Handyman bailed

Damn, you beat me to it 🤣

OP, I think you've been screwed, did you pay cash or something traceable?

Maybe you can ask the bank to do a chargeback, although that might just work for card transactions

Did the guy give you any sort of invoice or receipt for the deposit which might have his contact details?

OP, did the guy actually bail or were you supposed to contact him to organise the job and forgot his number?

If it's the latter then you probably can't claim it as fraud to the bank

How did you get in touch originally? I assume random people don't call to your door to offer tiling jobs, so maybe you can chase him down by the original contact method again?

Ah okay, the famous uncontactable tradesperson conundrum

There are legitimate reasons why he isn't answering, family issues or medical reasons

But he should return your deposit if he isn't going to do the job

I'm not really sure what your next steps are, if he's ghosted then it might be time to seek some legal advice

Not sure if the small claims court is applicable in this case

Get someone else to ring him and arrange a meet up at a different address for a job quote. Maybe have a few friends call around as well to help with any communication issues.

That's what I'd be doing.