20-minute plumber work charging £90, is it fair?

anear

I asked a plumber to fix a leaking toilet. He wants to charge me £90 for 20-minute work. His invoice included the following jobs:

-To attend a leaking toilet and stop tap.
-To repack the stop tap and test ok
-To fsnd(?) the ball valve on the toilet leaking from the tank connector
-To strap down and remake the seal

Is it fair? I live in East Midland. I think I am over-charged. I don't think it should cost me more than £50.

Thanks.

vaio

Is it in line with what he told you about costs before you asked him to visit?

or local prices?

Doesn't seem particularly excessive to me, a local firm hit the papers recently because they charged an OAP £200 for 10 mins work

anear

I didn't agree beforehand. It is a rented house. I am the landlord. I asked a Full management agency to manage the house. The agent asked the plumber to do the work without my agreement, because the leakage needs to be fixed quickly.

I talked to the tenants. They told me the guy was there for not more than 20 minutes.

evoke

Sounds okay to me. I presume you're making money from the rent and the fact that the toilet got fixed quickly means your tenants are happy? A leaking toilet isn't likely to be a pleasant experience.

As you are entrusting your property to a management agency, I presume there are clauses in the contract for emergency work, as this appears to be.

There's only so much profit a landlord can make! Sometimes you just have to accept that repairs on your property will cost you money.

How did you arrive at your £50 figure? Does that include an emergency call-out charge?

keystone

anear wrote: »

I asked a plumber to fix a leaking toilet.

Umm

anear wrote: »

I didn't agree beforehand. It is a rented house. I am the landlord. I asked a Full management agency to manage the house. The agent asked the plumber to do the work

No you didn't.

Want to share the whole truth about this "incident" then? Otherwise no comment.

Cheers

skivenov

Got to remember the "full service" letting agent will be having their
"referal fee" from their approved contractor....

keystone

skivenov wrote: »

Got to remember the "full service" letting agent will be having their
"referal fee" from their approved contractor....

Exactly!

Cheers

I_have_spoken

It's tax deductible, so net cost to you will be more like £50 anyway

He'll be invoicing at £90/hr or part thereoff.

phill99

Remember you're not paying for time, you're paying for expertise. An expertise that you evidently don't have.

yangptangkipperbang

phill99 wrote: »

Remember you're not paying for time, you're paying for expertise. An expertise that you evidently don't have.

..........and for travel - unless he was living in the same building

duchy

Why don't you call around other local plumbers for estimates for the same job -you may be surprised just how much basic plumbing jobs are. I chuckled at your expectation of £50 -you won't get a plumber out for fifty quid to do more than change a washer (if that)