Painter never finished job

Paid a painter in full €500 seven weeks ago to paint rooms in house. At this stage he was nearly half finished. Problem is I haven't seen him since he got paid. He won't answer his phone and occasionally replies to text messages saying he will definitely be there in the morning. Of course he has never shown up. I am thinking of going down the legal route but don't know if it's worth while. I never signed a contract so not sure whether the legal route will work. Advice needed please.

Apart from that mobile phone, do you know his address etc? Why did you pay him when he was 1/2 finished?

I paid him cos I trusted him and knew him relatively well. (lesson learned). I'll have to get in contact with his sister to find his address.

If he doesn't atone, report him to the Revenue or Department of Social Protection. They love undeclared income, which he might have in this case.

Okay but he has till October 31st to declare it so I need to do something short term.

In any event, I don't think Revenue place much credence on 'revenge complaints', unless supported to some extent with evidence of evasion.

Just tell him by text if necessary that you will need to get some one else to complete the job and that this will cost you more money which you cannot afford. To recoup this money you will need to contact Revenue to see if they can allow any tax relief as you are broke.

Also mention that you are hoping that Department of Social Protection might be able to provide a trainee painter when you explain to them that you have already paid for the job to be done but it wasn't finished

Funny you mention 500 euro, we had a painter do the EXACT same on us a couple of years ago.
Small guy, drives a big grey car and says he is from Dundrum by any chance?
He never came back. i ended up doing it all myself and cursed him every brushstroke!!
That said i learned I could do it myself and have since done the soffit and facia boards outside myself which i was planning to pay someone to do beforehand and in the summer will tackle the outside of the house myself, so a slight positive to take from the experience!