Legal advice needed re sole trader

sharonj

Hi

I desperately need legal advice and wondered if anyone has any legal training or may be able to give me an opinion regarding a problem my husband has with a customer who is threatening legal action.

My husband is a handyman and laid some DIY laminate flooring for a customer. The flooring has since pulled apart in a couple of places and we have been corresponding with the customer via email and letter since the beginning of September. They have not paid my husband as they thought the problem with the flooring was due to his poor workmanship. They have had a report done and the report stated that the flooring was uneven due to the sub floor conditions and that the floor should have been levelled off before any flooring was laid. The independent inspection stated that it is the responsibility of the installer to check the sub floor before installation takes place and that my husband is at fault for not having throughly checked the humidity of the room and taken accurate levelling measurements of the sub floor. We have argued that my husband is not a flooring specialist but a handy man. He does not specialise in one particular area but can perform many different tasks. It would not be as in depth as a flooring specialist but his fee would also reflect that.

He quoted to remove the old flooring and lay new flooring. He was not asked to level the floor but the customer is now threatening to sue us for any costs over and above what my husband initially quoted as they have obtained three quotes from flooring companies all of which include the levelling of the sub floor, a damp proof membrane and removal of the affected slats of flooring and re laying of the flooring. My husband has received no payment for this job and the customer has now involved a solicitor. We cannot afford a solicitor so have tried to obtain any legal advice where and when we can.

All the materials were supplied by the customer and we believe that as a verbal contract was agreed to lay the flooring only, that we should not be responsible for paying the costs of a flooring company to re-lay the floor. I thought that once a claim for breech of contract has been submitted that any costs are to be mitigated and that they should in actual fact be using a handy man or similar to lay the flooring.

If anyone knows where we stand or can assist in this matter then please give any advice that you think may be of use.

Thanks in advance. This has been a nightmare for some months now and I really had hoped that this would be resolved before now but it just seems to go from bad to worse.

slackda

Sharon that sounds amzingly harsh,

I remeber some thing about contracts in my studies, seems to have left me fo now....


not sure if im allowed to point u to another forum but check out www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk they have a fantastic legal section

sharonj

slackda wrote: »

Sharon that should harsh, not sure if im allowed to point u to another forum but check out www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk they have a fantastic legal section

having a look now, looks like a good site, thanks