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I had some builders I agreed to convert the loft of my house. I had plans, calls, etc and specifications. They agreed a fixed price.
At some point we had a disagreement regarding whether the work completed met regulations. They stopped the work with some excuses and then suggested calling building control. The inspector came and even before he reported back to me, the builder were already adamant all had been reported as fine. He tried to price some new work I had asked for to also cover these reg shortcomings. By the end of the day, I had received a written report from BC telling me what was falling short of regs.
They never restarted the work despite multiple attempts from me and to cut a long story short, I got the work completed, claimed money back from them and again not having a response, I started a small claim.
They defended in full and are trying to delay the process as much as they can.
I am not a native English speaker. Once, I believed it was possible to attend a small claim court hearing on my own (regarding cancellation of a hotel booking by the tour operator). At the hearing, I found they had appointed a solicitor. He defended the claim easily as he knew what the protocol was, he presented some cases (he had not given me any notice of this) that appeared similar (using technical language, etc) and knew what to claim. I felt that with me not being a native speaker and not knowing what could and what would not be seen by the judge as relevant was a big factor.
So going back to my issue, even if have done all the leg work again this time, I am expecting I will want representation in any hearing. What I am concerned is the builders may try to play tricks to delay the hearing and as such I will be faced with growing time spent by a legal team as a result.
Is there anything I can do to avoid this? I think the builders may even eventually settle (apart from their case being weak, London builders seem to be swimming in it) but so far I am not seeing a way to proceed without ever increasing risk.
At some point we had a disagreement regarding whether the work completed met regulations. They stopped the work with some excuses and then suggested calling building control. The inspector came and even before he reported back to me, the builder were already adamant all had been reported as fine. He tried to price some new work I had asked for to also cover these reg shortcomings. By the end of the day, I had received a written report from BC telling me what was falling short of regs.
They never restarted the work despite multiple attempts from me and to cut a long story short, I got the work completed, claimed money back from them and again not having a response, I started a small claim.
They defended in full and are trying to delay the process as much as they can.
I am not a native English speaker. Once, I believed it was possible to attend a small claim court hearing on my own (regarding cancellation of a hotel booking by the tour operator). At the hearing, I found they had appointed a solicitor. He defended the claim easily as he knew what the protocol was, he presented some cases (he had not given me any notice of this) that appeared similar (using technical language, etc) and knew what to claim. I felt that with me not being a native speaker and not knowing what could and what would not be seen by the judge as relevant was a big factor.
So going back to my issue, even if have done all the leg work again this time, I am expecting I will want representation in any hearing. What I am concerned is the builders may try to play tricks to delay the hearing and as such I will be faced with growing time spent by a legal team as a result.
Is there anything I can do to avoid this? I think the builders may even eventually settle (apart from their case being weak, London builders seem to be swimming in it) but so far I am not seeing a way to proceed without ever increasing risk.
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