Is this invoice breakdown reasonable???

oldbean11

Is this invoice breakdown reasonable for a fencing job? I have my own opinion, but would like others input.
Just the charges seem excessive, and price seems to have been bulked up.
Two men worked for two days, each day around 8 hours.
It must also be noted, the person who did the work was considered to be a friend.

RE: FENCE WORK

Total labour charge 48hours @ £15 £720

Total concreting costs £79

Total tool charge £50

Total fuel charge £50

Concrete cutting discs £80

Running costs (12.5% of labour fee) £90

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Balance due £1069

2013yearofthehouse

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding, but isn't 2 men for 2 (8 hour) days equivalent to 32 hours? Even adding travel time, I wouldn't think they'd reach 48 hours.

Not sure on the other costs, but for comparison on the labour - we were quoted about £900 labour for a fencing job that was supposed to take 2 days. It ended up taking almost 3 days and there were 2-4 men on site at a time, so probably averaged out about 70-80 hours in total. Not sure if with hindsight they would have liked to have charged more, or if they work in an allowance for if it takes longer, but the invoice price matched the quote price (and the total price with materials was around the same as the other quotes we had).

Did they not give you any idea of costs before they started work?

missprice

oldbean11 wrote: »

Is this invoice breakdown reasonable for a fencing job? I have my own opinion, but would like others input.
Just the charges seem excessive, and price seems to have been bulked up.
Two men worked for two days, each day around 8 hours.
It must also be noted, the person who did the work was considered to be a friend.

RE: FENCE WORK

Total labour charge 48hours @ £15 £720

Total concreting costs £79

Total tool charge £50

Total fuel charge £50

Concrete cutting discs £80

Running costs (12.5% of labour fee) £90

---

Balance due £1069

Although it still would not take too many extra hours to do,certainly not the extra hours they are charging anyway, did they order and collect fence posts/panels/cement?

oldbean11

A quote was given prior to work starting.

£1445, to include all materials.

However, fence panels were not ordered on time, so we ended up havinbg to order all panels/posts/rock faces ourselves. We also had to arrange for skip delivery.

All they provided was sand/cement.

The ones that got me most were cutting disc, £80?! And, running costs?

I just thought it was unreasonable, also considering they were a friend. I feel like its been over priced from the start, and I take responsibility for not questioning it, but didnt think I would have to.....

phill99

Never employ friends in business!

Not sure if you are actually asking about the structure of the invoice or the total cost?

oldbean11

Yes, learning the hard way. I did it because favours have been done for them in the past by me/my family. Thought I was doing a favour by passing business his way.

The structure of the invoice, to me, the charges arent all applicable, and wouldnt normally be costed in to the job. Especially for a 'friend'. The total cost I find excessive, and when we asked for a breakdown, this bulked up invoice is what came back.

oldbean11

The £1069 came from taking away from £1450 what it would have cost him to buy the materials. Just thought it wasnt too much for me to ask for a reasonable labour only invoice, when the job had been completed.

Sophie-1

You could certainly challenge the bill based on the number of hours.

southcoastrgi

this is exactly the reason i never give breakdowns
you asked for a quote
you accepted the quote
now you are moaning because you don't like the breakdown
what the hell does it matter how he has charged
if you thought it was too high in the first place then don't accept it & get someone else
it really is that simple

oldbean11

I accepted the quote based on the fact that materials would be supplied by them and all demolition would be carried by them.
Quote was also accepted based in the fact I asked for the fence to go the distance down to the street.

It was then argued this hadn't been priced for. The quote was not clear enough to convey this. But this is what I asked for.

The quote kind of became void after materials were ordered by ourselves.

Obviously the word reasonable isn't in your vocabulary southcoastrgi.

If the quote is honest and fair, why would you have a problem in giving a breakdown?

AbbieCadabra

I could be wrong, but i'd hazard a guess that as he didn't end up supplying some of the materials, he's lost a fair chunk of his original profit as there would have been a mark up included.

He's charged on the high side for the work that was completed to compensate for this, & now the breakdown looks high for the individual items he's trying to justify the total he says is now due.

Hope that makes sense!

I hope he doesn't breakdown all his estimates/invoices like that as he's really asking for trouble. A lot of those costs should just be factored into the labour per hour cost & never be broken down like that.