Getting deposit back from builder after canceling

IANAL however I have taken and passed the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Advanced Diploma in contract law so have some knowledge here.

Of course we are a little light on detail however honestly, I think you’d have very little chance of demonstrating you entered into an unfair contract. A 5% deposit is hardly onerous even if the builder hasn’t incurred any material costs. As others have said, moving jobs around etc isn’t easy nor cost free on the part of the builder.

Further, unless you were put under pressure to have over the money immediately you entered into the contract willingly and the fact they have a 14 day cooling off period weakens your position exec if you did feel under pressure initially. 14 days is pretty standard for a cooling off period also.

As others have said, by definition a deposit is non-refundable unless stated otherwise.

However, if you do wish to pursue it you have 3 options that you may want to explore.

1/ Just go straight to the Small Claims Court. I have used them a few times as a claimant and have also been a defendant. Every time the judge was reasonable and fair and I think the service overall is excellent. A hidden gem of our justice system and we are lucky to have access to it.

Due to the covid backlog you may be waiting a year or more for a hearing though. The cost is around £80 and from memory there is now an additional small amount that the claimant has to pay if they lose.

You would of course get your £80 back from the defendant of you win.

Just be aware that the defendant can make a counter-claim (there is even a space to do so on the paperwork they receive so it may give them ideas) so as well as it potentially taking ages you may find yourself defending your position as well as trying to formulate your claim. In particular as a self- employed person the could easily claim for days of work to attend the hearing and their travel costs. They may try for other things as well.

Note also that you will have to go into the details as to reasons you cancelled the job. The court won’t accept ‘I cancelled but don’t want to go into it thank you’.

2/ if your house insurance has legal expenses cover you could call their helpline. Note they operate on a ‘prospects of success’ basis. They will assess your claim and decide if you have a greater than 50% chance of winning. If you don’t they won’t take it on.

If they don’t take it on for you it’ll be a good indication that if you were to then take it to the SCC yourself that you’re likely to struggle.

3/ many solicitors offer an initial 1 hour free consultation. Find one that does and give them a call. However, unless there is some key bit of missing information here I don’t think they’ll use the full hour here.

Good advice above

My 2p, not really adding anything but again just as Barry Homeowner myself and my layman’s understanding of the way this works, to add my vote as to whether you’re having your pants pulled down, or being a dick.

A deposit secures his services. It’s your commitment to do the work and his to not take on other work in its place.

Deposit means non-refundable. It it was refundable, it would say so.

The fact it also says refundable within 14 days just cements further that it means non-refundable after 14 days.

If that wasn’t clear to you at point of signing the contract, you should have asked. Although ‘just to be clear, if I cancel this at any point I get this 5% back right?’ would probably see him disappearing with his unsigned contract to do some other work anyway.

I can’t comment on the legal position but can share my observations of a good friend who is a builder.

For ever, he has never been off duty. His phone would ring day and night – if we were in the pub or at the football he’d disappear for 10 minutes here and there very regularly to sort out yet another issue.

however, I never considered what a builder does when they are not building until recently I was round his…a wall planner stretching out across the year with chunks of time allocated to planned jobs. The whiteboard next to it detailed each ‘chunk’ of activity and it was astonishing. I don’t know why, but I always figured he went off in his van and built stuff. The logistics of sequencing of trades to a very tight timetable, the booking in advance of the stuff like diggers, scaffolding, mixers, this conveyor belt thing that takes tiles and bricks to the first floor…it was like a military operation.

Just one trade subbie pulling out would impact, but as has been stated above they build a reputation on not pissing people around – they all seem to know the lads they won’t work with again.

I reckon if I asked my mate to qualify his expenses for a project 3 months out, even knowing what I know about the way he works I would be surprised at the amount.

(and for the record, I would feel very uncomfortable going back on a verbal agreement…let alone a contract that I had signed weeks ago)

Good post from xc-sc. I had a major building project at my house a couple of years. I do project management for a living and I was blown away by the planning, logistics, procurement and resource management of the guys who called themselves joiners (but who were main contractors). They did all of this whilst working 10 hour days on site actually building stuff.

The laying of bricks and building of frames is just a small part of a huge volume of work. I think you are stretching things to think you have a fair claim to claw back your deposit.

How much is the deposit?