Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

[Beefy1976]

Hi Everyone,

I am after some advice as to whether I could claim under section 75.

I had some building work completed in June which was to install some drains on my existing patio and at the same time, install a soak-away and extend the patio.

Most of the work was completed fine but it became apparent, soon after I had paid that the pointing between the drainage channel and the slabs had been done incorrectly. They had installed a dry mix instead of wet (I am not builder but that is what they said). They eventually came back to resolve the issue but they didn't do so. There are parts that have no pointing at all and then lots of areas where the stuff is all over the slab edges and the drainage channel.

The builder agreed to come round and install a waterproof mastic which he assured me would be the best course of action.

Since then, despite numerous promises and dates agreed, he hasn't been round and now in incommunicado. I have copies of all the emails that have been sent and received including details of what he promised to do and when (but hasn't).

Half of the cost of the job was for materials, and the other half was for labour. The half for materials I paid for using my credit card and the remainder I paid in cash. The total cost was just under £700.

Would I be able to claim under section 75 to get my money refunded to get the job put right, or for them to finish the job?

I have also looked at the supply of goods and services act but I think that will be more complex and long winded.

I am not sure if I have posted this in the right section but can anyone help me?

Many thanks in advance.

Beefy

[PlanB]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

Half of the cost of the job was for materials, and the other half was for labour. The half for materials I paid for using my credit card and the remainder I paid in cash. The total cost was just under £700.

Would I be able to claim under section 75 to get my money refunded to get the job put right, or for them to finish the job?

I have also looked at the supply of goods and services act but I think that will be more complex and long winded.

I believe this won't be covered by section 75 CCA because you have no complaint about the materials you bought with your credit card. Your quarrel is with the quality of the labour provided by your builder. Section 75 is about broken promises in a contract for purchases or services bought with your credit card. The broken promise in this instance is the shoddy labour for which you paid cash. Here are some examples of how section 75 claims do and don't work from the FOS:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...mer-credit.htm

You would probably have a claim under The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 which you can take to the small claims court relatively easily using MCOL. Once the claim is issued you will have the opportunity to utilise the court's free mediation service (1hr by telephone) which resolves 70% of claims (so they say) if your opponent chooses to defend your claim and agrees to mediation to resolve things. Mediation settlements can include a legally binding agreement to carry out a service instead of a refund of the money paid.

If you've got proof of your cash payments such as an invoice or a receipt from the builder then it sounds like your claim will be in with a chance. You would then need to prove that he didn't do what he promised he would do. Was there a work specification or something which says exactly how he would carry out the job? It would be helpful if one of those emails from the contractor was an admission that he's done the job badly so you'd have the liability issue nailed.

You would need to prove that he'd done the job improperly so get an estimate from a different contractor noting where the first contractor had gone wrong and the cost of putting that right.

You must do all the right pre-action protocol things first such as send a letter setting out a) what the contractor has done wrong b) what you want them to do to put it right and a deadline for doing it, and c) what you will do if they don't put it right by the deadline (issue court proceedings).

Here's some information on your legal rights under The Supply of Goods and Services Act and help on how to put that into practice:

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-righ...vices-act-1982

[Beefy1976]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

Hi PlanB,

Thanks for taking the time to reply with so much detail.

I had tried to research the Section 75 process and I just wasn't sure - It makes perfect sense what you have said and why it would most likely be not covered.

With regards to the paperwork I have the original quote on email, a paper version of the quote, the invoice and receipt from the builders yard. All correspondence with the exception of one unanswered call has been via email. I

It was whilst on site he said they had used the wrong mix but on email he stated what he would need to do to resolve the problem and when he would do that. That's the last communication except for emails stating the date he would come round on two separate occasions but has failed to do so.

Do you recommend me sending a letter via recorded delivery or would an email be sufficient to send the pre action request?

My initial thoughts were to send an email like that but didn't want to be seen to be threatening in any way.

