customer avoiding paying.

[hammers4spanner]

Sealing disk at the gas meter would be a good one. Non destructive and easily reversed.

i have done this twas about five year ago , done a repair on a baxi pump had gone ping invoiced the cust (knew him through a mate) never got paid .

He claimed boiler still never worked so wasn't paying even tho i found out he was lying (same mate told me)

Waited a few weeks then went out disc in meter , my friend told me he was furious as he called out another engineer who charged him to take a disc out lol

 

[julesverne]

Unfortunately, as you've not got a contract, and therefore you've given no cooling off period, the small claims court won't rule in your favour as its illegal to fail to give the notice of cooling off period under the doorstep selling regulations. The only exemption in this case from the DSR's is if the customer has called in to your office and booked you to come and do the job from there. If you've gone to him, either by his request or otherwise, the law isn't on your side. The other exemption is if the whole job is under £35 plus vat, but that's unlikely in almost all cases.

The DSR's are a pain, and you should always give the written cooling off period and if you ever need to start the work within the COP, you must get a form signed, called an opt-out form.

cooling off period only applies to consumers(joe public)
landlord is classed as business so this shouldnt be an issue if you take him to court. but if you have the key get a copy. take boiler out kick the door in to make it look like a burglary. deny all knowedge

 

[stussy]

turn off the water at the outside stop tap and fill it with expanding foam...

 

[ambrosia]

cooling off period only applies to consumers(joe public)
landlord is classed as business so this shouldnt be an issue if you take him to court. but if you have the key get a copy. take boiler out kick the door in to make it look like a burglary. deny all knowedge

and leave the water on

maybe leave a camp fire burning in one of the bedrooms

 

[CXR100]

snap the door lock , go in , remove the boiler , change the locks and before you leave put a plug in the sink and block the overflow and open taps, lock the doors on your way out and drop the keys down a gutter somewhere...... didn't force yourself in did you!!! house is still locked, and the key you have don't open it!! so how could it be you??

 

[Neil K]

snap the door lock , go in , remove the boiler , change the locks and before you leave put a plug in the sink and block the overflow and open taps, lock the doors on your way out and drop the keys down a gutter somewhere...... didn't force yourself in did you!!! house is still locked, and the key you have don't open it!! so how could it be you??

I like it. Now you're suckin diesel!

 

[Jimbob]

I wouldn't get too upset as its only been a week. Most people are use to 30 day terms, especially when it's business to business. I had one the other day which took about 3 months, what's cocks

 

[bert large]

Standard legal payment terms are 28 days as far as I know. I always put 7 days on my invoices but still get the odd awkward sod who waits longer. That said if I had a key & got spooke dby his behaviour I would go in & get the boiler. Can't be a break in if you have a key.

 

[rjm84]

If I had a key, I would be going back in and taking the boiler, had a landlord screw me the once , in fact I think he screws everyone , the kitchen fitter supplied and fitted a kitchen without payment too
I turned the water off outside and filled it with concrete ��

 

[oz-plumber]

All I can say - from experience - is that as soon as you get vindictive or malicious, you are stuffed.
If you enter, try to enter, remove your property, cause any damage to the property and are caught, seen by anyone, you will end up in front of a Judge.

The Judge will look at what you tried / attempted to do, damaged, or in the eyes of the Law, stolen from the property.

He will not care about you not being paid because that is not a criminal issue!

You will become liable for the repair of the damage caused by you and probably have to replace the boiler if you managed to remove it.

I know a Plumber who did this, it has cost him a small fortune and he has ended up with 3 criminal convictions out of the saga.

Give the Landlord another couple of weeks to pay, but I would get your Solicitor to start the ball rolling.

And next time - try and protect yourself prior to starting any work for anyone

Oz

 

[Dotty]

Completely agree. As a responsible forum we cannot be seen to be condoning any activities that could potentially lead you up before the beak.

Play it cleverly.

 

[Best]

I wouldn't want to condone breaking the law, but depending on circumstances, there can be times when you could remove the boiler & not be breaking the law.
Those circumstances might be, if you still have a key & the house is still unoccupied.
Landlord has ignored your calls & broke several agreements verbal & texted.
I would have no qualms about going to the empty property with witnesses & take a film of entire event while you have the boiler removed carefully causing no damage & all pipework left & capped.
If he didn't order you to stay away from the property then you have done nothing wrong. As I said earlier, job wasn't finished because landlord failed to honour his agreement of bringing funding.
I would enjoy taking the boiler out & leaving him without it, I must admit

 

[kirkgas]

Completely agree. As a responsible forum we cannot be seen to be condoning any activities that could potentially lead you up before the beak.

Play it cleverly.

How will this help him?

 

[Dotty]

How will this help him?

I think any and all advice from LVG should be dismissed as folly.

 

[thompsonbrown]

Keep pestering him if you think hes fobbing you off. Tell him, as the house owner you need to show him how the system works before you can sign it off. Hope you get sorted. Try asking for at least 50% on arrival with boiler. Anyone who wont lay out that much probabley doesn't want to pay.

 

[Jimmy73]

Sounds the best way.. face him face to face to see what he has to say first.. 90% of the time they will cough up then!

 

[firemant]

Have you got any emails & texts & other communication from him? Keep all this & get it all in print.
He asked you to do the job & was there for a while as you worked. The labourer would be a witness.
I would suspect the Small Claims court would look favourably on you. He has not paid you any money so far & he would have to alledge that there was faulty workmanship- which he would have to prove in court. A contract can be verbal. It simply requires an agreed job at an agreed reward. Only real problem with a verbal contract is proving it. Did anyone witness you giving a price etc?
Try getting the landlord to reply to your texts & he might say the wrong thing & hang himself.
Small claims is a straightforward process

As Drain Medic suggested - you are wrong, these days, As this is an open forum, i won't expand on DM's points.
However, as the customer is a landdlord,then I would suggest this falls outside the DSR , as it is B2B

It is madness not having a signed contract, especially for a new client - and a Land lord at that!

 

[Best]

As Drain Medic suggested - you are wrong, these days, As this is an open forum, i won't expand on DM's points.
However, as the customer is a landdlord,then I would suggest this falls outside the DSR , as it is B2B

It is madness not having a signed contract, especially for a new client - and a Land lord at that!

If that is true, then the law must be very strange. That would mean he needs a signed contract, yet a verbal contact (which is same thing) is not accepted in law with a landlord/owner?
Obviously everyone is better with a signed contract. But if you think of a lot of examples where a customer suddenly needs a boiler replaced, - you quote them, they agree & you fit it straight away. Doesn't give much cooling off period or even for sorting out a contract. I never do one, but should with some people
Lets hope he gets reimbursed.

 

[got_any03]

update.
ive been round to the property that i fitted the boiler in to try and gain access but it was all locked up. The house is now under a letting agency and am wondering if contacting them will help me in getting my money back. As the addres that i was given for the landlord is fake as the houses dont even go up as high as the number i was given. Also still no contact from landlord. How will the agency respond to the boiler not being registered with gas safe and the cp12 being void as the address fake.

 

[Dotty]

Cap the meter and leave a note in for the gsr called in, explaining why.