Small Claims Court - €2000 limit

Thoie · 12-11-2019 03:21PM #1

Purely hypothetical scenario, but I was reading the Small Claims info on the CCCP and I started thinking about the following.

Let's say you bought a new house (for €100k). The builders left some outstanding work that would cost €1,000 to fix. The result of not fixing it might lead to damage of €5,000. Maybe it's something like a gutter not attached that's not doing any immediate harm, but could cause a lot more damage if there was a storm.

Could the homeowner bring the builder to the Small Claims Court for the initial €1,000 preemptive repairs? Or do they have to wait until the damage is done - at which point the cost would be over the €2k limit?

Or is the fact that the original "cost" of the house was €100k immediately rule out the SCC?

13-11-2019 08:26AM

https://www.workingnotes.ie/item/buying-a-house-is-the-buyer-protected-some-reflections-from-a-legal-perspective

Thoie · 13-11-2019 11:34AM

Dav010 wrote: »

https://www.workingnotes.ie/item/buying-a-house-is-the-buyer-protected-some-reflections-from-a-legal-perspective

Interesting article, thanks.

It drew attention to the reality that, where problems arise, consumers may be deterred from attempting to obtain redress, since many such problems would lead to claims that exceed the limits for redress provided through the Small Claims Court and therefore necessitate an application to a higher court.

This sentence on the SCC really seems to be talking about if something has already gone wrong, and the repair would be in excess of the €2k limit. I'm trying to think of examples of things that might be cheaper than €2k to fix up front, but could lead to repairs of more than €2k if left unattended.

However it does seem to be saying that the SCC could be used, just that most "house" problem exceed the limit.

Small Claims Court - €2000 limit

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