to take builder to small claims?

[Cowboybuilderwoes]

I’m unsure what to do and would like other opinions.

I hired a building company at the end of last year to do some plastering, painting and wood panelling. One of the main jobs was to fill in all cracks in the area because it’s an old Victorian with superficial cracks. The company I hired is not cheap but they bought and renovated a house on my road which looked great, the owner was responsive and seemed decent. His wife and him are trying to build their business and she is active on instagram (albeit definitely not famous but a huge oversharer) as a result I felt I knew enough about them that if anything were to go wrong, I’d know address, names, details and that they have a brand they wouldn’t want damaged.

One man, who had never worked with the owner before, was sent to do the work. He was decent and for the most part, his work was great. The panelling looked great too. The issues are:

• one main specific crack I asked to be done has been done badly, the filler wasn’t sanded and so you can see the crack through the paint and now the panelling.
• they did not cover my real wood floors when plastering and now there is ingrained dust and some paint in the floor I can’t get out
• they attempted to scrub the floor with a scourer and have now damaged the wood flooring - my assumption is that it will need waxing over to fix or resanding and treating

I messaged once this became visible after the job completed (when they left the floor was still wet) and asked for help. He told me some washing up liquid will get the paint off, it won’t. I sent pictures of the damage and I am now being ignored.

He charged me cash so that he wouldn’t have to pay VAT, which he told me by text only at the end when I asked for a receipt. Tax evasion is a big deal! I reported to HMRC for that as I am an accountant so have a duty there. I can easily prove everything as I ensured I wrote it all down by texts between his business number.

Would you go via small claims? I don’t want him back in my house now. I do want my floor sorted as a priority and I can probably get someone to sand and repaint the crack area but as paint was colour matched I may need to repaint the whole area which may be hundreds as it’s a large hall.

Thoughts?

This is my thought - you are an accountant and you paid a builder in cash for a large job on your house but you had no idea why he was asking for cash until you asked for a receipt, is that right ?

So when you handed him the cash and he told you it was to avoid paying VAT, I assume you asked him to hand it back. And then told him you would pay by another method and I pay the extra 20% on the invoice ?

Honest view. You paid cash to a builder and are now considering going to court. As you know there is no law against paying cash but it looks bad

a court will be expensive with expert witnesses required despite what the citizens advice but eye may tell you

leason learned tiu pay after the job once expected and happy

talk to him and try to sort without court.

Check if you have legal expenses insurance (sometimes bundled with house or even car insurance).

I very much doubt you could claim for repainting the entire hall - a claim is for the damage and there's a concept of betterment (you shouldn't be in a better position than you started). Cracks sorted and completely new paintwork = betterment, I'd say.

You say it will cost hundreds - you need to look up the fees to lodge a claim. If you make a claim, it goes through and he still doesn't give a shit - great, you've got an expensive piece of paper. You're not going to hire bailiffs for the sake of recovering a couple of hundred. Limited companies can also fold and there goes your debt.

I'd get quote from other workmen to rectify damage, send copies along with a formal letter to his address (potentially forking out for a lawyer to help but this might cost £100 or so) and see what happens. You can whack 'letter of claim' at the top to make it look more formal.

Builders are very busy, get 100s of messages by email, text, whatsapp all the time from workers, customers, suppliers etc. Don't imagine the owner is sitting around deciding to ignore you. Might be a decent bloke but busy. You need to get his attention then see if you can get a contribution towards what you want to do to put it right.

Legally, you also would be expected to give the company the opportunity to put it right, even if you don't really want them in your house.

So you saved yourself 20% VAT on the job , know that it’s tax evasion , but went down that route anyway rather than asking for it to be done through the books . Now you have reported the builder to tax evasion that you took part in . I assume you definitely checked to make sure he is VAT registered first .

Small claims court ? Couldn’t you just use the 20% that you saved to pay for the remedial work .

He has to be given the opportunity to correct the work before taking him to court. If he ignores all reasonable contact attempts though then crack on.

There is an equitable maxim though that anyone seeking legal redress though the courts must do so with clean hands… I’m not sure an accountant knowingly participating in tax evasion would fit the bill!

