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Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could help with advice in regards to a CCJ claim which landed on my doorstep last friday for an invoice of £12,500 which has me completed stressed out.
To summarise, we are building a new build 3 bedroom house. We agreed with the contractor a set price of 66k. We signed a jct minor works contract. We both verbally agreed that a third of the payment will complete the frame, the 2nd payment the inside of the property and the 3rd the outside of the property (front / back garden, fence etc).
After just 1-2 weeks on site, the contractor deviated from the plans significantly, dug the foundations too small, built a wall which wasn't required, smashed down 2 fascade walls which were part of the planning permission to retain causing irreversible damage. Installed the steel work without an additional column as per the structural report. The architect plans and strucutural report were both included in the JCT contract. Almost everything they done was poor, leaving us with huge remedial costs.
After the 2nd week, materials stopped arriving on site and they were asking for more money already. I had already paid 33% of the works and we were still on the ground floor frame. After 3 further weeks of no work, his sub-contractors left the site due to non payment and no materials on site. He invoiced me a further £12,500 (this is the invoice he is referring to in his claim particulars). However the invoice is invoicing for works which he hadn't even started or ordered materials for. Out of the £12,500 invoice, almost £9,000 is for the roof and 1st floor. He was barred from site without even finishing the ground floor.
Luckily the sub contractor and his brothers (builders) were out of work and I decided to employ them directly to finish the build. Since then everything has been running smoothly.
He issued the CCJ without any pre action protocol being followed. It arrived in the post 3 days after leaving him a negative review online which he then text my wife stating hes reporting us to the police... not sure for what but the review made him very angry. No letter in the post, no mediation, no response to our queries just CCJ claim form straight to our address.
In addition to all this, we were disputing his invoices as they were very inflated. He noted 3k spent on skips, so we called the skip company and they confirmed in writing he only spent £1.5k. Then he said he spent £8k on blockwork, but the company confirmed this was only £4.3k. When we questioned why he was inflating his figures, he did not respond. He has yet to respond after asking so many time for him to explain himself.
In addition we have a witness statement of the head builder sub contractor confirming all of the above.
Is there anyone out there whom can provide us with a bit of an insight into how the judge might look at this case?
I have built up most of the defence already, just need to put into the way in which the courts require.
I included:
The damage caused by the conctractor and remedial works required.
The invoices which we disputed and why
Seems as though the CCJ was sent in retaliation for losing the job and for the bad review online
Statement from the sub contractor to cooberate the facts of the case
Quotes from companies for remedial costs
I am really sorry if I've waffled on and not explained the circumstance correctly, I am just furious that he has the cheek to do this when in fact we were requesting a refund from him of £4,611. We requested this twice before he sent this ccj.
Also if someone can represent us please get in touch, I am not a court type of person, I don't like it at all so I'd rather have the representation then fight this alone.
I was wondering if anyone could help with advice in regards to a CCJ claim which landed on my doorstep last friday for an invoice of £12,500 which has me completed stressed out.
To summarise, we are building a new build 3 bedroom house. We agreed with the contractor a set price of 66k. We signed a jct minor works contract. We both verbally agreed that a third of the payment will complete the frame, the 2nd payment the inside of the property and the 3rd the outside of the property (front / back garden, fence etc).
After just 1-2 weeks on site, the contractor deviated from the plans significantly, dug the foundations too small, built a wall which wasn't required, smashed down 2 fascade walls which were part of the planning permission to retain causing irreversible damage. Installed the steel work without an additional column as per the structural report. The architect plans and strucutural report were both included in the JCT contract. Almost everything they done was poor, leaving us with huge remedial costs.
After the 2nd week, materials stopped arriving on site and they were asking for more money already. I had already paid 33% of the works and we were still on the ground floor frame. After 3 further weeks of no work, his sub-contractors left the site due to non payment and no materials on site. He invoiced me a further £12,500 (this is the invoice he is referring to in his claim particulars). However the invoice is invoicing for works which he hadn't even started or ordered materials for. Out of the £12,500 invoice, almost £9,000 is for the roof and 1st floor. He was barred from site without even finishing the ground floor.
Luckily the sub contractor and his brothers (builders) were out of work and I decided to employ them directly to finish the build. Since then everything has been running smoothly.
He issued the CCJ without any pre action protocol being followed. It arrived in the post 3 days after leaving him a negative review online which he then text my wife stating hes reporting us to the police... not sure for what but the review made him very angry. No letter in the post, no mediation, no response to our queries just CCJ claim form straight to our address.
In addition to all this, we were disputing his invoices as they were very inflated. He noted 3k spent on skips, so we called the skip company and they confirmed in writing he only spent £1.5k. Then he said he spent £8k on blockwork, but the company confirmed this was only £4.3k. When we questioned why he was inflating his figures, he did not respond. He has yet to respond after asking so many time for him to explain himself.
In addition we have a witness statement of the head builder sub contractor confirming all of the above.
Is there anyone out there whom can provide us with a bit of an insight into how the judge might look at this case?
I have built up most of the defence already, just need to put into the way in which the courts require.
I included:
The damage caused by the conctractor and remedial works required.
The invoices which we disputed and why
Seems as though the CCJ was sent in retaliation for losing the job and for the bad review online
Statement from the sub contractor to cooberate the facts of the case
Quotes from companies for remedial costs
I am really sorry if I've waffled on and not explained the circumstance correctly, I am just furious that he has the cheek to do this when in fact we were requesting a refund from him of £4,611. We requested this twice before he sent this ccj.
Also if someone can represent us please get in touch, I am not a court type of person, I don't like it at all so I'd rather have the representation then fight this alone.
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