Is it worth it?

[AD-15]

Hello,

We're having some problems with a local gardening group and was hoping to get some feedback from you guys on it.

Basically, last October, my mother paid £80 to get the garden at the rear of the house cleared of various bushes, small trees etc. The guy who came seemed to have completed his work, clearing up all the wood/rubbish/tree crap after him. However, it turned out a large volume of branches had been dumped into her neighbour's garden, and this in turn ended up back in our garden long after he had left.

Unfortunately, she paid the £80 without being handed any kind of invoice, receipt etc. So there's no strong proof he's done the work.

She made a few attempts at resolving the situation at the time, but was unsuccessful (the guy would repeatedly make up excuses, say he would call back and not bother etc...).

As the summer is approaching, she wants to get it sorted and I decided to try and fix the situation myself. I called the number on the leaflet she was given last year, only to be answered by someone claiming to be the worker's father who stated he had not been in business long enough to have done the work my mother claims she had done. Eventually, he told me to simply speak to him (the individual who carried out the work) on his mobile phone.

I did this, and he insisted it wasn't him who carried out the work, but someone else (a friend) as the price my mother offered was too low. So I've been given a new number to call.

Based on the number of lies they've told, and the actual amount of proof available that work had taken place (basically nothing other than our and our neighbours' word), do your reckon it's worth persuing this issue? Maybe going to some sort of court over it?

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this craziness. :

Thanks,

Odai.

[oolon]

Personally I would clean up the mess and move on, they guy was paid cash in hand has no intention of coming back and if he does will probably demand more money, best to stay way from him. You might like to give a quick call the trading standards and the inland revenue (as I am sure he has unreported earnings), might even be on job seekers allowance.

[Andeh13]

You might be stuck with it mate, that's the danger of doing it cash in hand/without invoices.

TBH I'd be tempted to get it in the boot of my car, drive to a woodland and leave it in there. Surely that isn't classed as fly tipping, does no damage to the environment & no one looses?

[peterb]

Hire a wood chipper, chip the branches and use the chippings as a mulch on the garden.

Otherwise take the stuff down to the tip.

Trying to pursue this through the courts is (IMHO - but I am not a lawyer) just throwing good money after bad. It will be his word against your Mum's.

[blueball]

TBH I'd be tempted to get it in the boot of my car, drive to a woodland and leave it in there. Surely that isn't classed as fly tipping, does no damage to the environment & no one looses?

Don't do that! There are numerous reasons for not introducing foreign material to a woodland.

Take it to a recycling centre or turn it to mulch as suggested.

[Lucio]

It's not worth going to court of £80, end of story.

[GoNz0]

look for a messy garden, call the number and ask them to clean it up.

once its done walk up, explain why you have done it, laugh in his face and walk away. so what if he dumps it all back again.

[Behemoth]

It's really not worth bothering with for £80. Chalk it up as one for experience and do the job yourself if you can. Might take a few hours, but at least you'll know the jobs been done and the neighbors won't be throwing stuff back over the fence.

Even if you did take it to court there's no cast iron guarantee that if you did win the Trader would pay up anyway.

[Saracen]

It's not worth going to court of £80, end of story.

True, but I've done it over less than half that, and the reason isn't always the money - sometimes it's the principle. In my case, it was an insurance company that had messed me about for months, and tried several times to stiff me on the payout. After being on the receiving end of their "customer service" for nearly a year, I was going to court if they didn't meet the claim in full, right down to the penny.

Had I accepted their first offer (and cheques) I'd have ended up about £1500 worse off than I did, and this was a good few years ago. By the time I got to rejecting their final offer and sending back the third or fourth offer cheque, it was settlement in full, or court.

And I'd point out that, in the general case, the "not worth it for £80" argument cuts both ways.

See, I was so <bleep>ed off with them that I was actually looking forward to arguing my story before the Small Claims Court. And if I'd lost (which I was very confident I wouldn't) I was quite prepared to accept that. So I rejected an offer well over £4k over a lot less than £80, because that final little bit was costs only incurred because the insurance company dragged things out for months.

Once they worked out that I really, actually meant that I was going to court over it if they didn't settle in full, it's then for them to decide if it's worth going to court over such a trivial sum.



But, AD-15, in this case, I'd agree .... clear up the mess, and write it off to experience. It's not worth chasing.

In my case, I had extensive documentary evidence, that was as close to irrefutable as any legal claim ever is. I had them pretty much stone cold, and they knew it. In your case, from your description, you have almost nothing in the way of evidence.

But, being a nasty-minded git, what I would do, though, is drop those kind folks at the tax authorities a little word about the gentleman doing "cash" jobs with no receipt, and then denying he ever did the job.

Will it get you your job done? Nope.

Will it get you any money back? Nope.

Will he at least have to pay tax on that £80? Probably not.

Will he end up facing a tax audit and having HMRC dig through his lifestyle, and have to go through a detailed tax return for the next several years?

Don't get even, get ahead.

Of course, if he's a "traveller" type of odd-job handyman, even HMRC probably won't get anywhere, but if your Mum employed that type of person for any work, then I'd say that tells you what the first lesson to learn should be.

[AD-15]

Excellent, thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated.

Basically what I thought would be the case, not worth chasing mainly because of the lack of evidence.

I would have just cleared it myself as has been suggested, but the amount of crap left behind is vast. I'm surprised our neighbours managed to just dump it back over the fence. Andehh suggested I just shove it into a car boot, but I'm guessing it would take at least 6 or 7 round trips to get rid of it all.

[Saracen]

Oh, and if you value neighbourly relations, I'd suggest (if you haven't already) an apology and explanation of the contractor problems to the neighbours is a good idea. I can imagine my reaction if my neighbour decided to cut trees and loads of the resulting cuttings were dumped in my garden. Throwing it back over the fence would be them getting off lightly.

[AD-15]

Aye, it was taken care of at the time.