Your builder's work is defective and they won't fix it You can take them to court for the cost of putting it right
Bouncing floor tiles, a wet room leaking through the ceiling, work that isn't to specification — if a contractor has left you with defective building work and refuses to put it right, the small claims court is where you go to recover what it costs to fix. JustClaim prepares and files the paperwork for you, so you're not writing it alone at the kitchen table.
Courts may award simple interest on money you are owed — commonly 8% a year under the County Courts Act 1984, at the court's discretion rather than automatically — usually running from the date the money fell due. Court fees are typically added to a successful claim.
These are the situations people bring to us most often.
The sorts of things people tell us about this kind of dispute. 5 cases like it have come to us.
What a builder owes you, legally
Building work for a homeowner sits under consumer law as well as ordinary contract law. These are the provisions that usually decide unfinished and defective work.
ActConsumer Rights Act 2015, ss.49 & 57Services must be carried out with reasonable care and skill.
Section 49 implies a term into every contract where a trader supplies a service to a consumer: it must be carried out with reasonable care and skill. Section 57 limits how far a trader can exclude or restrict that term, so a line in a quote generally won't remove it. Work falling below the standard a competent tradesperson would meet is normally a breach, whether or not anything was written down.
Read it on legislation.gov.uk ↗ActConsumer Rights Act 2015, ss.51–52Where no price or deadline was fixed, both must be reasonable.
If the job was agreed without a firm completion date, the law fills the gap: it must be carried out within a reasonable time. What counts as reasonable generally depends on the scope of the work, agreed sequencing, access, supply problems and any variations — which is what answers a flat "there was never a deadline".
Read it on legislation.gov.uk ↗ActConsumer Rights Act 2015, ss.54–56Repeat performance, price reduction — and damages alongside.
The statutory service remedies are repeat performance (the trader putting the work right at their own cost, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience) and, where that isn't possible or doesn't happen, a price reduction which can run up to the full amount paid. Section 54 preserves other remedies too, including damages, so this is not always a rigid sequence. Evidence of the opportunity given to the trader is typically something courts consider.
Read it on legislation.gov.uk ↗Case lawDamages — the cost of putting it rightThe usual measure is what it costs to get the work finished properly.
Contract damages generally aim to put you in the position you would have been in had the work been done properly, and the usual starting point is the reasonable cost of completing and correcting it. Courts may also weigh proportionality, betterment and mitigation — where a remedial cost is out of all proportion, the measure can instead reflect the reduction in value. A written quote from another trader is typically central either way.
Case lawFailure of basis — money paid for work never doneA deposit taken for work that never happened is usually recoverable as a debt in restitution.
Where you paid for something and received essentially nothing in return, the law of unjust enrichment generally allows recovery of the payment on the ground that the basis for it failed totally. It typically runs alongside a breach-of-contract claim and can be simpler where a trader took a deposit, never started, and then disappeared — there is little to argue about beyond the fact of payment.
ActLimitation Act 1980, s.5Six years from the breach, as a general rule.
Time generally runs from the breach rather than from when you noticed it, so defects that surface years later can raise harder limitation questions. Evidence — quotes, messages, photographs — also tends to be easier to assemble while the work is recent.
Read it on legislation.gov.uk ↗General information about the law of England and Wales, not advice on your case. Different rules can apply to work done for a business rather than a household.
What they might say — and where you stand
A contractor is usually responsible for using suitable materials and installing them correctly. If work is unsuitable for purpose, courts may still hold the contractor liable even where a supplier is partly to blame.
Where there have been repeated failed remedial attempts and the defect remains, that history usually helps show the original work wasn't done properly, rather than closing the matter.
A contractor sometimes tries to rely on an insurer to delay or avoid dealing with you directly. Courts typically still look at the contract between you and the contractor, not the insurance arrangement.
Even if a subcontractor did the actual work, the main contractor you paid usually remains responsible to you under the contract, regardless of who they used underneath.
Three steps, no solicitor
Your side, your words
What happened, what was agreed, what you are out of pocket. We ask what a court would ask.
A formal demand
A letter before action with a deadline, setting out what is owed and why. Many disputes end here.
Court claim, prepared
If they will not engage: a small claim drafted, checked and filed. We do the paperwork; the decision is the court’s.
What JustClaim is: we prepare and file the paperwork for your claim, for a fixed price shown before you pay. We're not a law firm, this isn't legal advice, and no outcome is ever guaranteed — what you get is the strongest honest version of your case, properly made.
Questions people in this exact spot ask
The builder admitted the floor was wrong but still won't fix it — does that help?
Yes, usually. If defects have been acknowledged by the contractor, even informally in texts or emails, that can be useful evidence. It doesn't decide the claim on its own, but it removes one thing you'd otherwise have to prove.
We've had three attempts to fix the wet room and it still leaks. What now?
A pattern of failed remedial attempts is often relevant. Courts may consider whether it's reasonable to expect a third-party contractor to redo the work instead, and factor the cost of that rebuild into any award.
The work wasn't built to building regulations — does that matter for a claim?
It can. A breach of building regulations, or work not matching an architect's specification, is often treated as evidence the work wasn't carried out with reasonable skill and care, which is usually a key part of these claims.
Can I claim if there's no written contract, just a verbal agreement?
Often yes. A contract doesn't have to be in writing to exist. Invoices, texts, bank transfers and messages about the job usually help show what was agreed, even without a formal document.
The contractor has disappeared — is it still worth claiming?
It depends on whether you can still locate and serve them, and whether they have assets a judgment could realistically be enforced against. It's worth checking this before starting, as a judgment against someone who's 'done a runner' can be hard to collect.
How much can I claim — just the repair cost, or more?
Typically the claim covers the reasonable cost of putting the defect right, sometimes including the cost of a third-party rebuild if the original contractor's fixes failed. It usually doesn't include unrelated costs like general inconvenience unless there's a specific basis for that.
Get the defective work claim moving
Tell us what happened — the floor, the wet room, the leak, the refusal to fix it. We'll help you turn it into paperwork a court can act on.
Claim what you're owed →