Many thanks again,
Beefy

[ATW]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

I would sling it over to the credit card company under s75. s75 covers misrepresentation claims and claims for breach of contract. I would argue that there has been a breach of contract by the builder because it was an implied term of the contract that it would be performed with the skill of a reasonably competent builder. Using the wrong materials is a breach of that implied term which I reckon should lead to a s75 claim. The overall contact had a price. You paid part by credit card and part by cash. Its not 2 separate agreements here ; its 1 agreement for a job to be done by a builder- presumably he told you what materials he wanted buying too. The whole contract is covered under s75 even if only a partly funded by a credit card.

[PlanB]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

it became apparent, soon after I had paid that the pointing between the drainage channel and the slabs had been done incorrectly. They had installed a dry mix instead of wet (I am not builder but that is what they said). They eventually came back to resolve the issue but they didn't do so. There are parts that have no pointing at all and then lots of areas where the stuff is all over the slab edges and the drainage channel.

The builder agreed to come round and install a waterproof mastic which he assured me would be the best course of action.

My personal view is this calls for a charm offensive. You may get a better result by persuading him to come back and sort the pointing rather than issuing court proceedings. Try the "do me a favour mate because my wife is nagging me to pieces about this problem . . . " approach

I don't know whether he should have used dry or wet grouting between the slabs and the channel, but this website does and it seems to suggests that wet pointing would have been the better option http://www.pavingexpert.com/pointing.htm . He's offered a simple solution which is to install waterproof mastic which should do the trick, and can't take long to do.

The bottom line is he's offered to come back and correct it so all you really need to do is get him to fulfil that promise. He's not turned up twice so why not keep on asking him politely to make another date until he does. He'll soon tire of your nagging and show up once he's not got another job on the go which is paying him which is probably the only reason why he's let you down before.

In the meantime get a quote from another builder to fix the problem. If your builder still fails to show up then send him a copy of the quote and tell him that if he can't fix the problem by the end of October (when Winter starts) then you'll get the job done by someone else and seek to recover the cost through 'legal channels'.

You seemed to have laid a good paper trail so your case will be watertight even if your patio isn't


EDIT : I've just seen ATW's post above so maybe you can claim under section 75 after all if you decide to take the formal route

[PlanB]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

I would sling it over to the credit card company under s75. s75 covers misrepresentation claims and claims for breach of contract. I would argue that there has been a breach of contract by the builder because it was an implied term of the contract that it would be performed with the skill of a reasonably competent builder.

My personal view is this calls for a charm offensive. You may get a better result by persuading him to come back and sort the pointing rather than issuing court proceedings

^^^^ That's a classic example of the Good Cop Bad Cop approach

A lot will depend on the temperament of your builder if your objective is to get the job finished before the rains come.

[PlanB]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

I would sling it over to the credit card company under s75. s75 covers misrepresentation claims and claims for breach of contract. I would argue that there has been a breach of contract by the builder because it was an implied term of the contract that it would be performed with the skill of a reasonably competent builder. Using the wrong materials is a breach of that implied term which I reckon should lead to a s75 claim. The overall contact had a price. You paid part by credit card and part by cash. Its not 2 separate agreements here ; its 1 agreement for a job to be done by a builder- presumably he told you what materials he wanted buying too. The whole contract is covered under s75 even if only a partly funded by a credit card.

Although I bow to your superiority this has got me thinking.

If I hire a chef for a dinner party and offer to pay them by cash for the gig, and then I buy the food/ingredients in Tesco on my credit card, I could evoke section 75 if the chef burnt the soufflé because the eggs I bought were of the wrong size or variety on the chef's recommendation?

[Beefy1976]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

Thanks both very much for your replies.

I have sent him another email asking him to make contact and if he doesn't, I will then try the Section 75 route. I really can't understand why he isn't finishing the job as it's a couple of hours work at most I would say. I just need it finishing now.

Thanks again.

