I can assure you that I am not trying to protect my builders but given their bullying nature am wary of causing further aggravation which could incite physical or other threats if I do not meet their demands. I appreciate your advice and will take this further as advised. Thanks for your help.

Hi Thanks for your reply. I have discussed this with citizens advice and they have taken details of the builder and reported them to trading standards who will take appropriate action. The builders claim that as the draft contract was sent over by email and I had time to think it over before deciding there is no cooling off period in this case. When sending the draft contract they do not cover any details relating to cancellation rights or any of the details required in the legislation above as they are claiming it should be treated as 'on premises' and therefore my consumer rights do not exist. I prefer not to give their name on a public forum at the moment but they are certainly not making my life easy at the moment. They are threatening to sue me for breach of contract if i do not pay up in 14 days.

Hi the draft contract was sent to me by email on 20 June. The email stated that ii is a draft contract and that a deposit would be required to secure the dates I wanted. Subsequent to this on 24 June I admittedly stupidly responded that I wanted to secure the dates and would pay the deposit. They sent through an invoice on 27 June for payment and 2 follow up emails on 1 and 2 July demanding that the deposit be settled ASAP. On 3 July I notified them that I did not want to proceed and that they could release the dates for other bookings. I have already tried telling them that I should have been notified of cancellation terms at the pre-contract stage and that I was cancelling during the cooling off period (14 days). They have said that the cooling off period is not valid. I realise I should have not changed my mind and wasted some element of their time but I felt pressured in to agreeing to the deposit as they kept emphasising that slots were being filled quickly etc and that I need to book up now. I pulled out with out paying the deposit because I thought they were pressurising me too much to pay immediately. I am very stressed by the entire experience. I can try to upload the 'draft contract' but probably not until tomorrow as need access to a PDF scanner

Hi all I am a new poster to the forum but have been viewing for a while. I am in a difficult situation and am wondering if anybody is able to provide me with any guidance. Briefly the situation is as follows; I obtained a number of quotes from building firms in June 19 for full renovation and some structural work in my kitchen. I agreed to proceed with one of the builders following his quote. He subsequently sent through a draft contract and expressly demanded payment of a deposit (approx £2k - 10% of total cost) to be paid in advance of the planned start date in August. A few days after receiving the contract I had 2-3 emails demanding immediate payment of the deposit to secure the dates as they had been apparently turning down plenty of work for the planned time slot. After approx 12-13 days of receiving the contract by email I decided to terminate the contract in writing and released the booked slot as I felt I was being pressured in to making an immediate payment plus I felt their manner was aggressive. Following this I received a nasty email accusing me of wasting their time and that they would suffer financially etc. I declined to reply and heard nothing for a while. Since then I have engaged a different builder to do the work which has started. A few weeks ago I received a letter from the original builder demanding full payment of the £2k deposit. I responded saying that I had exercised my right to cancel and nothing is due as they have not provided any services. They are now threatening court action and obviously I am very stressed about how far they can take this and whether I will be liable to pay them. Any help would be gratefully received. Many thanks Suz