Dispute with tiler over cost

aleksia85

Hello,

On recommendation, we hired a professional tiler to tile up our kitchen (24 square meters).
He verbally quoted us £160 daily rate and he estimated that the job would last 4 days. We gave him the go ahead.
On the first day he worked 8.15am-4pm.
On the second day he worked 8.30am-3pm
On the third day he worked 8.30-2.15pm
On the last day he worked 8.30-11am.
He is invoicing us for the four days. The quality of the work in question is not the issue, we are happy with it.
We contacted him as we were wondering how he can justify to charge us four days when we felt it could have been done in 3. I would even have been happy to pay him a bit extra for the fourth day, but £160 for 2.5 hours work is taking the mick in my book. He told my husband he could not find another job for the fourth day and because we had "booked him" we had to pay.
He hung up on my husband after saying we have 1 week to pay him in full or he is taking us to court. This came as a shock as his wife did childminding for our child and this was the only reason we hired him as we trusted him not to rip us off.
I realise that we should have done everything more formally but really my query is about the daily rate: do we have a leg to stand on in refusing to pay him for 4 full days?

pinkshoes

£160 a day and 4 days??? I take it your kitchen is enormous???

I would say that as he didn't complete 4 days work, then he should only charge you for the hours he did. If he'd booked 4 days to do the job, then that's his fault for not planning properly!

Saying that, he could have just strung it out...

Did he offer to do anything else in the afternoon when he finished early?

I think he sounds shoddy! For future reference, get a quote for the job, and never per day!

I would pay him for 3.5 days, then see what he does, as the 4 days was only an estimate.

fto

He worked four days... That's what the estimate was.
You should never hire anybody by the day,you are asking for trouble.

aleksia85

fto wrote: »

He worked four days... That's what the estimate was.
You should never hire anybody by the day,you are asking for trouble.

Hi FTO,

Well lesson definitely learned. We knew the family well and our mistake was to be too trusting. Still is this common practice??

bris

aleksia85 wrote: »

Hi FTO,

Well lesson definitely learned. We knew the family well and our mistake was to be too trusting. Still is this common practice??

Yes it is, he quoted 4 days and thats what you are paying for, nothing wrong with that. If he had quoted 4 days and took 5 working on a short day then you may have had a complaint, but he has done the job in the time quoted, pay up.

Takeaway_Addict

Disagree with the others, he could have finished day 4 at the end of day 3 (presuming you didn't stop him) but chose to leave early on day 3.

3 days pay IMO

aleksia85

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Disagree with the others, he could have finished day 4 at the end of day 3 (presuming you didn't stop him) but chose to leave early on day 3.



3 days pay IMO

Thanks for your reply. Believe me it's not that I'm trying to find excuses not to pay him. I just feel that he's been taking us for a ride. On the phone with my husband it was clear that he was charging us the fourth day because he had not managed to find another job and was losing a day because of us. He could have finished on day 3.

pinkshoes

bris wrote: »

Yes it is, he quoted 4 days and thats what you are paying for, nothing wrong with that. If he had quoted 4 days and took 5 working on a short day then you may have had a complaint, but he has done the job in the time quoted, pay up.

But he didn't work FOUR days, so asking for 4 X £160 is completely taking the p*ss.

I had a guy do some work for me who I paid a daily rate, as he said it would take 2 days, but he only billed me for 1.5 days, as that's all it took him. Needless to say, I used him again, although all the other stuff has been a price per job rather than an hourly rate.

If someone insisted on 4 days pay when they had only done 3, I would be going to every tiler review site I could find, and letting people know of his shoddy practice.

Hopefully it would cost him more than £160 in the long run!

artbaron

The OP isn't clear. Did he give a quote or an estimate? If he gave an estimate of £160 for 4 days and worked 3 (effectively) then you're right in disputing the charge if you think it's worth it.

If he quoted £160 for 4 days then you accepted his quote of £640 for the job, and that's that. The daily rate and the estimated days are just points of information and irrelevant. You say you're happy with the work so you have no cause for dispute.

martinthebandit

So you think he only started working for you when he walked through your door and finished when he left?

He did a good job at a price you were willing to accept, I would be annoyed too if I was your tiler.

Good luck for getting a decent tradesman in the future when word gets round that you are not a good payer.

Fergie76

I am in no way a legal expert, but I would offer/pay him for 3 days in a full and final settlement.

If he won't accept, see him in court.