Hi there,
In today’s post I am going to tell you about my experience in this arbitration court in Porto.
As I have been telling you in several articles since I arrived in Porto, I discovered most of the people who provide services are scammers.
This is something I have never experienced in any other country.
In Spain leaving a negative review most of the time was enough for the company to solve the problem. If not, the next step was a complaint at the consumer’s office and the situation was sure to be resolved even though this body has no legal authority.
In Portugal, we must assume that the company after charging you does not care about losing you as a customer and therefore will not make any effort to give you the service/product you have paid for.
There are two platforms to file claims: Livro de Reclamações and Portal Queixa.
Livro de Reclamações simply sends the complaint to the company and Portal Queixa does nothing, it is simply a website where you post your evaluation depending on how the brand has handled the problem.
Then all over the country there are arbitration tribunals that handle consumer disputes either with companies or individuals.
From the beginning I handled all my complaints in CICAP, although there are more arbitration tribunals in Porto.
In this office you have free legal advice on consumer matters. I did not know about this until I had the problem with the work on the floor.
I have made many complaints of which I have only lost one against IKEA for 12 euros. They had sent us towels that were dirty and they did not replace them.
Our mistake was that we washed the towels and did not take them to court. Although no one showed up on IKEA’s side, we lost. But we were left with a learning for the future.
One important thing is that you don’t need to be represented by a lawyer either, which is a great relief since a lawyer’s representation costs a lot of money.
I also sued Paulo Correia, who did the renovation work on my bathroom, and he did not show up. The trial was held, and I won, but I would have to find a lawyer to do an executory process and have the court collect the money from wherever it can.
Nicolas Scavone’s complaint went nowhere because they didn’t even manage to serve him with the notice. It appeared that the address was false.
I then denounced Clínica Luso Espanhola for the miserable sum of 55 euros since they had deceived me by saying they had a periodontist and when I went to the consultation, it turned out that it was a general dentist who had no idea.
Coming from trials where I was alone because the defendant did not show up, this time the clinic sent a lawyer who had no idea what I was claiming. The judge could not believe it.
When the lawyer finally realized that what I was asking for was a measly 55 euros, she went out to call her client to get them to accept payment. So, this process ended with a settlement.
Then we were scammed by Rocha Automóveis and there are 2 articles here on the blog about that story.
We were asking for the return of the 1000 euros they had stolen from us plus what we had spent on Uber.
In the negotiation phase the Rocha Automóveis lawyer first proposed the return of 500 euros, then 700 and finally they agreed to return the 1000 euros. For his part, Diego gave in asking only for the one thousand euros without the Uber expenses. So, this process was also closed with an agreement.
I spent a year chasing the architect who charged me to legalize the situation of the house until I realized that he had swindled me.
Since my lawyer was also not handling the situation as quickly as I needed, I proceeded to file a complaint with CICAP.
The lawyer verified the myriads of documents and evidence that I sent, and the process began its course.
At first, they could not find the architect, as was normal, but when we already had a date for the trial, he showed up a week before to ask for a change of date because his lawyer was on vacation.
I was very confident that I was going to win the trial because of the absurd amount of evidence I had; even so, I asked my lawyer to accompany me.
The jurist was by videoconference and practically did not let anyone speak; he only let us answer with yes or no and then let both lawyers close.
I arrived with a lot of confidence and left with doubts. After the horrible experience in the Justice of the Peace Court, I already knew that there are corrupt judges who can convict you despite having tons of evidence.
Fortunately, I won the trial and there I understood that the judge had it very clear from the first moment since the evidence I had provided was infallible.
Between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, a new nightmare began with Rui Almeida of Portas e Portões do Norte, since in addition to having swindled me and doing a bad job, he was threatening to denounce me.
As CICAP has free legal advice on consumer matters, I went to get some guidance before going into a lawsuit.
The lawyer recommended that I give Rui Almeida a second chance to rectify the work by sending him a quote from another carpenter and giving him 5 days to respond.
If he did not respond I could then go in with a process before CICAP as long as it was less than 5,000 euros.
As Portas e Portões do Norte is not a member of CICAP, they were only obliged to appear if the amount was less than 5,000 euros.
In general, so far, I was very happy with the functioning of this arbitration tribunal as it was clear that everyone was willing to work and do justice.
CICAP worked better than the Justice of the Peace and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
It is important to know if you have a consumer dispute:
- If the company you are claiming against is a member of CICAP, you can initiate the process for an amount of up to 30,000 euros.
- If the company is not a member of CICAP, you can only claim up to 5,000 euros. If the amount is higher, the company is not obliged to appear, and the process comes to nothing.
- If you denounce a private individual and he/she does not appear at the trial, the trial cannot be held, and the process goes nowhere. In that case you will have to go to the Justice of the Peace or the civil court.
- If you denounce a company, even if it does not show up, the trial is still held as long as it is a member of CICAP, or the amount is less than 5,000 euros.
- Opening a lawsuit used to be totally free, but from 2025 you must pay a small fee depending on the amount you are claiming.
- At the time of opening the process you must have proof of everything you are claiming and write the facts as clearly as possible.