Am I being ripped off here?? electrical work!

choccywoccy

Please someone help me here to decide whats fair..

I asked for a quote from a local electrician on a rental property I have. He gave my husband a verbal quote "off the top of his head" but did not give a written quote. He was looking at an electrical safety certificate which we paid £85 for plus 20% VAT and he disconnected a dangerous wire the previous tenant had put in (outside lights wired to the mains) it took seconds to do and he said at the time it was no charge as it was lethal it couldn't wait. I paid his invoice totalling £102.01 which detailed the disconnected wiring as £0.01cost and the certificate. He then arranged to come back to do a few other "bits" as I shall explain - but I am being charged a further £510.00! I have asked for it to be itemised and the following is what I was charged for. Is this fair?
1. £25 broken socket on landing
2.£35 cables installed in garden I have disconnected today for safety (surely I paid £0.01 for this already??!!)
3. £20 some (3) light fittings missing shields
4. £30 Its a TT Installation and the electrode needs replacing ?
5. £25 Earth to the water not connected
6. £35 earthing to gas not within 600mm
7 £20 2 gang switch in bedroom only needs to be 1 gang (this was NOT DONE!)
8 - blank
9. £135 mains smoke detection (THIS WAS NOT DONE!)
10.£65 bathroom light not IP rated - (new one was fitted)
11.£30 Pale (??) Available (cannot read writing well here)
12.£45 No supplementary earth bonding
13. £25 TV socket in lounge broken
14.£20 socket plug top missing for gas ignition

Now I have disputed the two things not done, he has admitted that he was wrong to include the smoke detectors so agreed to deduct the £135 - although I have a backdated text message from him that actually quoted £125!!) however disputes the rest and says that that the two gang light switch was replaced - said he did it himself! But it remains a two gang flipin socket to this day!:rotfl: He says he was there on site on 26th july and it was himself with two workmen..says my husband let them in and they were there 4 hours! well I know I was there myself I have a text message from him the day before arranging to meet me at 8.30am the next day, (my husband was in N Yorks that day) and I asked the two lads to drop keys off with my neighbour which they did 2 hrs later! so as he is clearly lying about things I want to know what else he is trying to rip me off for here.. but as I don't understand my quote..I need advice. is what he is asking for the rest a fair price? any one can help me decide a fair payment for this work???? Please?

choccywoccy

any electricians out there please..?

SparkyJoe

You should of asked list of works to be done, & a quote before you started.

Its fairly impossible to say how long half these jobs took, so its kind of hard to give quotes over the internet.

For example,


1. £25 broken socket on landing, Materials & labor about right

2. If you have already settled this then dont pay it, But again you should have got the quote in writing.

4. £30 Its a TT Installation and the electrode needs replacing

This seems rather reasonable, if not cheap. if all hes doing is knocking an earth rod into the ground and reconnecting it, I would hazard a guess at something like 1 hour + Materials - He could well have replaced the cable back to the disboard. If your earth rod is bad, and the RCD fails, the circuit breakers wont trip and your house burns down in the event of a fault.

5. again, A 10mm earth connected from the dis-board, to the stop tap, Rather important, and impossible to quote on here, as no idea how long the run is, But £25 sounds reasonable to me.

6. As above but to the gas

7. If he has not done it, don't pay it.

9, again dont pay it, if its not done, But please get mains smokes installed they save lives.

10. Depends on the fitting if its a crappy looking £6 job from a local wholesaler £65 is too much, but decent fittings cost money.

11. no idea what that is

12. If you have a 17th edition D/b you don't need sup bonding, personally i would't have done this. (ie, If all the circuits in the bathroom are on a 30ma RCD)

13 see 1.

14 not sure id charge 20quid to fit a plug.

--

At the end of the day, after removing the items that didn't get done, Its comes to £320

Sparks normally charge out @ £20 an hour, 3 sparks for 4 hours is £240 quid, before you even look at materials (Which is hard to do because everyone has a different mark up)

Rockingit

To echo Joe - clearly something which hasn't been done shouldn't be paid for, but £300 - 400 sounds like a fair price to me.

And I would suspect that 11) is 'PME' is available, which is an alternative form of earthing arrangement.

And Joe - not all sparks can be as cheap as £20 an hour - that's the real thin end of the wedge and tbh I would want to know why they were so out of work to charge that!!

Alias_Omega

If its a rental property, then the costs will come out of the profit. If your in profit, I would not worry about it too much but pull him up for the work not done, or ask for it to be done.

Why stress over something when if you don't spend it, the tax man will..

SparkyJoe

Rockingit wrote: »

To echo Joe - clearly something which hasn't been done shouldn't be paid for, but £300 - 400 sounds like a fair price to me.

And I would suspect that 11) is 'PME' is available, which is an alternative form of earthing arrangement.

And Joe - not all sparks can be as cheap as £20 an hour - that's the real thin end of the wedge and tbh I would want to know why they were so out of work to charge that!!

we cart all live in the south east mate.

Joe (Carlisle)

Rockingit

SparkyJoe wrote: »

we cart all live in the south east mate.

Joe (Carlisle)

That's fair comment. If I charged £20/hr I couldn't stay in business - it's all things relative, not just profit!!

southcoastrgi

very true, take all last wk
working in Kensington
£200 on day rate (not too bad)
however when you look at it another way per day
4 hrs travel
£40 diesel
£35-20 parking
meaning for a 8 hr day i actually earnt just over £3/hr
& they say plumbers earn too much money :rotfl:

fluffpot

It looks like he undercharged for the electrical inspection/safety cert to me and so he's trying to 'make up' on the remedial works

Has he actually given you a 6 page Electrical Installation Condition Report? This is what you need as a landlord

Rockingit

southcoastrgi wrote: »

very true, take all last wk
working in Kensington
£200 on day rate (not too bad)
however when you look at it another way per day
4 hrs travel
£40 diesel
£35-20 parking
meaning for a 8 hr day i actually earnt just over £3/hr
& they say plumbers earn too much money :rotfl:

My lads often make far more per day than I do as the boss!

Rockingit

The OP has now done this same thread to death on another forum elsewhere and unsurprisingly been given pretty much the same answer. I'm out!