NSW Small Claims Court - Rural Fencing Contractor Matter

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greg478

Active Member
22 February 2018
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My brother is a fencing contractor in a country town in NSW. A very successful and well respected rural fencer in the area.

Late last year he attended a job and offered a ESTIMATE to build a wild dog fence on a property. The job was to remove a small section of fence and install a new fence in its original location as well as adjoin two brand new sections of fence which was a total of around 700m of fence

The owner of the property agreed to provide star pickets, grippels (to join the dog mesh together), 3 x Gates and hinge kits.

My brother was to provide the Posts, Strainers, Stays, Plain Wire, and Dog Mesh and the owner agreed at the time of quotation that if the dog mesh was provided they will install the mesh once the plain wire was installed.

2 days after he installed the post the owners father of the property approached him and advised he installed the fence in the wrong location. ( the fence was installed in the exact same location as the old fence but the owners wanted this move after the installation but didn't communicate this until after the post where already installed for 2 days). They where advised the fence could be moved again but there would be an additional fee. The owner got upset and ordered my brother and his staff off the property.

2 days later the owner decided via a phone call it is ok to leave the fence in its current location and asked for my brother to come back and complete the fence work.

My brother returned for the job site and installed the 3 gates. He then advised the owner that it is ok for them now to install the dog mesh, The owner become upset again and advise that in the estimate it outlines remove old fence and install a wild dog fence. My brother advised that because of the initial conversation he hadn't included this into his estimate and he agreed to install the dog mesh for free out of good will. But requested that she pay the final labour amount before he finalised the job.

She refused to pay the final labour fee and my brother advised he had to move onto the next job and could complete her job until the final about fee was paid upfront.

The next day he removed all of his tools and materials and left the job. After this he was harassed on facebook and slandered all over social media, he had to have them blocked of his account.

Today he received a letter from a local lawyer advising that their client is willing to resolve this matter if all money paid to my brother $5500 be returned and all the materials left over returned other wise they will take the matter to small claims court.

They have alleged in the letter the following:
1) the dog fence has been installed back to front making it in effective
2) The fence was installed on the wrong boundary
3) The Straining post have not been installed correctly have have virtually fallen out
4) The Fence work is incomplete
5) You have removed materials paid for by our client from the site

My brothers business is still owed $1357.30 for the work completed and the owner had been informed via txt and email once it is paid in full the dog fence mesh will be installed for free.

We are looking for advice or a quotation to reply to the lawyer to assist in resolving this matter. Ideally we would like it heard by a third party as there is a lot of evidence of the lengths this customer has gone to damage the work my brothers had completed.

The best outcome is to resolve the matter but her claims are ridicules. I have copies of the letters from the Lawyer and the quotation as well as abusive emails, text and social media slander.
 

Rod

Lawyer
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27 May 2014
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A lawyer in the local town/next closest town is probably best to handle a job like this.

Hopefully your brothers have photos of the work they did.

And they may have an action for defamation and should ask the lawyer about writing a separate letter addressing that part of their matter.

The matter as you've explained is the risk of relying on verbal conversations. For many rural people a verbal agreement is fine and prefered, but sometimes it doesn't work out. As long as they accept problems can go hand-in-hand with verbal contracts they are ok.

I suspect the trashing of their name is more serious than the $1k they are owed. I can help with a letter addressing this issue, but as I mentioned above a local lawyer may be able to help in all aspects.
 
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