Advice on small claims

[Wbear]

Dear All

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, could do with some help regarding small claims please. The brief history is that we ( me and the OH) bought a house from Bovis back in November. Part of the purchase contract was a turfed usable rear lawn. It's totally unusable as its constantly flooded because it wasn't laid properly, there is a layer of hardcore below the very minimal topsoil and turf. It has never taken properly and is dying. We started complaining about it 2 weeks after we moved in to the point that last month we filled a LBA and after no response we today went to the Money Claim Online site and filled the paperwork for small claims. Coincidentally this afternoon we get a call out of the blue from their Area Manager who wants to bring a landscaping company round next week to get a price for putting it right. As we have already set the wheels in motion for the courts do we let him come round or say no wait until the paperwork lands on his desk from the court? We don't want to compromise ourselves and loose the £410 we spent to file the paperwork.

[des8]

Re: Advice on small claims

As they are now moving on the matter I would speak to the area manager and tell him what action you have taken.
Don't stop the process yet, wait until there is an agreement on the table (or grass on the lawn) and negotiate a compensation package to take your court costs into account.

[Wbear]

Re: Advice on small claims

Hi

Thanks for the reply. We were thinking that this was probably what we should do but weren't sure. The other thing we're not sure on is should we keep the appointment to have them visit next week or cancel it and see what they say after the court paperwork arrives?

[des8]

Re: Advice on small claims

Keep the appointment.
If you do land up in court you need to show that you have acted reasonably and tried to resolve the situation without going to court.
Treat court action as a last resort

[Wbear]

Re: Advice on small claims

Filling the paperwork today was our last resort, we've spent 7 months (and a winter of a flooded garden and mud - not nice with a young beagle in the house muddy paws everywhere!!!) trying to get them to deal with this, and at every step we have said that we don't want to go down the court route unless we have to. As it is we probably won't be able to use our garden properly this year because it seems they refuse to take the issue seriously.

[des8]

Re: Advice on small claims

So now they are finally coming to see you, keep your options open and use the real threat of court action to squeeze decent compensation for loss of use.
Notoriously difficult to quantify, but the fact you have started the action might concentrate their minds