ELECTRICIAN TAKEN OFF WITH MONEY

Ireh

We paid an electrician cash (nearly 700) for LED lights 14 months ago. He put in 4 but not the rest.
He had some personal issues, so we left him alone for a while. He came to our house in April and said he'd be back etc..., we called him a month later with an emergency electrical issue, which he fixed temporarily but we haven't heard from him since.
We called him daily for a while but he never picked up the phone. We then heard of another personal issue he had, so again, we left him alone. The person who recommended this electician to us contacted him for us and he told them that he'd be in contact with us. A plumber we got through him also contacted him for us. He still hasn't contacted us and won't answer our calls/texts/messages :mad:
He was such a nice guy who really helped us out a lot and we totally trusted him. We don't want the lights now. We just want our money back.
Can we actually do anything legally, seeing that we paid him cash (:o stupidly before the job was done!) and have no receipt.
Any advice would be much appreciated!

UrbanSea

I don't know how you stand legally but get to the Gaurds. Tell them your story and let's see what he says to them.

aujopimur

If he is a registered trader use the small claims court.

Fey!

If he's RECI contact them.

wyndham

UrbanSea wrote: »

I don't know how you stand legally but get to the Gaurds. Tell them your story and let's see what he says to them.

It's nothing to do with the Gardai.

dave1982

wyndham wrote: »

It's nothing to do with the Gardai.

Yep sadly it's a civil matter however i had a issue with a laptop repair guy who shut up shop and left while i had in in for repair.Went to the Guards and was told there is nothing she could do help.Thankfully she offered to make a phone call to him and that scared him into contacting me and returning the laptop.

Wish you luck:)

Ireh

Thanks for your replies!

daenerysstormborn3

Yes, sometimes in civil matters the Gardai will offer to make a phone call on your behalf to try and reason with the person (I have personal experience with this). I'm not sure where it's at on the legal scale but in my experience it worked.

p15574

I seem to remember a recent court case reported in the newspapers where a couple sued a builder or roofer after the job he did proved to be inadequate, resulting in much leaking and water damage etc. In the end the judge threw the case out because they had paid cash, so not sure where you would legally stand on this.

91011

As you paid in cash and have nothing in writing, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever you can do.

Nothing to do with gardai.

You could take a small claims case, but this has to be based on some form of written contract / receipt etc.

Zab

91011 wrote: »

As you paid in cash and have nothing in writing, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever you can do.

...

You could take a small claims case, but this has to be based on some form of written contract / receipt etc.

Is this true? Does it not assume that the guy will deny taking the money and agreeing to do the work?

slave1

Why does everyone assume that cash payment means off the books and no receipt, lots of companies/traders take cash as it eliminates bad debt issues, when haggling my last port of call is always hard cash

slave1

slave1 wrote: »

Why does everyone assume that cash payment means off the books and no receipt,

Because he's not answering the phone and has taken off...

Zab

OP has said that he did not get a receipt.

What I'm saying is that there's a difference between the electrician dodging OP's calls and him walking into the SCC and saying he didn't take the money in the first place. A shop could say (truthfully) that they have no way of knowing if something was bought from them but this guy would have to actually lie which he may or may not be willing to do. So my question is whether the SCC will decline to even hear the case if OP has no proof of payment.

Sponge Bob

He can go to the small claims court with a verbal contract, likely sparky won't go so he will get the court order in his favour just for showing up.

91011

slave1 wrote: »

Why does everyone assume that cash payment means off the books and no receipt, lots of companies/traders take cash as it eliminates bad debt issues, when haggling my last port of call is always hard cash

I'm not saying that anyone has done a deal off the books, (i take it myself, but its always aginst an invoice already raised) but unless you have a receipt to say the work is paid for and you paid cash there is absolutely nothing that can be proven.

At least with cheque / transfer / card, there's proof of payment.

Zab

Sponge Bob wrote: »

He can go to the small claims court with a verbal contract, likely sparky won't go so he will get the court order in his favour just for showing up.

That's what I figured. This is definitely an avenue OP could go down then as for it to fail the electrician would have to both turn up and lie in court.

Head The Wall

OP has stated that the electrician has completed some of the job which he was paid for. The judge would see this as him having some agreement with the OP as he obviously wouldn't have carried out the work for free