Won't pay for 1st fix, yet 2nd fix done by someone else

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Lancashire
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I would really appreciate some advice here please.

12 months ago we did a first fix of a complete rewire on a large terraced house complete with cellar and attic conversion. The customer was completely renovating the property ready to move his family into. There was a lot of work in not very nice conditions. On completion, the plasterers moved in. After hearing nothing for a few weeks we visited the house to find the house partially plastered and no sign of work. We rang the customer and he said he had run out of money so had suspended work. We asked for part payment to cover cost of 1st fix and he said he had no money but would let us know when 2nd fix could commence.

Since then he has not answered our calls so we make occasional visits to the house to check on progress (its quite a distance away)

Called this morning and noticed that the house is now finished (at least in the rooms we could see), complete with splendid chrome sockets etc.

I am going to give him a final invoice for the work/materials so far but I am not holding my breath.

We obviously can't notify the council because we havn't completed the job, and whoever completed the job can't notify the council because they weren't responsible for the initial build and design. If BCO were informed of all the building works (attic conversion etc) would this cover the Electrical work regardless of who did it.

It was remiss of us I know but we only knew his as 'Joe' and we don't know his home address. All initial correspondance was via his girlfriends e-mail (they are not together any more - surprise surprise). A Land registry search of the address gave us a name and a google search of the name tells us he is a stall holder at a market.

If we make enquires at the council and he is found to be non-compliant we would certainly be saying goodbye to any money.

Assuming its the same guy who runs the market stall, should we threaten him with informing the council unless he pays.

Should we threaten him with informing the council unless he pays, and then tell the council.

I am not really sure what the best course of action is.
 
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it was a little bit naive not to get a full name and billing address but needless to say you did the work and you must be paid.
Firstly you need to find out the name and address of the guy who instructed the work. Without this your going nowhere.
Once you have this send a bill, requiring payment in 7 days. After 14 days send a final demand. If they still don't pay up you can take out a CCJ against them.
It was also a bit silly to leave this for 12months! You should have billed them as soon as you finished and no date was set for further work.
 
it was a little bit naive not to get a full name and billing address but needless to say you did the work and you must be paid.
Firstly you need to find out the name and address of the guy who instructed the work. Without this your going nowhere.
Once you have this send a bill, requiring payment in 7 days. After 14 days send a final demand. If they still don't pay up you can take out a CCJ against them.
It was also a bit silly to leave this for 12months! You should have billed them as soon as you finished and no date was set for further work.

CCJs are unfortunately almost a total waste of time and just results in throwing more money down the drain.

Have noticed more people becoming cowboy customers since a TV program of the same name was shown. This program just showed customers just how easy it is to get work done and then don't bother to pay.

Failure to pay tradesmen needs to be made a criminal offence, while it remains a civil offence, you might as well just write it down to experience.

Any job I now take on requires payment for material (£100 or more) to be paid in advance. Then weekly payments as the job progresses.

As a handyman, thankfully most/majority of my jobs are small and collecting payment is seldom a problem.
 
CCJs are unfortunately almost a total waste of time and just results in throwing more money down the drain.

that depends on the customer. I know I certainly wouldn't want one. If they have a good credit history, then they will probably want to avoid it as it can make it difficult to get credit etc..
If someone already has a stack of debts then it is indeed a waste of time.
Personally I've managed to avoid these type of people, and if I did get stung I'd probably find my own way of sorting things out.
 
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it was a little bit naive not to get a full name and billing address but needless to say you did the work and you must be paid.

Yes, we were naive but we were a recommendation to the guy from a mutual friend (who turns out he only knew him very tenously) so we thought everything would be straight forward.

We contacted the guy when we realised work had stopped and when he said he couldn't pay us as he had no money, we reckoned the best option was to wait for the 2nd fix.
 
Too late for this one now, but for future reference whenever this happens:

when he said he couldn't pay us as he had no money

that is the time you need to get the money (or as much as you can), as from that point on, the chances of getting paid will become less and less.
It's also the time that all work stops and any other work being paid in full, in advance.
 
Do you have a recognisable debt? i.e. can you prove that you provided goods & services and that they definitely owe you?

If so, you could try factoring it - you may only get 50%, but that's better than SFA.
 
if the materials haven't been paid for then i would go and take them back lol :LOL: . ALWAYS take a depsoit to cover a MINIMUM of material costs. If they dont trust you to give you a sensible deposit then they shouldnt trust you to work on their property. small claims court is a waste of time, i ended up £1500 down on a £1000 job, NEVER again. If you are bare faced enough i would call around with a bill and hand it to him, you can wait while he writes a cheque for you ;). It's a shame the police will do nothing as it is nothing short of theft, try leaving tesco with a full trolley and not paying, same difference if you ask me, and very unfair, especially more for small businesses / one man bands.

The best that can come from this for you is that it won't ever happen again. always go with your gut instinct too, sometimes i don't get a good vibe then i won't do the job.
 
always go with your gut instinct too, sometimes i don't get a good vibe then i won't do the job.

This is a good point. On the morning we started, the customer turned up and started saying he wanted chrome sockets & switches in all the rooms instead of the ones we had originally quoted for and he also wanted downlighters in two of the rooms. We told him that all the extra work and materials was going to increase the price but he was very vague about it all. We were all set to walk off the job there and then as we had an uneasy feeling but decided to go for it in the end. Never again though.

The reason the thread was orignally posted in the Electricians forum was I was also interested in how this could impact on the BCO notification process and whether I could use this as some form of leverage to getting paid. (Incidentally I am fairly confident no permission was sought to lower the 1st floor ceiling to make the attic space bigger as one dividing wall, which used to have a joist resting on it but no longer did, was so unfirm that it almost collapsed when I leant on it)
 
get cable back - bloody good idea,
okay so not legal but hey, whats he going to do call the police when he owes money!!
 
it's not legal to obtain goods or services via deception. tit for tat i say. remove your materials.
 
I know a small contractor (not in the domestic world) and he would get some sort of court order freezing the debtors bank accounts. I think, all he had to do was provide evidence of the debt and that was that - he always got his money.
 
You say he doesnt live in the property - has he sold it? If so, ask the occupants for a forwarding address.

If not, is it on the market? If so, get to him thru the agents?
 
He is clearly a con artist trying to pull a fast one, so no point trying to keep him sweet.
Find legal owner of house, send registered letter with demand for full payment in 7 days. Make sure you add anything and everything in your demand for payment, like costs and interest.
On day 8 start online small claim procedure with county court. No lawyer needed, and only small fee.
Ccj will completely mess up his credit rating, and if you really want to play hardball, you can go for bankruptcy.
 
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