When an estimate goes wrong...

Miller1508

I'll try to condense this as much as I can but I'm looking for advice on where I stand legally.

We invited a tradesman (who was also a friend at that point) to give us a price for some work on our house. We provided all relevant drawings / information to enable him to come to a budget price. He took away all this info and eventually came back with a figure of "around £6000" We then discussed this figure with our builder who confirmed it was a reasonable amount and around where he would be if he were to include it within his works. As this tradesman was a friend we decided to proceed with him. Some time after he said he would split the invoice between the materials and his labour at £21 per hour.

Fast forward 6 months and he stated it was looking like it was going to be nearer the £7000 mark, to which we agreed as we had upped the spec on the materials. 7 weeks later he presented us with a final invoice making the overall total £12,600.

On top of this for the last couple of weeks we started recording his actual hours as concerns were being raised by other people working on site about his productivity and also the erratic times he was turning up and leaving.

During this time he over claimed 12 hours (approx £250) leaving me to wonder how much he has overcharged for the rest of the time he was working on our job.

My question is, where would we stand legally? We accepted the £6000 estimate (then revised £7000) assuming he had made sufficient consideration to the work involved to arrive at that figure - in essence the hourly rate was irrelevant to us.

We are being led to believe that as we accepted the £21 we have essentially agreed to being ripped off - is this correct?

At no point were we made aware of the escalating costs until we were given the invoice at the end of the job, now we are just expected to pay this - even though it has more than doubled the initial estimate.

Your thoughts would be really appreciated as I can't believe the situation we are in...

stator

An estimate is not legally binding. If you agreed to pay £21 an hour then that is what you will have to pay
Don't pay the invoice.
Dispute the number of hours worked. Make an offer to settle. If he refused he will have to take you to small claims court (or not small claims court if he wants to claim the full £12,600).
Try to act reasonably at all times. Gather evidence. Might be worth paying someone for an estimate of the time it should have taken on every job he did.

Miller1508

He's already taken us to small claims as up to now we have paid £8500 and are disputing the remaining labour element.

My point is, is there not an acceptable amount he can deviate from an estimate? How can he have got it so wrong? He admitted he made a mistake but now we are expected to pick up the bill for his mistake. If he had got his estimate right from the outset I would have never used him and gone with our builders electrician. I feel like he has got the work by deceiving us.

stator

No, there is no law about estimates being wrong. Estimates aren't worth the paper they are written on.
Your only hope is to dispute his hours work or show that he was incompetent and dragged out the time unnecessarily.

How far has the case gotten in Small Claims Court?

Miller1508

We have had a preliminary hearing - we have agreed to try mediation to come to an agreement. I think the sensible thing is to pay someone to give an estimate on how long it would take to complete the works and take it from there.

Tom99

£21 per hour is very cheap so his final bill should have been a lot less than you could have got the work done for elsewhere.
How much of the £12,600 was materials?

Miller1508

Materials are £6200. We have paid the materials in full as they are what they are. It's just the labour element we have issues with,

Tom99

Miller1508 wrote: »

Materials are £6200. We have paid the materials in full as they are what they are. It's just the labour element we have issues with,

So that's just under 9 weeks full time work at 7 hours a day. What was he doing that was so labour intensive?

teneighty

How were the hours logged? Has it been broken down or is it just a lump sum? Time sheets?

In the absence of signed time sheets or daywork sheets the only thing I can see that might help is if you can demonstrate the the last 2 weeks when you actually checked his times on site revealed he was making false statements and then applying that percentage error to all the other hours. Are there any times when he claimed to be on site when you can prove that he wasn't there?

Given that this is now a dispute I would say the contractor still has a duty to prove the hours that he is claiming for, especially if it is so much higher than his original estimate.

Miller1508

They were broken down daily (not signed) and then I compared them to the hours that my dad logged (he was on site every day) and over a 10 day period there is 14 hours difference - I know I said 12 hours earlier but I have just checked and it was actually 14...I have a message on one day at 10:05 saying he was going to be late (he arrived at 11) as he had to go somewhere but has claimed he was working from 9.30am...I have another where he claimed he was there til 5 and my mum drove past at 3 and he'd already gone at that point. I have lots of examples like that but they all add up...

baldelectrician

That's why I try and give a firm estimate and call if it is going to go higher


I also have a tracker and can prove when I arrive and leave.


You have to prove his recollection is not true and accurate- you have firm evidence of the over charge of 14 hours.


As others have said - look to pay based on what he actually worked- ask him to prove he worked these hours as you have found him out.


Ask him if he is willing to ask his mobile company to provide evidence when he was logged on to the mast nearby your home (assuming he does not live round the corner)


I prefer a fixed price per item and clients then know what they are getting


I had a lady shocked when I quoted off a drawing at a fixed cost per socket / item at £1300 and was stunned when she was invoiced for almost double that


Once I itemised all the items she asked for it was over double that- I had discounted some things off to be reasonable.


That's why I did a fixed cost per item- we could walk round the house with my itemised list and see each item- which she agreed was there and working.