Cowboy landscapers have fleeced us and left us with a mess- help!!

[sunshine05]

So, we got this company to do our patio and front driveway- I found them on checkatrade and they had good reviews. well they've completely bolloxed up the whole job. I got the opinons of 2 other garden landscapers and they said they have used the wrong type of sand under the patio slabs, they haven't put the grout in properly- in many places it's fallen through and left holes, some slabs are wonky, they had to come back on numerous occasions to re-stick slabs. The bricks out the front aren't stuck down properly and nearly 6 have already come free. They didn't put a weed membrane down on the driveway under the gravel. They have done a wonky border around the patio. I have asked them to relay the path out front and they relaid it and it's still wonky. We refused to pay them all the money though we did pay them some.

We want to take them to court but are unsure a) whether it's worth it as we don't know if we'll get any of our money back and b) whether we'll incur lots of fees so do we just cut our losses?

But I've googled and found a couple of scathing reviews so I know they've done this to other people. The problem is these reviews aren't available. If you search I can see them on the search results page but when I click on them to read the full review the review has been removed!! And one of the websites is checkatrade. So I have no idea how negative reviews are allowed to be removed and if they are what's the point in allowing only positive reviews?

When we told these people we're not paying them all their money he got really angry, screaming down the phone etc. then sent two of his guys over to threaten and intimidate us. They threatened to take all the materials away (even though we've paid them enough money to cover these anyway) and they threatened to call the police. We said please do! so they did and then the police came and said it's a civil dispute and we need to deal with it through a civil court. The police also told them they can't come onto our property and threaten us or take anything away. I was so shaken and scared.

I want justice and I don't want them doing this to anyone else! But is it worth it??

any advice/info would be appreciated

If the claim is up to £10,000 it will be dealt with as a small claim. If you file your claim online the fee will be between £25 and £410 depending on the size of your claim. You can (and should) represent yourself so you won't have any solicitor's fees to pay. You can add the court fee to your claim so, if you win, the landscapers will have to pay.

As for whether it is worth it, no-one on here can answer that question. It depends on how much you would be likely to win on the facts of the case and whether or not they have enough money or other assets to pay.

Thanks for taking the time to reply prh47bridge I guess it's not a hot topic on here

Hubby isn't keen so I'm not sure what we'll do.....we don't want to lose any more money but I hate the thought of them conning other people

I found them on checkatrade

Sadly that was your first mistake. Who pays for Checkatrade entries ? You, or the tradesman ? Now you know whose side they are on.

I was so shaken and scared.

that sounds like assault. Not sure when that became a civil matter ?

Construction has its own legal dispute resolution process so small claims is not necessarily the correct route to go down. It can be v expensive - you'd be best off keeping the materials and cutting your losses.

I am in the process of trying to get money back from a landscape gardener. I am following this process to the letter.

My view is that I have written off the amount so anything I get back will be a bonus. My main motivation is making life as difficult as possible for the wanker who ripped me off.

Sorry to hear your troubles.

We were once called by checkatrade as we left a bad review. They also told the plasterer concerned and he threatened us so we had to withdraw the review. I only ever go through personal recommendations now or ask on my local facebook page and double check the connection to the person recommended (we live in a village which I think makes this process easier?).

Small claims court is really easy to do. Chances are the culprit will shut down the existing co. and set up a new one to avoid paying but I like the satisfaction of taking it further.

There seem to be a lot of people on mnet at the moment who are having or have had similar issues with checkatrade and similar sites - all of whom have discovered too late that there's no comeback if the tradesman is rubbish and runs off with your money as they frequently seem to do - despite all the good reviews (which in hindsight is because sthey've been provided by family whilst the accurate ones have been removed due to threats or because the tradesman has to approve all their reviews...

There seem to be a lot of people on mnet at the moment who are having or have had similar issues with checkatrade and similar sites

Some local authorities have compiled lists of tradesmen no one has complained about

www.noroguetradershere.com/

might be a starting point.

For myself, I'd ignore any service where the trader pays for it - it doesn't take a degree in rocketry to work out whose side they'll take in a dispute.