£144 per hour for non emergency plumber

[mangos]

Wings said:

Did you only expect to pay the call out fee, did you not expect to pay extra on top for any work the plumber carried out, and did you not enquire of the same before booking the plumber.

As a LL I am often horrified by the hourly going rate for plumbers, gas engineers, carpenters etc. etc., I honestly sympathies with your situation, just wanting you to see the other person's side, a side that the judge might possibly also consider.

If someone does work in my house they get paid for it.

A year before he arrived I had done a full renovation of our house. Ok so it’s only a small house so not PistonHeads palatial standards, but I had trades in doing all manor of work.

Never did I have an issue and when anything seemed to be going in the wrong direction I spoke to the trader and it was rectified without any problems.

I work in construction industry myself. I’ve never experienced something like this with this company ever in my life (although I’m only 33).

In actual fact, I’ve lost quite a bit of confidenc since it’s happened.
I would have described myself as a confident person dealing with trades before.
I want to have an extension done which we were planning for this summer originally.
As it goes I don’t really want to risk anything like this happening again.
I’ve thought about just putting a downstairs WC in rather than an extension just to manage in the house as it is but it’s a set back.
I’m working part time so naturally the general dealing with trades falls to me.

I am embarrassed by how easily something as small as a request for a quote for a boiler and leak detection has escalated.

I’m embarrassed I didn’t check his Facebook or website or any other history.
Especially as I was new to the area.
I have so many contacts for these things with trusted people in the past that I’ve never really worried.
I trust people. Well not so much anymore.

It’s reading this back that makes me realise that maybe I have just been stupid. I should just accept I’ve been stupid on this occasion, learn from it and move on.
Rather than extending il sell and move to something that suits instead

Edited by mangos on Friday 15th February 21:24

[mangos]

Thank you Hoofy & Red Devil for the emails you have sent. I have responded to both this morning.

I have checked my pistonheads profile and my email address still hasn't been updated on there.

I am doing my best to take my mind off things for the weekend but a few thoughts keep popping into my mind.

On the basis that this man is a nutcase and not adverse to presenting false information to a court, and after discussing next plan with close family it might be that I just pay to get this out of my life.

It's not doing my health any good and its like a black cloud hanging over me at the moment.

The questions on my mind are:

If I do pay him the full amount requested on the claim, what is the latest point I can do so? For example, if I was given a court date, could I pay him the day before and I wouldnt need to attend?

I can't come to a reasonable value that I could ever agree that his attendance to my house is worth, so i don't feel I can forward him an offer that he will accept to settle out of court that is lower than what he is asking.
However, could I for example transfer the balance of the original invoice value (£174) along with sending correspondence along the lines of - I am paying you your requested invoice value. I have not paid the additional fees due to etc etc etc.
If I did that and he still wanted to pursue me for the £150 left over from the claim value and how would this be taken if it still ended up in court?

If I do not pay outside of court and I have a decent defence prepared. Do I still need to attend court? I have heard that sometimes you can submit a defence and not need to attend.
This initial allocation hearing if anything has shown me that I am not built for court. If it was myself in front of a judge against a reasonable person i don't think I would find it so scary, but this man is off the scale scary to me.
Just being faced with him bought back so many memories of that day when he was in my house. I really don't think I can face him again. I never want to see him. I have been having panic attacks.

Last question - home security. Is a ring doorbell or wireless camera worth investing in? If any further threats came or if someone tried to come and scare me at my home does the footage count for anything?

[mangos]

Thank you to everyone for all the support.
Its heartwarming to see 31 pages of people doing what they can to help to a stranger on the internet.


Breadvan has been very generous in his to offer to look over the details which I have taken him up on.

At the moment I am feeling a bit embarrassed by the whole thing as I should have just paid the guy and moved on with my life last year. It would have saved a whole load of stress.

[mangos]

Allocation to Small Claims track came through the post yesterday. Court hearing date set at 11th July pending the claimant pays £55 hearing fee by 13th June.

The court has changed the claimant to Mr Plumber T/A IGM Plumbing & Heating.

Im wondering if this would be accepted in the hearing or if the claimant would still need to be down as the LTD company...

[mangos]

Breadvan72 said:

I will email you at the weekend.

Thanks so much Breadvan. I really appreciate you taking a look at this.

[mangos]

So the update no one was wanting to hear and I was dreading to give -

I settled.

I had excellent help from so many people but even with the majority of PistonHeads wanting to fight my corner my husband and family all wanted me to get it put into the past.

There were many reasons for this but the main issue being that we had a friends wedding abroad to go to the same week of the court date and advice was that you couldn’t defer the court date once set unless for a very good reason and that it wouldn’t be a good idea To not be present at the court hearing.

We are abroad now and not returning until next week.

Add into the mix a close family member who was in such a bad mental state, and a house that flooded from a burst water main back in January it’s been a really tough beginning of the year and my mental health has also suffered.
I have had some counselling but still get very shaky thinking about the guys that came to my house that day.

We have only just got carpets reinstalled at home so it’s been a long process and it’s time to start being a family again now we have some time.

I hate myself for not fighting further and letting this man carry on doing what he was doing.

I want him to get what’s due to him and all I can hope is karma will catch up one day.

[mangos]

KungFuPanda said:

If we presume the OP paid the total figure claimed in the original Claim Form, the only difference may have been expenses claimed by the plumber relating to attending the actual hearing itself which may have been minimal.

Even if the OP lost, they would have been ordered to pay the judgment sum within 30 days and as long as that was done, there would have been no adverse impact on their credit record.

With hindsight, the OP could still have let the matter run to a hearing and tried their luck with a letter to the Court inviting the Judge to make a decision based on the evidence before him.

I had looked into letting it run to court and sending a letter inviting judge to decide on my absence but the advise given was that this doesn’t usually get looked upon favourably by the judge and if there was no option of getting to court then settling externally would be best.

I can at least confirm that I settled for less than mr plumber was asking for but still 100% more than he deserved