Problem with "Professional" Painter and decorator

mwbrown

Hi

Just after a bit of advice, the guy who's renovating the house next door has employed somebody to stone paint and gloss paint the house....

The 2 clowns who turned up and have been painting over the last week or so, started painting the brickwork, and then when it came to painting the straight line dividing our house (ours was sandblasted a few years ago, and was repointed last year!), the clown of a painter nailed (yes nailed) a piece of wood to our property (causing holes in our recently renewed pointing) and painted down the line - after we came back home, we noticed that the line was a mile out from being straight and he had got paint on most of our bricks and even managed to get stone paint splashes on the bottom windowsill which is about 8 foot away from the dividing line!

We challenged the socalled professional painter and he said that he had only painted following the existing line and he would fill the holes where he had nailed the piece of wood too... told him not happy with this, and that if he followed the lines of the exisiting stone painted line on next doors property, why the hell had he gone over on 90 - 95% of our bricks (out the back, which they have painted also has gone over onto our brickwork which is stonepainted out back!).

What would be my best course of action in regards to the shoddy paint job (my gut feeling is that the "professional" painter and decorators are just bill and ben from down the road, and they are just gonna say "tough" not our problem - on the other hand i dont want to fall out with the guy whos renovating the house either, but i dont want to be left with a bill for getting the stones cleaned (dont know if they would just be able to do the bits that are covered in paint or not!).

Any suggestions as my next course of action would be appreciated (the guy renovating the house says he has the name and address of the painter who he employed).

Cheers


Mike

McKneff

If he sub contracted the 'painters' its his responsibility, no messing,
he has to deal with the problem, don't let him fob you off and
keep a retention when paying him. (a big one) till you are 100% satisfied.

Yorkie1

Just in case you need to identify the painters after the event, might be worth jotting down any details you have now - including things like mobile numbers or vehicle registration numbers.

mwbrown

sorry if my post wasnt clear, but its the guy next door whos renovating the house thats employed the painter and decorator not us, so we cant retain any monies that are due to them.

My biggest concern is that they are not professionals and just a couple of cowboys doing it for cash in hand - never seen them arrive in a van or anything, been told that the guy whos house it is, has got their name and address etc.

Ive got a feeling that due to our front being sandblasted, that the only way we are going to get a satisfactory looking job from our point of view is to get the full front sandblasted again and possibly repointed......

One of the painters turned up last friday and was gloss painting in the dark....... along with using a 4" fence painting brush for applying the gloss on the jobestones :eek:

Im tempted to write the guy who owns the house a letter, advising that we arent happy (he already knows verbally! he advised that we could look at claiming from the painter via the small claims court - dont see why we should have to!).

Might give the house insurance legal people a call to get some advice from them.


Mike

nickj_2

if he is the contractor or owner the problem is his to sort out , not yours , he should be dealing with the matter . , tell him that you will be taking him to the small claims court . i would give him a timescale - say 2 weeks to rectify matters or you'll be taking action

mwbrown

Thanks for the advice nickj, thats what i was thinking, but as we have had a good relationship with him so far, i didnt want to go in "all guns blazing" - would rather try and resolve the matter amicably rather than going legal.

Decided to have a look at home insurance, and we have legal cover on there, so called the legal helpline and they confirmed that the owner of the property is the one we should be talking to (they advised that they are going to send me some papers out to fill in (if needed?) and i should take photos of the damage etc (as he employed the so called pro painter and decorator (funnily, the guy who is papering and painting the inside isnt doing the outside).

Will call round and see him when he comes and does some more work on the house.

missile

No need to go in guns blazing. I would guess he already knows his workmen have damaged your property and you want to know what he will do to rectify it.

It is better to get disputes resolved early and you may want to seek legal advice?You may legal protection with your home insurance.

Cherryjack

i would be inclined not to use my home insurance to start with.. your fees can go up, and even ringing them leaves a mark on your account to show other insurance companies (not sure where i watched this, I think watchdog) i would just speak to the neighbour frst. Good Luck

NeverInDebt

One thing is for certain your neighbour employed cowboys. I agree with others to try and get your neighbour to sort it out, it may well be they are not happy too with what they did, if it was me and they done that I would also be concerned what else have these cowboys bodged up

maninthestreet

Do you have any pictures you can upload??