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We had this contractor doing odd jobs on our property, mainly on the outbuildings. The agreement was that he would provide timesheets and summary of completed works, and will invoice based on that at £100/day. First 3 weeks were fine, although he had some attitude issues with providing timesheets - but eventually he provided them and invoices, and I paid.
In the weeks that followed, he started behaving mysteriously, and would turn up at random times, do virtually no work and would not respond to my messages.
Then he started asking for money for those 2 mystery weeks, and I asked to provide timesheets and an itemised invoice. He ignored my requests, then produced a document saying “invoice” on top with just one total figure of £485. This was a different amount from what he asked previously for the same weeks, and when I again asked for itemisation, he went berserk and said he would only deal with me in writing (and as I could only contact him on WhatsApp, I thought we already were communicating in writing).
In addition, he stole keys to our shed and refused to return. I asked him about 10 times over 2 weeks to return them, and gave the final deadline for return which he ignored. I then reported the incident to the police and got a locksmith to replace the lock - as it was a secure lock and locked with no key, this came to almost £150 cost.
Anyway, today my 8-year-old son was playing in the garden, and the contractor suddenly turned up and handed him a letter telling to pass it to me. My son got quite alarmed. The letter turned out to be a statutory demand form printed off gov.uk website, claiming £485. There were no specifics of what this debt relates to in the Details of Debt field, only that he wanted 8% interest on it and a mention of loss of earnings(!).
I just read about statutory demand cases on this forum.*
It seems that as this alleged debt is disputed, and I have a counter-claim for lock replacement cost, I should be able to apply to set it aside on the basis that bankruptcy is not an appropriate route for disputed debt collection (is this correct?)
But as the alleged debt is below £5,000, does it not automatically deny the nutcase contractor the next step in the process he is attempting to follow, as he cannot apply for personal bankruptcy for £485 alleged debt anyway?
I looked at the application form used for setting statutory demand aside - I do not understand how to fill it at all, and the guidance document looks gibberish to me - it does not seem fit for purpose. Also, the statutory demand itself does not have any court listed - if I have to fill the form, how do I know which court to list? We have several courts in our areas that deal with bankruptcies.
This is really stressing me out now, so any views will be much appreciated.
*
In the weeks that followed, he started behaving mysteriously, and would turn up at random times, do virtually no work and would not respond to my messages.
Then he started asking for money for those 2 mystery weeks, and I asked to provide timesheets and an itemised invoice. He ignored my requests, then produced a document saying “invoice” on top with just one total figure of £485. This was a different amount from what he asked previously for the same weeks, and when I again asked for itemisation, he went berserk and said he would only deal with me in writing (and as I could only contact him on WhatsApp, I thought we already were communicating in writing).
In addition, he stole keys to our shed and refused to return. I asked him about 10 times over 2 weeks to return them, and gave the final deadline for return which he ignored. I then reported the incident to the police and got a locksmith to replace the lock - as it was a secure lock and locked with no key, this came to almost £150 cost.
Anyway, today my 8-year-old son was playing in the garden, and the contractor suddenly turned up and handed him a letter telling to pass it to me. My son got quite alarmed. The letter turned out to be a statutory demand form printed off gov.uk website, claiming £485. There were no specifics of what this debt relates to in the Details of Debt field, only that he wanted 8% interest on it and a mention of loss of earnings(!).
I just read about statutory demand cases on this forum.*
It seems that as this alleged debt is disputed, and I have a counter-claim for lock replacement cost, I should be able to apply to set it aside on the basis that bankruptcy is not an appropriate route for disputed debt collection (is this correct?)
But as the alleged debt is below £5,000, does it not automatically deny the nutcase contractor the next step in the process he is attempting to follow, as he cannot apply for personal bankruptcy for £485 alleged debt anyway?
I looked at the application form used for setting statutory demand aside - I do not understand how to fill it at all, and the guidance document looks gibberish to me - it does not seem fit for purpose. Also, the statutory demand itself does not have any court listed - if I have to fill the form, how do I know which court to list? We have several courts in our areas that deal with bankruptcies.
This is really stressing me out now, so any views will be much appreciated.
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