Service - is this fair?

Bluestringsoup

Hi everyone. I hired a builder to clean my gutters to stop water leaking in through a window. Job done, he tested it with water, told me everything was flowing freely - today rain is pouring from the corner of the gutter and through the window.

He claims I only hired him to clean the gutters - and that the debris must have been masking the problem. I think if I told him to clean the gutters to stop a leak and he claims to have checked the gutters then he should have spotted and dealt with the leak (or at least told me about it.)

What do people think? Is d reasonable to expect him to fix the leak free or reasonable for him to charge for fixing the leak? .

[Deleted User]

If your gutters actually need repairing, that would be a completely separate job to clearing them.

oldernonethewiser

Bluestringsoup wrote: »

Hi everyone. I hired a builder to clean my gutters to stop water leaking in through a window. Job done, he tested it with water, told me everything was flowing freely - today rain is pouring from the corner of the gutter and through the window.

He claims I only hired him to clean the gutters - and that the debris must have been masking the problem. I think if I told him to clean the gutters to stop a leak and he claims to have checked the gutters then he should have spotted and dealt with the leak (or at least told me about it.)

What do people think? Is d reasonable to expect him to fix the leak free or reasonable for him to charge for fixing the leak? .

Didn't see any leak when he tested then?


If he was hired to clean the gutters I would expect a leak fix to cost extra.

elsien

From what you have written you hired him to clean the gutters, not to repair them. You cannot expect him to do that as a free extra.
Although I'd expect a half decent builder to notice if there was an obvious fault with the guttering. How much did you pay?
Can you see where the water is coming from - over the top or through a joint?

davidmcn

Why should he repair the leak for free? Are you suggesting he's actually caused the leak?

BoGoF

Fix it for free? If I were him I'd be telling you to find some mug who works for free. Do you?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

elsien wrote: »

Although I'd expect a half decent builder to notice if there was an obvious fault with the guttering.

I'd expect a half decent builder to be too busy to be cleaning out peoples guttering.

OP to be fair it's probably easy to not notice something like a perished seal between a joint for example if the problem on the face of it was the guttering being full debris.

Tipping a bucket of water in won't give the same result as the guttering filing up from rain.

If you've paid the going rate for cleaning then I can't see there is cause for complaint.

Bluestringsoup

No need to be rude.

Bluestringsoup

Thanks for the responses folks - very helpful. Just wanted to test people's views. He wasn't a half decent builder!