He didn't avoid paying VAT, you did. He would have charged you 20% more to cover VAT and you know it. I suppose you will now have to report yourself for tax avoidance as it is your duty as an accountant. The builder would have ended up with the exact same amount at the end anyway. True, he may have avoided paying income tax, though. As an accountant, I would expect you to understand the difference.
As far as small claims court, you need to organise an independent contractor to assess the damage for the court report, you need to give the builder the opportunity to rectify and, typically, you need an attempt to mediate before you are eligible to initiate court proceedings. You will also need to cover the costs of all of the above + solicitor. The court may not award you the costs at the end even if you win the case.

I have literally 0 concerns on the VAT side of things. I did not know when he did it or until he took the cash and left my premises. I know the law on it well and did my duty.

I’ve been to small claims before - it’s not difficult or expensive. I’m not worried about that side of things.

Yes I will do this, thanks.

He is genuinely ignoring me, it’s been a month. He did keep saying “the floor was like that before” luckily I have time stamped pictures and messages of concern about the worry of damage to the floor.

This isn’t correct.

VAT is only due on an invoice that directly quotes a VAT number. This is on the vendor to ensure. As far as I knew, he didn’t reach the VAT threshold - it’s a brand new company.

Assuming cash is dodgy is so ridiculous. A lot of my clients accept cash only and I have no concerns that they are declaring it all.

As I mentioned, I have literally zero concerns about my liability on this side of things.

As someone who works in the accounts dept of a construction company I agree with OP. Cash is only dodgy if it is not declared. The fact OP asked for a receipt shows she did not know they builder wasn't planning on declaring it.

When a quote is given to a domestic customer it shouls state of VAT is not included. We often give quotes to domestic customers which include VAT. For business customer we give nett quotes and state plus VAT.

I’m still amazed that you happily saved yourself 20% yet reported him for tax avoidance. Both at your hypocrisy and your audacity.

I would get a couple of quotes to put right the mistakes, then send a LETTER BEFORE ACTION to the builder giving him 14 days to get in touch and arrange to sort out the issues within 28 days*, or pay £XXX which is the best quote you have had to put right the issues. Make it clear that if he doesn't respond, then you will be taking the matter to court where he will then have to pay any associated fees.

Sent the letter via 1st class post with proof of postage.

The cash thing is a red herring and a completely separate matter. Obviously if he'd said at the beginning of the job that it was £XXXX to do the work or 20% cheaper if you paid cash, then you'd be on dodgy ground, but if he just quoted for the job then asked for cash payment and only once you'd paid refused the receipt, you have nothing to worry about and did the right thing to report him.

*if you feel you've already given him enough opportunity to come back and sort it out, then you don't need to give this as an option.

Have you tried phoning him from a different number? A friend of mine had a similar issue with someone ignoring them and called from a friends phone and sure enough he answered!

OP didn't save herself 20%, the builder did.

Construction firms can't necessarily just add 20% to their prices to cover VAT once they go above the threshold or they would not be competitive. They are expected to be able to cover that in their quoted prices.

If a builder quotes a domestic customer a price and fails to tell them that VAT will be on top of that it is reasonable for the customer to assume that either the builder is not yet VAT registered or that they have included VAT in their quote.

I'm not sure why you've mentioned the VAT situation on this thread, it's derailed it.

Would I take to small claims court...... yes

He has had ample time to put right the situation but hasn't, that's on him.

Thank you, this is probably the best course of action!

THANK YOU!

I know haha, silly mistake!!

I thought it would show his character.

Thanks for letting me know you would go! I don’t mind the fight but just don’t know if I should, unsure why I feel almost bad for doing it.

He has replied to my message today, denying I asked for the work they did and how he’s lucky I didn’t get charged more 😂

Send an email setting our the issues and what you want him to do, follow up by phone.

Get a quote from another builder to make good.

Give him a deadline to respond and make good, and tell him you'll take action if he does not.

If he doesn't, do the forms. It's not that much work.

I will also try this.

I probably haven’t explained it well - the poor work in our wall (he is now denying I asked him to do this but found it in an email) is easily remedied at low cost. The floor may be thousands. I have had one quote and it is very expensive but unsure if that was representative.

@Cowboybuilderwoes best of luck!