Day rate

[dalegooderham]

Hi,

Why do I seem to pick um!!!!!!!!!!!

I was doing a bathroom (full installation) and two cloak rooms for a customer, when on the third week he said he would not be paying me any more money because he thougt it was taking too long.

I originally gave him an estimate and offered the day rate, he took the day rate.

The estimate was low because of the lack of work, he has said he will revert to this.

I said I needed time to think this over and i wasn't happy, he wrote to me saying he would not let me back to his house and said that my work was poor.

I wont go into details but there are a few things that I needed to improve (plastering) but he wont let me go back.

He did pay me two instalments of £1000 and was happy with my work but now is saying he might take legal action, a lot of the parts he bought were not compatible and I told him this but he blamed me or the supplier.

He owes me parts £420 and labour £1000

H ehas now used a chartered surveyor to form a report, but this is on unfinished work,

Has anyone got any advice? or experience?

 

[Mushybees]

He has to allow you the chance of remedying whatever work he believes is unsatisfactory.
No judge in the land would allow legal proceedings to commence unless he affords you that opportunity, unless of course there is a good reason.
Having a barney over the price isn't viewed are a good enough reason.

 

[dalegooderham]

He said i walked out, but i did not, i told him i needed time to look at the situation and i was not happy, i rang him and went to see him, he said there was no chance of me going back and has since put it in writing. i think he may have enginered this to avoid payment

 

[Puddle]

Well the work is in progress
He is on very dodgy ground
You will have to send a letter to him explaining the siduation of on going works and that you request access to complete works as agreed and that he should make payments as arranged,send recorded delivery
Keep copy ,also send invoice and reciepts for any payments received up to date
Leave two weeks,if you do not hear any thing,write again telling him if you do not hear anything within 4 weeks ,you will take him to small claims court
and do it ,see details below,it is not hard and they will not take kindly to his actions,especially as you were on day rate

Small claims

 

[heinz57]

Dont let this guy get away with it! If you turned up when you said you were going to
turn up and respected his property, pets, wife etc then your half way there. If you
say you have done a good job then i dont think he has a leg to stand on if you meant
this and have done good work! Get lawyered up! if he says he's got a Chartered Surv.
then get your guy to get a copy of this report. He may have planned this all along,
now the bulk of the work has been done he probably thinks he can maybe finish it
himself (cheapskate).
"Remember agent mulder, trust no-one!"

 

[secret squirrel]

I have to be careful what I type because I've nothing but bile and hate for people like this.

You are well within the amounts for small claims court. You can do this via the internet. It is very easy to do before taking drastic action though I would (as someone has stated) write to him but put deadlines on replying. eg. your response is required within 7 working days.

I would also talk to consumer direct, they also have a website and are very helpful. When dealing with consumer direct they will ask you a lot of questions so have all the paper work to hand.

Someone else also stated that you must be given the opportunity to correct work, this is true. A friend of mine arguing with a window company for £14k for over a year has been told to allow the company back in for another go at fixing the problem (they've had ample time so far).

When writing to the customer, I'd be very careful what you write as this letter may be produced at court at some stage. I would enclose a copy of estimates etc.

Also you may have taken out legal cover with your insurance policy, check your house insurance, van and car insurance because sometimes legal cover is included and not always limited to the policy and is a general legal policy.

Good luck,

 

[Avatar]

1) Try not to give a too low quote - you will regret it in the long rum
2) I hope you got this (all too familiar) git/customer to sign a contract and put your agreement in writing (like the day rate) and signed by the aforementioned . . .

Well it has happened to me a couple of times and you learn from it.

Dont work for anyone who looks like they are a nightmare - always finish as quick as possible and get your cash asap - get a contract done up for bigger jobs.

In the present climate if you are a tradesman, you are a rouge trader - people feel justified in witholding cash (which is illiegal).

Slap him with a cc summons, but do it by the books.

 

[dalegooderham]

i have a letter in which he agrees that he renaged on the day rate and the fact that he had agreed to it at the start, i have taken legal advice and have been told that this guy was almost certainly trying to engineer the situation. The CS report will be on uncompleted work and I have not had the op to finsh, thank you all for the comments and advice, much appreciated

 

[david williams]

have you had acces to his report on your work.you could get one done yourself .ciphe join them you get acces to legal advice from people who deal with plumbing works all the time

 

[ian4147]

good luck let us know how u go.