…my friends a barrister…

That’s one way of coming across all pathetic.

Why not try ‘my dad’s bigger than your dad’ or ‘I’ll set my dog on you’ ?

I’m not a lawyer but I’d have thought that if she’s demanding payment for services not provided then she could fall foul of blackmail under the Theft Act.

Theft Act 1978

“21. Blackmail”. —

(1) A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view to gain for himself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, he makes any unwarranted demand with menaces; and for this purpose a demand with menaces is unwarranted unless the person making it does so in the belief—
(a)that he has reasonable grounds for making the demand; and
(b)that the use of the menaces is a proper means of reinforcing the demand.
(2) The nature of the act or omission demanded is immaterial, and it is also immaterial whether the menaces relate to action to be taken by the person making the demand.
(3) A person guilty of blackmail shall on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

Plus her constant texting could also be an offence under the Malicious Communications Act in addition to the harassment. Make sure you don’t delete the text messages.

Keep a diary / record of everything

Make very clear, if the work is substandard take photos

Be sensible and straight and fair at every point, give the tradesman lots of opportunity to rectify it. Keep a record of this and appear to overly flexible / adaptable / reasonable

If you take a day off and he doesn’t turn up record this as a cost

Do what Crankboy says on the other bits

Don’t stress over it

If it goes to a small claims (which you could always start to get your money back btw) you’ll be in a good place if you have all of the above

I didn’t read all the above.

It seems to me that her phone tactic is beyond what’s acceptable use. Can you contact your phone Co. and complain? That might get her blocked and gain you some peace.

or give us her mobile number so we can text back??

threatening someone with a text msg? wow! that must be so scary. First prize pan head if you ask me, probably too stupid to even know how to write a letter. Can she actually write and spell correctly or iz it in TxT Speeks? Ring up your mobile operator and ask them to block the number from your phone.

Kev

Why even waste your time with it? She’s not a solicitor. Solicitors do stuff by email and letter, not by text message.

Just put your phone on silent and ignore her. Remember she’s trying to provoke a response from you and the most frustrating thing in the world from her point of view is to be ignored. You can then have a laugh as her as the texts get even more desperate and threatening. She’ll soon get fed up and give up after a few days.

Since this woman got nothing to do with the original contract then it is none of her business.

This. **** all to do with her, any more than it’s his cousin’s neighbour’s dog walker’s affair. I’d reply along the lines of “we have no legal contract with you and continued communication will be considered harassment and dealt with accordingly” and then cease all communication with her.

Document all contact she makes, everything, and if it does go legal then you’ve got a record of everything.

Just a quick post, I’m hurrying out the door, not read the entire thread…she may have breach the Telecommunications Act with regards malicious phone calls (not check legal wording there>. And even if that isn’t the case, she’s probably so stupid she wouldn’t know. 😉

I doubt you’ll see the handyman again, surely he’ll be too embarrassed to return knowing that you’ve experienced what a crazy cow his Mrs is! Report him to hmrc for doing cash work, even if he put your job through the books i’ll bet there’s others that he hasnt! No help now but next time use a qualified tradesman that’s a member of a trade organisation, like the niceic for sparkies.

mboy – Member
Fairly standard bully tactics for one man bands…

You’d be amazed just how many people pay up money (they don’t owe) to these Cowboys when people shout loudly enough at them and threaten them enough! Have you ever seen the TV programme “Rogue Traders”… All that stuff happens all too often sadly, it’s much easier to bully a weak minded person out of some extra dosh than it is to go and find more jobs sometimes.

And as a tradesman, i see the other side with proffesional non paying customers, even having my haircut a few months ago, a chap came in and had a screaming match at the barber, about cutting his hair to short, the barber said it will grow and gave him his money back.

Some people dont want to pay for extra work, and while i dont know the story of the op, i would be very surpriosed if extra money wasnt mentioned on payment, and i am sure all reputasble tradesmen would come to some mutually agreeable discusion.

Instead of passing it on to some probably deluded girl freind, to the tradesman involved , DUMP HER, QUICK.

