Someone has decided I owe him money. How much is he allowed to do?

[dc32]

Hi, new member here

I have a question. I recently arranged for a common service to be done and I paid a sizable deposit with the understanding that I would pay the rest once the work would be completed. Before the job started the guy surprised me by saying there would be additional charges I didn't think were reasonable but he claimed were in his T&Cs that I had never seen. I told him I no longer wanted him to do the work, because I didn't want to be surprised by a greatly inflated bill at the end of the job. He then started threatening to do various things to me, including confronting me at my home, expecting me to pay him the rest of the money even without his doing the work.

Do I have to pay the whole amount for the job even though it was not completed? There was a point at which I had actually considered offering to have him do the work for the originally quoted price, but I was no longer willing to do so once the threats started coming in.

Wouldn't he actually have to get a court order against me before he tries to collect any supposed debt or takes any other action? Can he hire debt collectors even when it is not clear there is a debt?

Do his continued threats constitute harassment? They have become very bizarre, including hiring people to come to my home, and the homes of my family members, and seize our goods, to bother me at home and at my workplace all hours of the day, and to submit photos of me to an online news site (I don't know how or where he is planning to get the photos).

Can he hire people to break into my home and seize my belongings when it isn't even clear that I owe him anything?

Can I ask for the deposit back, since he was clearly not willing to do the job for the originally quoted price in the first place?

Thanks.

[wales01man]

May I ask what a common service is later in post you say they have seized goods who did with no CCJ and legal enforcement action no pone canĀ*

[dc32]

May I ask what a common service is later in post you say they have seized goods who did with no CCJ and legal enforcement action no pone can

The service is transporting items and they have only threatened to seize goods and all those other things. They haven't actually done anything, just sent threats.

One of the reasons I didn't go through with the move is because the guy threatened to seize my goods (presumably the goods he would be moving) for not paying all the money, including the amount I thought was unfair. I wasn't willing to risk having him just take all my stuff so I cancelled. After seeming so friendly and honest at first, he changed into an unpleasant person who wanted to force me to pay extra charges above the quoted price, and I couldn't trust him. Now he is saying he expects me to pay the whole amount whether he moves my stuff or not, even though I paid the deposit so there is no way he is out of pocket.

If I understand you correctly, they cannot actually seize my property without an enforcement order? Can he hire someone to collect the "debt" from me even when it is not clear there is any debt, or would he first have to take me to court?

Thanks.