customer avoiding paying.

[Jimmy73]

Sounds the best way.. face him face to face to see what he has to say first.. 90% of the time they will cough up then!

 

[firemant]

Have you got any emails & texts & other communication from him? Keep all this & get it all in print.
He asked you to do the job & was there for a while as you worked. The labourer would be a witness.
I would suspect the Small Claims court would look favourably on you. He has not paid you any money so far & he would have to alledge that there was faulty workmanship- which he would have to prove in court. A contract can be verbal. It simply requires an agreed job at an agreed reward. Only real problem with a verbal contract is proving it. Did anyone witness you giving a price etc?
Try getting the landlord to reply to your texts & he might say the wrong thing & hang himself.
Small claims is a straightforward process

As Drain Medic suggested - you are wrong, these days, As this is an open forum, i won't expand on DM's points.
However, as the customer is a landdlord,then I would suggest this falls outside the DSR , as it is B2B

It is madness not having a signed contract, especially for a new client - and a Land lord at that!

 

[Best]

As Drain Medic suggested - you are wrong, these days, As this is an open forum, i won't expand on DM's points.
However, as the customer is a landdlord,then I would suggest this falls outside the DSR , as it is B2B

It is madness not having a signed contract, especially for a new client - and a Land lord at that!

If that is true, then the law must be very strange. That would mean he needs a signed contract, yet a verbal contact (which is same thing) is not accepted in law with a landlord/owner?
Obviously everyone is better with a signed contract. But if you think of a lot of examples where a customer suddenly needs a boiler replaced, - you quote them, they agree & you fit it straight away. Doesn't give much cooling off period or even for sorting out a contract. I never do one, but should with some people
Lets hope he gets reimbursed.

 

[got_any03]

update.
ive been round to the property that i fitted the boiler in to try and gain access but it was all locked up. The house is now under a letting agency and am wondering if contacting them will help me in getting my money back. As the addres that i was given for the landlord is fake as the houses dont even go up as high as the number i was given. Also still no contact from landlord. How will the agency respond to the boiler not being registered with gas safe and the cp12 being void as the address fake.

 

[Dotty]

Cap the meter and leave a note in for the gsr called in, explaining why.

 

[rpm]

Sell the debt on to a "Collecting agency".

 

[got_any03]

I cant cap the meter its in the property otherwise id have done that last week

 

[Dotty]

Mate, hindsight being a fantastic thing but without a contract you could very well be screwed.

You're not the first and you certainly won't be the last.

I think your only recourse now is through a solicitor.

 

[firemant]

As said, i don't want to go into details here,but as a business man you really should know this stuff, but, to be fair, most don't, and i would say 99% of tradesman break the law daily

 

[goz666]

update.
ive been round to the property that i fitted the boiler in to try and gain access but it was all locked up. The house is now under a letting agency and am wondering if contacting them will help me in getting my money back. As the addres that i was given for the landlord is fake as the houses dont even go up as high as the number i was given. Also still no contact from landlord. How will the agency respond to the boiler not being registered with gas safe and the cp12 being void as the address fake.

Sort it ASAP now mate, don't wait any longer. This same thing happened to me with a builder and his famous footballer mate, I put the boiler in and pipework and handed him the invoice. He asked me for a homeowner certificate to include the new boiler and Corgi number so he could go to the bank to release more money as the build was being done in stages.
I gave him (stupidly) what he asked for and he gave me a £200 deposit, I never saw anything else, within a month the house was finished, up for sale and locked up secure. Wish I'd done something quicker but believed he would come through eventually but neither the builder or the fckuballer did.

 

[kirkgas]

If you have fitted a new boiler there's no requirement for a LGSC, so the agent won't care, and they won't help you identify their client the landlord
PS the kicker for you is you will get into bother forgot registering it, so again the agent won't care as it's the landlords duty to ensure the installer has registered it, doesn't stop the place being rented

 

[Best]

Wonder if you worked your way in with the agents staff would someone pass you the real details of the landlord? Try it & see what happens.
I guess that is technically illegal, but so is stealing off tradespeople imo.

 

[Masood]

Go to the lettings agent posing as a prospective tenant. Try and get an unaccompanied viewing. If they give you the keys, you're in and not trespassing.

Although what you can do once you're is very limited. You cannot take the boiler off the wall, that's criminal damage I believe. If you cap the meter, the agency will just send their own gas engineer in to investigate.

Your only option really is to look through Land Registry records to get owner's details. It should have been recorded when the property was last bought, who the buyer was and their address.

 

[Best]

Go to the lettings agent posing as a prospective tenant. Try and get an unaccompanied viewing. If they give you the keys, you're in and not trespassing...

... and ask the landlords name & details of the agent because you are so impressed with the place & the new boiler work & would like to rent other properties he might have! :grin:

 

[stussy]

As Masood says, go to land registry and pay £4 to get the name and address of the owner of the property.

https://eservices.landregistry.gov....jDwsjM3MDTxN3dyNDUNMjQ1MjPWDU_P0c6McFQH3SLFU/

 

[Millsy 82]

I might be wrong but if he has given you a false invoice address then is he not committing fraud?

Do as stussy says and get his details and then I would start legal proceedings against him.

Don't go down the vendetta route as if you get caught then you will be the one in trouble not him.

 

[goz666]

Edited this cos I've said too much and don't want to get the lad in trouble. What one person would do doesn't suit everyone.

 

[woodytheplumber]

personally in the past I have got a couple of mates who are very keen gym goers in some of my embroidered tshirts and for some reason they usually pay up there and then only helps if you know were the blokes premises are though

 

[Dan]

Don't mind me while I reply to a few of the threads. We need the new thread pages to be picked up correctly. If this thread isn't current, just visit the plumbing forum and post your own new thread or checkout the other existing threads.