Gardening Service - Advice please?

Roger_Irrelevant

Hi Guys, 
Not sure if this is the right board for this, but looking for some advice please...
Situation is that I had a very overgrown front garden, and engaged the services of a local "hedges and trees" company to basically clear it out. 
Cutting back overgrowth down to the lawn underneath & disposing of cuttings, pruning back some bushes and one small tree to manageable size.
I was asked for "before" photos of the garden, which I sent, from different angles as requested, provided details of the (good) access and so forth.
I was quoted a price of £200 plus £50 for disposal of cuttings (+VAT) (it's a small area, no work at height is involved, no special tools aside from hedge/grass cutting type powertools would be needed).
Anyway, guy promised to be here 8-8.30 this morning to start work.
He arrived at 9(!) & after a brief chat started work.
After about half an hour, he knocked on the door & said the space was larger than expected and a second visit at extra cost would likely be needed.
I didn't really know how to respond, so I said OK, carry on for now, & we can review once the work up to the quote was done.
Long story short, after pretty much exactly 2 hours of work he left, with about half of the overgrown space cleared and none of the pruning done.

I obviously had done some basic research when getting quotes for the work, and had thought that garden services like these could charge up to approx. £50 per hour.
I'd  be fine with that, and obviously am fine with paying for removal/green disposal of cuttings etc. had assumed on the basis of the quote the chap would be here and working for half a day or so... say 4 hours. To put all this into context, after 2 hours a large part of the work was complete, I'd estimate about half.

I believe that had he worked 4~5 hours the vast majority of the work, if not all of it, could have been completed.
Obviously he didn't quote me an hourly rate, but a figure for the whole job. The hourly rate estimates above are my own based on rates I saw advertised.
I had nothing in writing about how long he would be there, only that the undergrowth would be cut back and pruning done.

Am I being had-over here? Of course I understand estimating jobs is tricky and the area may have looked smaller in the photos or whatever, but being charged £200 + VAT for 2 hours of cutting work seems excessive. Or am I being unrealistic here?

Anyway, I haven't paid a penny yet. I didn't want any kind of altercation, so asked the guy for his payment details, and quote/availability to complete the job now that he'd properly seen it. He said he'd provide these and then left.

I'd be interested in thoughts/advice or comments especially from anyone who's been through anything similar.
Am I just wildly unrealistic in my expectations here?
What should I pay the guy, and how should I handle it?  Anything I need to know?

Thanks in advance.
 

tacpot12

If you are clear that you received a quotation and not an estimate, you are entitled to have the all the work done for £250 +VAT. I would expect this to equate to about five hours labour on site, and an hour elsewhere to dispose of the waste. (All my subsequent figures need to have VAT added to them).

Even if the space is larger than the contractor estimates, this is their problem as it was they who took the risk to quote on the basis of a photo. Their expertise should allow them to understand the size and work involved better than a lay-person - they are professionals after all. (As a VAT registered business, assuming they are VAT registered, they are turning over more than £85K per year, which is quite a lot.)

If he responds with a reasonable re-quote (say £250-£275 for the labour as opposed to the original £200), then I would agree this is and left him come back. If he quotes, say £300, this means he under estimated by 50% which is a lot. 

If he responds with an unreasonable quote, and based on what you have said, I would say that anything over £275 in total for the labour is excessive, then I would suggest that you say you are not happy because he only did 2 hours work and did perhaps a third of what needed doing, so you will pay him £100 for the two hours work he did. I assume he didn't dispose of anything, in which case you don't need to pay him to dispose of anything. If he did dispose of some of the waste, but not all of it, you might have to pay him £50. You can offer him what you think is reasonable, e.g. another £50 to complete all the work as agreed to see if he accepts this. Get his acceptance in an email.  



  

sheramber

You need to establish how he charges for teh work e.g what is his hourly rate?

How far did he travel to you . as travelling time may be included in his hours  charged?

