Repair made to garage door without consent

FloFlo

The springs went on our garage door and my hubby phoned a local company and asked if they could come and give us a quote for fixing it. They asked if the garage door was unlocked and hubby said so they sad they would pop round in the next few days and take a look. A couple of days later hubby went to put bin in garage and the door had been fixed. No note or message left, so hubby phoned them and spoke to someone who said 'we're on our way to fix it' when hubby said you've already been he said 'ok' and put phone down on hubby.

Well fast forward a couple of days and we've been sent a bill in the post for over £100.

Can they do this? They never gave us a quote and we never agreed for them to make the repair?

Thanks

Any ideas on what a reasonable price for replacing both springs on an up and over garage door would be. I dont mind paying fair price for the repair but dont want to be ripped off.

BargainGalore

I would say they cant without your consent

Obviously the work may if needed doing, the issue if we want to be reasonable here, is was it reasonable or expensive

I would complain to them perhaps in writing see if they may come down a little, they are after all in the wrong for going ahead

phlogeston

BargainGalore wrote: »

I would say they cant without your consent

Obviously the work may if needed doing, the issue if we want to be reasonable here, is was it reasonable or expensive

I would complain to them perhaps in writing see if they may come down a little, they are after all in the wrong for going ahead

If you start negotiating on price, it will be a tacit admission that you asked for them to do the job.

Currently, you have no contract with them, therefore you owe them nothing. The difficulty will come when they no doubt claim that you asked them to fix the door!

WRITE, explaining that you did not ask for them to fix the door, only for a quote.

If you wish, offer to make an ex gratia payment, based on the reasonable cost of the articles replaced and their labour. Ask for a breakdown of their costs.

Most jobs nowadays that require a callout are going to cost at least £50 +VAT, plus the costs of any parts - so the price does not sound too unreasonable.

FloFlo

We didn't ask for a call out, we didn't ask for them to repair it we asked for a price for a repair.

What if we had already agreed or even paid someone else to do the repair?

There breakdown costs are?
25.00 parts 65.00 labour and 13.50 VAT

I am wondering if this is a scam they regularly practise, not perhaps overcharging but completing work they havent been agreed to do.

scullster

I'd say the ball is firmly in your court. You could choose to do absolutely nothing, but to cover yourself, phlogeston's advice to write to them would be the way to go.

phlogeston was not suggesting that you asked for a call out, he/she was simply saying the charges sounded fairly reasonable - you could expect to pay £50+vat for a call out + parts / labour if you were to ask anyone come and repair it.

Trading Standards would give you further advice of course. The basis on which the business was conducted did not include a quote, nor acceptance of a quote. The repairer in this instance has a) trespassed onto your land and into your property, b) performed the repair at his risk not yours.

99% of this sort of domestic transaction is purely verbal and difficult to prove. In the business world, you'd formally ask for a quote, they would respond in writing with the scope of work, assumptions and exclusions and you would then accept in writing - seems laborious but it can cover both sides in the event of a problem.

myrnahaz

They'd be hard pushed to prove in court that they'd done the work, because you clearly haven't signed a job sheet etc stating that the work had been carried out and that you were happy with the job. Also, can they provide evidence of your 'order'?

Pssst

Are you happy with the work and the price you are being asked to pay? What was the nature of the repair?

sarahg1969

myrnahaz wrote: »

They'd be hard pushed to prove in court that they'd done the work, because you clearly haven't signed a job sheet etc stating that the work had been carried out and that you were happy with the job. Also, can they provide evidence of your 'order'?

But they HAVE done the work, and the OP has admitted that. The issue is whether or not they should have. Unless you are suggesting that the OP should lie and say no work was done, in the event that they pursue it? Why would they do that?

OP, if they'd quoted £100, would you have gone for it? If so, you may as well pay them. There are some battles worth fighting, but this probably isn't one of them.

Brooker_Dave

FloFlo wrote: »

There breakdown costs are?
25.00 parts 65.00 labour and 13.50 VAT

I am wondering if this is a scam they regularly practise

More likely an honest mistake, but the prices seem reasonable so you should just send them a cheque.

Or are you planning to try to take advantage of the situation and not pay?

RobertoMoir

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

More likely an honest mistake, but the prices seem reasonable so you should just send them a cheque.

Or are you planning to try to take advantage of the situation and not pay?

Arguably the people you're replying to are the ones being taken advantage of - while I don't see the price as unreasonable, the work being done without their consent means they've not had a chance to get quotes and see if someone was more competitive and the like.

myrnahaz

sarahg1969 wrote: »

Unless you are suggesting that the OP should lie and say no work was done, in the event that they pursue it? Why would they do that?

I didn't mean that the OP should lie, but this work was carried out without consent - who's to say that the work was worth £100? The OP needs to decide whether the job was worth the price - if not, then why should they pay £100? They never agreed to do so. This situation is no different from when electricity/gas suppliers change someone's supply just because the customer answered their door to a salesman - if nothing was agreed then there's no agreement.
The only difference is that the supplier has actually carried out the job and can hardly break the garage door again - but the OP doesn't have to accept the charge just because the job has been done.

Personally, I'd get another quote for the work before deciding how much to pay (but who's to say that the second supplier doesn't go and replace the springs again and issue another charge!).