Problems with painter & decorator

[Hael]

one of the plasterer only sent me quotes through text messages, could that be used?

[BankFodder]

Well if it's all you have got then it will have to do. Make sure that you print them out. You won't simply be able to show them to a judge on your telephone.

[Hael]

Do I have to get a permission message from them stating that they allow me to use those information on the court? (if thats the case, a lot of them would surely say no as people generally do not want to get involved)

[BankFodder]

No, just use the information and wait until somebody objects

[Hael]

Hi, after several weeks of chasing and losing contact with some of the plasterers, I finally got another 2 quotes for the plastering work.
Do you think we are good to go now?

LS Plastering.docxDW plastering.docx

[BankFodder]

Well done. It sounds as if it has been very difficult.

I'm not going to look through the documents but if you have now got quotes which address all of the problems, then it will be helpful if you would list out the problems and the cost of addressing is one so we can get a global view.

Also the total of all the work necessary.

Thanks

[Hael]

Worth noting is that all those quotes I got from the plasterers are in texts messages, and they are not very detailed... A plasterer even told me he never used email even though he has been in this business for 30 years.

Ill try to list out the problems and approximate costs from those quotes and get back to you. 

Once again, thank you very much for your help.

[BankFodder]

Make sure you print out the text messages and make sure that the sender of the text messages is identifiable in your print out

[Hael]

A)      The repainting of walls and ceilings

£3900+VAT (with paints & materials) T&D

£4300 (without paints, just preparation materials for walls and ceilings) INOL

 

B)      The repainting of the woodwork

£700+VAT (with materials) T&D (treated as a quote completed along with the original quote)

£1500 (with materials) INOL (treated as a separate quote)

 

C)      The fixing of the plasterboard at the conservatory/extension ceiling)

£500 (light fix including metal beads being put, with materials & painting work of the ceiling) INOL

£275 (light fix including metal beads being put, with materials, no painting work) LS plastering / £595 (more proper fix with materials, no painting work) LS plastering

£920 (proper fix including the taking down of the ceiling, with materials, no painting work) DW plastering

So far these are the quotes I got, is this what we need here?

[Hael]

It is very difficult to get people to write proper, detailed quote (especially when they learn that you are quoting for the court), a lot of the notes I added here are information I got through text messages, or even, verbally.

[Hael]

So what is the next step here?

[BankFodder]

This discussion has become rather stop start – mainly, I suppose, because of the difficulty you have had in getting quotes.

However, could you just sum up here the cost of addressing all of these defects – and how much have you paid already?

[Hael]

I am not too sure how exactly should I sum up the cost of addressing all of these defects... shall I just calculate the average of all the quotes I have for all the issues and come up with an approximate sum?

I have paid Decor Development £4650
Then I paid INOL 2700 for painting the walls and ceilings of all upstairs area+the hall stairs and landing, the paint used has costed 328.02, with a few cans of paint left.
And thats all the cost I paid for now.
FYI I am not in good terms with INOL now, would that affect me in using the evidences/comments they provided?

[BankFodder]

Overestimate rather than underestimate. It's up to the other side to bring you down.

Make sure that you have all the documents to support the quotes because you will be sending them all to the other side as part of your letter of claim

[Hael]

I see, I'll try to do that.
Also, I almost forgot about the cost for T&D to come and assess the work. It was 463.08.

[Hael]

Do I need to show all the calculations/estimations here? Together the reasons to justify myself?

[Hael]

Hi, I am very sorry for the delay, a lot of things have happened and it took me some time to handle all these things.
I did some calculations and used the average amount of the quotes I have to justify myself.

For repainting of walls+ceilings.

Cost would be approximately 4911.51

For repainting of the woodwork.

Cost would be approximately 1170
For the fixing of the plasterboard at the conservatory/extension ceiling (a complete fix, not partial fix).

Cost would be approximately 757.5

For the cost to hire T&D to come and assess the work+provide the report.
The cost was 463.08.

For the Small claim court fee of £5,000.01 to £10,000.
The cost would be £455.

Therefore, the cost would be: 4911.51+1170+757.5+463.08+455=£7757.09

I have paid Decor Development £4650 for the work.
Then I paid INOL 2700 for painting the walls and ceilings of all upstairs area+the hall stairs and landing, the paint used was 328.02, with a few cans of paint left.
I also paid T&D to come and assess the work. It was 463.08.
 

