Builder trying to enforce a gagging order

[ffsrainagain]

I had a builder in to do a house extension. Wanted money upfront, in stages. The work was well underway so I paid the remaining balance. They then messed around, not coming in without telling me to eventually not turning up at all. I had spoken to them about damage they had caused to the property just being careless and acting like they were working on a building site not a home. They took objection to this and refused to come back despite me having paid the full amount. I spoke to trading standards who sent me a letter to send them for breach on contract. Obviously between sending this I've been on Facebook to give a bad review. The builder had been in touch to say he would finish the job but only if I stay out of my own home while they are there, and I sign, basically a gagging order to say nothing will go on Facebook ever about their behaviour!! I'm aware I can go to small claims but is it my fault for not signing a gagging order as they demand?

This is absolute nonsense. No way in hell would I allow this man with a grudge unfettered access to my home, nor would I pay any attention to him trying to forbid you to post anything about him. These are bullying and threatening tactics. There is no "gagging order".

Report these latest developments to Trading Standards too and if he continues to use these tactics then report him to the police for harassment.

Sadly I imagine that if you were a bloke he'd not be trying any of this crap on you.

What are the main worries when you leave someone alone in your house. That they will damage it, be unreasonable, mess about. These cowboys have already done that! Why would you let them back in with no supervision and promise not to tell on them?

It would be madness.

How much does he owe you?

And no do not give this man access to your home

Give him 30 days from todays date to complete the work or refund the money and make it clear if he doesn’t you will start legal proceedings

Calk you home insurance as you may have free legal cover

I was just worried that if I took it to small claims court (he owes me about 8000 pounds) that a judge would say that I should have signed a disclaimer and the work would have been finished. He's an awful person, gaslighting, narcissistic, I paid him but will only speak to DH who then tells me I need to take posts down to keep the peace! I'm enraged he thinks he can make demands about me when he hasn't completed a job he's been fully paid for. As long as me not signing a disclaimer he may produce doesn't go against me then I'm getting someone else to fix the problem and going to small claims court.

Get legal advice.

IME the law is based mostly on contracts and reasonableness. Did you agree to a gag order in the contract? No. Did you agree to exchange money for services? Yes. You paid, he didn't serve. Why would small claims enforce an order which isn;t reasonable and you didn't agree with.

Again, get legal advice.

Also IME when you start the process for small claims (not just talk about it) people tend to capitulate.

I think that I would reply to say that the gagging order wasn’t in the contract and so I wouldn’t sign it.

I would offer to be off the premesis to keep the peace only if dh was there and I trusted him to supervise properly.

I would offer as a goodwill gesture that if he came back, completed the job to a good standard and made good any damage that I would remove all Facebook posts.

Okay, well my DH is a builder and he’s had some tricky clients in the past. Equally he’s also met clients that have been completely screwed over by cowboys so we’ve seen both sides. I’m leaning more towards cowboys as you have already paid the final invoice. What reasons did they give for not turning up on site when they were meant to? Are you talking about a few days or weeks/months? Being generous, could it have been a delay with materials, waiting for electrician, plumber etc to do the final fixes?

What damage have they caused to the property? Are they being careless with not covering up worktops etc or is the damage more substantial? Either way, the builder should be making good any damage they cause to the house.

If you would prefer the builder to come back and finish the job rather than going through the court process, I would call him for a meeting and agree to take down the SM posts (mention nothing about a review after he’s finished the work) and explain the reasons you were unhappy and what steps you’d like him to take going forwards. I.e. Bob, I need to know when your lads are going to be on site. Can you drop me a text if for any reason they aren’t going to be in when I’m expecting them to be. Can you make sure all surfaces are protected before starting work? Ask him for a timeline of when the work will be fully completed as well.

Hopefully, this is mostly just a breakdown in communication and can be resolved but, the main lesson here is to never pay the final invoice until work has been completed.

Solicitor here.

A gagging order is an order made by the court. It's not a document you sign. So he's talking out his arse asking you to sign a gagging order.

He wants you to sign an agreement that you won't badmouth him. Don't. As you say, you're absolutely entitled to give factually correct feedback about the standard of his work to other people. It's not libellous if it's true.

If you end up making a claim against him for the money, your failure to sign his agreement won't make any difference. The court will look at the contract for the work and whether he has breached the contract. You do have a written contract, right? Or at least a quotation for what work was agreed?

Is he a limited company? If so, you might get judgment against him but, if he can't pay you the debt, he'll simply liquidate the company and you'll get nothing. Bear that in mind before commencing legal proceedings.

Thanks everyone. I will keep my posts. Even if I have to put them to private until he has completed the work. I'm not signing anything. He's gaslighting and I know it really just needed reassurnace