Using the Small Claim Court for a plumbing job that went wrong

amargar

A little summary:

Plumber comes to change a water cylinder. Does a horrible job that causes my attic to flood and water to come out of my walls. He fails to come the next day to dry it out as he promised so damage gets worse, causing a wet stain in my bedroom ceiling and causing me to have to go and dry the attic myself after realising he was not coming.

He came several days later, fix the cylinder and left. He said he would come after Christmas to check the attic/ceiling damage when things got dry. I've been asking him for 1.5 months to come and paint the ceiling and put the insulation back that I had to remove to dry the attic. He always has excuses. I have been recommended to find somebody else to fix it and use the small claims court to pay for it.

I would like to know what my options are. I'm thinking that I can ask somebody to come and paint and somebody else to re-insulate the attic, and then claim back the cost, or do it myself and ask for a partial refund of the cost of the job on the court.

I have all documented, pictures etc.

Would the SCC support me on this?

coylemj

Say you get a judgement from the SCC, what good will it be i.e. how will you execute it? If he's a sole trader operating out a (possibly leased) van, it won't be worth the paper it's written on.

amargar

I don’t understand sorry, if I have to spend 200€ fixing the damage that this guy made and the court says that he is responsible, why wouldn’t he pay?

He is not a sole guy he has a registered company

coylemj

If you get a judgement against him and he refuses to pay, you send in the sherrif to seize assets in lieu. If he doesn't have any assets, you're essentially wasting your time chasing him through the courts i.e. you'd be throwing good money after bad.