Advice needed: rogue trades person ran off with money

ffm123

hi guys,

I'm new to this, hoping to get some advice on a situation we found ourselves in.

We bought a second hand house in Dublin two years ago, with the arrival of two young children we could never find the time or money to do it up until recently.

we engaged this guy through bark.com few months back to do some work. He came across very professional.initially, contracts, work plan and insurance the whole lot.

Paid him deposit to get materials and that's when nightmare started. He pushed out start date by weeks , then when he started all he did was taking down the old things and half started some work before disappearing for weeks again. The stuff he did start was of shocking quality.

So anyway, after nearly 3 months of living in the mess he had created and having made deposit payment plus two more payments (he is so slimey that he did enough just to say he stuck to the two items on schedule to get payment), we wanted him gpne. As we found out he is both incompetent and untrustworthy, we also discovered on bark.com you an delete bad comments(in case anyone reading wants to hire someone on that, be aware!)

He has been ignoring us and has refused to refund us the money we are rightfuly due back even after we threatened legal actions, we also dont have any material he claimed he had ordered with our deposit.

what are our options here? we can go down the legal route but it's so time consuming and costly for a young family like ours. There does not seem to be much protection out there to grt rogue trades people, and these days there are so many of them out there!

We could go to the gardai and say we have been subject to fraud, but realistically what can they do?

any advice is much appreciated.

thank you!

Shield

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058245221/advice-needed-rogue-trades-person-ran-off-with-money

Hi.

This is the place people come to when they’re having difficulties using Boards.

You are likely to get some advice from knowledgeable people in the Legal Discussion forum, so I’ll move your discussion there and you can how things go.

-Shield

TCPIP

"what are our options here? we can go down the legal route but it's so time consuming and costly for a young family like ours. There does not seem to be much protection out there to grt rogue trades people..."

This isn't a criminal matter; it's a simple breach of contract which is civil. The protection is the legal route. Hire a solicitor and explain what happened. They'll take care of it. There's really no more to say tbh.

Dollar Thief

I always pay tradesmen by card. If they don’t take card, alarm bells and I won’t touch them with a barge pole.

You can easily make a chargeback.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119047169#Comment_119047169

That horse has already bolted.

elperello

How much did you give him to buy materials ?

ffm123

thanks for the reply. we paid by bank transfer so guessing chargeback only applies to credit card transaction? :(..horse bolted indeed

ffm123

was about 8k and he did about 1k worth of work but he's arguing he did about 5k which is ridiculous...and we never saw the materials all he did was stripping old floors and cabinets etc..the total contract was worth 20k + but we were paying in installment.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119056187#Comment_119056187

The labour charges could be argued about but taking 8k for materials which never came on site is very bad.

If you have paperwork to back it up you might consult a solicitor. .

Lenar3556

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119047137#Comment_119047137

The position outlined by the OP is bordering on a fraud. The Garda may well take an interest depending on the circumstances.

ffm123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058022#Comment_119058022

thank you! we have paperwork, contract and detailed material quote etc. and is contacting a solicitor now :)

ffm123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119059142#Comment_119059142

thank you, going to the local garda station next week, hopefully they will be able to do sth if not give some advice.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119073891#Comment_119073891

I imagine either your solicitor or the Gardai will be able to advise at what point it would move from a civil matter to a criminal matter- it’s worth reporting it anyway as this could well be a scam - I.e taking money, doing crap work costing them next to nothing and then client dispute while retaining funds - might still be hard to prove a criminal element (even though it is “criminal” how they’re treating you) - but if others have reported them, there might be a level of pattern here that could be prosecuted

If it remains a civil matter, then possibly the small claims court might be an option here but there is a monetary maximum limit of under 5k I think or similar in terms of your full claim but that might be an accessible forum open to you and won’t cost you much -

edit - small claims limited to 2000 I think so may not suit you

“Half starting work” is a known way for rogue traders to get away with what they do, but staying on the civil side of a prosecution- I’ve a smallish job coming up - the guy I’m getting is “in demand” - but that means he won’t be getting any form of deposit from me- it will be stage payments all the way in that he should have the capital in place to cover the first few days of this work.

Could I hijack this thread a little to ask those in the know- what do you ask builders for before they commence work?

Is there a simple list such as insurance indemnity, proof of company /tax certs or what would be a standard request? I’d be grateful for any guidance here.