Guides
Written to be understood, checked against the law.
Commercial & Contract Disputes
About this area →Withholding payment or ending a contract with a builder: the risks
When the law allows a customer to pay a builder less, when a breach is serious enough to end the contract, and why ending it without the right to do so can leave the customer liable to the builder.
Debt claims: which court track, and what costs can you recover?
How a defended money claim is allocated to the small claims, fast, intermediate or multi-track, what each track means for the legal costs a winning party can recover, and the court fees for issuing a claim and for the hearing.
Unpaid invoice time limits: how long do you have to claim?
How the Limitation Act 1980 applies to unpaid invoices: the six-year and twelve-year periods, when time starts, what an acknowledgment or part payment does, what counts as bringing a claim, and standstill agreements.
Statutory demand for an unpaid business debt: how it works
What a statutory demand is, the thresholds and time limits for companies and individuals, how it is served and challenged, what a petition costs, and why it is the wrong tool for a disputed debt.
Resolving a builder dispute: mediation, ADR and court
The routes to an outcome in a dispute with a builder: complaint and letter before claim, scheme-based dispute resolution, mediation, adjudication, the court tracks, recoverable costs and Part 36 offers.
Letter before action for an unpaid invoice: what the court expects
Which pre-action rules apply to a debt owed by a company and a debt owed by an individual or sole trader, what the letter has to contain and enclose, the 30-day periods, and what the court can do if the steps are skipped.
Late payment interest and compensation on unpaid invoices
What a business can add to a late commercial invoice under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998: statutory interest, fixed sums and recovery costs, and what applies when the Act does not.
Issuing a debt claim online and judgment in default explained
How a claim for a fixed sum is started through Money Claim Online or the Online Civil Money Claims service, what the particulars of claim must say, how long the defendant has to respond, and what default judgment, admissions, mediation and setting aside mean.
Evidence in a builder dispute: expert reports, photos and records
What decides a dispute with a builder: the contract documents, a dated record, proof of payment, independent expert evidence and the court rules that control it, and letting the builder inspect.
Enforcing a County Court judgment: getting paid after you win
What happens when a debtor ignores a County Court judgment: orders to obtain information, taking control of goods, third party debt orders, charging orders, attachment of earnings, judgment interest, time limits and insolvency.
Customer disputes the invoice: defences, set-off and counterclaims
The grounds a customer usually gives for not paying an invoice, how abatement, set-off and counterclaims work, when a no set-off clause holds, and how summary judgment deals with a weak defence.
The cost of putting bad building work right: what can be claimed
How the courts measure loss for defective or unfinished building work: the cost of reinstatement, when it is refused as disproportionate, betterment, mitigation, consequential losses and the limited damages for inconvenience.
Builder wants more money: quotes, estimates and extras
How the law decides what price was agreed for building work, when extras can be charged, what a reasonable price means where none was fixed, and a consumer's right to cancel a contract made at home or at a distance.
Builder gone bust or disappeared: what are the options?
What is left when a builder cannot or will not pay: sole traders and companies, liquidation, dissolved companies, the builder's insurer, guarantees and warranties, credit card claims and reporting a rogue trader.
Builder dispute time limits: how long do I have to claim?
The six-year and twelve-year contract limits, when time starts for defective building work, latent damage in negligence, the Defective Premises Act periods, deliberate concealment, and what does and does not stop the clock.
Builder did poor work: your rights under the Consumer Rights Act
The terms the Consumer Rights Act 2015 adds to a homeowner's contract with a builder, the remedies of repeat performance and price reduction, the rules for materials, and the position for business customers.
What the court expects you to do before you sue: pre-action conduct explained
The Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct, what a letter of claim must contain, why refusing mediation can cost you even if you win, and how the court tracks and fixed costs shape your decision.
Unpaid invoice: what are my options before going to court?
What you can claim on a late commercial invoice, what a letter before action must say, and when the small claims track is the right route.
Is my contract legally binding? Verbal agreements, emails and handshakes explained
The four elements every contract needs, why an exchange of emails is usually enough, when a signature actually matters, and the difference a deed makes to your time limit.
A contractor walked off the job: is that a breach of contract, and what can I claim?
When abandoning work is a repudiatory breach, how damages are measured, your duty to mitigate, and the extra protection consumers have under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Professional Negligence
About this area →Structural engineer negligence: a report on a purchase or a design for an extension
Claims against a structural engineer in England and Wales: a pre-purchase report that missed or misjudged a problem, or calculations and design for an extension or alteration that were wrong. Covers the scope of the instruction, who the engineer owed a duty to, building control, and which pre-action protocol applies.
