Aspire Housing Solutions Ltd Withholding deposit

[Guest]

Hello, 

I cancelled my builders within 14 days of paying the deposit. They have withheld over £600 claiming it covers a fee for Iwa insurance and their admin? 
Their contract mentions nothing about withholding monies bar any goods received, which none were.

Their insurance is only if they go into administration, something they offer and at no point did we ask for this not were we made aware we would be liable.

I have asked for a full refund stating the above. but want to know what rights I have if they refuse. 
I am also in receipt of copies of certificates for building control companies (given to me by the builder with the address crossed out although it can be clearly seen ) as an example of something that I will receive. I have googled these addresses and found out that they did have works so are real documents. Is this a gdpr breach? 
thank in advance  
 

 

[BankFodder]

We need to know more details of the agreement that you had with your builders – but in principle if you had breached the contract and cause them any administrative losses then they would be entitled to retain that money.

This means for instance that if they had bought materials because they were expecting to install something for you then they would have to be reimbursed for the cost of those materials. On the other hand, those materials would then belong to you and you could use them for your building project and have them installed by different builders.

It is very often the case that firms like this will try to hang onto deposits simply because it means a bit of extra money had not really anything to do with expenses they have incurred so we need to look carefully at exactly what your agreement was, the basis on which they are withholding the deposit – and you would certainly be entitled to see a detailed account of the money that they have spent.

If you can give us more information then would be able to give you more specific advice

[Guest]

Hello, 

there is no listing of admin fees etc in the cancellation clause. 

No goods were delivered or ordered. We did not even have a start date of works just Jan/Feb.

they have listed £322 as IWA (insurance should they go into administration) not something I asked for just what they offer. 
£300 admin cost.. no detail what that is?

you can’t charge people for sales meetings.

I was in my cooling off period and the clause does not list detainment of any fees in this period.

[BankFodder]

So we are dealing here with an off-premises contract in which you were visited at your property by builders and agreed certain work.

Certainly, you are entitled to a 14 day cooling off period as you rightly say. Furthermore, the cooling off period only begins after they have supplied you with all of the information required by the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

What information have they supplied you? Has there been a written contract? If they failed to give details of your cancellation rights than they are committing an offence which is also subject to a fine if they are found guilty.

What is the name of the builder?

 

Have you informed them in writing that you are cancelling the contract? You should certainly do this so that you have a paper trail.

[Guest]

Hi, 

the builders are Aspire Housing Solutions Ltd. The contract listed works that we wanted carried out, and separately a piece of paper Detailing cancellation rights. 
we were told they would look to start works in Jan/Feb and contact us with a timeline. Which was not received. The cancellation clause does not mention and withholding for anything other than goods received.

Last night they replied to my emails refusing to provide a full refund, advising me “to cash the cheque they have so far given snd common sense will prevail”.

Their cancellation clause also states they will reimburse in the same way payment was made (we paid via bank transfer).

again he is refusing to provide neither full refund, nor bank transfer of partial refund. 

thanks in advance 

[BankFodder]

Okay, it seems to me that the only way you are going to progress on this is to threaten legal proceedings. This means that you must send a letter of claim giving them 14 days to reimburse you in full or you will begin legal action and without any further notice.

Read up around this forum about the steps involved taking a small claim in the County Court. Make sure that you understand the steps – they're not difficult – but it's worth being confident.

If you feel that you are prepared to go ahead then we will help you with the letter of claim and also with the particulars of claim when you issue the claim. Don't imagine that you will send a letter of claim and suddenly they will comply. It's most unlikely.

I think you are right not to cash the cheque. You are suing for £600 plus interest and if you get judgement for this sum – as I expect you will on the basis of what you have told us – then because it will be slightly more than £600 including interest, you will be entitled to transfer the matter up to the High Court for enforcement by High Court enforcement officers. These people are extremely powerful and also enforcement by them is extremely expensive. The enforcement would be paid by the builders and if the enforcement fails for any reason, then there won't be anything to pay. The cost of enforcement by this route is about £66 and you will get that back if the enforcement succeeds.

Have a look at the steps involved in taking a small claim in the County Court and let us know what you want to do

[BankFodder]

By the way, does their notice of cancellation rights refer to off premises contracts and cooling off periods?

[BankFodder]

Also, before we get into committing ourselves with conflict oriented letters, could you please describe the process by which you went into this contract with the builder.

Did the builder visit you and give you a quote and you accepted immediately? Or did you get a quote for the builder and then took time to think about it and then came back to the builder and accepted?

If it's the latter then it may not be an off premises contract in which case the cooling off rules will change

[Guest]

Hi and thank you. The builder was recommended by a colleague who was having works done herself, but later advised to cancel due to problems received (incorrect floor levels/ unqualified persons removing boiler flus and now a roof that’s not structurally sound). 
they visited us at home, we shared plans via email, came back with a second quote, then contracts again in our home. 
 

 

[BankFodder]

So you are saying that they came to your home with a new quotation, presented it to you on the premises and you accepted it there and then. They didn't go away and then you contacted them later?

[Guest]

It won’t allow me to upload the photo of the cancellation paper 

it reads notice of the right to cancel if you sign at home...

