Struggling over justice, money and difficult people

[JessicaV]

As I struggle against fatigue, insurance companies, and seeing a couple of clients on a back-to-work trial, I am having a very upsetting problem with a web developer. His wife is a local fellow psychologist I had known professionally for a couple of years and thought was a friend, and she recommended him, so I engaged him about a year prior to my cancer diagnosis to build me a website.
He insisted on a $1500 deposit before even meeting. (We never did get to meet) After a couple of months, since I had still not really managed to put together much about what text and pictures etc I wanted, I paid it as a gesture of good faith. And at the same time, I emailed him to say not to start yet cos I was not ready yet. Between then (Oct 2012 and Dec 2014, I several times suggested possible approximate dates to meet but always had to cancel them because I could not make it. Because of my increasing health problems with serious knee injuries (which I believe was part of the same VitD deficiency syndrome that I believe was a big part of the cause of my cancer) and then the Jan 2014 cancer diagnosis, surgery and TCH Chemo, and then ongoing severe fatigue, I was never actually ready till May of this year.
No contract was ever signed, just a quote, invoice and receipt, plus annual bills for domain reg at $50 per year. (So he has no contractual right to keep that money.) I kept in touch, emailing him every few months, and he occasionally emailed me to ask what I wanted to do with my website. Finally in May 2015 I emailed him all my pics and text and info re design and said I was ready to get this show on the road. First he said he would do it but it would take a long time because he is now working full time doing other (non-webdesign) work. I was prepared to be flexible so long so long as we had a first meeting and timeline.
Now he says he cannot do it at all, which I do understand, and would be fine with. Except that he has also decided the $1500 is his, that "you can't ask for refunds after more than 2 years", and that I have no right to ask for it back. He is quoting terms and conditions that he now wants to impose that mean I broke our agreement by taking more that 4weeks.
Alternatively he wants to charge me $900 for hosting a website that never existed, plus $200 for the last year's domain registration and pay the balance. I have tried to say I am willing to consider actually losses he has incurred at cost. But he will not produce any receipts for amounts he has had to pay, and seems to be thinking he can just through inflated costs at me and expect them to be paid out of my deposit.
The Business Dev Centre tell me that I have every right to have that money back, but may have to take it through the Magistrate's Court or hire a debt collector. They are currently trying to mediate, but they doubt that he will budge.
I am somewhat shocked at being treated like this, and even more at being made to battle to get my money back after my battle with cancer.
Furthermore, I have just discovered that he is a 38yr old paraplegic because he did very foolish things on fast bikes as a 15yr old. So he is in a wheelchair, and I gather is very good at using this to get his own way. I am worried that a Magistrate may well be influenced by this.
The whole thing is a massive energy drain, and I feel really stupid for paying over that much money without a contract and without being ready to start. if I could afford it, I would just drop the whole thing, but currently I am taking money from our small offset account on our large expensive family mortgage to pay for essentials. Because my husband earns over $60,000 before tax I am not eligible for help from Legal Aid.
Any suggestions? I am in Western Australia.

[Lucy]

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this on top of everything else. Did the exchanges between you about he would do it but it would take a long time and then saying he couldn't do it at all occur in writing? If so I would think that would weigh in your favor especially if the timing between the two was fairly close together.

I don't normally encourage this but if he were to play the paraplegic card, play the cancer card. You're still dealing with it and it wasn't anything you did that caused it to happen.

I'm not familiar with the legal options in Australia so I can't offer a lot of advice but I wish you the best of luck and hope you can get your money back.

[thinkpositive]

Jessica,

Your probably aren't going to like my response but you asked for suggestions. I would just let it go and chalk the whole thing up to a learning experience. It was a $1500 learning experience. In my opinion, the time and energy it will take to pursue this is not worth the negative impact it will have on your mental and physical health. It is always a good idea to put things like this in writing to avoid these types of problems.

Take care,
Brenda

[tricia keegan]

Lucy said what I was thinking, play the cancer card if he decide's to use his own position to gain sympathy. I don't know if you have a small claims court there, we have one here in Ireland and we can take someone to court fairly cheaply up to a max of around E2000, hopefully you can do something similar and get this money back which is rightfully yours. I'm sorry you have to deal with this though.

[BonnieR]

It's obvious that you are in the right and have the documentation to back it up(email correspondences etc). But it's my guess that he doesn't have the money to pay, even if you did win in court. in his mind, it's water under the bridge and money long spent
Absolutly he must not get another dime from you with his absurd demands
But you have been without this money for several years and I fear it will cost you more, both emotionally and financially, to get it back.
Have you spoken to the wife?
It sounds like they are in some pretty sad circumstances themselves
I hope mediation will be productive
Keep the faith