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Hello there, I dearly hope someone in here can help a little.
My neighbour is a 78 year old woman who is her 85 years disabled husband's full time carer. She had a bathroom fitter in to re-tile and fit toilet/shower frame/sink/vanity unit and fit a false ceiling. He has done a dreadful job. Price agreed but on the last day he presented a bill along with a list of vague extras adding 50% to the bill.
My personal view is that he is trying to take advantage of an old lady but, fair play to her, she's determined to face him no matter how stressful it's been this far.
Here's the story so far:
First of all he's done a terrible job - tiles are uneven, grouting is cracked in many places, the silicon is dreadful, again missing in lots of areas. The suspended ceiling is missing - he's left only a frame that is split and not level on the wall. The list goes on. The only extra that she agreed to was to lay the flooring as her normal fitter was unavailable but the floor squeaks all over suggesting he hasn't screwed it down properly.
His extras included a whole list of silliness including turning off the water and lifting a floorboard for access to pipes. He also claims to have fixed joists which are now conveniently hidden beneath the flooring which she is quite sure were sound as new floorboards and Rockwool were fitted recently so those joists had been used to walk on. Another extra was that he had to chip out a huge area of plaster as the wall was uneven, she had no idea he was doing this and as it had only recently been plastered, she could have had the previous plasterer back to fix his work had he told her. He didn't mention it when he priced the job up.
Other extras were grout and tile adhesive which she thought were included in the quote. What's the industry standard with this?
He left on the Wednesday and wanted payment immediately but she put him off till the weekend to get rid of him, but on Saturday 10am he phoned her up demanding money otherwise he'd take her to court. She told him she had a problem with his work and would send a list over. He turned up at her front door minutes later, again demanding money. He was denied access and again told a list would be coming.
She told him by email on Monday that she would send a list over very soon and did so 2 days later, along with 14 days notice to respond to putting it right or she'd have someone else in to fix it and will then pay him the difference.
But the next day she received a money claims letter through the post, he had already submitted a court claim - on the Monday eve after she's said a list was coming.
This is where we're not sure.
We feel he is in breach of contract. His tiling workmanship bears no resemblance to that advertised on his website, and there's no suspended ceiling. The sink leaks too.
He hasn't followed the letter before claim protocol. But how in the defence does she address this? Should she point it out and will it make any difference to the defence anyway?
She thinks she now needs to have all his tiling removed to be re-tiled, have the flooring up to fix the floorboard squeaks, and take his wonky frame down to finish the ceiling. The patchy silicon will need to be removed from the shower frame to make it ready to be laid properly. He states that he assembled the vanity in his claim, which is an outright lie. The only aspect he did was to put the doors on but he said he couldn't as the unit was substandard - he'd put the hinges on the wrong doors! (omg)
So, does she need to put in a counterclaim for these new costs to rectify his work, and if so should she give him 14 days notice before doing so, or is that even necessary as proceedings are underway?
I have helped write a response to each of his claims, it was very easy to rebut all of them. There are also lots of photos that show his awful workmanship.
But what is the court actually looking for in the defence? I tried to stick to the facts but the response is now 10 pages long and I don't know what to take out.
How likely is it to actually reach a court hearing?
Any advice would be very welcome.
Huge thanks in advance.
My neighbour is a 78 year old woman who is her 85 years disabled husband's full time carer. She had a bathroom fitter in to re-tile and fit toilet/shower frame/sink/vanity unit and fit a false ceiling. He has done a dreadful job. Price agreed but on the last day he presented a bill along with a list of vague extras adding 50% to the bill.
My personal view is that he is trying to take advantage of an old lady but, fair play to her, she's determined to face him no matter how stressful it's been this far.
Here's the story so far:
First of all he's done a terrible job - tiles are uneven, grouting is cracked in many places, the silicon is dreadful, again missing in lots of areas. The suspended ceiling is missing - he's left only a frame that is split and not level on the wall. The list goes on. The only extra that she agreed to was to lay the flooring as her normal fitter was unavailable but the floor squeaks all over suggesting he hasn't screwed it down properly.
His extras included a whole list of silliness including turning off the water and lifting a floorboard for access to pipes. He also claims to have fixed joists which are now conveniently hidden beneath the flooring which she is quite sure were sound as new floorboards and Rockwool were fitted recently so those joists had been used to walk on. Another extra was that he had to chip out a huge area of plaster as the wall was uneven, she had no idea he was doing this and as it had only recently been plastered, she could have had the previous plasterer back to fix his work had he told her. He didn't mention it when he priced the job up.
Other extras were grout and tile adhesive which she thought were included in the quote. What's the industry standard with this?
He left on the Wednesday and wanted payment immediately but she put him off till the weekend to get rid of him, but on Saturday 10am he phoned her up demanding money otherwise he'd take her to court. She told him she had a problem with his work and would send a list over. He turned up at her front door minutes later, again demanding money. He was denied access and again told a list would be coming.
She told him by email on Monday that she would send a list over very soon and did so 2 days later, along with 14 days notice to respond to putting it right or she'd have someone else in to fix it and will then pay him the difference.
But the next day she received a money claims letter through the post, he had already submitted a court claim - on the Monday eve after she's said a list was coming.
This is where we're not sure.
We feel he is in breach of contract. His tiling workmanship bears no resemblance to that advertised on his website, and there's no suspended ceiling. The sink leaks too.
He hasn't followed the letter before claim protocol. But how in the defence does she address this? Should she point it out and will it make any difference to the defence anyway?
She thinks she now needs to have all his tiling removed to be re-tiled, have the flooring up to fix the floorboard squeaks, and take his wonky frame down to finish the ceiling. The patchy silicon will need to be removed from the shower frame to make it ready to be laid properly. He states that he assembled the vanity in his claim, which is an outright lie. The only aspect he did was to put the doors on but he said he couldn't as the unit was substandard - he'd put the hinges on the wrong doors! (omg)
So, does she need to put in a counterclaim for these new costs to rectify his work, and if so should she give him 14 days notice before doing so, or is that even necessary as proceedings are underway?
I have helped write a response to each of his claims, it was very easy to rebut all of them. There are also lots of photos that show his awful workmanship.
But what is the court actually looking for in the defence? I tried to stick to the facts but the response is now 10 pages long and I don't know what to take out.
How likely is it to actually reach a court hearing?
Any advice would be very welcome.
Huge thanks in advance.
