Repayments just dried up

Oct 16 2011 Sunday Sun

PLUMBERS have failed to keep up payments to a customer following a court order.

Ian and Gillian Cockburn won a judgement against Evolution NE Ltd following a dispute over bathroom fitting.

The couple, from Chester le Street, County Durham, had been receiving monthly instalments of £100 but recently the payments stopped.

Ian told me how the dispute started because he was unhappy with the work.

He said: “We decided to have our bathroom removed and a wetroom installed. We got the materials and made arrangements with Evolution NE to have the fitting done.

“The director and fitter Graham Pinder said he might not be the cheapest but he promised us a high-quality job.

“We had a leak from the toilet which stained the kitchen ceiling and the nearest we got to an apology was the comment that ‘you’re not a proper plumber until you have had a leak’.

“We also had several other issues with the workmanship.

“We did not feel the work had been done to industry standards and refused to pay the second and final instalment.

“Despite letters and phone calls from us, no one came to carry out the repairs.

“Finally we got a letter informing us that we were being taken to court.

“We counter-claimed and, to cut a long story short, they lost and we won.”

But that was not the end of Ian’s troubles. He said: “Evolution did not pay in full and started with a staged payment of £100 per month.

“On occasion the cheque did not arrive on time and we had to send an email reminding him.

“Mr Pinder asked if he could make the payments electronically and asked us for our bank details.

“Since these bank details were provided we have not received any payments.

“We were owed £3,000 plus interest from the court judgement.

“We would like to know if there are any steps that we can take to recover the outstanding money.”