Hoping someone with more knowledge about this can help ive phoned citizens advice but wanted some real life experiences.
We recently had a plasterer/joiner/decorator come do some work for us, we paid for materials up front including internal doors and handles and some woodwork. He ended up taking far too long (said it was going to be a week and took almost 4 week to do half the work he said) so we asked if he would drop the doors and woodwork off (which he told us he had bought already and we could get someone else to do the work). Instead of dropping them off he took them back to the shop and got the money refunded into his bank. He messaged on Tuesday and said the money will be in your bank this evening, now it's Friday and no sign of the money. I've messaged every day asking for it and he's ignoring me.
Citizens advice have advised a recorded delivery letter giving him 14 days to pay and if he doesn't comply we can take him to court for breach of contact. We really didn't want to do this but it's almost £300 he owes us and it's a lot of money to us.
Anyone ever sent one of these letters and had a positive outcome, is he likely to pay to save going to court?