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Hi. I’m just looking for advice regarding a recent issue with a builder who we arranged to do some work at our house.
The builder quoted us for a specific job and arranged to come on an agreed date to work alongside other tradesmen. We have voicemail evidence of his agreement to work on this date.
Approximately a week prior to him starting work at our house we contacted him to confirm this starting date. I arranged time off work & the date was confirmed with tradesmen who were to work alongside him. The date was also confirmed with a very large, established, window installation company who were due to start around 3 days after he started work.They request 7 days cancellation to avoid penalty charge hence the above confirmation with the builder.
The day he was due to start he did not turn up. Despite numerous phone calls from myself & husband he did not answer his phone or make any attempt to contact us to let us know what was happening. Days went on & despite numerous unanswered phone calls there was still no contact from him explaining his absence. We eventually managed to make contact with his partner who revealed he was working on another job elsewhere.
We contacted the window company hoping there might be some understanding of us having to cancel in less than 7 days due to no fault of our own. Like many large companies there was no sympathy & we were made to pay £660 to compensate for them having to move the date to later on this year. They claimed they could not fill the date at such short notice & their staff still need to be paid. We finally gained contact by a text message from the builder claiming that he had been so ill he was unable to speak nor put finger to phone despite being told he was working elsewhere on the agreed starting date.
We visited his premises as felt strongly he should be aware how much stress he had caused us & financial burden of paying the window company for a late cancellation as well as taking time off work (I am self employed) for no benefit. The entire conversation was recorded to cover ourselves. In short he was unprepared to compensate us for the rearrangement of the window fitting fee nor my loss of earnings for 2 days off work.
Please advise if I have a case & if so which route I should take. Small claims or other? With thanks in advance
The builder quoted us for a specific job and arranged to come on an agreed date to work alongside other tradesmen. We have voicemail evidence of his agreement to work on this date.
Approximately a week prior to him starting work at our house we contacted him to confirm this starting date. I arranged time off work & the date was confirmed with tradesmen who were to work alongside him. The date was also confirmed with a very large, established, window installation company who were due to start around 3 days after he started work.They request 7 days cancellation to avoid penalty charge hence the above confirmation with the builder.
The day he was due to start he did not turn up. Despite numerous phone calls from myself & husband he did not answer his phone or make any attempt to contact us to let us know what was happening. Days went on & despite numerous unanswered phone calls there was still no contact from him explaining his absence. We eventually managed to make contact with his partner who revealed he was working on another job elsewhere.
We contacted the window company hoping there might be some understanding of us having to cancel in less than 7 days due to no fault of our own. Like many large companies there was no sympathy & we were made to pay £660 to compensate for them having to move the date to later on this year. They claimed they could not fill the date at such short notice & their staff still need to be paid. We finally gained contact by a text message from the builder claiming that he had been so ill he was unable to speak nor put finger to phone despite being told he was working elsewhere on the agreed starting date.
We visited his premises as felt strongly he should be aware how much stress he had caused us & financial burden of paying the window company for a late cancellation as well as taking time off work (I am self employed) for no benefit. The entire conversation was recorded to cover ourselves. In short he was unprepared to compensate us for the rearrangement of the window fitting fee nor my loss of earnings for 2 days off work.
Please advise if I have a case & if so which route I should take. Small claims or other? With thanks in advance
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