Hello,
I wondered whether anyone might have any thoughts, please, on my brother's situation? He set up a small company with a former colleague. They were subcontracted to do the electrics on a total building refurbishment being handled by another, bigger, company. My brother's company agreed a price for the work specified, but when they got on site, they kept being asked to do more and more work - I'm not sure if the work was being requested by the building's owner, or the company with the contract for the full refurbishment, but someone, somewhere, underestimated the amount of work they needed from my brother's company. For every bit of extra work they were asked to do, my brother and his colleague got approval (on paper/by email) from the local rep of the company that had contracted them - either the project manager or, I think, the company's QS. However, when my brother submitted a revised invoice, the company refused to pay, or offered only the amount agreed in the original contract, which was a fraction of what my brother's company had spent on doing the work (they ended up having to take on extra staff and, as the work was at the other end of the country, provide accomodation for them and everything, to get the project completed by the deadline agreed by the refurb company and the owner of the building). This all happened last year, and they've been rowing over the bill for months. My brother has seen a solicitor, and got him to write one letter, advising the bigger company that my brother's company would be taking them to court if they didn't pay up. That was months ago, and since then, my brother has been pratting around re-evaluating the work they did and trying to get an 'independent' QS to put a value on the work his company did, so they'll be prepared if or when the case goes to court. The added complication is that my brother is the person who has put up all the money (partly from loans and partly from an inheritance from my uncle), so his partner, who is about as reliable and trustworthy as a rotten rung on a ladder, probably doesn't give a toss about whether they get the money back or not, and he behaves accordingly, by, for example, never bothering to make time to see my brother to go through the revised bills.
I've told my brother he should just instruct the solicitor to write to the company and give them a deadline for the bill to be paid in its entirety, otherwise my brother will take them to court, as my brother has proof that all the additional work was requested and approved by the bigger company's agents on site. My brother, however, says he has to wait until the independent QS etc has reassessed and verified their work before starting legal proceedings (in a civil court), as the court would not be too impressed if my brother started the case then had to request an adjournment while he got together the paperwork to back up his claim.
If anyone has managed to read through all this without dying of boredom, I really would welcome your thoughts on the best way to proceed, please. All the stress is playing havoc with my family, especially my dad, who is distraught at the thought that the money that his much-loved brother worked so hard to get may be about to disappear into a big black hole.
Thanks for any advice you can give.
I wondered whether anyone might have any thoughts, please, on my brother's situation? He set up a small company with a former colleague. They were subcontracted to do the electrics on a total building refurbishment being handled by another, bigger, company. My brother's company agreed a price for the work specified, but when they got on site, they kept being asked to do more and more work - I'm not sure if the work was being requested by the building's owner, or the company with the contract for the full refurbishment, but someone, somewhere, underestimated the amount of work they needed from my brother's company. For every bit of extra work they were asked to do, my brother and his colleague got approval (on paper/by email) from the local rep of the company that had contracted them - either the project manager or, I think, the company's QS. However, when my brother submitted a revised invoice, the company refused to pay, or offered only the amount agreed in the original contract, which was a fraction of what my brother's company had spent on doing the work (they ended up having to take on extra staff and, as the work was at the other end of the country, provide accomodation for them and everything, to get the project completed by the deadline agreed by the refurb company and the owner of the building). This all happened last year, and they've been rowing over the bill for months. My brother has seen a solicitor, and got him to write one letter, advising the bigger company that my brother's company would be taking them to court if they didn't pay up. That was months ago, and since then, my brother has been pratting around re-evaluating the work they did and trying to get an 'independent' QS to put a value on the work his company did, so they'll be prepared if or when the case goes to court. The added complication is that my brother is the person who has put up all the money (partly from loans and partly from an inheritance from my uncle), so his partner, who is about as reliable and trustworthy as a rotten rung on a ladder, probably doesn't give a toss about whether they get the money back or not, and he behaves accordingly, by, for example, never bothering to make time to see my brother to go through the revised bills.
I've told my brother he should just instruct the solicitor to write to the company and give them a deadline for the bill to be paid in its entirety, otherwise my brother will take them to court, as my brother has proof that all the additional work was requested and approved by the bigger company's agents on site. My brother, however, says he has to wait until the independent QS etc has reassessed and verified their work before starting legal proceedings (in a civil court), as the court would not be too impressed if my brother started the case then had to request an adjournment while he got together the paperwork to back up his claim.
If anyone has managed to read through all this without dying of boredom, I really would welcome your thoughts on the best way to proceed, please. All the stress is playing havoc with my family, especially my dad, who is distraught at the thought that the money that his much-loved brother worked so hard to get may be about to disappear into a big black hole.
Thanks for any advice you can give.
