Am I going to be sued ?

[mkb]

Bahco...
Your a tough cookie aren't you ?? But to be honest I appreciate your advice.....and I'm going to take it. This is my plan after receiving yet another letter this morning.
I'm going to send a final letter stating I will go round and do remedial work on a few ' problems ' and state those in the letter. I will say state that's all I'm going to do as she was happy with my work,paid me and basically heard nothing for four weeks. Even though she states my 'work is guaranteed' I will say that 90+ snags four weeks later is unreasonable.....end of story...
Now I'll even tell you now what she'll say, even though some of you say she wont go to court....SHE WILL SUE ME. I'll be astounded if she doesn't.
But as you say Bahco let her take me to court.

 

[Bahco]

I'm going to send a final letter stating I will go round and do remedial work on a few ' problems ' and state those in the letter. I will say state that's all I'm going to do as she was happy with my work,paid me and basically heard nothing for four weeks.

You are letting her have control of the situation and she knows it!!!!!!!!

Send her a SHORT letter by recorded delivery stating what FINAL remedial work you will do (if any) and that if this is unacceptable to her then the only solution is to let a judge decide in court.

DO NOT SHOW YOUR HAND (do not forewarn her of how you will fight this) and if you feel it is going to court you should prepare your list of evidence to support your case.

The fact that you keep responding to her is tellng her that she has got you scared.!

Stop being so green please!

Onwards to battle!

 

[Bahco]

after receiving yet another letter this morning.

ALSO............

If she had a good case she would not keep writing to you!


My personal feeling now is to COMPLETELY IGNORE her letters / threats and call her bluff!

Anyone else agree

 

[Karinska]

Yes bahco, I do

 

[chappers]

Me too.
I had a similar customer a few years ago and it all ended in court.
The judge found that they couldn't substantiate their claims and threw it out due to the fact that i had carried out everything as per my quote and that the things they were complaining about, were not part of the original job.

If you are confident you have done a competent job as per your quote and her requests then just ignore her and wait for the court summons.

She will have to explicitly note all 197 of her complaints in her claim and you will then have the oppertunity to defend each of her claims, you can also in your defence point out the faults that you offered to rectify.

Don't panic.
A judgement against you will not be made on her hearsay

 

[mkb]

Ok. Will take ypur advice and keep you posted folks.
Chappers.....So somebody has actually been to court ? Was it long ago ? You say it was thrown out ? How much were you being sued for if you don't mind me asking and was it thrown out completely and you paid nothing ? Advice appreciated.

 

[Corgigrouch]

If she had a good case she would not keep writing to you!

My personal feeling now is to COMPLETELY IGNORE her letters / threats and call her bluff! Anyone else agree

Corgigrouch agrees with Mr B..... The lady is barking mad.

Of course, if you were to go round to do some remedial work, don't forget a tube of superglue so you can stick her cat somewhere it can't get it's paws on your paint.... The lid of a wheelie bin would be ideal, just the right height for a passing rottweiler to get to....

 

[transam]

As I understand it from reading this ??? you have repainted a sill were the cat walked ?? send her a bill / take her to court , best form of defence is attack !! do not go to arbitration , see if she has taken others to court in the past ??

Have been to court several times , (not as a defendant as a claimant ) took one fella to court for knocking £15 off of a bill , principle !

Got a court case in November , filed a claim against a boiler company had various letters from there legal reps ,they tried to get the case thrown out ! do not care if I end up looking an idiot in a room full of there legal reps !

 

[mkb]

transam....don't suppose you fancy representing me in court do you ? You say 'don't go to arbitration' How does that work ? Do I get a choice ? How can I tell if 'she's taken others to court in the past' ?

 

[Matmu1969]

Sorry, I'm very late on this one. I did train as a solicitor for a year and have some legal and advocacy training but never qualified, I was also a paralegal, and worked for the courts service for 5 years so I may be able ot help here!

btw, I'm now retraining to be a sparky!

1. Firstly, don't ignore a direct legal challenge. Even if you simply send her an acknowledgement letter without referring to detail eg "I acknowledge receipt of you letter and will respond to its contents in due course .....etc!"

2. Did you have a contract with her which detailed the exact nature of the work she required in order to cross ref with the work she says you have not done or done badly?

3. Has she been specific about what the remedial works are, eg do they relate entirely to work you have done? Make sure she is no trying to get you to do extra work for nowt!