Planning and building regulations: when the architect or engineer got it wrong
Claims against an architect or engineer over planning permission and building regulations: what the designer's duty covers, the designer duties in the Building Regulations in England since October 2023, how long councils have to take enforcement action, and what the loss can include.
Design defect or bad workmanship? When it's the architect, not the builder
How the law separates a design defect from poor workmanship, what happens when a builder follows a flawed design, how responsibility is shared when both are at fault, and why a net contribution clause in an architect's appointment can matter if the builder has gone bust.
Claims against architects and engineers: the construction pre-action protocol and the TCC
Why claims against architects and engineers follow the Pre-Action Protocol for Construction and Engineering Disputes rather than the professional negligence protocol, the steps and time periods it sets, the pre-action meeting, adjudication, and how the Technology and Construction Court deals with these claims.
Can I claim against an architect or engineer? What a negligence claim involves
What a claim against an architect or engineer involves in England and Wales: who counts as one, where the duty comes from in contract and tort, the reasonably competent professional standard, the scope of the appointment, insurance, and why a complaint to ARB or a professional body is not a claim for compensation.
Failure to inspect or certify: the architect as contract administrator
What an architect or other professional engaged to inspect the works or administer the building contract is expected to do, what the courts have said about periodic inspection, why a defect the inspector missed is not automatically negligence, and liability for certifying too much.
Time limits for claims against architects and engineers
How long there is to bring a claim against an architect or engineer in England and Wales: six years in contract (twelve for a deed), six years in negligence with the date-of-knowledge extension and fifteen-year longstop, and the longer periods for Defective Premises Act claims introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022.
Architect and engineer negligence: how loss is measured
How the courts in England and Wales measure loss in claims against architects and engineers: putting the client in the position they should have been in, cost of repair against loss of value, the reasonableness limit from Ruxley v Forsyth, wasted expenditure, the limits on economic loss claims in tort after Murphy v Brentwood, and caps in the appointment.
The architect's budget was wrong: cost overruns and negligent estimates
When an architect or other consultant gets the cost of a project badly wrong: whether advising on budget was part of the job, what the High Court said in Riva v Foster + Partners about designing to a client's budget, and how the law looks at the loss when a scheme cannot be built for what was promised.
Will drafting negligence: claims by disappointed beneficiaries
When a solicitor's mistake in preparing or signing a will means someone does not inherit as intended: the duty to beneficiaries, delay, witnessing errors, rectification and its six-month limit, and who can bring a claim.
Time limits for suing your solicitor: when the clock starts
What is distinctive about limitation in negligence claims against solicitors: contract and tort running side by side, when damage happens in lost-litigation and transaction cases, date of knowledge, deliberate concealment, the 15-year longstop and standstill agreements.
Can I claim against my own solicitor for negligence?
What a negligence claim against your own solicitor involves: the duty in contract and in tort, the scope of the retainer, the reasonably competent solicitor standard, causation and loss, insurance, complaints, and who the claim is made against.
Solicitor negligence in a business contract, share sale or lease
How the law treats a solicitor's drafting or advice failure in a business transaction: clauses that do not work, unexplained lease terms, lost security of tenure, the scope-of-duty limit, contributory negligence and rectification.
My solicitor missed a deadline: claim struck out or time-barred
What happens when a solicitor lets a limitation period expire, misses a court deadline or fails to serve a claim form in time, whether relief from sanctions can revive the claim, and what the client must prove to recover the lost claim.
My solicitor advised me to settle too low: is that negligence?
How the courts judge a solicitor's advice to settle a dispute, the difference between being badly advised and choosing to settle, consent orders on divorce, the evidence that matters, and how causation is proved.
Loss of a chance: how courts assess a claim your solicitor lost
How the courts measure damages when a solicitor's negligence cost a client a claim or an opportunity: Allied Maples, Mount v Barker Austin and Perry v Raleys, the percentage method in principle, and what gets deducted.
Funding a negligence claim against a solicitor: the options explained
How claims against solicitors are commonly paid for, and the legal basis of each option: private fees, legal expenses insurance, conditional fee agreements, damages-based agreements, after-the-event insurance and third-party litigation funding.
Complaining about a solicitor: the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA
The three routes when a solicitor lets you down (a service complaint to the firm and the Legal Ombudsman, a conduct report to the SRA, and a negligence claim in court), how their time limits work, and how they affect each other.
Right of way, easement or boundary problem: did your conveyancer miss it?
How rights of way, access and drainage rights and boundary discrepancies should be picked up on a purchase, what the buyer is expected to notice, and where HM Land Registry's own rectification and indemnity scheme fits in.
