Louise’s story

"When my boiler broke down, one of my friends from work put me in touch with her mate, Mike, who was a plumber. Mike popped round the next day and did a couple of hours’ work. When he finished the boiler seemed to be working fine, so I paid him the sixty quid we’d agreed on. A couple of weeks later the boiler broke down again. I called Mike but he didn’t seem interested - he said he didn’t have time to come and look at it. I had to call out an emergency plumber. I was told that Mike’s botch repair job had damaged the boiler so badly that I would have to buy a new one. When I called Mike to complain, he said he didn’t owe me anything because he’d only been doing a favour for a mate, and we hadn’t signed a contract.

In the end, I took him to court. The court said I did have a contract - even though I hadn’t signed anything. They said that Mike had broken the contract by doing poor quality work and damaging my boiler. I got compensation to cover the cost of a new boiler, the money I had to pay the emergency plumber".
Louise, Swansea

February 2009