Ways to get revenge on rogue builder. Help.

[Hullabaloo9]

My mother has fallen victim to a rogue builder. 2 and a half years ago he began replacing her garage roof for her. He was sketchy even then, often not turning up etc. When the work was nearly but not quite complete he said he was coming to pick up the money as he needed it for Christmas. He left a ladder and a workbench so mum (in her 70s) naively paid up in cash. Since then he has not returned. He often doesn't answer his phone. If he does he is apparently always having some drama so he can't come, or will give a date and not turn up.

This is obviously a lesson learnt for mum and we have no legal leg to stand on as there is no contract and payment was in cash.

I want to simply annoy the hell out of this man and inconvenience him as much as possible. I have his full name, address, mobile number. I'm thinking signing him up for spam mails and things like that.

He seems quite a highly strung, chauvinist type so just little inconveniences will hopefully really irritate him and give me some satisfaction.

Any ideas?

Name and shame on local FB community group?

Have you got an email address? Build up your evidence. Every time he phones you and makes some promise to come back, write to him confirming what was said. Remind him that he has been paid £X and needs to finish the work. If he doesn't respond denying what you have said, those emails will be good evidence.

ZOMBIE THREAD it's over a year ago!

Small claims court. A friend did in similar circumstances and won. It’s a bit fiddly but you can do it all yourself on line. Save any communications - texts etc.

Grass him up to HMRC. It’s what I did.

Zombie thread.. over a year ago!

I don’t see that reporting him to HMRC has to constitute an accusation. You can say that you know he accepts cash in hand for jobs and suggest they might like to investigate. That could not be actionable.