We Have an Excuse to Break your Contract!

'We too have experienced an extraordinary degree of harassment from a small bunch of clients. There are two common factors:- they have all found somebody cheaper after they have signed us up to do the job, and they have all spoken to the same trading standards officer, looking for an excuse to break the contract.

The favourite excuse, sorry, reason has been delay. As we are a bespoke joinery company, making individually-designed buildings, mainly conservatories and greenhouses, to a very high standard from hand-selected timber, and also providing planning application services, there is always going to be a delay.

We have been obliged to completely re-write our terms of business because the same trading standards officer has threatened us with a 'Stop Now!' order because of our original terms. When I challenged the T.S.Office to state how our 'trading practices were unacceptable', [quote] I was told that we were, 'Taking money from people and not doing any work' [quote] !!!

We have only just last month discovered the extent to which the TSO has influenced and interfered with our contracts with a total of six customers. In none of these case did the T.S. Office contact us at any time or at all. In response to our complaint of unfair treatment, the Herefordshire Council said that they 'could not find anything wrong with the way in which our complaint had been handled' [sic].

Next week we are seeing the council with our solicitor, but this, ostensibly, is only so that we can grovel and beg them not to take us to court for our 'trading practices'. [That will not be happening.]

After that, certainly, we shall be taking our complaint to the Ombudsman, and then, if we do not gain satisfaction, on to judicial review.'

John Malone
Company Secretary
Silver Buckle Design Limited
Hereford