When an estimate goes wrong...

Miller1508

That's another issue in that he didn't warn us that it had gone so badly over. Towards the end he adjusted it to £7000 and then nothing until 7 weeks later it had jumped to £12,600. I am really struggling to see how this is reasonable and (as he falsified hours) lawful?

baldelectrician

Miller1508 wrote: »

That's another issue in that he didn't warn us that it had gone so badly over. Towards the end he adjusted it to £7000 and then nothing until 7 weeks later it had jumped to £12,600. I am really struggling to see how this is reasonable and (as he falsified hours) lawful?

It is not reasonable


For an invoice to be double an estimate (without double the work) is not reasonable.


He will have to convince a court that his costs are justified- you will have to convince otherwise.


Have your ducks in a row- make him detail when he arrived and left on each day.
If he can't give this amount of detail how can he justify the costs.

Then you can use your existing info to make holes in his case.


The more doubt you can prove the better for you.


Ask him to separate the initial works and the additional works so you can see what costs they are.
This will help as you may be able to
show the initial quote value and the final invoice were so far out.


What is the trade of the person doing the work?

System

I think the thing is, it's not reasonable but with the way he has been engaged (X amount per hour to carry out works) there's not much you can query if he's carried out the work.
The only thing you can query is the hours and whether he dragged it out unreasonably.
Hourly rate estimates are probably the most open to abuse way of getting work done

Miller1508

He is an electrician. He didn't even complete the work at that! (we had so get someone else in to complete the work) He issued the certificate without the fuse board being labelled up which as you can imagine is a pain when we need to do anything.
The way it is being left is he is doing a schedule of the work he has carried out and how long it took him and we have to either agree or dispute each item and see where we stand at the end of it.

The annoying thing is I would have never employed anyone without having a fixed agreed price, (we had plenty of other tradesmen with absolutely no issues) but foolishly trusted him as he was a friend and he has completely shafted us.

stator

Your original posts say Estimate. That isn't a Fixed Agreed Price.
If he agreed a fixed price, you can hold him to it.
If he gave you an estimate, you can't.

If you ask for a Fixed price it will be higher than an Estimate. If you think you are getting a fixed price make sure it says Fixed price contract on the paperwork and you should also agree about exceptional items or changes in specification and how they affect the price upfront.

beaker141

Tom99 wrote: »

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

I'm with you on this - what on earth took so long - was he building a power station?

Tom99

beaker141 wrote: »

I'm with you on this - what on earth took so long - was he building a power station?

I have previously had a 4 bed house (old rubber cables) fully rewired by one man in two weeks

Sarastro

I think your best course is to challenge the hours worked as others have suggested but I'd also deduct the cost of finishing the job as well as you had to get someone else to do that. I think you should stick to your guns - sounds like he's taking advantage.

Clive_Woody

Details of the work done would be helpful as it sounds like this has taken weeks to finish?

Miller1508

It was a bungalow that we converted to a 5 bed dormer bungalow. Complete rewire and an area of underfloor heating downstairs (quite a big area but that took 2 and a half days (from memory).