Some of you may recall, two months ago I posted about a sink-connection job that never materialised. The contractor, Epi Handyman, took $220 from us, but refused to refund us since there was no job done (ie sink connection). You may search for my previous post in this group for more details.
Anyway, the update is that we had taken this case to the Small Claims Tribunal. On both hearings, the contractor never turned up, though notice was served to the business entity at their registered address. In their absence, the Tribunal made the judgement for us to be awarded the full $220 which we had paid to the contractor, and issued a Money Order.
We had served this Money Order to the contractor and reminded him a number of times in text messages to pay us back, politely. However, it is now past the deadline for the Money Order, and it seems they are just not willing to pay. Messages on WhatsApp have been read but just no response, and they have gone silent on their Facebook page as well. It’s quite likely that they have simply abandoned this business name and set up another new business, and will just not pay us back.
The next step is to enforce the Money Order, which means to start civil proceedings in court. As the amount is just $220, it may not make much sense to incur more expenses just to recover this amount. But, there’s a sense of indignance – is this how the rogue players in the market get around the law, just by refusing to pay up, and hoping that the claimant will just drop the case?? If anyone has suggestions how to get this guy to pay us back, please let us know.
PS: For folks who may suggest going to CASE, I’ve checked their website and likely need to incur upfront cost of $50 thereabout for membership registration and etc. We’ve already spent $ on lodging this case in the Small Claims Tribunal, so it’s likely that spending more on such administrative expenses would erode whatever amount we are supposed to claim back.
PS: To meet the group rules I need to submit some proof that the event has occurred. This is the accordion pipe that the contractor insisted on installing under my sink, and which we said no to. I have a previous post on this event in this group, which I can’t tag here, but please do a search.
To admin, sorry, I think I can’t post court documents on a public platform but feel free to contact me for it if you want to see proof.
