Contractor looking for more money

Tyler119

In June we agreed an estimate with a contractor to carry out an extension and some renovation works to our new property at a cost for labour only. It was agreed that it would be completed with a reasonable time to allow us to decorate etc before Christmas.

Due to extras being charged for and the time taking to complete these extra, this finishing time will not happen. This is not the issue though.

I asked him to provide a cost of how much he would want for having carried out extra / unforeseen works. He has provided this and I have no issue with it as in my opinion it will compensate him for the time lost not working on the original quotation.

However he has sent another bill through asking for £5000.00 extra to complete the original quotation of works. This is exactly 25% increase on the original price. I had expected to pay a little extra and had agreed in principle that we would do so. In my budget I expected this to be £1000.00 at the maximum.

He has already said that he underestimated our job by like £5000.00. However it seems like he is expecting us to bear the entire responsibility for him underestimating the job. I work in the web industry and would never think of asking a customer to stump up more money for work I had quoted for, just because I had messed up my numbers.


I guess I am looking for advice or suggestions.

Thanks very much in advance.

shaun_from_Africa

Something needs confirming before correct advice can really be given.

In June we agreed an estimate with a contractor

However he has sent another bill through asking for £5000.00 extra to complete the original quotation of works.

An estimate is a rough calculation of something and it's not unusual for the final price paid to differ from the estimated figure. (Although I thing that a difference of £5000 or 20% is excessive).

Most people would take a written quotation to be a fixed amount for the work to be done and wouldn't expect this to vary unless there was unexpected circumstances and the changes agreed in advance.

What wording is given on the notice that you received about the cost of the work?

Tyler119

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Something needs confirming before correct advice can really be given.




An estimate is a rough calculation of something and it's not unusual for the final price paid to differ from the estimated figure. (Although I thing that a difference of £5000 or 20% is excessive).

Most people would take a written quotation to be a fixed amount for the work to be done and wouldn't expect this to vary unless there was unexpected circumstances and the changes agreed in advance.

What wording is given on the notice that you received about the cost of the work?

I asked for a quote, he listed the works that he would price for and then stated : Price £20,000 labour only.

Me and the wife were willing to pay a little extra, like a £1000.00 max, as we wanted to be reasonable. However it seems like he wants us to foot the cost of his not doing his numbers properly.

agrinnall

OP, please only post in one place.

There is a longer thread on the Housing board here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4819503

Tyler119

agrinnall wrote: »

OP, please only post in one place.

There is a longer thread on the Housing board here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4819503

Apologies, I wasn't sure where the best place to post was, and to be honest I thought I would get some different opinions from different areas of the forum.

Hintza

Tyler119 wrote: »

.

Me and the wife were willing to pay a little extra, like a £1000.00 max, as we wanted to be reasonable.

This is so airy fairy it is unreasonable. You can't (and equally he can't) decide what the extras are worth, there must have been some discussion and if there wasn't then you probably need a QS to sort it out for you.

Tyler119

Hintza wrote: »

This is so airy fairy it is unreasonable. You can't (and equally he can't) decide what the extras are worth, there must have been some discussion and if there wasn't then you probably need a QS to sort it out for you.

What I mean is, he accepted that the job would go over the time he had quoted for. We are fairly friendly with him and we agreed in principle that we would pay a little extra (to be reasonable). However asking for 25% extra is just too much.

Just to be clear ,this is not for extras, this is to complete the work that was quoted for. We are paying for the extras that have come up over the course of the job.

I disagree, why do people resort to a QS so quickly. I am hoping that once I put my side over in a friendly way that we can come to a compromise.

liam8282

Tyler119 wrote: »

What I mean is, he accepted that the job would go over the time he had quoted for. We are fairly friendly with him and we agreed in principle that we would pay a little extra (to be reasonable). However asking for 25% extra is just too much.

Just to be clear ,this is not for extras, this is to complete the work that was quoted for. We are paying for the extras that have come up over the course of the job.

I disagree, why do people resort to a QS so quickly. I am hoping that once I put my side over in a friendly way that we can come to a compromise.

If you are friendly with the builder, you expected to pay more and are willing to compromise...

...why not just talk to him and come to some sort of compromise?

He wants £5000, you were prepared to pay £1000, could you meet at £2500?

It is more than you expected, but with hindsight, maybe you should have got the original quoted work done first, before embarking on the extra work.

Tyler119

liam8282 wrote: »

If you are friendly with the builder, you expected to pay more and are willing to compromise...

...why not just talk to him and come to some sort of compromise?

He wants £5000, you were prepared to pay £1000, could you meet at £2500?

It is more than you expected, but with hindsight, maybe you should have got the original quoted work done first, before embarking on the extra work.

I am willing to come to a compromise. It makes no difference if there was extra work or not, because he has billed us already for any extra work separate from the original quote (which I will pay).

comeandgo

So he was working labour only, at what rate say £20/hour? So £5,000 is 250 hours which would be 5 weeks for one man. Did the normal part of the job give 5 weeks more work than it should have? What price did others who priced the job give you?

Tyler119

comeandgo wrote: »

So he was working labour only, at what rate say £20/hour? So £5,000 is 250 hours which would be 5 weeks for one man. Did the normal part of the job give 5 weeks more work than it should have? What price did others who priced the job give you?

Yes, from what I gather he is saying that the job will now take 5 weeks more than he thought to complete and has admitted to underestimating how much time he expected it would take to complete. I have emailed him and proposed a compromise of a figure close to half what he is asking.

He is not a big company or anything and so I am aware that he still has his own bills to pay and needs something to live on. I just think that me bearing responsibility for his mistake was unreasonable.