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Hi Jackie. Have you discussed this with the contractor at all?
OK, thank you for your response. I will review the relevant information and laws and will get back to you as soon as I can. Please do not respond to this message as it will just push your question to the back of the queue and you may experience unnecessary delays. Thank you
Many thanks for your patience. First f all it is important to consider if you have any legal responsibility towards this customer. This is a contractual issue, one which would depend on who they have a contract with. In the circumstances it would appear that the customer has a contract with the contractor and in turn the contractor has a contract with you. Therefore, the legal relationship the customer has will be solely with the main contractor, not you. You may have been the one who attended to install the system but that does not create a direct contractual relationship between you and the customer so they will still have to resolve this issue with the contractor. The fact that they are in dispute does not make you liable – it is for them to resolve between them. You have kindly helped out so far to try and reprogram the system but that doe not mean you have an ongoing duty to continue doing so and attend with an engineer and do further work as and when the customer’s demands.
So make it clear to them that their contractual relationship is with the contractor and that is who would be legally answerable to them and who they need to pursue. Then state that any further unwarranted threats or demands will be treated as harassment so they should refrain from them.
This is your basic legal position. I have more detailed advice for you in terms of the law on harassment and how you can apply it here, which I wish to discuss so please take a second to leave a positive rating for the service so far (by selecting 3, 4 or 5 stars) and I can continue with that and answer any further questions you may have. Don’t worry, there is no extra cost and leaving a rating will not close the question and we can continue this discussion. Thank you
Thank you. As mentioned, this conduct could potentially amount to harassment, which could be both a civil matter and a criminal one. The law states that a person must not pursue a course of conduct which amounts to harassment of another and which he or she knows or ought to know amounts to harassment. Although there is no definition of what specifically amounts to harassment, it would usually include alarming a person or causing them distress and must have occurred on at least two occasions.
Under criminal law, and if this is reported to the police who then take action, the punishment for harassment can be imprisonment and/or a fine. A court may also impose a restraining order for the purpose of protecting the victim.
In addition to criminal action, a civil claim can also be brought against a person who is alleged to be guilty of causing harassment. The courts would award compensation to the victim, something that is unlikely to happen if this is pursued as a criminal issue.
So in the first instance the police can be contacted and this matter reported to them as harassment. However, they will not often get involved in trivial disputes so if they believe that this is not serious enough they could refuse to help and advise you that this is a civil matter. In such circumstances, the victim can warn the harasser that their actions are being treated as harassment and that unless they refrain from such behaviour in the future they will be reported to the police and legal action under harassment legislation taken against them.