Library Ticket

We paid a deposit to a tradesman for made to measure furniture early in December and were a given a start date for the work of 23 January. Tried to contact him the day before to find out what time he was starting and he didn´t answer his phone. Contacted his office and were told there was a problem with the order and he would be in touch later that day. That didn´t happen and we then found the office didn´t answer their phone either. After a few WhatsApps we eventually got a phone call from him to say that he had closed the office and sacked the staff as one of them had taken all the money from his business account, on top of that he was about to go into hospital and would be off work for around 6 weeks but he had found someone to loan him some money until he got back on his feet, health and businesswise.

We found some of it difficult to believe but the health issues we did know to be true.

A couple of weeks ago he was back at work and said he would give us a start date for our job within the next few days. Again that didn´t happen and he id no longer responding to our WhatsApps or answer his phone, either cutting it off after a few rings or just not answering. He also has his "read" notification switched off on WhatsApp. We have told him (by WhattsApp) that we are cancelling the order as he can´t supply it and have asked for our deposit back, we will also send an email and a hard copy of a letter will be hand dellivered to the premises which we know he is still using . We don´t expect to get the deposit back williingly as he´s obviously in some sort of financial trouble, whether that is through the fault of his staff or him we don´t know.

Where do we stand with this? What do we do next, go to the Guardia and denounce him or approach an abogado?

Fred James

How much money are we talking about?

Library Ticket

2,200 €

missile

It is a civil matter, so not Guardia.
Denuncia at Ayuntamiento
Abogado or Gestor might be your best option

1sexsmith

Is he British or Spanish?

Library Ticket

Thank you, which Ayuntamiento? The one where we live or where his business premises are?

Library Ticket

He´s British and has done work for us before on two occasions, satisfactorily or we wouldn´t have given him this job.

1sexsmith

The problem with British is that they might not comply with all the various regulations which can mean they are not always registered correctly with the authorities, this in turn can make it harder to track them down and legally deal with them. They often just disappear back to UK which effectively means it is near as impossible to do anything about it unless you are prepared to pay a lot of legal costs and possibly wait years.
With hindsight it probably shows we shouldn't pay deposits to individual tradesmen. They should simply present you with receipts for materials and then paid when work is completed
Deposits of a large size should only be paid to businesses that have clear written conditions which are agreed and signed.
if you can't contact him at all then you should at least publish his name on a local Facebook group to warn others.

missile

I would try both. When I made a denuncia it had to be done in Spanish. As I suggested you might want to use a gestor / Abogado.

Lynn R

I think it will be your local OMIC office who deals with matters like this, but you would probably have to supply evidence of having tried to resolve the matter with the supplier including having filled in their Complaints Book, which would be problematic if the supplier is not responding to attempts to contact them.

Presentación de reclamaciones y quejas - Consumo - Generalitat Valenciana (gva.es)

philat98

In Italy you have to be cautious when making a denuncia. The authorities sometimes fine both parties particularly where building work has been done.

Library Ticket

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions, we now have a few avenues to follow.

VFR

Even worse in Burma where your very existence could be at risk, but , was the OP asking about Spain ?

philat98

I know but Spain and Italy operate in a similar way.

missile

Really, never heard of anyone making a denuncia in Spain being fined(?)