In June last year we arranged for a local artisan to do some work on our maison secondaire, insulating our roof internally and covering the ceiling in plasterboard. It was agreed that the work would be done over the winter before we returned in April of this year, although this was not written into the devis. We had signed the devis and paid a 30% deposit in June and the cheque was duly cashed. In March we received an e-mail saying he had been unable to begin work due to employee problems and a backlog of work but he would begin at the end of March and the work would take approximately two weeks. We arrived in April to find no work had been started and so we sent him a text inviting him to a meeting to discuss the situation over a coffee. At the end of May we had still not heard from him so we visited our local mairie to ask what we should do. We were advised by the maire's assistant to write a strong letter insisting on definate timings and if he was not able to carry out the work to reimburse our deposit - and to send this by registered post. We sent the letter as soon as we returned to the UK, as we realised that any French registered post would be confirmed to our French address.Unfortunately, the British tracking system only tells us that the letter was delivered to 'La Poste' and not who signed for the letter. So far we have not received a reply! We are due to return to France in September for another couple of months and the question is what to do next? I have read the other posts on similar situations but unfortunately links posted by helpful people do not appear to work! Any suggestions will be gratefully received. Cher (18) and Northants.