Absconded builder - small claims court?

[NancyDroop]

We're in the middle of a kitchen and bathroom renovation and our builder, having received upfront payment for the next phase, is no longer responding to any calls, text or email. We don't have an address for him.

I'm guessing no VAT was being paid, we were paying cash to builder's account, so do we have any chance to try to get our money back from the builder?

Is there any point of trying to make a Small Claims Court claim? What kind of evidence would we need to pull together if we did try this?

Thank you legal minds! I very much appreciate any advice (and will take any admonishments).

If you don't have an address you won't be able to make a claim. You need to track him down first.

Thank you bridge. Ok that is my step 1 then.

We had this. He gave us a fake address and also took the money.

He got arrested and because he told the police that he took our money to buy materials for someone else's job, we had no comeback because it was a civil case not criminal.

And because he gave us a fake address, it couldn't take it through the small claims court. Police wouldn't give us his address so we were left with nothing.

I'm sorry to hear that Doreen. I have a feeling this happens quite regularly. We feel quite foolish right now, we clearly paid too much upfront.