Potentially being taken to court. What should I do?

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Potentially being taken to court. What should I do?

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armyash

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Hi everyone

Had a call this afternoon from a customer, I fitted a toilet in their half finished cloakroom approximately 2months ago. The floor was newly tiled, and there was an open stud wall at the back where it looks like there was a cistern at one point.

I fitted a toilet, supplied by the customer and I drilled through the tiles for the fixings. Phone call today to say she has had to have the tiles ripped up, And the central heating pipe repaired.

I have spoken to her partner who is a decent bloke and he told me what's happened. He said she wants to take me to court but he said he would speak to me first to sort something out.

She doesn't want me back in the house which is why they didn't have me do the repairs. I said they should have called me.

I don't want to go to court over it but I don't want to be slagged off online either. I had no way of knowing the heating pipes were there as I didn't do the previous work.

I boarded up the stud wall and I also renewed the old basin for a small wall hung unit/basin. Which there is no issue with.

They have said repairs are approximately £350. I would have done the repairs for free (obviously) if they had let me know. They have said they will send me pictures and copies of bills for repairs so they are not trying it on.

What would you do? I'm thinking offer them 50% of the repair bill as they could have come to me for it. I don't want to be a walkover but I don't want to bend over either.
 
It reads well Armyash.
I might have put the lines, -

I will not be held responsible for another trades poor workmanship in regard to your existing pipes location and depth.

I refute the comments in your letter where you retrospectively said ..... the toilet was incorrectly installed .....
I have no option other than to vigorously challenge this allegation

My surname has also been inaccurate.

Armyash, I think I would solely just mention you can provide evidence of what the 3rd party guy told you.
No need to look like at this point that you are taping conversations.
Let the pig guess and over think what you have against her
 
Best said:
It reads well Armyash.
I might have put the lines, -

I will not be held responsible for another trades poor workmanship in regard to your existing pipes location and depth.

I refute the comments in your letter where you retrospectively said ... the toilet was incorrectly installed ...
I have no option other than to vigorously challenge this allegation

My surname has also been inaccurate.

Armyash, I think I would solely just mention you can provide evidence of what the 3rd party guy told you.
No need to look like at this point that you are taping conversations.
Let the pig guess and over think what you have against her
Click to expand...


Thanks, I will do a final edit in the morning to tweak it and use these points and then get it hand written.
 
Personally I would keep it very sort and sweat, the more details you give these people the more they they have to keep this going.
1. Withdraw the £150 offer.
2. There should not have been u/f heating pipes under the pan position, the installation of this was incorrect & invited this situation.
3. Not withstanding the above, You were not informed nor given the opportunity to investigate or repair.

I know it feels like you need to defend yourself Ash & give your side of the story but it will only serve to provide her with more ammunition, the "he said this & they said that" is just hear say & even if you have some proof it is best kept for if the worst happens.
I take it, it was a sealed heating system ?
if so you could aways add later that they must have been topping up the loss of water without investigating where it was leaking so they contributed to their own damage.

I hate these people, pound to a penny she will have access to the Law in some way and they then think they can use it against hard working guy's & girls like use!!!
I have a rule now days I do not work for any of them - solicitors, lawyers, barristers & worst of all judges, if I find out what they do they can take a running jump been bitten too many times.
 
Letter sent today.

30 days from her letter is tomorrow, it was hand delivered by my partner with video evidence showing the letter, and the walk to the house putting it through the letterbox. I know this seems weird but if i'd have sent it recorded delivery through the post there's nothing stopping her just not signing for it. I let my partner do the dirty work because had I done it and bumped in to them there might have been some cross words said and I didn't want to risk that.

Anyway, i'm fairly certain she is going to see this all the way through. I feel like the odds are in my favour, but not in a over confident and arrogant way but I think the repeat performance aspect is good. I'm fully aware I could lose because I don't know what else she is going to say. She might tell a pack of lies and the court might believe her but I do have recorded conversations with her partner where I say that they should have called me and he says she didn't because she didn't want me in the house.

I will keep everyone updated with whatever happens next. Thanks again for everything. As I have said before if I lose in court at least I put up a fight. By I, I mean we.
 
Last edited:
Armyash all the best also from me.

Relax now as you have done your work on your letter and put the ball back into her court.

If she does put it to Small Claims Court, I assume the procedure is more or less the same all over U.K.

If she foolishly eventually sends an application, it would probably take a fairly long period before the court process sends you the paperwork.
The advantage will be slightly yours, as she will have to include a letter to the court of her basic story, to which you will receive a copy together with court papers.
That means she puts her cards on the table (basically revealing her case) and you can then decide how to respond and to every point.

You usually get 4 options -
(1) you could ignore, but not advisable
(2) you can admit you owe the claim
(3) you can refute it
(4) you can refute it and also counterclaim
Obviously you will go with (3) or (4) option.

A Judge on the court day could decide to split the costs, with no real winner, but I guess that would still be a result.
There is no appeal on a Small Claims Court judgement normally, so always a risk.
But time to consider all of that, only if court papers come to you later.
Remember it is the lowest form of courts and a really minor case and of small change money, so don’t worry about it and just keep standing up for yourself.
 
Hi Armyash. Read this one with interest. I no longer run my business and am back in full time employment so can chat about this quite candidly now.

When running my business I once had to solder a gas pipe in a really awkward space, too tight to even get a mirror round to inspect the joint. The whole gas pipe run we’d done passed tightness testing fine. I got called back to a smell of gas in the airing cupboard. Tested it again and sure enough, a full drop leak. Turned out the solder had not run all the way round the back of the joint. This left a pinhole sealed with flux that passed the industry standard tightness test! Given that I’ve seen with my own eyes a flux pinhole hold back 2 bars of pressure for years on a sealed heating system this was incredibly bad luck..

Transco also attended this job due to a faulty regulator and they didn’t pick the leak up either..

Was this my fault? Not really it just happens, there was no way I could see right round this joint.

Customer wouldn’t let me fix it and told me to leave. Then sent me a bill for BG to rip out the whole central heating system we’d newly installed and to have it all redone as he no longer had faith in my install. I beat myself up over this and had many sleepless nights but ultimately I followed correct testing procedure and thus GSR didn’t find me liable or strike me off.

I politely told his solicitor we wouldn’t pay it as we had not had opportunity to repair the leak which we would have done on the day.

Despite various threats no court action ever came about and that was for a threatened claim of over £5000...

They won’t be successful for any claim if they haven’t given you an opportunity to repair it first. They have a legal duty to minimise costs being claimed for.
 
Just makes me think why didn't you make your excuses and bail on that job? Soldering where you can't see what you're doing at all, even with a mirror, on a gas pipe? You don't have to do every job!
 
Interesting post there cr0ft, thanks for that. Glad you came out of that one unscathed.

I still haven't heard anything but then it took her months to write to me anyway. Surely there must be some sort of statute of limitations.
 
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