Refusing to pay tradesmen

I have had a full renovation done and have never not paid a tradesman.
We have always paid in stages and for materials in advance.
I would call the police on him especially if he planned to do this.

That is so horrible, what sort of person engages someone to do expensive work for them knowing full-well they won't be able to pay for it? Arseholes, that's who!

I would go through the courts as has been suggested, but I don't think I'd be able to resist ensuring that all of this persons neighbours, other local tradespeople, work colleagues (including their boss - they might feel he was bringing the company into disrepute) and even their Postman knew exactly what sort of nasty, lying arsehole he was!

I really, really hope your DH gets what he's owed, it's such a bloody cheek!

(Sorry about all the exclamation marks, but I'm raging on your behalf.😡)

The Small Claims Court does have its downsides - the limit for claims is £10,000 and the proceedings tend to lean sympathetically towards the defendants. The other consideration is it's pointless pursing a "man of straw" through the courts because even if you do obtain an order for payment, if the debtor really is broke and without assets even bailiffs will be unable to recover your money.

Yep. This is exactly what you should do. Forget court. Just start to remove the work you haven’t been paid for.

It’s not called Small Claims Court anymore, you just make a claim through the county court and the court fees are based on the amount of the claim. Certainly no £5k limit, you can claim for hundreds of thousands. If this happens to your DH a lot I would definitely recommend getting familiar with the process, it’s quite easy to do.

I’m currently making a claim against a window fitter who stole £3,000 from us.

Well he needs to remove them, and if the property is compromised then that’s just tough shit.

ill bet when he starts to remove them then suddenly the money will be found.

that wouldn’t actually stop me, I’d remove it all anyway now.

This.

I've been swindled by tradespeople and most people I know have experienced the same.

I've never known anyone start an expensive job without asking for money to cover the materials at least.

Completing a small claims application is fairly straight forward if you take care to complete it properly. You can also charge interest on the outstanding amount.

You need to send a letter before action if you intend to proceed through the courts, there are templates online or you could get a solicitor to send one which may carry more weight.

IANAL but I have done this once.

If everything was done correctly then there’s no reason why your DH shouldn’t go to court and win what he is owed including legal expenses. He could take it all the way to making this person bankrupt if no payment is made. It’s shit and frustrating for you but it’s just an inevitable part of owing your own business.

I don’t suppose it will offer any comfort, but there are far more customers screwed over by tradesmen than there are tradesmen screwed over by customers.

Rip it all out and leave the property compromised. Not his problem is it. He can find the money if he doesn’t want it all ripped out

Did he put steels in? That’s awful behaviour from the client. My DH is a builder and is currently going through something similar with a client who is refusing to pay the final invoice and is making up all sorts of rubbish to wriggle out of paying.

My DH’s dad owns a building company as well and he sends out a document to anyone who refuses payment which usually does the trick without having to go the legal route. I’ll ask him when he gets home tonight.

MCOL limit is £10,000 and is fairly straightforward to do without needing a solicitor. Lots of advice online including on the .gov.uk website. Even if the customer doesn't have the money to pay you can still register a CCJ against them which even though it doesn't pay the bills will have a bit of an impact on them in future potentially if they want to take out a credit card or a new mortgage for example. This scenario might also prompt them to pay the outstanding amount first to get the CCJ amended to settled status. There's also the option to enforce with bailiffs if you think they've got the money or have assets to cover the debt. If they have a job then an attachment of earnings is also a possibility. I would give it a go personally even if was just on principle.

Oh and none of ours take payment up front either. Luckily in 40+ years there's only been those 2 non payers tho one did eventually cough up when the police said we had a right to remove fencing if he didn't pay

The court system is surprisingly effective in the majority of these cases so I urge you to go that way (family of sparkies and mechanics here, we regularly start proceedings but rarely need to get to the bailiff stage).

Then like 2 of all the self employed in our family you go back and remove everything and if they call the police you state the case.

Okay, so if it was only 3 days the £5k won't all be for labour and it looks as if the materials/whatever ordered were expensive

In which case it might have been an idea to request the £££ for them on delivery and before fitting, so that he could take them away again if the client pulled this horrible stunt

I work for a small business that has grown out of a sole trading tradesman. We get surprisingly few non-payers. For any job that's going to take longer than a couple of hours we send a fully itemised estimate with every single darn thing listed (parts and labour).

Your dh should pursue this person through the small claims court, it's surprisingly easy and efficient.

If down payment isn’t standard… is an escrow account a possibility (is that thing in the UK?) in the future? If the final amount is more than the small claims threshold it would seem worth it. Protects both parties.

Quite common, unfortunately. DH is a brickie/builder and it's the reason we always took a down payment to cover materials (he doesn't do very much private work these days). No payment = no work. At least if there were delays or issues with final bills, we weren't left owing others with the potential for legal action.
Unfortunately, the advice to people always seems to be don't pay up front, trades have accounts with suppliers, etc., which is all well and good but unscrupulous clients can and will drop you in it.

I don't know where you live, but where I am, in a large village, all the tradies know one another and if anyone did this, word would get about and nobody would do a single job for them, ever again.

My brother is also a tradesman and he is owed £41k by a customer that refused to pay and even told the architect that they couldn't afford it all before they went ahead with the job. You can't remove any materials as it's trespass. There was nothing he could do as he can't afford the solicitors to pursue payment. They then went on to get more work done by other tradesmen and now have a beautiful home, that he has half paid for! Almost bankrupted him but he has had to just move on and try not to be bitter.

I agree he needs to pursue it and stage payments are a good thing for bigger jobs, but I'm very reluctant to pay upfront or pay much of a deposit. The tradesman at least knows where to find me, I've got not hope at all if he does a runner with my deposit.

My husbands business had this experience once. We ended up starting small claims process and luckily the initial letter was enough to get payment sorted.

Since then all work is done with deposits
and stage payments. Be absolutely firm about this, no payment, no work.

Its disgusting how many people think that they can delay/negotiated/ just not pay because you're a tradesperson.

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money