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08/08/2008, 12:14 Val_2 Joined on 23/08/2004 Posts 3,194 Suing a client If you decide to go down this route I thought you should know from  our current experiences that you must be 500% sure of your trade and your facts because it is horrendous when an appointed l'Experte Architecte by the court gets involved. UK methods of work are not recognised easily and when pages of reports demands an extremely detailed and meticulous reply in technical french in return you may find you have problems. You have been warned and I must continue with my pages of technical french to submit. Anyone wanting to know details of what to do should contact me by PM if you are in the same position.    Report

08/08/2008, 15:56 Val_2 Joined on 23/08/2004 Posts 3,194 Re: Suing a client I didn't get to finish this posting because OH had a severe shock reaction to a wasp sting half way through and had to be rushed for an injection.  This post is really for those of us who work and earn our living in the building trades in France and how difficult it is to sue a client for the non-payment of factures. We are nearly a year down the line since we decided to start proceedings to recover a sum of €6000 which is a lot of money and needed to pay our cotisations and bills etc so there was no way we would let this amount be written off. However we are up against some very nasty people who have done this before and are actually evil in their treatment of local artisans and lies told are beyond belief. It has so far cost over €1000 plus more to pay for a meeting with the avocat this week. I wanted to warn fellow countrymen that it is difficult to sue and you need to be able to write and converse in technical terms to reply to an expert's report to back up your side of the argument so if your language is no good, I wouldn't advise to start the affair.    Report

08/08/2008, 20:11 Jura Joined on 28/11/2005 Posts 816 Re: Suing a client Val_2 I am not in your trade - the hospitality trade to be more precise - but I do certainly relate to what you are saying. It seems the wrong-doers have the upper hand here and one wonders how/why the laws here protect them so much? It is a shame the French motto does not include 'honnetete' along with 'liberte, egalite, fraternite'... Good luck with your case, I feel so angry for you.    Report

09/08/2008, 7:50 Val_2 Joined on 23/08/2004 Posts 3,194 Re: Suing a client Thanks,much appreciated support. Yes the little man here always suffers but to us its the principal and no one has taken them on before I believe sothey need teaching a lesson.    Report

11/08/2008, 8:13 Framboise Joined on 29/11/2006 At home in the Orne Posts 649 Re: Suing a client Good for you Val!!  My OH got ripped off back in UK by some ****s for about 10,000k, these being supposed "pillars of the community" - social workers.    He did the work and loads of extras on top, then they announced that actually they didn't have any money to pay for it being as they were such saints and earning a pittance for doing such a wonderful job for the needy (junkies).   Well thats great but it left us right up the creek without a paddle, particularly as we were winding down in readiness to come to France ,so in the end after seeing the task ahead to force these thieves to pay up was a long drawn out affair my OH walked away from it but  not before warning every other artisan that he could think of that this lot were con-artists and thieves.  Hopefully this will stop them robbing anyone else like they did us. No Val, you go get 'em and prove that they cannot carry on like this systematically ripping people off.     Report

11/08/2008, 8:59 Maricopa Joined on 01/10/2007 Minervois, Hérault Posts 782 Re: Suing a client Did anyone see recently (this year I think!) the case of the builder in Brighton, who having been told by his clients that they couldn't afford to pay for their new porch and conservatory doors, ripped it all out again to use elsewhere.  Served them right I say, and well done him.  Go for it! Maricopa Never assume anything, it only makes an assofuandme    Report

11/08/2008, 18:13 Val_2 Joined on 23/08/2004 Posts 3,194 Re: Suing a client Yes I saw that and fully support his actions over there. I think with these particularly nasty people we have got involved in and learned too late from speaking with other local artisans later about their bad reputation ,they need to be taught a lesson even if it does come out with us paying an avocat for nothing. We have discovered so many lies even to the point where they have dated a photo two days after we stopped working there and had taken all the items in that photo out of the building and have told their avocat they are living in rented accom when they have been living in the same comfortable house on the property for the past 25years. Its all these little things they are using against us and its no wonder no one else will work for them locally as they threaten everyone with the code civil and litigation for the tiniest thing they do not like. I even had an offer from a fishermen friend to take some mates and sort them out.    Report

12/08/2008, 17:22 Logan Joined on 23/08/2004 Posts 777 Re: Suing a client I have always believed that French artisans belong to a trade union who do the suing for you. In my experience during many years of employing French artisans if you have a dispute with them they sue at the drop of a hat rather than negotiate problems. The costs are paid by their trade body. You have a devis that you sign but if the work does not get done to your satisfaction and you withhold payment until it is a summons usually results. Then it's cheaper to have the work done again rather than fight the case. Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (Horace).    Report

12/08/2008, 17:56 Patf Joined on 23/08/2004 SW Gers Posts 2,987 Re: Suing a client Val - hoping you husband has recovered from the wasp sting, I read your report of it on the other thread . And I hope you eventually get a positive result in your legal battle, it's worth fighting for the principle. Maricopa's story - I heard a similar one here. A firm of roofers had put a new roof on a house, and the owners refused to pay, for ages. So the roofers waited until they went out and drove up, removed the roofing materials and left them without a roof. Seems perfect poetic justice.I don't know what happened next .    Report

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