Before I hired Decor Development, I already quoted a cleaning company to clean the house after all the work was done, before the carpets were installed, and I paid £350 to the cleaning company. Ill probably have to do it again. Do you think I can include this as well?

Is there any more information do we need here for now? What should the next step be?

[Hael]

Hello?

[Hael]

Hi BankFodder? You mind giving me some replies here? It would really be appreciated. Did I do something wrong?

[Hael]

Hi, I would really appreciate some replies here. It has gone quiet for a while now and I dont really dare to do anything regarding the case and I stopped following the advices provided by other websites & CitizenAdvice in order to stick to here.
I dont seem to be able to message any site members either. Please help here.

[Andyorch]

Apologies Hael I did say I would look in last week.

 

So you have all your estimates and figures correct now and you are at the stage of sending your Letter of Claim ?

 

Andy

[Hael]

Thank you very much for the reply. FYI, I am not able to send private messages to you, hence why I was asking for help here. I apologise if it is considered rude/inappropriate.

Regarding which stage I am in... to be very honest to you, I am not too sure. I think so? I am just not 100% sure if Im doing things correctly.

How do you define if the figures are "correct"?
BankFodder told me to overestimate it but I am not sure how to justify myself in the court if the cost is higher that the average numbers of the quotes.

The only thing I can say is that, I have tried my best to get at least 2 quotes for all the issues in the house, and the estimation is based on the average costs of the quotes that I got from the other traders.
(and to be fair, they dont seem to be very consistent somehow. It seems like people all have different thoughts in mind as in how to fix things and at what extent would they like to fix it, not to mention that some people quotes a lot higher than the others.) plus some of the costs that I already paid, and I would be paying (court fee).

As some of the traders only provided the quotes through text messages, I have saved pdf files of some websites regarding to those traders who provided the quotes to me. The pdf files can show that their contact number matches the number in my mobile phone text messages screenshots and proves that those quotes were indeed from those traders.

I am very sorry for the delay during December as I was very stressed with many things and like I said, I had despite with another painter, and that needs to be sort out as well. And a lot of other things happened, including the boiler has broken down during winter... and I have a full-time job. Plus, not an excuse though, I was waiting for BankFodder's reply in order to make sure that I am doing everything correctly.

If you can let me know what to do next, and what my next steps would be, it would be really appreciated, thank you very very much for your help. It is really appreciated. I am quite scared and stressed by the whole thing.

[Andyorch]

Don't worry about not being able to PM...here is the correct place to post and ask questions...not by PM.

 

So now you are ready  to submit your letter of claim....for the amount you have paid out originally and the amount paid out to others to correct the defect work since. I wouldn't over complicate the issue with estimates of further work required to correct.

 

Have a look on here or the internet on how to draft a letter of claim and then post your draft here for opinions.

[Hael]

OK, Ill try to finish it before the end of this week. Thank you very much for your reply.

[Hael]

Hi Andy, I have finally done the first draft of the letter of claim, would you mind having a look at it for me? Please kindly let me know if I am missing anything or doing something wrong (in which I am quite sure that I probably would be).
Also, there are things I am not very sure about, I hope you don't mind answering me some questions?
 

1) Which address should I use for decor development? Should I use Ricky Burn's home address? Would that alert him that I know that it is his own property?

2) A big part of the letter of claim contains information I had in the first complaint letter I sent them, is it ok?

3) Is it ok if some contents in the letter of claim are not 100% matching with the first complaint letter?

4) Is it ok for me to have included so many details in the letter of claim? (I tried my best to include as many details as I could but I am afraid there could still be things missing.)

5) Do I just print off the quotes, reports, etc. together with the letter of claim?

6) Do I also print out some photos as evidence and attach them in the letter of claim?

7) What kind of documents shall I request them to give me? Apart from a letter of acknowledgment?

In order to fix part of the issues (I know I shouldnt have done that, I am really sorry about this, but I am living in the house now and I really needed at least my bedrooms and my bathroom walls and ceilings to be fixed so that I can live there), I already paid a painter to fix some of the walls and ceilings, shall I include the costs I already paid, in the letter of claim as well? 

9) Shall I let them know that I already fixed some of the issues?

Again, thank you very very much for your help.
 

Letter of claim.docx

Edited February 20, 2022 by Hael