Customer paid bill now asking for compensation

[SteveGardner]

I am a sole trader and in June 2005 i laid a natural stone patio for a customer, he was not satisfied with the joints so i returned on two occasions and he then paid the bill of £1400.00. I have just recieved a letter from him dated 20th February 2007 (no contact until now) and he says hes had his patio replaced because he wasnt happy with the one I laid, and when the new landscapers were lifting the patio they said the patio was laid incorrectly and has confirmed this in a letter to the customer with laying guides from the Natural Stone catalogue. He says he is looking for compensation of £800.00 towards the cost of his new patio. His last paragraph in the letter says 'I hope we can reach a settlement based on this figure to avoid any further action.'

Can anyone advise, can he take further action

[Ian J]

He can take further action and the County Court is the obvious place to do it but it will be a messy case and comes down to your word against his.

He will be aided by the testimony of the company that stated that you laid it incorrectly although you will counter that they had a vested interest in saying that whilst you will claim that you freely returned to carry out maintenance until the client was sufficiently happy that he paid your bill.

You will also claim that if he was still unhappy after having paid you that he should have asked you to discuss the problems and not just present you with a fait accompli

[bwglaw]

an important issue is whether the customer has afforded you the opportunity to rectify the problem before instructing another contractor to undertake work on the customer's word. The customer will have to provide evidence of shoddy workmanship to succeed in a claim for any loss.

I would ask the customer to substantiate the loss of £800