Disputing a two and a half year old invoice

Jaxtaylor

Hey all,

Hoping you can give me some advice on this situation, sorry it's a bit of a read!

In October 2015 we started renovating a new home and needed the boiler moving from a wall due to come down to a different location and the relevant plumbing, including the upstairs bathroom.

The plumber we had took the boiler down and said he would be back when the wall (chimney breast) was gone. It was gone within two days, but the plumber failed to reply to calls or messages and when he turned up it would be for twenty minutes or so and then leave, seemingly doing the minimum amount of work.

When we finally came to reinstall the boiler, it turned out his staff had misplaced some of the parts and we had to get a new boiler. We rationaled between ourselves that the boiler was getting old and a new one would be more efficient, so just sucked it up. After almost four weeks later he installed the boiler (but got the hot and cold wrong way around so came back to make the quick fix) but the bathroom wasn't plumbed and the gas pipe for the cooker hadn't been moved. He held up the rest of the work. In the mean time we were travelling to family to shower before work each morning.

After endless ignored calls and texts we gave in and got another plumber to finish the work, including the bathroom which cost us an arm and a leg.

He eventually messaged us to let us know he would be around and got quite annoyed when we said it was done and not to bother.

A few months later, a boiler he installed at my mother in law's place was due for its first service. Obviously we didn't use him, but the new plumber noticed it hadn't been registered so we lost our 7 year warranty on it.

Again, we just sighed it off.

Anyway, two weeks ago we got an invoice from this cowboy for £740 for the work and parts (we paid for and collected all the parts needed)

We obviously disputed this, saying that the work was not completed to a satisfactory level or in a reasonable amount of time. We reminded him that he burnt our front door with his blowtorch which he initially denied but then offered a good will gesture of a £124 discount for the replacement panel when we reminded him of our conversation while he inspected it and said his mate would fix it. He then denied his responsibility for the loss of the boiler parts saying first that we threw them, then when we argued that he said the flue we needed wasn't available for that boiler anymore but fortunately we still had a message sent to him with a picture of this part after it had arrived.

His recent text messages are full of contradictions! He has said he wants to come around to discuss this on Monday. I intend to tell him I will be recording everything that's is said before we talk.

I have read an invoice can be sent up to six years after the work has been carried out, but the hell this cowboy put us through makes me not want to pay a bloody penny. Unfortunately there were witnesses here, but they were all colleagues and mates of his, so wouldn't count on their support.

Personally I don't think he has a leg to stand on, but what are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Jamie

Jaxtaylor

Sorry, can't edit for some reason - should read :

'then when we argued that, he said the flue we needed wasn't available for that boiler anymore'

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I would cancel the meeting telling him you don't think you owe him anything so there is no more to say, but that you will put in writing you detailed reasons.[/FONT]

glasgowdan

Don't meet him. Everything has to be in writing. Write down bullet points of failures and don't instigate contact. How does ge usually accept payment? Is he VAT registered?

Jaxtaylor

Yeah I thought as much, I'll cancel it and send a recorded letter to him. In the past we have paid him cash, and his invoice doesn't have VAT details on so I'm guessing not. Thank you