Not paying full bill as unhappy

Lilythecat

I hired an electrician to do a full rewire of my 1960s 2 bed fully
concrete flat. I wanted just to run new wires through the existing conduit but I was told this wasn’t possible ‘due to safety’ and so I was recommended to board the ceilings. 

I was told that it would be 9mm
plasterboard and so wouldn’t lower the ceiling much so I agreed. 

Overall the quote was £3k for wiring, £2k for boarding  and £1.5 for plastering 

Week 1 he put up 5 battens in 4 days which was lucky as they were 100mm thick, which brings the ceiling to 2.2m
which was too low. I argued it wasn’t as agreed and made him either run conduit across the ceiling or board at 75mm and install spots depn on the room.

this was the start of the issues. 

Over the 4 weeks (quote was 2-3 for all work) we just about got the wiring done but he had to move a couple of sockets and switches because he had put them where he wanted rather than where I had Marked on the wall. I also have an external light in my bathroom as he had to install that to ‘meet ip65 regulations’ (it’s really ugly and so in zone 2 it’s not required)
after 4 weeks the lockdown happened so he’s left it and now wants all his money including an extra £1400 for extras such as ‘lights he’d forgotten to quote for’ and 3 aerial points in the lounge (I asked for 1)

anyway I’m refusing to pay £1k for the ceilings he didn’t do and have deducted money for the extras I didn’t want or ask for, the bathroom which is awful and for the fact he’s drilling holes in all my kitchen cupboards to get to the ceiling 

in all I’ve paid him 2/3 of the bill l, about £5.5k which is approx the quote and what I think the work is worth. I assume that he’ll take me to court for the rest.

had anyone had any experience of this?  I had someone else look  at it and they said they would have charged about £3.3k and I know that the quote was very high. 

I’ve got photos of all the defects: do I just wait for the court papers?

I tried to discuss it but am just told that the work is excellent and I should pay up or wait for debt collectors 

DOH_a

You mentioned the quote included to install 9mm board and I assume that board was to be fixed to some kind of timber/metal sub-frame in order to provide a cavity for the wiring? If so, then a 25-50mm cavity would have sufficed as opposed to 75-100mm. However, the depth of the void and plasterboard would also depend on the type of light fittings you want. You mentioned spots as in downlighters? If so, even those would need a depth of approx. 75mm which may be why the deeper battens were installed?

In relation to the quote and payments... if you have been provided with a quote based on a specification then you should pay for those works, once they’re all complete and certified/signed off. If extras have been added and carried out without your consent or approval, then you are not require to absorb those additional costs. There are times when working with existing buildings that some things may need to change (e.g. if a fitting had to be re-located due to the presence of an existing beam) as this is something a contractor would have not known upon initially inspecting and quoting. But even those costs are normally covered within the initial quote or contract.

At the end of the day, you’re the client and if you’re not happy with the works carried out or to the specification/price agreed then you are in your rights to with hold payment. In a lot of situations, clients have already paid in full and then try and claim costs back through the legal system, which obviously adds time and more costs. If I was in your position and assuming what I have stated is correct, I’d wait to hear from the contractor (if they decide to go to court) and then fight it. Not fully knowing the processes but I don’t think bailiffs can just turn up without the case being first put forward to the relevant courts. Only from watching “Can’t Pay We’ll Take It Away” do those guys get involved after being instructed by the High Court as opposed to the County Court.

Mistral001

It will probably have to go to court before the debt collectors are called in.  
Speaking generally, it is not up to you to decide only what you think the work is worth.  I will be up to a judge applying the law.   

Lilythecat

I wanted normal pendant lights but as the electrician insisted there was no option but to use 75mm batten I asked for spots. The battens were so low I could reach up and touch them! The quote was for 20mm so not as expected. 

Mistral001

You probably should get some advice from an architect to find out the minimum distance between the 9mm plasterboard and the underside of the concrete floor to run cables across the ceiling to normal pendant light fittings.  Sometimes you need counter battens so that cables can run in both directions.  Say if you use 25mm deep battens, with counter battens then that amounts to 2X25 = 50mm total so the ceiling will be lowered by 59mm taking into account the plasterboard. 

tacpot12

9mm plasterboard on 25mm battens should have lowered the ceiling by about 35mm, so no great issue. Counterbattens would not have been required. You specified pendants, but when you saw that he was proposing to use 100mm deep battens, you agreed to have 75mm battens in some rooms and conduit in others. A professional should have realised that you can't fit pendants on a ceiling that you can touch, so you can argue that the work was not planned adequately.
Presumably you were expecting a pendant or batten fitting in the bathroom, but with the lowered ceiling, the electrician may have considered that the bathroom light was in zone 1 and would benefit from being IP65-rated. He seems to have fitted the better light at no cost to you - if you were charged extra for it, you should have some say in what was fitted. It can always be replaced with a light fitting you like. 

You are on slightly dodgy ground complaining that he has drilling holes in all my kitchen cupboards to get to the ceiling. Electricians are not magicians; they have to get wires to where they need to go somehow. You should have agreed the routes wires were to take. However, if he has drilled 10 holes when one hole would have done, you can then argue that he is not taken acted with sufficient care and professionalism, but you can't expect miracles.

Withholding part of the cost for the boarding out and plastering that was not done seems fair enough, but downlighters cost more than pendants, so you might need to adjust for the difference in cost.
 
Having to move sockets because he didn't follow your instructions should be done at his cost - unless there was a legitimate reason why the sockets couldn't be installed exactly where you wanted them and you weren't available to discuss where they could be moved to.  

It sounds like he made a right mess of the job. Photos of the finished job will speak volumes, as will a report on the installation done by an expert. An email from another electrician saying they would have charged £X is not going to cut the mustard in court. You need an expert inspection of the installation. I would be willing to bet money that even if you only had an EICR done it would find issues. I would suggest you find a NICEIC Approved Installer and ask them to do an EICR and write a report on the quality of the electrical work. This could give you further ammunition for a counter-claim at court so you can get some money back if there are issues that need to be remediated. 

Do you have the Building Control completion certificate provided by his Competent Persons Scheme yet? You have paid the full cost of the electrical work so you are entitled to this. If he will not provide it, you need to sue him for the cost of re-doing the wiring, as the flat will be difficult to sell without the completion certificate and no electrician is going to want to certify someone else's work. 

tacpot12

9mm plasterboard needs battens centres of a maximum of 400mm. If he has installed the battens at wider centres that you can also argue that the plasterboarding has not been done adequately.