Contractor Hasn't Finished Job

scaredofdebt

We're having a new bathroom installed and as part of this needed some electrical work doing. The bathroom fitter recommended an electrician he has worked with before and we engaged his services partly down to this recommendation.

Electrician turned up and did most of the work (new consumer unit, electrical work for shower and some other associated work) but couldn't finish the job as the bathroom fitter had been sick for a couple of days and so hadn't finished everything off.

Electrician said he would come back when the remaining work could be completed, The remaining work is putting new lights up in the bathroom, so nothing too major.

I rather foolishly paid the invoice (£550) as soon as I received it even though not all work was complete, me being a mug who trusts people to do what they say they will.

Now the bathroom is finished, the electrician is not responding to phone calls or emails, do I have any recourse, small claims court perhaps? The invoice I paid clearly states all the work being done including that not carried out and I can photograph my bathroom ceiling to show a lack of a light!

I haven't paid the bathroom fitter yet and I was considering with-holding part of his bill in lieu of the work not being done on the basis he recommended the electrician.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

a.turner

If you engaged the services of an electrician on a separate contract it's not fair to withhold payment from the bathroom fitter for any breach of contract.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Send the electrician a letter and/or email detailing what work is outstanding, give a reasonable timeframe for completing the job and advise if not complete in this timeframe you will call someone else in to finish the job and claim the cost of this via small claims.

You don't have any right to withhold money from the bathroom fitter but the suggestion payment won't be quick unless his electrician friend gets his bum in gear might help you.

Is/has the electrician provided certificates for the work being carried out? Something like a new consumer unit (and probably the rest of the electrical work) would certainly require this.

scaredofdebt

To be fair I haven't given him much time, so I was prepared to wait another week or so, how long is reasonable for this?

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

No certificates as yet but he did say he would provide them.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

scaredofdebt wrote: »

To be fair I haven't given him much time, so I was prepared to wait another week or so, how long is reasonable for this?

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

No certificates as yet but he did say he would provide them.

Hard to say as he may have another job going, a week sounds reasonable in my opinion (for what it's worth).

I assume your concern isn't so much the waiting, just not getting an answer to your calls or emails, which is understandable.

scaredofdebt

Yes that's it, if he simply said give me another week or so to sort it then that's fine.

I'll give him another week (that'll be two weeks from when the first work was done) and if not heard anything will write stating I'll get another electrician and send him the bill.

Cheers.

At the moment I've got a shower room that isn't usable and I've paid nearly 3 grand for the privilege.