Court Action in Scotland

[marlyn1]

I began this thread a while ago under the previous user name. I just thought i would update those who are still desperately trying to get their houses repaired. Please check your house insurance and any funds you pay into at work that may cover you for legal assistance that will enable you to go for a court action.

It does take a while and most lawyers will want a settlement prior to going to court. It's not an easy route and involves lawyers letters backwards and forwards. You can look on the Scottish Court website to ascertain ongoing actions with your builder.

I think the only way forward is for the builder to be named and shamed and people do deserve the right to have their nightmare exposed in court.

I will be keen to provide anyone with advice on court action (Scotland) based on my experience.

If you have the opportunity raise an action.

[smcg]

Hi

I have just come across this thread and would be very interested to hear what you did to take action against a builder. I live in Glasgow. Our story is too long to get into and after 2 years, although we have fixed all the problems in our house- costing in excess of £70,000- we have hit a brick wall regarding legal action as it simply costs too much. We have had to settle with helping other victims of the builder and the Project Manager involved (who is currently facing a fraud charge) and making their lives as difficult as possible, we still want to pursue them for at least some of our money back. We built a house and we engaged a PM who brought in a builder - who worked together to basically rip us off. They left without finishing the build and what was done had to be basically taken apart and redone. 2 structural engineers were involved in writing reports on the structural defects of the build so at least we have professional reports to back up what we are saying. The whole thing nearly brought us to bankruptcy and the stress, as you will understand, was at times unbearable. But we came out the other side , but have found no help, nothing is in place to stop these people and we have had to fight every step of the way to get the police involved - and even then they didn't want to touch the builder just the PM. They felt this was a civil case and could be dealt with through trading standards - who felt they couldn't deal with it. Unbelievable. Any advice would be so gratefully received.

[Tony]

Not sure what the equivalent of Money Claim Online in Scotland. I don't think there is one - www.scotcourts.gov.uk/

In England this can be a cheap way of claim back owed money especially if it is less than £10,000

You can represent yourself, if you need encouragement - Essex Girl Beat Bellway Homes in the Courts - Snagging.org

[marlyn1]

The update re court action in Scotland. It would appear that most solicitors do not want to exert themselves with property issues. The process is long and i would recommend if sourcing a solicitor to act on your behalf ask them what experience they have in the building arena. The process is slow and remember the builder if a company will have a solicitor who is well versed on the building regulations and legislation and will try to run circles with technicalities such as the correct company name etc.

There are very few solicitors out there who are interested and who have a clue what they are dealing with. They will be keen to take your initial business and advise you that you have reasonable grounds for a case but as the matter progresses and a court date becomes apparent they all of a sudden start back tracking and their performance is poor perhaps due to being out with their comfort zone.

Remember also they are solicitors, they are all members of the law society and although work for independent firms they are working in the same social circles.

Please remember to check any legal fees you have contributed to through your house insurance and employment that may be able to pay for your legal fees which are expensive for not a lot of action.

Please remember cases submitted have to be individual and cannot be raised as a "group". Your starting point is to evidence that you have suffered a loss as a result of the builder, exactly what you have been out of pocket not just mere inconvenience or compensation.

A long road, if you thought waiting for the builder to come back to carry out repairs was long then you will have good experience for the legal battle. However the more people who stand up to them the better.

[smcg]

Thanks Marlyn1 we have gone through 2 lawyers and the first was less than useless and the other we spent 2k and his advice was to think very carefully before proceeding as both the builder and Project Manager (PM) didn't have much in the way of assets. Not good value for money. He is experienced in construction and building contract disputes. But I agree really pointless. Our household insurance will not cover legal expenses for building work and our employment/union membership only covers legal expenses re accidents, work related issues.

However, the PM's company is 'owned' by the wife who is in full time employment with the NHS (pension) and owns the house (possible small amount of capital). So there may be some assets here. There is little point in pursuing action against anyone unless they have assets and that's what you have to determine first. Neither the PM (wife) nor the builder is a limited company - sole traders so we could go after their assets once we establish what they are. The builder to date has not engaged a lawyer and not sure if he will unitl the lst minute. I have investigated his insurances policies to see if he has liability insurance - he doesn't. Neither does the PM.

I am considering going through the small claims court to have returned the PM fee (15k in 3 installments) so to meet the 5k threshold will try going after each separate installment in separate actions. Also the builder- as our new builder has invoiced us for separate bits of the work- mostly under £5k we could consider doing something similar. I'm not sure if this will work - any ideas how hard the Sheriff court will be on multiple but separate claims?. I want to try and use the system to my advantage for a change and do without solicitors.