Manxman_in_exile

I wouldn't use anybody in these circumstances who is happy to give a "quote" from a couple of photos.  It's asking for trouble.  If they say it isn't necessary to do a site visit for a quote then tell them "No thanks".

mattyprice4004

tacpot12 said:

If you are clear that you received a quotation and not an estimate, you are entitled to have the all the work done for £250 +VAT. I would expect this to equate to about five hours labour on site, and an hour elsewhere to dispose of the waste. (All my subsequent figures need to have VAT added to them).

Even if the space is larger than the contractor estimates, this is their problem as it was they who took the risk to quote on the basis of a photo. Their expertise should allow them to understand the size and work involved better than a lay-person - they are professionals after all. (As a VAT registered business, assuming they are VAT registered, they are turning over more than £85K per year, which is quite a lot.)

If he responds with a reasonable re-quote (say £250-£275 for the labour as opposed to the original £200), then I would agree this is and left him come back. If he quotes, say £300, this means he under estimated by 50% which is a lot. 

If he responds with an unreasonable quote, and based on what you have said, I would say that anything over £275 in total for the labour is excessive, then I would suggest that you say you are not happy because he only did 2 hours work and did perhaps a third of what needed doing, so you will pay him £100 for the two hours work he did. I assume he didn't dispose of anything, in which case you don't need to pay him to dispose of anything. If he did dispose of some of the waste, but not all of it, you might have to pay him £50. You can offer him what you think is reasonable, e.g. another £50 to complete all the work as agreed to see if he accepts this. Get his acceptance in an email.  



  

You can optionally register for VAT below the £85k threshold - being VAT registered doesn’t guarantee anything.  

Roger_Irrelevant

Thank you guys for the advice. It's very much appreciated. Obviously this is weighing on my mind and I am very worried about it. Not least any potential repercussions which is the last thing I would want.
To be  crystal clear, I am not out to short-change or penny pinch or rip anyone off. I am more than happy to pay a fair price for any work done. I am very aware that in the current circumstances it's important to support local small businesses.

In the contractor's defence I will say he worked hard when he was here, I have no complaints with what was done. The problem is only that I feel he should have been on-site longer. Had that been the case I believe the work could have been finished, or very close to it. Either of those outcomes I would have been happy with, and I was prepared with cash on-hand ready to pay the full price agreed.

tacpot12 Thank you your comments are a great help and fall in line with my own thinking which is very reassuring. When the guy contacts me (which will be tomorrow, I expect) I will ask him for a re-quote for the full job and dates he can complete the work.
As you said, if this re-quote is vastly more than the original (which I suspect it will be) then I believe I'll pay him £100 for the work done, based on the fact that the agreed upon work wasn't finished, and that he was only on site for 2 hours.
He did remove all of the cuttings (thankfully) so I'll gladly pay what was quoted for that part (+ VAT on everything obviously).
I was concerned about my legal rights where making a reduced payment was concerned, and you have reassured me somewhat, so thank you.

Roger_Irrelevant

Manxman_in_exile said:I wouldn't use anybody in these circumstances who is happy to give a "quote" from a couple of photos.  It's asking for trouble.  If they say it isn't necessary to do a site visit for a quote then tell them "No thanks".

Well, quite. Lesson learned, as they say.
It's such a simple and small job I figured they may not want the expense/hassle of a site visit. The price seemed fair (and was in line with other quotes received) so, I went with it.

sheramber said:

You need to establish how he charges for teh work e.g what is his hourly rate?

How far did he travel to you . as travelling time may be included in his hours  charged?

There was no hourly rate quoted. It was a fixed price for the full job. I've looked & there's no hourly rate on the contractor's website, advert listings or facebook page.

Travel was ~10 miles each way.

Laz123

Many years ago I used to do garden maintenance and charged about £12 ph. I would spend 2 hours per customer and was fast so the garden would be finished until the next visit. I would suggest that although he quoted for the whole job but only completed half then a fair price would be to only pay him half of his quote. Did he dispose of the waste?