[ATW]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

Although I bow to your superiority this has got me thinking.

If I hire a chef for a dinner party and offer to pay them by cash for the gig, and then I buy the food/ingredients in Tesco on my credit card, I could evoke section 75 if the chef burnt the soufflé because the eggs I bought were of the wrong size or variety on the chef's recommendation?

On reflection you might be right on this and I may need to bow to your superiority. The transaction needs to be a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement and the claim need to be against the supplier by the debtor for a contract financed by the credit card. In both cases the only reason that the card was used for the materials will be because the contractor had no card facility otherwise the payment would have gone direct to the contractor to get his own materials so i was thinking that you could argue it is all part of the one contract which is divided into 2 parts but that might be stretching things a bit far. I was thinking that you might link them because in both cases the contractor said to get the things on their behalf but it is going to be difficult to squeeze that back into a D-C-S relationship.

I wolud still argue it with the credit card co though for a punt.

[PlanB]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

the only reason that the card was used for the materials will be because the contractor had no card facility otherwise the payment would have gone direct to the contractor to get his own materials so i was thinking that you could argue it is all part of the one contract which is divided into 2 parts

There's a thought. Did the OP pay for the materials which were placed on order by the contractor in the contractor's name?

Half of the cost of the job was for materials, and the other half was for labour. The half for materials I paid for using my credit card and the remainder I paid in cash.

Beefy why did you pay for the materials on your credit card? Who placed the order with the builder's merchant and whose name was on the order?

[Beefy1976]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

Hi,

I paid for the materials on my card as the builder said I could go to the supplier with him or I could pay on card over the phone.

I was away for the weekend so he called me when he was at the supplier and I spoke to them and paid over the phone. With regards to the order, I have no idea as I didn't make it, I would assume that would be in the builders name as he was on site when the order was paid for.

The receipt has my first name, address and mobile number on it. They delivered all the materials directly to me if that has any relevance.

Essentially the builder would have placed the order, I paid over the phone and the merchant delivered everything directly to me.

I got the receipt when I paid the builder, not at the point of delivery.

Thanks again for your help.

Beefy

[PlanB]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

I paid for the materials on my card as the builder said I could go to the supplier with him or I could pay on card over the phone.

I was away for the weekend so he called me when he was at the supplier and I spoke to them and paid over the phone. With regards to the order, I have no idea as I didn't make it, I would assume that would be in the builders name as he was on site when the order was paid for.

Essentially the builder would have placed the order, I paid over the phone

Let's see if Andrew can join up the dots on this legal issue. It looks like you may be able to argue that it was all one job/contract (part paid in cash part paid by credit card) since the contractor placed the order for the 'faulty' goods

[Beefy1976]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

I hope so as he has not responded to my emails.

I have even called twice and left messages and he hasn't responded to them either.

I really don't understand it as it would be a couple of hours work at most I would guess.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

Beefy

[Beefy1976]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

I thought I would update this one as there has been some progress.

I tried the nicely nicely approach which failed as the builder still didn't respond.

I then tried the formal pre court action approach and got nowhere.

I then posted a review on the companies Facebook page and got an almost instant response! It was a very generic corporate response staying customer service is their main priority and something has gone wrong blablabla and they asked me to detail my issues in writing.

As I had already done that, I posted the exact timeline of events in response to their reply and within minutes I had an email stating they would be round on yesterday and that they were truly sorry.

True to their word they turned up yesterday and resolved all the outstanding issues.

It goes to show the power of social media - Coincidentally, they have now removed the option to post reviews which means all previous ones are no longer displayed.

Thanks for your help as always.

Beefy

[PlanB]

Re: Section 75 Claim For Unfinished Building Work

Result

Trashing a business on Facebook is the modern day equivalent of putting someone in the stocks to be publically humiliated for their wrongdoing.

That was a smart move by you, and a hell of a lot quicker than going down the legal route which would have resulted in months and months of arguing