the agreed price of £4500 INC Vat
For anyone who is not sure what a full respray entails, it's correcting the bodywork with filler & metal work, then primer, then Colour/Top Coat, and then the Clear Laqure on top, It is a lot of work and takes great skill to do correctly.

Anyway
After about 2 months of them having the car, Bodyshop contacted me saying, that unfortunately they had lost a member of staff and were just too busy with other work to spend the time required on mine.
Effectively I think they had just double booked.

I was obviously annoyed at this but they did offer someone a local man his name "Adam" not his real name, Saying they had used him in the past and he was very reliable and good with paint etc.
Asked them multiple times if I could trust "Adam" and he would do a good job etc. they said yes.

Anyway, that was good enough for me.
So off my car went to Adam where he spent the next 3 weeks prepping and painting the Car.
Communication was great he is relatively friendly, once the car was complete I went and had a look, it looked amazing was very happy with it.

So I paid the £4500 via debt trans.

After about 4 days of having the car back, we had some rather hot weather, and I started to notice the paint bubbling and peeling in multiple areas some as large as 6 inches.
I knew straight away that this was some sort of paint reaction, which can be caused by a number of things such as painting when the car is too wet, not prepping the car correctly, or spraying to thick.

My car now looks like a hot mess and I have spent every penny I saved over the years to pay for the paint job So I am absolutely gutted.


I obviously raised the paint peeling issue with "Adam" straight away, he insisted he did everything correctly and the car was baked in an oven but he said he would look into it for me.

Over the last 3 weeks spent going back and forth with him, effectively saying he has spoken to the paint supplier and others and they don't understand what happened
We are not really getting anyway every time I try to persuade him to repaint the car he just finds excuses.


I am now considering what legal options I have.

I would like to take him to the Small Claims Court if it comes to it.. and try get back some of my £4500
Can I do that if he is just an individual and not a Business?

What's a little complicated is he runs a small business out of where he sprayed the car but the payment and all the communication etc was via personal info not relating to the company....


Any advice would be great, please

[theberenger]

You can absolutely sue an individual, and many people are successful doing so; however, before you go down that road it would be wise to satisfy yourself that he actually has the means to compensate you when you win, for example, does he own his own home, his own cars, or is the equipment in his place of work owned by him? If he doesn't have the means to compensate you, you could end up with your court fees and still not have your money back. There are other options if that's the case, but it's much easier if you can be reasonably sure there are assets with which he can settle.

The other thing to note is that you would be entitled to be restored to your position had he not done a poor job, not just the return of your original £4500. To that end, you will need to approach at least 3 other body shops and ask them for quotations to put the job right, and I'm sure that will include stripping the poor quality paint off before repainting, not just respraying.

It would also be helpful if you could persuade these body shops to make an assessment of what has caused the issue with the first paint job. Ideally you'd want them to confirm it's poor workmanship, which would help bolster your case.

You want to make sure all your ducks are in a row before you begin any action, and that will include writing to him via recorded delivery, inviting him to put the matter right. You should ask that he make contact with you to arrange this within 14 days or you will be forced to begin an action against him in the county court.

Get that letter drafted, then post it here for critique before you do anything else.

[Pezza54]

Did you get a written quotation from Adam? Did Adam provide any guarantees?

[Orbital]

Hi Thanks for the advice.

And Pezza54 well technically no guarantees were made, but you could argue that what we agreed hasn't been completed.

Dunno really hope it doesnt come to legal action

[wales01man]

If hes not willing to put it right only option is legal,hope you can get an expert opinion on this.