Landscape problems

Moomum

Yet again we seem to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a pedicament.
We are having our garden landscaped, job started very beginning of July, 6 week timescale. We are now in week ten, due to be finished this Fri.
We have few thou outstanding as end of job payment, all fine. Today the landscaper comes and informs me that he has run of of money for materials and needs an advance of the outstanding balance. We are very uncomfortable doing this as leaves no leverage what so ever if things go tits up. If we don't advance it then it seems the job doesn't get finished. Landscaper has been great up until now and finish is great and he is very thorough.

Any advice ?

the_matrix

Tell him money is in short term saving account and you can't withdraw before the date.

Moomum

Thank you. Anyone else?

ryder72

I am sure he has heard the 'account' story before.

Tell him contractually he has to finish the job before a payment will be made. If you feel that he is being honest, offer to pay for materials directly to the supplier against delivery of goods. That way you will have received goods against payment.

tired_dad

probably a cashflow issue. Your job has overrun; he will have other jobs that he needs to buy stuff for.

You post this on Wed and job will finish Fri, so by now enough must have been done for you to assess what to do.

Offer him payment of half now and the other half at the end of this week?

I would leave something outstanding just incase the number of workers drops off suddenly as he sends chaps onto other jobs, then your remaining work lingers on for a few weeks more

Moomum

Thanks I understand, trouble is he has had £30 k from us and I just can't see how he has spent it. Unless its on their other jobs. This was meant to have been used to buy our materials, which he now doesnt have the means to buy. He has now said that the money needed to finish the project is close to £5k meaning even if we pay what we owe it still won't be finished.

Basically we are outstanding four wooden built in benches, wooden panelling on fence, a rendered dog kennel and swing gate, two wooden steps and about £2k worth of bamboo . This is without labour costs which he will owe his guys.

Agh, always us.

Prothet_of_Doom

Er, No.

So, is the project on time and is the quality so far up to scratch?

Over run by 4 weeks on a 6 week project ?

I'd be putting my foot down.

The up front money, was to pay for the materials, and the final payment, to pay for his labour, if the job was correctly done.

If you pay him now, what chance have you got that he'll finish in the next 6 weeks, that the quality will be up to standard, that he won't use that money to pay for materials so he can start another job.

Dig your heels in, pretend to be very very angry, but polite, how dare he come and put you in such a position, he should have finished the job by now, you've had enough of his sob stories, No more money until the job is finished. And properly too.

Prothet_of_Doom

Moomum wrote: »

Thanks I understand, trouble is he has had £30 k from us and I just can't see how he has spent it. Unless its on their other jobs. This was meant to have been used to buy our materials, which he now doesnt have the means to buy. He has now said that the money needed to finish the project is close to £5k meaning even if we pay what we owe it still won't be finished.

Basically we are outstanding four wooden built in benches, wooden panelling on fence, a rendered dog kennel and swing gate, two wooden steps and about £2k worth of bamboo . This is without labour costs which he will owe his guys.

Agh, always us.

You say always us? Maybe true. How did you go about supplier selection ? I once bought a loft conversion, costing £15K, and the time and effort I put in chasing references, and visiting previous clients, and discussing stage payments, in a way which ensured that the work was done on time, to budget, to quality, was time and effort well spent.

Have to add that I wrote 6 cheques to suppliers up front to cover all the materials, which were delivered to site, and 4 stage payments, with clear requirments. You may laugh but he provided a project plan for a 3 week project that was done in 5 hour slots

I_have_spoken

£2k for bamboo!!! I'd expect to get a giant panda thrown in for that money!

cyclonebri1

Moomum wrote: »

Yet again we seem to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a pedicament.
We are having our garden landscaped, job started very beginning of July, 6 week timescale. We are now in week ten, due to be finished this Fri.
We have few thou outstanding as end of job payment, all fine. Today the landscaper comes and informs me that he has run of of money for materials and needs an advance of the outstanding balance. We are very uncomfortable doing this as leaves no leverage what so ever if things go tits up. If we don't advance it then it seems the job doesn't get finished. Landscaper has been great up until now and finish is great and he is very thorough.

Any advice ?

Just how did you find these jokers??

To be honest the alarm bells should have rung earlier if it has taken that long to get to the state you are in now.

You really ought to have costed the materials either prior to the job, or as they came onto site.

Sorry to put a downer on you, it's meant more to warn others. This is a very common issue on here, if only people asked how to plan the job 1st:(

Do not give him any more money, you really have to agree terms and stick to them rigidly, but again a little late in your case.

xyz123

Moomum wrote: »

Yet again we seem to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a pedicament.
We are having our garden landscaped, job started very beginning of July, 6 week timescale. We are now in week ten, due to be finished this Fri.
We have few thou outstanding as end of job payment, all fine. Today the landscaper comes and informs me that he has run of of money for materials and needs an advance of the outstanding balance. We are very uncomfortable doing this as leaves no leverage what so ever if things go tits up. If we don't advance it then it seems the job doesn't get finished. Landscaper has been great up until now and finish is great and he is very thorough.

Any advice ?

Ask him to give you an invoice justifying the spend until now..