[BankFodder]

Please could you upload it in PDF format – if you need instructions then click this link – upload <<<<<<<

[Guest]

Hi No, 

They went away to revise the quote as they were charging for services not required, ie test dig. They come back with contracts to sign which we did. Verbally I was assured of certain actions and corrections that would take place but failed. Hence we cancelled. The clause says we do not need to give reason for cancellation

[BankFodder]

Check here, for instance - to see if you think that they have supplied all the necessary pre-contract information.

 

It is pretty clear that you have a rock solid case but no harm in finding extra weakness in what they have done

[BankFodder]

3 hours ago, BankFodder said:

Okay, it seems to me that the only way you are going to progress on this is to threaten legal proceedings. This means that you must send a letter of claim giving them 14 days to reimburse you in full or you will begin legal action and without any further notice.

Read up around this forum about the steps involved taking a small claim in the County Court. Make sure that you understand the steps – they're not difficult – but it's worth being confident.

If you feel that you are prepared to go ahead then we will help you with the letter of claim and also with the particulars of claim when you issue the claim. Don't imagine that you will send a letter of claim and suddenly they will comply. It's most unlikely.

I think you are right not to cash the cheque. You are suing for £600 plus interest and if you get judgement for this sum – as I expect you will on the basis of what you have told us – then because it will be slightly more than £600 including interest, you will be entitled to transfer the matter up to the High Court for enforcement by High Court enforcement officers. These people are extremely powerful and also enforcement by them is extremely expensive. The enforcement would be paid by the builders and if the enforcement fails for any reason, then there won't be anything to pay. The cost of enforcement by this route is about £66 and you will get that back if the enforcement succeeds.

Have a look at the steps involved in taking a small claim in the County Court and let us know what you want to do

I'm quoting this post which I made earlier. And I think that this is what you should do.

However it would be worth just finding out a little bit more about the contract and whether they have complied with all the information requirements because that will give you even more leverage.
 

If you can upload the contract in PDF format

then we can just ascertain the situation.

After that, follow the advice given above.

I suggest that you post your letter of claim here before you send it off so that we can doublecheck

[Guest]

Hi I’m struggling to get it small enough to upload. Is there an email I can send to please?
Citizens advice had advised me to send a final letter/ email to warn trader about taking them to court. Mentioning the consumer rights act2015 ?

is there anything else I can add? 
 

[BankFodder]

Yes. If you want to bring a legal action then you should send a letter of claim. This is what we are advising you to do – but we think that it is best to be completely sure of the strength of your case (even though it is already very strong) – which will also give us a good clue as to the weakness of their position.

There is no massive hurrying on this – in other words another day or so delay won't make any difference so we prefer to have a comprehensive view of the situation. Unlike citizens advice, we will help you from beginning to end and be with you all the way.

Have you tried posting in PDF format? It would be extraordinary if a PDF I was so large that it couldn't upload to us. I'm sorry to say that you may be doing something a bit wrong.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Please see my draft letter of claim, and the first few pages and final pages of the quote/contract.  The quote is lengthy and mainly lists works to be done.

Part of the refund withheld was for the IWA insurance (who pay me if he goes into administration). This is a service he offers as a business, not mentioned in the cancellation clause and certainly not requested by me.  The builder have met with IWA today, who have since told me he can pass on the costs to me, just not make a profit.

How can they advise this when I have my own contract with the builder which doesn't mention this in the cancellation clause/

 

I really appreciate your time and advice.

Many thanks

 

Binder1.pdf

[BankFodder]

Thank you.

If you scan up any further documents, please would you put them up in a single file multipage PDF and also name them so that we can understand roughly speaking what we are opening. It's difficult to work through the order in which we should be looking at these files and of course your naming scheme is extremely unhelpful.
I've combined the files for you on this occasion but I have no idea if they are in the right order. Maybe you could have a look and let us know.
 

[BankFodder]

In terms of your letter of claim, please will you read this post which I made recently and which is directly applicable to the letter that you are proposing to send

 

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your advice. and I can confirm the attachments are correct. I have amended my letter to reflect your recommendations thus far.

consumer action group letter of claim v2.docx

[BankFodder]

The attachment won't download

[Guest]

 

consumer action group letter of claim v2.docx

[BankFodder]

Thank you. Please will you monitor this thread for a reply tomorrow.

It will be helpful if we can reduce the size of your claim – and I think I see a way to do that. This will make it much easier for you and cost less and make them much more likely to put up their hands because there will be less at stake.

In any event, I think you have a duty to mitigate your loss and they could successfully argue that you aren't making an effort on that score.

Check back tomorrow

[BankFodder]

Last night I saw your proposed letter of claim – and I suddenly realised that you haven't explained the whole situation to us at all.

You posted a very brief story without much detail on Wednesday night. Yesterday morning – 24 hours ago I asked you to post up the details of the agreement – by and large expecting you to have told us the whole story.

It's only last night that I saw in your proposed letter of claim that there is far more than £600 here. There is about £3700. You really haven't told us the whole story at all and if you don't give us the full detail then frankly you are at risk of prejudicing yourself when we finally give you advice and you embark upon an action.

We are investing a lot of free time trying to help you sort this out when we don't know the whole story.

So I'm sure that we can get a letter of claim out of the door by this weekend – but I think that you need to give us the entire story now in a bullet pointed chronology – no narrative simply telling us what has happened and the various sums involved – and also where the £3000 comes from.

Clearly there is quite a lot of money at stake and so I think that it is worth your while going through it and in a methodical way.

Thanks