Can cowboy builder sue me if I sell his abandon digger?

diggerpolu

I hired a cowboy builder to renovate our house 3 years ago, to make the story short, he had never finished the project and the work that he had done has bad workmanship. He abandon building site after 3 months and left his digger on site.

I engaged a solicitor to send a letter to him to request him to repair and finish the building work, together with a defect report from a charted building surveyor, the cowboy builder ignored letter.

The digger which he left in our yard has been leaking oil since then; a year ago I send a letter to the builder to solve the issue. Surprising I got a quick response from him says he is willing to remove his digger and he will arrange an environmental engineer to visit our site to solve the pollution problem, which never happened.

Since I didn’t hear anything from the builder for several months, I send a letter to the builder indicated that I am planning to sell his digger to recover partial of my loss. I got a quick response again; the letter from the builder says that in the event if I am trying to sell the digger, he will have to make a formal complaint to the Garda Siochana.

Since then I didn’t hear anything from the builder any more despites trying to contact him, that was three months ago.

What is the consequence if I sell his digger to recover part of our loss? Can the builder sue us?

Our family has been living in a building site for the past 3 years due to the cost to repair the damage the builder did in our house in far beyond I can afford.

I cannot leave the digger on site any more due to that I am worried that the leaking oil from the digger may possibly wash into our well by the rain in which case will pollute our only water supply.

Zambia

You could drain the oil ? Plus in relation to the police this to me looks like a civil dispute. However you should ask your solicitor how you are covered criminally.

Midnight Sundance

I would also imagine you would need the tax book or whatever it is diggers have, to sell it.
Sorry for your situation!! People like your builder make life harder for the real deals out there.

Avatargh

Its crap, but don't sell it. Talk to a solicitor. But just don't sell it.

Sue him

crusher000

Sell it. If it's left on your property for three years he more or less has dumped it on your property. He may have purposely left it there to ensure no other builder will come in to finish the job. Would raise another builders eye brows as to why machine left there and would ward them off taking the job. Not 100% sure of diggers having log books/tax books but you could sell for parts. This guy will play you along and if you go to court will cost you more. Tell him it was stolen if he ever contacts you again.

BrianD

crusher000 wrote: »

Sell it. If it's left on your property for three years he more or less has dumped it on your property. He may have purposely left it there to ensure no other builder will come in to finish the job. Would raise another builders eye brows as to why machine left there and would ward them off taking the job. Not 100% sure of diggers having log books/tax books but you could sell for parts. This guy will play you along and if you go to court will cost you more. Tell him it was stolen if he ever contacts you again.

the OP can not sell what he does not own and have title to and you're also suggesting that he be dishonest in his dealings and potentially perjure himself. He'll also have no documents for the vehicle. If he does he'll end up having to get a solicitor so he may as well get the advice now. Even if he moves out to the public highway and calls the council to remove an abandoned vehicle, he has placed it there and there could be ramifications.

I suspect that the builder probably hasn't taxed or insured it either so is happy to have it off road.

MagicSean

Send him a registered letter telling him you will be charging storage from 1st April and that items that are left on your property for longer than two weeks without storage paid will be disposed of. I'd say he'll be around sharpish. I think the small claims court would probably be the place to go in relation to building work.

seamus

If you sell the digger you can be prosecuted for theft and the person you sold it to will have it taken off them and will come looking to you to get their money back.

To compound matters it's also possible that the digger is on hire from elsewhere, and that place are sending him bills and notices but he's left the digger on your site so they can't come and reclaim it. If you sell the digger then you leave yourself in a big mess. It might be worth seeing if you can find out who the titled owner of the digger is. You might get lucky and find out that someone else owns it and you can contact them to come get it.

You would be well within your rights to move it elsewhere on your property and draining the oil would be a reasonable step to take to prevent environmental damage to your site. Send him a letter telling him that's what you're doing and charge him all fees which you incur in having to do this. Also notify him of your intention to start charging storage fees @ €20 per day, starting two weeks from the date on the letter.

