I was expecting worse actually... At least it adds up to the amount simeon is claiming (£16577.12) plus at least it gives an indication of where the differences are between simeon's claim and the defence/expert witness report - even if it might not be quite in the form the court wants It might have helped if there'd been an additional column for reference giving the exhibit numbers of the estimates and quotes simeon was relying on to justify the amount of claim for each item. That would have helped the court see where the differences arise - maybe. But it could have been worse... I'm still very concerned looking at this that there is an element of betterment in the claim and that the builder might be right when he argues that certain heads of claim were not included in the original contract - but of course we can't be sure because I don't think simeon has shown us the actual contract agreed to by the builder. Also things like item 15 where simeon claims for damage to "all fire doors" but the expert report says there are no fire doors. What's happening there? How can one party claim damage to something that an independent expert says doesn't exist? Also I see no evidence that simeon has done what he was told to do. Go back to the people who supplied quotes and estimates and ask them why their figures (and therefore his claim) differ so much from the expert's report. Or go back to his structural engineer and ask his view. And on the underpinning/piling issue, I'm wondering whether simeon should be addressing his complaint to his structural engineer rather than the builder. The builder acts on the engineer's report and gives simeon a quote for underpinning which is what the engineer has specified. Is it the builder's fault if the job required piling and not underpinning? Where I do agree with simeon (although he's not made anything of it in this schedule) is that where the expert has agreed that some remedial work is required, the expert has provided unrealistically low cost estimates to get the work done. I wish I could get tradesmen to work at the rates suggested by the expert's estimated costs. Anyway - I can't see the outcome of this case resting on this schedule alone.

Yep, well, I have no money to give them so I think remaining quiet and ignoring them until I absolutely have to engage is my best tactic presently.

Understandable. Not much time really from August to March to do a little bit of research, find out what the court would want, and prepare a draft. With 17 grand involved Anyway, your money, your choice. We've been available to help this evening, you've been absent. Still waiting. Off to kip shortly.

End of the day, it seems like theres no one who's an actual expert on this and so I think we have to just go with our gut on the info provided. Too many grey areas and different apparent outcomes going on. As we dont know who anyone is etc, its natural to question where info comes from etc All I can say is no matter the outcome with myself, I will keep updating the thread - I think if people were getting shafted though, they'd come back and warn people. So far I have seen 1 post like that and I just felt there was something off about it.

I've just looked back over my last few posts on this thread at the beginning of the year. What I've consistently done is try to draw your attention to weaknesses and deficiencies in your case that I think you need to address in order to be able to persuade a judge that you deserve to win your case. As just a couple of examples of these weaknesses I specifically drew your attention to (1) your failure to provide the contents of the contract you say you had with the builder (despite repeated requests to do so) and (2) your insistence* that underpinning and piling are the same thing. I see those posts have generally been thanked or agreed with by other posters including honeybee, BazzaS and FTMDave - presumably because they thought I was telling you something that you needed to hear, and not because I was "slagging you off". You then fall off the radar for over 7 weeks and only turn up again three days ago to ask for more help for the hearing which is tomorrow!!! It's over a year ago that FTMDave and I invested an enormous amount of our own time into helping you draft detailed particulars of your counterclaim. Throughout that process we continually pressed you on what evidence you had to backup your counterclaim for £17k. You assured us you had that evidence. We also advised you to get all that evidence organised and collated in readiness for a hearing. You've had more than enough time between then and whenever you learned of this hearing date to do all that. You now need to use that well-organised evidence to argue against the expert witness's assessment that your counterclaim is only worth about £1k and not the £17k you think it is. Nobody here can do that for you because we don't know what evidence you have. All you can do at this late stage is do your best to follow @FTMDave's advice at #430 and put together the suggested schedule. *I see the expert witness appears to agree with me and to disagree with you. If the judge asks you to justify your assertion I suggest you do better than tell him to google the two terms

connect4, It has worked numerous times in the past. What have you got to lose? 5 minutes writing an email, or A sheet of paper, an envelope and a stamp...