A restrictive covenant stops my plans and my conveyancer never warned me
When a conveyancer should have explained a restrictive covenant, what indemnity insurance does and does not do, how an application to the Upper Tribunal under s.84 Law of Property Act 1925 works, and how loss is measured: cost of cure or drop in value.
No planning permission or building regulations sign-off: my conveyancer didn't pick it up
What a conveyancer must do when a property has been extended or altered, how long councils have to take enforcement action in England and Wales, when indemnity insurance does and does not help, and how loss is measured if the problem was missed.
Leasehold conveyancing negligence: short lease, ground rent and service charges my conveyancer missed
What a conveyancer must check and explain when you buy a leasehold flat or house — the unexpired term, the ground rent, the service charge and planned major works, and the restrictions in the lease — and how loss is measured when they get it wrong.
Getting your conveyancing file and complaining: the firm, the Legal Ombudsman, the SRA and the CLC
Which parts of a conveyancing file belong to you, how a subject access request differs from asking for the file, how the complaints route works from the firm's eight weeks to the Legal Ombudsman's £50,000 limit, and why none of it stops the clock on a negligence claim.
Found the conveyancing problem when selling? How the time limits work
Why the limitation clock for a conveyancing claim usually starts at the purchase, not when the problem comes to light, how the contract and negligence periods differ, when the three-year knowledge rule and the fifteen-year longstop apply, and why the pre-action process needs time built in.
Conveyancing negligence: how the courts measure the loss
No-transaction and successful-transaction cases, diminution in value against cost of cure, consequential losses and wasted costs, the scope-of-duty limit, loss of a chance, and what reduces the figure.
My conveyancer didn't report a problem in the searches
What local, drainage, environmental, mining and chancel searches are for, why a conveyancer must explain the results as well as obtain them, and how causation and loss work when an adverse result was missed.
The surveyor's insurer says no: the letter of response, the defences you will meet, and what comes next
Once a letter of claim goes in, the surveyor's insurer has three months to respond. What the letter of response is, the arguments it will almost certainly contain, how offers and ADR work, and what issuing proceedings involves if it comes to that.
Mortgage valuation vs survey: can I claim against the lender's valuer?
A mortgage valuation is for the lender, but the valuer can still owe the buyer of a modest home a duty. When that duty arises, why it has limits, what changed for buy-to-let, and why a disclaimer may not save the valuer.
Level 1, 2 or 3: what your survey actually had to find
The RICS Home Survey Standard fixes what each level of survey involves. Whether a surveyor was negligent depends on which one you paid for, what was visible, and whether they followed the trail when something looked wrong.
Independent reports and retrospective valuations: the evidence a surveyor claim runs on
Two documents decide most claims against surveyors — an independent surveyor's report on what should have been found, and a retrospective valuation fixing the loss. What each must address, who should write them, how they are instructed, and what to preserve before anyone touches the defect.
I found the defect years after buying. Am I too late to claim against the surveyor?
How the Limitation Act's six-year, three-year and fifteen-year rules apply to a negligent survey, when each clock starts, what 'date of knowledge' really means, and the two ways a solicitor can protect a deadline that is close.
Diminution in value: how damages against a negligent surveyor are actually worked out
The measure is the drop in value at the date you bought, not the repair bill. How the courts got there, when repair costs and diminution coincide, what else can be added, and an illustration of the arithmetic.
Damp, roofs, knotweed, movement and drains: the defects surveyors are most often sued over
Five kinds of defect account for most claims against surveyors. For each: what a competent surveyor should have looked for, what the report should have said, and the evidence that decides whether they fell short.
Complaining to your surveyor first: the RICS complaints procedure, redress schemes, and when to stop and get advice
Every RICS-regulated firm must have a complaints procedure and belong to a redress scheme. How to use them, what they can and cannot award, why they do not stop the limitation clock, and the point at which a complaint should become a claim.
My surveyor missed a defect. Can I claim, and what is the claim actually worth?
What a RICS survey has to do, why damages are measured by the drop in value rather than the repair bill, what evidence you need, and how the professional negligence pre-action protocol works.
Time limits for professional negligence claims: six years, three years, and the fifteen-year longstop
How the Limitation Act 1980 sets the deadline for claims against surveyors, solicitors, architects and accountants, when the clock starts, what 'date of knowledge' really means, and how a standstill agreement buys time.
The professional negligence pre-action protocol: what happens before a claim is issued
The step-by-step process a claim against a surveyor, solicitor or accountant follows before court — preliminary notice, letter of claim, the three-month response, and why most claims settle inside it.
Conveyancing negligence: my solicitor missed a right of way, restriction or planning problem
The most common conveyancing failures, the difference between a service complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and a negligence claim, and what you need to prove that the mistake caused your loss.