That's fair notice and if he ignores it you are well within your rights to charge him this fee.

Sit down with a solicitor to make sure that your wording is above board.

crusher000

The guy hasn't come looking for it in three years so obviously doesn't care. As for charging him for storage charge as much as you like he isn't bothered and if you can't get him to move it doubt if he'll pay the charge. Meanwhile your waking up every morning looking at this machine at the front of your house. If you know a Garda ask him about the machine ( this won't cost you) and see where you stand. I'd dismantle it and sell it as spares. Second hand parts are in high demand. As the add says when it's gone it's gone your word against his and there's been a lot of robberies of machinery in the area lately tried to contact you to warn you but you didn't answer the phone. I know trades men that did work on properties and weren't paid who went back to take doors out of house and were warned by the garda that they would be 1. trespaasing and 2. charged with crimminal damage as the doors weren't theirs even though they weren't paid for them.

jblack

Do you have a building contract with the builder?

Is the builder still solvent?

Genuine rights of set-off etc may apply where there is a bona fides claim in damages for defects/non completion/failure to proceed regularly and diligently.

Nuisance, trespass. My first port of call would be to contact the local council who are obligated to act upon any threat of environmental damage. In fact, you may become liable for continuing to ignore oil leaking.


I will not go on but I suggest you ignore some of the stupid advice given and consult with a solicitor.

Avatargh

crusher000 wrote: »

Sell it. If it's left on your property for three years he more or less has dumped it on your property. He may have purposely left it there to ensure no other builder will come in to finish the job. Would raise another builders eye brows as to why machine left there and would ward them off taking the job. Not 100% sure of diggers having log books/tax books but you could sell for parts. This guy will play you along and if you go to court will cost you more. Tell him it was stolen if he ever contacts you again.

Bad, bad, bad advice. This may just get you in trouble. Go to a solicitor.

As entirely awful as it sounds, I've seen people sued (and investigated by the Gardai but not charged ultimately) in situations like this.

In the United States etc the law is somewhat more on your side, but not here insofar as taking this course of action goes.

Kosseegan

No reason you cannot write to him and tell him that the digger has been sold and the buyer will be coming next week to take it away. He will be around immediately to take it back. If he calls the guards just refuse to answer questions.

crusher000

It would be great to play fair but firstly this guy made a balls of his house, secondly the digger is poluting where you live and potentially putting your drinking water at risk , if the well gets contaminated forget about it. Get a solictor go to court this will take at least another year+. The builder is taking the piss . All I hear is he can do what he wants but failling OP incurring more costs with solicitor put up with it. Act fast and act quickly remove this potential hazard out of where it is. Earlier post was correct if you move it off property your libel for any accident. Break it down or get scrap metal company to take it away. If not let me know how things went in two years time and enjoy the oil slick on your water supply.

jargon buster

Tell him it was stolen if he ever contacts you again.

Dont need to do that, just tell him a bloke came around to collect it and you thought it was someone he sent.

Ashashi

crusher000 wrote: »

Sell it. If it's left on your property for three years he more or less has dumped it on your property. He may have purposely left it there to ensure no other builder will come in to finish the job. Would raise another builders eye brows as to why machine left there and would ward them off taking the job. Not 100% sure of diggers having log books/tax books but you could sell for parts. This guy will play you along and if you go to court will cost you more. Tell him it was stolen if he ever contacts you again.

Doesn't make a difference, property only transfers over after 12 years and there are a number of strict rules that are applied for adverse possession to be active.

Outkast_IRE

If things are that bad for the builder the bank probably owns it really . i wonder is there any way to check for outstanding finance etc

Milk & Honey

Ashashi wrote: »

Doesn't make a difference, property only transfers over after 12 years and there are a number of strict rules that are applied for adverse possession to be active.

Adverse possession is a doctrine which only applies to real property, not personal property.