Rogue builder, small claims court (and loss of faith in humanity)

[adamski606]

Last October we hired a builder to replace our kitchen worktops. After five months of messing us around, the work was never completed or even started, he has about £800 of our money as a deposit. I have issued a letter of intent with a view to going to small claims court if the refund is not settled.

Does anyone have experience of small claims court at this amount of money?

Beyond the practical measures I can take to recover the money, are there any tips on how I can mentally cope with the immense anger and frustration I feel on a daily basis at the situation? It is not a life changing amount of money, but I am so constantly enraged that it has been stolen from me and I can't stop thinking about it.

Thank you.

It's worth checking your work and any family members work, often they have a counselling thing where you can either ring up and discuss something straight away, or have a few booked sessions.
Usually they do some question thing basically are you sleeping ok, do you feel stressed a lot, etc, and if you pass that (or fail?) Then you get some sessions.
Often it's called Employee assistance programme but I'm sure it has other names. It can also be through private medical cover if you have it.

We did this. Pretty straight forward, we won the case as he never responded. CCJ imposed. Never saw a penny, and don't waste you money on debt collectors, they try once to contact the person then charge you a fee and say they couldn't recover the money.

Best advice, let it go, learn from it and try and pay by credit card in the future. Also if the builder is a ltd company you can check their accounts online for free to know if they have anything going after.

We had a similar problem, we paid somebody £900 and he didn't supply the goods or service he was supposed to. We filed a police report and he was arrested for theft. The council's trading standards took him to court and surprise, surprise he paid us back just before the court case took place. Good luck with whichever route you take. I know how stressful the whole thing is.

Name and shame them on here so that no one else uses them!

Also you could actually raise it with your bank as a scam.