Builder nightmare/desperate for advice

[des8]

You are better served by appearing to be ultra reasonable, rather than insisting on your rights.
IMO you should agree the extension to 04.Oct, but insist that a way forward be found.
By all means tell them that the urgency is such that if no satisfactory undertaking is given you will proceed to have a temporary kitchen installed at his eventual cost for the sake of your childrens' well being, and if necessary will bring to a court's attention all this correspondence as you do not regard it as being "without prejudice".

[pt2537]

You are better served by appearing to be ultra reasonable, rather than insisting on your rights.
IMO you should agree the extension to 04.Oct, but insist that a way forward be found.
By all means tell them that the urgency is such that if no satisfactory undertaking is given you will proceed to have a temporary kitchen installed at his eventual cost for the sake of your childrens' well being, and if necessary will bring to a court's attention all this correspondence as you do not regard it as being "without prejudice".

absolutely, cant disagree

[Karengardner]

This was my response. It may again, have been a tad gun ho. I just panic I'm afraid...


I agree a response time of 12.00 noon on 4th October 2019.

Due to needing to meet the welfare needs of my children, and having been without a kitchen for 5 months, I am formally issuing notice that if the kitchen is not delivered within 7 days of today's date (30th September 2019) I will order a cheap, make-do kitchen myself and have this installed. I will be looking to Mr Harvey to cover these costs, as well as refunding the £10500 paid to him to provide kitchen in March 2019.

Should Mr Harvey agree to complete the kitchen he has already been paid for, it must be fully installed by 15th October 2019, there must be penalty clauses in place should he not meet deadlines.

Many thanks

[pt2537]

I would strongly advise against that. There are other ways to nail this guy but failing to mitigate losses is not the way

[pt2537]

This was my response. It may again, have been a tad gun ho. I just panic I'm afraid...


I agree a response time of 12.00 noon on 4th October 2019.

Due to needing to meet the welfare needs of my children, and having been without a kitchen for 5 months, I am formally issuing notice that if the kitchen is not delivered within 7 days of today's date (30th September 2019) I will order a cheap, make-do kitchen myself and have this installed. I will be looking to Mr Harvey to cover these costs, as well as refunding the £10500 paid to him to provide kitchen in March 2019.

Should Mr Harvey agree to complete the kitchen he has already been paid for, it must be fully installed by 15th October 2019, there must be penalty clauses in place should he not meet deadlines.

Many thanks

His solicitor will know that such costs would simply not be payable, and will no doubt be advising him of this too. you do not get a free kitchen, even a budget one im afraid. Also, a penalty clause is simply unenforceable in law, so again its a point his lawyer will be advising on.

One point im not sure has been looked at is the potential claim for damages for distress and inconvenience, there is a fair amount of case law that says £2k per person per year would not be unreasonable levels of damages in such a dispute. I can quote the cases if required.

Personally, if this were my home, by now id be taking the matter out of his hands, id be getting a surveyors report, id get estimates to finish the job, and then id serve a letter of claim setting out what i wanted from him and the time frames he had to comply, if he didnt comply id issue proceedings.

[Karengardner]

OK. So, I think this is where we are at, but obviously wanting to continue to present as reasonable. And worried about spiralling legal costs and money to finish the house.

[Karengardner]

Do I not pursue the mediation and do I ask him to contribute to the costs of the survey?

[pt2537]

OK. So, I think this is where we are at, but obviously wanting to continue to present as reasonable. And worried about spiralling legal costs and money to finish the house.

Ideally if the matter can be resolved amicably then that would be the best outcome for all concerned. Its important therefore in my view to stress the urgency of the situation to his lawyer, but not to make threats which his lawyer simply will know arent enforceable.

Do you have any home insurance with legal protection on it?

If you do then you may be able to get legal assistance funded by your insurers.

[pt2537]

Do I not pursue the mediation and do I ask him to contribute to the costs of the survey?

Well mediation is always a good idea, if he is willing to mediate then id always advise anyone to go down that route first. A good mediator can bring a dispute to an end so its worth exploring.

If mediation fails, then i think you will need to prepare for legal action, i posted above about insruance as that would cover the costs of pursuing the case in court.

Mediation could be put in place within 4 weeks maybe less, and its worth exploring, however your posts above did seem to be leaning more towards legal action, hence why i said if you are going to go to Court make sure you prepare properly, get your report and estimates, serve your letter of claim, then issue, but do so properly prepared and dont go off half cocked, as so many people do and its the cause of many cases failing

[Karengardner]

I don't want court. I want this nightmare to end. Just spent 1050 on full survey which will be completed next Tuesday. Do I ask for half from his solicitor?

[Karengardner]

We have no legal cover through insurance. We would need to self fund all costs ourselves.

[Karengardner]

Hi, so I received a rude and abusive response from his solicitor this afternoon. She is saying to suck up the additional payment that I refer to that he sent before I challenged him for asking for final payment.

My question is, if I paid him into his personal account, rather than his business account, can I sue him as an individual? I never actually signed the contract with his company, however, (very) arguably the contract has been carried out in spirit.

I would 1000% pursue a claim against him personally, he lives in a nice house.

[des8]

Although you may not have signed a contract presumably previous payments were made to his company, so making a personal payment won't change anything and a claim against him personally is likely to fail.

Hold any reaction until you receive the survey report next Tuesday

[Karengardner]

I was advised to cancel that survey. I think I've found somebody else. They haven't sent me their fee proposal yet.

I now think all paymsemts were made to his personal account. Over 100k

[des8]

To make a claim against him personally you would need to show that you had contracted with him and not his company.
As there was no signed contract, and you paid into his personal account would support your contention.
However were letters/emails addressed to him or his companies?
Did he respond personally or from his company?
Is his solicitor writing on behalf of the company?

Anyway you shouldn't proceed with any court action until you have that report and a costs schedule to correct and finish the works as PT2537 has already advised