Garden Network gardening forum - 4DGarden - Help if you are more experianced then I am - Hi.A while ago I subcontracted a project to a company that claimed to know what they are doing. It all went wrong and

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Help if you are more experianced then I am

6:20 PM on 13 August 2008

Filed under: The Garden Network

Hi.
A while ago I subcontracted a project to a company that claimed to know what they are doing. It all went wrong and the finished product they forced me (by sending letter from their solicitor) to pay for what can be seen in my albums. I tried to safe the paving with all possible means but in the end I had to removed the patio and do the job properly on my expence.
My client is very upset and will back me up with truthful statement about their work. I also have a photographic record of the state of site after their left, all the correspondance and their legal letter forcing me to pay. Do you have any experiance with this sort of situation? If you do, please advice. I made a hudge lose and would like to recover at least part of it.
I hope that there are some friendly, experianced colleagues, who can advice me in this difficult situation.
Thank you very much in advince.
Marzenna
4D Garden Design Ltd.

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4DGarden - 4:23 PM on 26 August 2008	[ message ]
Hi. Thank you for the respond. I also think that they did not have a leg to stand on. However, the situation was very difficult as I was under pressure to take the bad contractor off site. Well I learn now and will never, ever do it again. And I may take your advice not to subcontract. From the client point of view, it is however more convenient.

IanHutt - 8:41 AM on 18 August 2008

[ message ]

The workmanship is shocking but I would be interested to hear the circumstances and reasons of how their solicitors letter 'forced' you to pay for the work. I don't know about business to business law, but if it was UK consumer law (ie the clients relationship was direct with the subcontractors), the work must be of a satisfactory quality and if it was all clearly laid out in the plans, the contractors would not have a leg to stand on. Your clients would then be in a legal position to ask them to put it right and if they were unable/unwilling to do this, then the client could have it fixed by a third party and claim it from the subcontractors.

Most garden designers that I know do not have a direct relationship with the contractors in the build - its a client relationship direct with the contractor. This make it easier for the client to get work of satisfactory quality and provides additional protection for the designer. It may not be so lucrative for the designer, but avoids the pitfalls if things go wrong.

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