4. There are always snagging issues, particularly when doing a big job like an entire house. However, snagging shouldn't mean redo whole job. Make sure she just hasn't changed her mind and wants a different colour paint, paper etc without payig again. Hence why a contract is useful.

5. Do you have diary entries for appointments and visits, logs of phone calls etc?

6. Why on earth did you repaint the paw prints, how is wht the cat does your responsibility? I would bill her for that!

I would go all the way to court, you may be surprised at what a "see you in court" statement does to these situations. I would also suggest that she has probably donethis before and is now well known in the small claims court. Defending youself in court is not difficult, this isnt a full scale murder case with barristers, its two individuals in dispute over a small amount of money (in the great scheme of things!), stick to facts, dont get personal and you will win!

I wouldnt do anymore work for her, unless it is reasonable snagging. If she insists on speaking with you, tell her that anything she wants to say can be said in front of judge. her not signing for any of your letters or being bothered to collect them from the post office is not your problem, its hers. posting IS proof of service!

 

[transam]

Good advice from matmu 1969 , don't be intimidated , lets face it you can find fault with most things if you look hard enough , small claim courts are not so bad its all very informal !

You must have good records as matmu said , any paper work needs to be supplied to the court prior to any hearing , do not lose your rag in the hearing , do not interupt when others are speaking stick to the facts !

As I understand it you have never refused to go back , thats in your favour ! put a counter claim in for good measure . If aclaim is made against you , you are fully entitled to see any paper work /estimates she has obtained ! You find in a lot of cases those that supply estimates ? quotes in these cases are not aware that it may be presented in court , it only comes to light when you seek clarification from them as to how a particular comment or conclusion was reached !

Another generall point , many will make verbal statements or comments about this or that , ask them to put it in writing & see if they say the same in writing

 

[Matmu1969]

I agree with transam in particular, not interrupting in court, the judge will b*****k you! Always address your response to the judge too, never across the court to the claimant even if the claimant is looking and addressing you directly, they will be wrong and it can be seen as antagonistic! The judge will not like it!

Dont worry about how you address the judge, they wont expect you to know, but for the record the judge should be referred to as just "Sir" or "Ma'am" (as in Jam NOT Farm), but as I said, dont worry about that!

The last sentence of transam's advice is spot on, if she aint willing to put a comment in writing, letter or email, she wont say it in court!

 

[mkb]

transam and matmo
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Matmo's experience in court very helpful..thanks. Glad I've respondwed to all her letters even though other advice was to ignore them....think that looks better to the court. My estimate originally, which wasn't very detailed basically was just ' strip walls of existing wallcovering and re-paper with customers chosen paper. Undercoat and gloss to woodwork etc etc '
Suppose if I wanted to be awkward in court I could say 'but sir ( the judge ) my estimate never mentions preparing walls and sanding down paintwork '

 

[Matmu1969]

transam and matmo
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Matmo's experience in court very helpful..thanks. Glad I've respondwed to all her letters even though other advice was to ignore them....think that looks better to the court. My estimate originally, which wasn't very detailed basically was just ' strip walls of existing wallcovering and re-paper with customers chosen paper. Undercoat and gloss to woodwork etc etc '
Suppose if I wanted to be awkward in court I could say 'but sir ( the judge ) my estimate never mentions preparing walls and sanding down paintwork '

Ah, but preparation is part of the job and any reasonable man on the clapham omnibus, would have expected that to have been part of the quote in any case even if not explicit in job spec. i think the main issue really, is, has she changed her mind about the decor and want you to redo for nowt, is the quote for "remedial" work, actually that or for a complete redo for free!

It would be intereting to see if this quote for remedial is like for like! i doubt it is!

Take it all the way mkb, i would, it aint gonna cost you to defend, but it will her to claim. the current price to start proceedings is £140, which is non refundable. she can recover that cost from you if she wins, but she wont. doubt it will even get to court imho!

 

[mkb]

Cheers Matmu.
The quote she sent me for 'remedial' work was a complete redorate.....everything !! She has said that the decorators she had in said the only course of remedial work was to strip and start again. Whether that's true or not I don't know.!!! So my case is ....'the hall was okayed by you and you paid me. I came back two wees later and did the lounge. You paid me. I came back two days later and repainted where cat had walked on window sill. End of story.....NO !!! Four weeks later you call me back.....EVERYTHING is wrong apparently '
Matmu if there's any justice in our legal system I surely can't lose ??? Could the judge suggest I give her part of her money back ?