Anyone taken a workman/ person to small claims court?

[Oktagrammata]

Hi everyone.
I've had some work done ( flooring/ doors).
Already paid before they finished job... yes l know l shouldn't have done.. but was a relative of an old friend.
The work definitely isn't done correctly and I've got a report from someone else to it's wrong and why and a quote to fix it.
I only paid for labour.. l bought the flooring/ doors etc.
The work isn't even finished.
If l leave it how it is.. it will eventually buckle.
I'm wanting to file for small claims court.
Anyone done this?
Was it easy?
Was it stressful?
Did you win?
Many thanks.

I don’t have any personal experience of this. But I know it’s reasonably common for respondents not to engage. If that happened then you would likely win by default. But the judgments can be very difficult to enforce. Some people give bailiffs the slip for years.

FYI. There is no such thing as a 'small claims' court. It is a normal court for small claims.

make sure you first have as much in writing as you can.
send a ‘letter before action’ detailing what the issue is, what you want them to do to rectify it and if they don’t do that you will get the work done elsewhere and take them to small claims to recoup the costs. Send it recorded delivery.
Then get two quotes (which need to be detailed eg we used sealant A rather than B as A wasn’t suitable) these need to be written ones.
gather as much evidence as you can - written, photos, evidence of costings of products etc.

I’ve not taken a workman to small claims but have taken a trader (I was awarded most of the claim - 90%, but didn’t have as much comparative cost comparisons as I could have had - but he paid way more to me than he would have done had he fixed it himself).

We did this. They didn’t engage at all, we won, but never got paid. When it came to us having to pay even more to try and recover the money we cut our losses. Still makes me angry now!

I have. I got awarded some money. I had a real fight to actually get the money off the tradesman and had to deal with him for months and put up with his abuse as he asked to pay over a period of three months. I did get the full amount awarded in the end. I didn't get expenses. I spent a lot of time providing documents and photographs as evidence. It was horribly stressful but it was anyway as it always is when work is done badly. The judge or whatever his title was a self-satisfied, pompous prick. I had to sit in a room deliberately set up to intimidate listening to the cowboy tradesman lie over and over again. I don't think I'd bother again.
How much money would you lose? If not a lot, I'd probably just suck it up.

Have you actually asked the tradesperson to rectify the poor work before filing?

Always one.🤦‍♀️

Thankyou everyone.
I'm hoping to go to mediation before.. hopefully he will pay me back and l can get someone else to rectify the problem.

Yes l have loads of evidence.
And screen shots etc.

We took an ex employer to the small claims court for unpaid wages and expenses, and won. It was fairly easy, and all done online.

Therevys a process to go through. You have to send a letter by registered list (so you know they’ve received it) to give them a chance to respond. Once done, you can proceed.

You submit the info online and then they have a chance to respond. There are fees to pay, but if you win, you get these back. We won without having to go to a ‘real court’.

If the person doesn’t pay up, you can escalate the case to sheriffs/bailiffs to get the money.

Yes, recently! He ignored all my letters before action and text messages. Ended up paying me what I wanted in mediation.

I've been to small claims a fair bit (I really don’t take people’s bullshit and love the law) and it’s super easy, as long as you have the evidence

Yes, but the other way around. I'm a tradesperson who's raised small claims against customers. Go on to the moneyclaim.gov.uk site and fill out the forms. It's all done electronically, and it was very easy, although no one disputed the claims so they were straightforward and the process was quite quick. I think it goes to a hearing if they do dispute it, and obviously that takes longer. You do have to pay a fee upfront, but it gets added onto the debt if you win. I've won the claims I've made.

We didn’t get as far as court but we did threaten it with a Letter Before Action to someone who did some work on our car (we were lucky that the LBA worked). You must do the LBA before you file the claim. It’s like an official warning that you’ll take action if they don’t sort it out satisfactorily. There are LBA templates online to help as they have to contain certain info. I also sent two copies..from 2 different post offices where I got a proof of posting certificate for each. This means it will be deemed to have been received as it would be highly unlikely 2 would go astray, in case they tried to claim that. Alternatively, you could send one signed for and one through normal post with the certificate.

Then, if that doesn’t get you a satisfactory response you just follow the process with MCOL. I’m sure you’ll know to keep any evidence you have.

As others have said, even if you win your case, enforcing the judgement can still be a headache if they don’t pay up. But you can decide at each stage how far you’re prepared to go with it. It’s definitely worth trying through.

Good luck!

Trading standards told us we couldn't as the paper we had no address just a phone number abd we didn't know where he lived or where his office was, so trading standards said we couldn't serve papers without a physical address. 😔

Thankyou
I've had a brief conversation with CA... my court fees will be paid.. I'm disabled on pension credits
Yes I will be doing the letters first
You have been so helpful.

From www.gov.uk...

What a court claim is
You can apply to a county court to claim money you’re owed by a person or business.
This is known as making a court claim. It often used to be known as taking someone to a ‘small claims court’. You can apply online or by post.

Your AI needs reviewing. Not so intelligent is it.

We did. We had some building work done and it wasn't until a few months after completion that we realised there was a problem. Tried to fix it direct with the builder but after a few months back and forth we had no choice. They had a really bullying solicitor who kept telling us if we didn't do what they said we would have to pay their costs and would be out of pocket. Then they settled and said they would pay and wanted us to state to the court that the case was closed. We refused to do that until we had received the money. The bullying was stepped up but we held firm and they paid up on the day before the deadline. It was stressful but we were confident that we were right and would get the judgment in our favour.

We paid a deposit of £7, 500 for a Barn/land to the owner, we then pulled out after finding out that arguments and noise between him and neighbours had been going on, it was a verbal agreement and he is claiming it was non refundable.
I had a solicitor send him a LBA , no result from that so now thinking of trying the small claims court .
do anyone have any experience of the small claims court that would be helpful to me.

Yes just initiated this in Ireland . A person did some very poor work in my mum’s garden ! I am hopeful of winning but not of getting the money from them ……

I'm a few weeks away from court date.

Claim for £1400.

Will have cost me £500 in court fees, travel, postage and other expenses by the time I get to court. Not counting loss of earnings for the multiple multiple hours of gathering evidence and so on. I have a VERY strong case, as in I can't see a way I won't win.

However, if I'd known in advance how much time and effort would be involved to get to this point I might have just sucked it up.

(Also, very much doubt opposing party will pay up even when required to by a judge...)