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Hi all,

Wife (and unofficial admin) of a plumber here, I'd appreciate some thoughts on this situation please.

Last week a builder asked my husband to change a rad in the dining room at a job he was working on. Nothing complex. All done easily.

2 days later he gets a call from the builder to say customer is complaining of a leak. He visits the property to find a rad valve is leaking - but not on the rad he changed. The leak was on an upstairs rad valve that needs replacing. He tells builder it is nothing to do with his work, he didn't even go into that room.
Builder says no worries, change it and he will cover the bill, good customers of his etc etc. Fine. All done.

He has now had a call to say there is no hot water 4 days after last visiting the property. He has been out and the 3 port valve has gone.
Says to builder "Again, not my fault, this is an old house. Fault with 3 port valve is electrical inside, nothing to do with pipework"
Builder tells customer, customer says absolutely must be plumbers fault as "it was working before he came here, plumber must be dodgy as already had a leak"
Builder explains that he covered the leak as a goodwill gesture, but wasn't plumbers fault.
Customer doesn't care, and will withhold money from the builders bill until it is sorted.

I suppose I am asking WWYD in this scenario?

As it stands, we have 2 bills outstanding with builder for the work undertaken, I don't suppose he will be in a hurry to pay if the customer is withholding money. Builder is v reasonable but is stuck in the middle here.
But surely a plumber cannot be expected to be responsible for all pipes/parts etc of an entire house just because they have done some work there? That is ridiculous.
I don't know how we proceed from here though.
 
Hi all,

Wife (and unofficial admin) of a plumber here, I'd appreciate some thoughts on this situation please.

Last week a builder asked my husband to change a rad in the dining room at a job he was working on. Nothing complex. All done easily.

2 days later he gets a call from the builder to say customer is complaining of a leak. He visits the property to find a rad valve is leaking - but not on the rad he changed. The leak was on an upstairs rad valve that needs replacing. He tells builder it is nothing to do with his work, he didn't even go into that room.
Builder says no worries, change it and he will cover the bill, good customers of his etc etc. Fine. All done.

He has now had a call to say there is no hot water 4 days after last visiting the property. He has been out and the 3 port valve has gone.
Says to builder "Again, not my fault, this is an old house. Fault with 3 port valve is electrical inside, nothing to do with pipework"
Builder tells customer, customer says absolutely must be plumbers fault as "it was working before he came here, plumber must be dodgy as already had a leak"
Builder explains that he covered the leak as a goodwill gesture, but wasn't plumbers fault.
Customer doesn't care, and will withhold money from the builders bill until it is sorted.

I suppose I am asking WWYD in this scenario?

As it stands, we have 2 bills outstanding with builder for the work undertaken, I don't suppose he will be in a hurry to pay if the customer is withholding money. Builder is v reasonable but is stuck in the middle here.
But surely a plumber cannot be expected to be responsible for all pipes/parts etc of an entire house just because they have done some work there? That is ridiculous.
I don't know how we proceed from here though.


Hello.
I can only speak for myself here obviously.

The person responsible for paying the invoice is in my view, the person who requested the work be done. In this case it would be the Builder.

Carrying out work in any property does not make the tradesman doing it responsible for everything in that property.

In all honesty, it doesn't make them responsible for the things they do work on to a certain extent. People have a duty to keep there property and all it contains in a reasonably well service and maintained condition.

Send the Builder a statement for the outstanding invoices.
Do not get involved in financial discussion with the Builders Customer. Doing that may sway the Builders perspective on who owes who.

All my opinion, others may differ.
 
It's much the same as a Tyre fitter putting a new tyre on, then another tyre gets a puncture, shear coincidence.
Maybe it was the way he let the jack down, Yeah right..

It seems to be getting quite common on forums now about customers raising issues towards the end of the work and then withholding.
There must be a website somewhere that's offering advice on how to do it.

Found it;
we'll-help-you-rip-a-genuine-trademan-off.co.uk.
 
I agree the straightforward and in my opinion fully justified approach is to bill the builder and push for payment.

However, you are probably going to lose the builder as a customer, and be bad-mouthed by the builder's customer.

If you want to keep the builder as a customer, suggest replacing the 3 port with the customer paying for the part but fitting for free. The customer cannot reasonably expect to get a brand new valve for nothing. Then, with the builder and customer, demonstrate the system working and leak free. Clearly anything further not down to you, you keep the builder sweet and perhaps even gain a direct customer.
 
I would bill the builder, but first explain to him where I stood with this and that I wasn’t happy about his customer making silly accusations against me.

I wouldn’t want to do any more work for that customer unrelated to the new rad and the new rad valve jobs.
(If anything else went wrong, more allegations could be made against you).

It isn’t a difficult one for an independent plumber to give a professional opinion on if it is possible that other parts of an old system going faulty are your fault, - or not.
I guess it is going to be the - “or not” answer. :)
I suggest the builder gets another plumber to clear your name.
In fact, why not get a qualified plumber to do you a favour and go with you to the job to view the problems and hear the customers story?

Also forgot to add, maybe don’t work for builders who don’t stand up for you when you have done good work and don’t pay you on completion
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys.
Builder is paying for all the plumbing work, so customer getting away with it but at least our bill is being paid.

I'm now wondering if it is worth having some sort of terms and conditions for customers to read/sign before work starts.
Does anyone else do this?

Yep, even on little jobs like the one your husband did for this builder its worth having clear terms and conditions/disclaimers that the customer is aware of and signs off. I've made the mistake myself before with little jobs of thinking its a bit over kill and then getting badly burnt.
 
Your problem was dealing with a difficult customer.

What ever terms and conditions you come up with would not have helped in this situation.

PS: Get accustomed to it - this won't be your last
 
Still not fair for you as the plumber, despite the builder going to pay you.
The customer said you caused two faults and really this allegation should have been addressed by the builder.
If the customer refused to accept the faults were unrelated to you, then it could be used to tarnish your reputation on work quality.
 

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