OH AND EVER THOUGHT OF PHONING THE CHAP INVOLVED, AND ASKING WHAT HAS HAPPENED, HE MAY WELL BE TOTALLY UNAWARE OF WHAT SHE IS DOING.

Grow a set and call him. Also call her and just tell her to do one.

Just send her “Xxx”s back on the texts or answer the calls and put phone down on side every time she rings if you fancy a bit of fun.

Otherwise contact the police re her, trading standards re him and get someone else to finish off the snagging.

Sorted.

This. **** all to do with her

She can represent him if he asks her though surely?

Anyway, she’s no pro.

Sounds like tit for tat. You’re unhappy with the work, and she’s countering the complaint with a demand for extra costs?

Can I ask the nature of the work, and the grievance. I work with tradesmen you see, so I hear about disputes all the time. Yes there are cowboys out there, but it’s very very common for a tradesman to get done. The two classics are, refusal to pay the agreed amount because the tradesman has finished ahead of time. (like they’ll pay more if you drag it out) and the customer has no money.
Devils advocate and all that.

What she’s doing though….never come across that.

What she is doing = criminal
Dispute between you and handyman = civil

Report criminal behaviour to police.
For civil disputes, try and get to a mutualy beneficial agreement, if talks break down, as a last resort, involve legal profession and go to (civil) court.

Do not buckle to totally transparant bullying.

trot along to your local Police station to discuss it because she might already have “form”

How many pensioners have they already done that to and got away with it?

My thoughts too. I would report her whatever else you do, and do other, perhaps more vulnerable people, a favour.

Presumably she is harassing you because she is expecting a favourable result, otherwise I doubt whether she would bother. This might well be based on past experience. I would feel it a duty to report her.

As an added extra, if you had agreed a contract to do a specified amount of work and it became apparent in the course of the work being undertaken that more work was required, it is the responsibility of the tradesman to highlight the additional work and gain agreement from you that a) it needs to be done and b) the additional cost BEFORE he starts doing it. To do it (or not) and then demand money after the event is not only unethical it is (to my knowledge) illegal. Certainly there is no way a court would find in his favour. To put it into context of this forum, when your lbs services your bike, they agree an initial cost and then they call you if they find the need for more work/additional parts. They are trying to extort money from you. Call the police

If she was in the legal profession you’d have thought she had prepared some legally-binding contracts for his customers to sign before starting work wouldn’t you?…

It’s actually illegal to walt it up pretending to be a lawyer!

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/47/section/21

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/29/section/17

To the police!

Next time she tells you she is a lawyer, tell her you are a superhero and you will vanquish her by using your superhero powers.

didn’t read very word above but – worth checking your household insurance – if your policy has ‘legal costs cover’ then give them a call – for advice and, if required, action.
Also worth a call to the Law Society – cant help but think they’d be interested to hear of someone apparently claiming to be a legal professional…?

Best thing is not to ignore it but to keep a file of all correspondence and threats
and do not reply only on the grounds to meet to go over both party issues.
And record the meeting/s and give both parties a copy.
And proceed from there.

I must say when doing small building works on our installations we always
photograph to show and communicate with the client before we continue with works.

And as a tradesman, i see the other side with proffesional non paying customers, even having my haircut a few months ago, a chap came in and had a screaming match at the barber, about cutting his hair to short, the barber said it will grow and gave him his money back.

Just for the record, wasn’t suggesting all one man bands are crooked. Far from it BTW… Just that for some of the crooked ones, similar bully tactics are used quite commonly, though probably much less common the crazy ass GF getting involved!

Just put your phone on silent and ignore her. Remember she’s trying to provoke a response from you and the most frustrating thing in the world from her point of view is to be ignored. You can then have a laugh as her as the texts get even more desperate and threatening. She’ll soon get fed up and give up after a few days.

If she was just being a nuisance, I’d suggest this. But as she is blatantly trying to extort money out of the OP, then personally I think it’s worth involving the Police. Don’t make stuff up like some people on here have suggested, just report it for what it is, some crazy bird harrassing you for more money for a job her BF did badly, which is not only harrassment but attempted extortion.

