Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months. HELP

[des8]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Beginning to look positive.
Thanks for letting us know.

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Des yes of course I will let you know as it may help others in future.

I am feeling happier now a solicitor has proved how little I did owe, although it took some time to work it all out . It has cost me a £1000 on account so far which was agreed at the start with a possible £500 to take to court. A lot of money but if it proves I was in the right once and for all then it's money well spent IMO and I can put the whole sorry mess behind me.

I am going to see if it's worth getting an injunction after to stop them stalking me on either social media or any other forms of contact in future

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Minor update:

2 weeks ago RH legal were sent a reply re: above

I spoke to my solicitor yesterday and still no reply from RH legal

She advised me that rather than chasing up with a following letter it was best to make no more contact until such time they do reply.

This way costs are kept to a minimum and the ball is in their court how they wish to proceed.

She expects to hear something within 2 weeks but she is going on holiday next week for 2 weeks and she asked if I'm prepared to wait for her to return , or issue a letter to them to advise them of her annual leave. I told her I am happy to wait until her return and no letter apart from her normal out of office reply on any email contact .

Why do you think there could be a delay with response, is it tactical do you think ??

[des8]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

They are either considering their options or not going to do anything!
It is a case of wait and see.

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Hi Des 8,

Maybe right but still nothing as of yesterday........as soon as I know then I will update

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Bit of an update....they have finally replied and have taken off 5k of the original claim..big deal

They have cited many things also on the reply none of which is true and have responded accordingly.

They again gave 2 weeks to respond threatening court action... my solicitor responded with "it will be 28 days before we respond"

I have since found out that one of the subcontractors who undertook the render on my house which failed 3 times had not been paid as of October last year to the tune of 7k, the reasons being the job was not fit for purpose

I have relayed the information back to my solicitor and at this point waiting for a response but she is on holiday until Monday and was happy to wait until she returned

I have the emails from the render company stating that the builders had not responded to any calls asking for payment .

This is going to be interesting to see if they can prove payment to the render company

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Update thus far,

So to round everything up to this point just to let people know how it's going.

After some time and deliberation as I was defending the claim rather than counter claiming , the original amount of 19k came down immediately to 12k and after much advice have offered the amount actually owing of 2885.85. plus their costs on a part 36 offer. It is with great reluctance but to get rid of these evil people it was the better and most cost effective to bring it to an acceptable conclusion. They would be silly to refuse as I have all the proof and so far they have not produced any.

It has been a costly affair and one that has had major impact due to the emotional reasons for the build .

[dan_1207]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

He uses a picture of a gavel on his website.....

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

It's now becoming a joke, I'm now having to prove I sold my house at a loss to prove the work wasn't fit for purpose etc etc

Decided to make a final offer and then go to court, also kicked solicitor in to touch. 3K down the line and still no advice

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

A bit of an update thus far to this ongoing saga.

The people who done the render on my house which failed badly took the builders to court for non payment and won :-) the reason why it was proved that the base on which the render was put on was not fit for purpose which is why it failed . The builders then appealed at the last minute and lost again. Enforcement agency went round to clamp some vehicles but they ended up paying 9k in cash ( wonder if inland revenue might want to know where that came from )

The render company got in touch and sent me a really nice email saying that the builders have nothing of any paperwork to back up any of their stories which change on a daily basis.

After 5 weeks of the initial offer I have still heard nothing as yet.

[des8]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

What was the time limit given for accepting the Part 36 offer? (21 days would be minimum)
Very possibly the offer has expired!

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Another update and the saga goes slowly on:::

I last heard from builders in December...in November last year they wanted me to settle at 10k plus legal fees. I refused as it was more than the outstanding invoice.

December 2015 they wanted the price of my house when it sold , not sure why as I lost a lot of money on it after this dreadful annexe.

Nothing until yesterday 12th March when I received a county court summons to the tune of 20k which included interest at a ridiculous amount.
My question is that I received no letter informing me of this which I thought I had to. The last email was 3 months ago from their no win no fee lawyer , and secondly the address of the property where the annexe was done is incorrect, will that matter ???

[des8]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

So they are still pursuing you.

Yes, you should have received a "Letter before claim" as per section 3 of this link: https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pr...tocol/prot_ced

Do you intend to re-engage your solicitor?

Would you care to post up the claim for (suitably redacted) or send it to admin@legalbeagles.info (including a reference to this thread) so it can be commented on more fully?

[Kati]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

Would you care to post up the claim for (suitably redacted) or send it to admin@legalbeagles.info (including a reference to this thread) so it can be commented on more fully?

I'd be happy to post one up if Ame's busy (kati@legalbeagles.info) xx

[bb41]

Re: Cowboy builders taking me to court with a no win no fee lawyer after 16 months.

So they are still pursuing you.

Yes, you should have received a "Letter before claim" as per section 3 of this link: https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pr...tocol/prot_ced

Do you intend to re-engage your solicitor?

Would you care to post up the claim for (suitably redacted) or send it to admin@legalbeagles.info (including a reference to this thread) so it can be commented on more fully?

Thank you yes I will , hang on I'll send it to the email