Builder or tradesman took a deposit and vanished: your options, the paperwork, and how to find their address for a claim

First: who did you actually pay?

Look at the quote, the invoice, the bank payee name and any messages. Three situations are common:

A company that has been dissolved, or that was struck off between the quote and the dispute, is a separate problem: finding a company director's home address explains when a claim against the director personally is possible.

Money routes that do not need an address

• Paid by credit card: the card provider can be jointly liable with the trader for a breach of contract or misrepresentation under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, where the price is within the limits the Act sets. Write to the card provider with the evidence.
• Paid by debit or credit card: ask the card provider about a chargeback. It is a card-scheme process rather than a legal right, it has time limits, and it works best where the evidence is simple: paid, nothing delivered.
• Paid by bank transfer: tell your bank. If the trader never intended to do the work, that is fraud, and the rules on reimbursing authorised push payment scams may apply; report it to the bank first and to Action Fraud. A genuine dispute about work that started and stopped is treated as a civil matter, not a scam, so be accurate about which it is.
• Trading Standards: report the trader through the Citizens Advice consumer service, which passes cases to Trading Standards. They act on patterns rather than individual refunds, but a report builds the record and can prompt action against a rogue trader.
• A trade body or guarantee scheme: if the trader advertised membership of a scheme, check whether it is real and whether it offers a dispute service or a deposit guarantee.

None of these stops you also making a civil claim, and a claim is often what gets a reply.

The letter before claim

Courts expect the parties to have tried to resolve a dispute before a claim is issued. For a consumer claiming against a trader, the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct applies: a letter setting out what happened, what you are claiming and why, the documents you rely on, and a reasonable time to reply, with 14 days common for a simple claim. Say what you will do if there is no reply. Keep a copy and proof of posting.

The letter has to reach them. An email to an address they used throughout is fine for pre-action correspondence, and often all you have. If the trader has moved from the address on the quote, or the "yard" was a residential address they have left, a letter sent there proves only that you tried. For the claim form itself, the court needs an address at which the defendant can be served, so the question of where they live now has to be answered before you issue.

The small claims track

Most deposit disputes fall within the small claims limit and can be issued online through Money Claim Online. You pay a court fee based on the amount claimed, which is added to the claim if you win, and you can claim interest. The form asks for the defendant's name and address, and that address is where the court sends the claim. If the trader does not respond, you can ask for judgment in default; if they do, the court sets a hearing or deals with it on paper.

Two points about the address. First, the rules for serving an individual send the claim form to their usual or last known residence, and expect you to take reasonable steps to find out their current address if you have reason to think they have moved. A judgment obtained at an address the defendant had left can be set aside later, which wastes the fee and the months. Second, a judgment is only money when it is enforced, and every enforcement method, from enforcement agents to an attachment of earnings order, needs to know where the debtor is. Finding a defendant's address for Money Claim Online and enforcing a CCJ when the debtor has moved cover both ends.

Finding the tradesman

For a limited company, the public register answers the question. For an individual, a professional trace does. The minimum to start is the person's full legal name plus a date of birth or a previous address, and the address on the quote, the invoice or the van, or the house they were working from, counts as a previous address. Add the phone number, the business name, any other name they used and anything they told you about where they live or work. Nicknames and partial names are a problem; a surname and a first name from a bank transfer or a signed quote are enough to begin.

Trace Bureau cross-references more than 150 sources, registers and records, and a private investigator verifies the result before it is released. You receive a dated PDF report with the person's current registered UK address and a confidence rating: Confirmed, Probable or Possible. Money owed under a contract is a legitimate interest under UK GDPR, so a deposit paid for work not done is a lawful reason to trace; we record the purpose against the instruction, and the trader is not told who instructed it. Standard is £150, delivered within 3 to 5 working days, and Priority is £200, delivered within 2 to 3 working days. Nothing is paid at instruction. Your card is only held, and it is charged only when a private investigator has verified a current address. Not found, no fee.

If the trace shows the person has left the UK, you are told and not charged, and you can decide whether the sum justifies an international enquiry.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

In Scotland most consumer claims of this size go through Simple Procedure in the sheriff court, and in Northern Ireland through the small claims process in the county court. Both need the respondent's address. The pre-action expectations differ, so check the court service's own guidance. The trace itself covers the whole of the UK.

Next time

Get the trader's full name and home address on the quote before you pay anything, check a limited company on the public register before paying one, pay a deposit by credit card where you can, and keep deposits small until materials are on site. None of that helps with this dispute, but it is what the people who do this work for a living do themselves.

When to instruct a trace

When the trader is an individual, the address you have is dead, and the sum is worth a claim. Instruct a trace online in about five minutes with what is on the quote, or see the page for tracing a debtor.