If she is acting as his appointed agent would both ‘Handyman’ and ‘Girlfriend’ be at fault here?

Keep us posted about how this all pans out. It seems to me that this thread is full of a lot of very pertinent advice and TBH I personally think that you can sleep soundly in your bed, secure in the knowledge that she is not fully conversant with the law and that she may well be about to come a cropper.

Not South Wales I hope.

She’s just trying to scare you go to the police than get your lawyer to send a letter to her

Ring her up offering payment, meet her in a quiet car park and when she gets in your car to pick up the money throw a pillowcase over her head, kidnap her, take her to an empty warehouse..tie her to a chair and set a load of staffordshire bull terriers on her then finish her off with a pair of bombers and dispose of the body in plastic bags hung on tree branches around your favourite country park….Then leave the bombers and a staffy in the handymans house and make a anonymous phone call to the police….
I am not a solicitor btw so this advice is not entirely legal…..

Ha, ha, these postings have made me feel loads better – ta! We are not chasing this tradesman to complete or make good his botched work at all. He has had several opportunities, and failed. We just want him and his yappy girlfriend to go away and leave us alone. And for her to stop pestering us for more money. We are quite happy to deal with the outstanding quality issues ourselves, as he has proved himself unable to.

Last text was yesterday morning. She said she was going to speak to her boyfriend about it, and that she will be back (in touch)…

She’s a bunnyboiler ignore!

I would report her for all the reasons mentioned above she will be hard pushed to defend what she has done. Even if she only gets a telling off from plod it will hopefully stop her doing this to some unfortunate sap.

Mantastic: I cannot ‘grow a set’ as that’s biologically impossible. I do however have a screw-on set which see plenty of use 😀

Old git: We paid this tradesman the full amount he quoted us, on the day of completion, and prior to us realising the extent of his shoddy workmanship which only began to manifest itself once we began using the shower (water running into cracked grout, tiles separarating from the wall etc) On that same day, his girlfriend text to say we owed a further £297 for ‘extras’ he offered to help us out with the preceding week, but never once mentioned would charge for. we were never given the opportunity to opt out of having another £300’s worth of work done on our flat – our consent was hardly informed!

We have had several carpenters, electricians, handymen, plumbers, plasterers and fitters do work on our flat this past year, and all but three of them have been paid promptly and in full as per their quote or estimate, when work has been agreed by all parties, completed (not necessarily on time), and to the high standard of workmanship we requested on first contact. We do not pay for incompetence and poor self- and project management – who would? This particular tradesman continues to be uncontactable (he lost two phones while working for us), and has so far ignored our requests via his GF to get in touch so that we can resolve this issue with him.

We are renovating our flat, and have used upwards of ten various trades people in the past year to do work for us. Save but 2 of them, we have promptly paid the full quoted amount on completion of the work to the standard promised. On the 2 ocassions

Is she really his girlfriend?

She could be an ex trying to ruin his business and reputation. Or any member of his family or rival business that has it in for him.

If there was no sign or mention of her before the final work payment was made, I would contact the handyman and ask if he knows and supports what is going on.

I feel sorry for the guy if it turns out someone is trying to trash his business out of some kind of revenge kick.

No, she’s always done the communicating for him, even when he’s been driving around the neighbourhood trying to find our address on the first day of the job. ‘Alarm bells, alarm bells!’ I know…

I struggle with long sentences, however could it be that he disappeared for a few hours that he can’t account to her for? So he tells her that the job was a little bigger and he did some extras, hence why he was missing? She is suspicious / pissed off so is pressing the issue to see what happens? Alternatively she could just be a bunny boiler.

so what’s the latest?

Latest is… silence. Not a peep. So either he’s told her to just drop it and shut the **** up (having long since lost interest in the job himself), or she’s masterminding her next move.

Will deffo keep y’all posted as to developments as they happen. If I had the time and energy (the dissertation aint gonna write itself, and the new job not be handed to me on a plate), we’d go after her for harrassment, attempted extortion, doing cash work, fraud, etc just for fun. Im my mind’s eye I certainly am!

I seriously doubt there is any “masterminding” going on.