Help! Handyman spilled bitumen and disputing cleanup...

HollyBo

Hello MSEers,

Earlier this summer we had a handyman replace the felt on our shed roof. He removed the old felt, and slapped 5 liters of bitumen onto the roof boards. The bitumen leaked between the joints, and has dripped all over the inside of our shed, and onto about 100 different items of various types - lawnmower, toolboxes, deckchairs, tent etc. The ceiling of the shed looks like it has black stalactites, and we think it may start dripping again next summer, if its not properly removed and cleaned up. There are also drips on our limestone paving, which he tried to remove with white spirit and a rag, and just ended up smearing a brown stain into the stone. The rag was then left on our lawn, and burned the grass....

We're struggling to get the handyman to pay for a professional clean-up of this spill (he has offered to do it himself, but we're not confident of his abilities, or his skills in handling the cleanup, chemicals, and disposal of waste material properly - especially given what we've seen so far). We have had one quote from a company called Adler and Allan for £1200 +VAT, which seems reasonable to us, but the handyman says he thinks its 'grossly exaggerated'.

We have approached his 3rd party liability insurers (Covea), and they initially gave us a claims number, then everything went quiet. I sent them a DVD with about 140 photos of the evidence of the mess, the quote from the spill cleanup professionals, and a spreadsheet listing all the damaged items. The insurance company got back to us eventually to say that the handyman had asked them NOT to proceed with the claim, because he was going to settle with us direct.

We heard nothing for a few weeks, so chased him up with a special delivery letter.

He is desperate to avoid the claim being made on this 3rd party insurance, and wants to clean up the mess himself by taking our items away for 2 weeks and cleaning them up elsewhere! We're not keen on this idea, and it won't help with cleaning the shed or paving which have to stay in situ anyway.

The handyman has never even apologised for the spill, and keeps saying the damage is 'cosmetic' (its damn sticky stuff, and we have locked the shed for the past few months to avoid tracking it around!).

We don't want any additional financial compensation for the stress or upset - just our things cleaned and useable again.

We really want the professional spill contractor to clean up the mess - can we insist up on this?

Also, can we force his 3rd party insurance company to continue with the claim (and pay the professionals), even if he doesn't want them to pay out?

Help!!!

Thanks,

Holly.

Chunks

Do you have access to some legal advice (say via your house insurance)? If he is unwilling to cover the cost of the clean up (£1,440 sounds a lot) and you do not wish him to sort it himself, then you may have no option (in the end) but to sue him. I am no expert but I would have thought you probably need more than one quote for the proposed work (to demonstrate that the remedial work is costed fairly). No doubt others on here will be along shortly to add other thoughts.

Good luck

amersall

That is a lot of money, maybe that is why he is reluctant to pay.
You can get a Bitumin remover for a few pounds, could you not get someone to do it cheaply (as you don't trust him), you purchase the cleaner and send the bill to the original guy?, maybe a compromise is in order.
http://www.mcklordsdirect.com/product_page.asp?prodid=3

HollyBo

Yes - I know it is a lot of money, but the quote has specific details on it regarding what would be done. It includes basically 2 trained employees for 1 day, setting up areas in the garden to bring out the sticky items without tracking the bitumen any further and protecting the plants and grass, safely cleaning all 100+ items with the appropriate chemicals for the job, cleaning the inside of the shed (ceiling, shelving, floor), putting up a membrane on the ceiling to stop new drips coming down next time there is a hot spell, then washing the cleaned items off, returning them to the clean shed, and then tackling the limestone paving with a rather nasty carcinogenic cleaner to get the stains off that. Then there is safe disposal of all the cleaning material, and documentation to confirm safe handling and environmental disposal.

I know it sounds a lot, but when you think about what is involved in the cleaning, actually £1200 doesn't sound far off the mark. I am trying to get more quotes, but its not so easy to find professionals to do this job.

We already had a bad experience with the handyman - we don't want to make the situation worse with a cheap laborer smearing diluted bitumen around on an oily rag....

HollyBo

Sorry - I checked the spill cleanup quote again - it was £1k +VAT - so about £1200 in total, of which he/insurance co. can claim the VAT portion back.

Also, this handyman has 3rd party insurance, but is doing everything possible to avoid us making a claim against it.... Surely this type of scenario is exactly what 3rd party liability insurance is for?

:0(

dave030445

HollyBo wrote: »

Sorry - I checked the spill cleanup quote again - it was £1k +VAT - so about £1200 in total, of which he/insurance co. can claim the VAT portion back.

Also, this handyman has 3rd party insurance, but is doing everything possible to avoid us making a claim against it.... Surely this type of scenario is exactly what 3rd party liability insurance is for?

:0(

for one days work 2 men what they on £400 per day. that's allowing £200 for materials which sounds a lot to. that is grossly over priced.

HollyBo

Actually the part of the quote for the labour was about 600 for 2 blokes, so approx. 300 per day.

You have to remember that you can't just dispose of a large volume of the cleaning materials in the domestic waste or down the drain. Also, although he's annoyed us, we don't *actually* want the handyman to get hurt handling hazardous cleaning chemicals.

I'm not excusing the quote, if you think its still excessive, but if I could get a few more, or some pointers on what his responsibilities are here, that would help a lot.

With 20:20 hindsight, its obvious he'd never re-felted a shed before. I am told (now) you are supposed to leave the old felt intact...

:0(

DoctorFoster

HollyBo wrote: »

Sorry - I checked the spill cleanup quote again - it was £1k +VAT - so about £1200 in total, of which he/insurance co. can claim the VAT portion back.

Also, this handyman has 3rd party insurance, but is doing everything possible to avoid us making a claim against it... Surely this type of scenario is exactly what 3rd party liability insurance is for?

:0(

That's probsbly because he either doesn't have any or has a £1000 excess.

jc808

Just curiously why did you not clear the shed while the work was being done?

HollyBo

Thanks DoctorFoster,

We know he has cover - we have a claims number (although he has tried to tell the insurer not to pay out, which I am sure he can't do, but obviously its in their interests to delay payout as long as possible anyway). When I spoke to his insurance co, they said his excess was £500.

We're seriously not out to get this guy - we just want the whole horrible sticky mess to be cleaned up. He has been so evasive and slippery though.

Many of the items in the shed are old - e.g. rakes. We don't want them replace, just cleaned. Some items were brand new - Karcher pressure washer, 2 man tent etc - we need them cleaned carefully so they're not damaged, or in the case of the 2 man tent, replaced as its stained and looks horrible. The shed itself is structurally OK, but the ceiling and floor are covered, and the limestone paving outside is only a couple of years old and was my pride and joy....

:0(

HollyBo

Why would I clear the shed? He was supposed to replace the roof felt on the outside, from the outside. If I had thought he was going to strip off the old felt and drip 5 liters of bitumen through the gaps in the roof timbers into the interior of the shed - even if the shed was empty - I wouldn't have employed him.