Invoice from handyman

gordonus

I have currently employed a local handyman who is doing some work in the garden for me such as erecting shed/slabbing etc (working at £20 hour) and has invoiced me for hours he was not at the property according to my security camera. However, I may not have all the times on the security video to see how many times he is claiming for hours not there.
What are my rights also he is halfway through the last job and at what point and how should I approach this as it is nearly a £1000 he is claiming for various days/hours whilst at work or out? We did not have any contract it is cash in hand, and think he does this as an additional job to his full-time job to make extra money. He also appears to be taking longer than expected to carry out certain jobs and is just turning up when he wants despite saying he would be finished sooner even though no time-scale agreed

Grumpy_chap

gordonus said:

I have currently employed a local handyman who is doing some work in the garden for me such as erecting shed/slabbing etc (working at £20 hour) and has invoiced me for hours he was not at the property according to my security camera. However, I may not have all the times on the security video to see how many times he is claiming for hours not there.
What are my rights also he is halfway through the last job and at what point and how should I approach this as it is nearly a £1000 he is claiming for various days/hours whilst at work or out? We did not have any contract it is cash in hand, and think he does this as an additional job to his full-time job to make extra money. He also appears to be taking longer than expected to carry out certain jobs and is just turning up when he wants despite saying he would be finished sooner even though no time-scale agreed

Have you agreed a price for the job, or are you paying by the day?
Do the times he is not at the property reflect going to get materials?  Lunchbreak?
If you are paying by the hour, do you have even an estimate of what the total cost will be?

TELLIT01

gordonus said:

I have currently employed a local handyman who is doing some work in the garden for me such as erecting shed/slabbing etc (working at £20 hour) and has invoiced me for hours he was not at the property according to my security camera. However, I may not have all the times on the security video to see how many times he is claiming for hours not there.
What are my rights also he is halfway through the last job and at what point and how should I approach this as it is nearly a £1000 he is claiming for various days/hours whilst at work or out? We did not have any contract it is cash in hand, and think he does this as an additional job to his full-time job to make extra money. He also appears to be taking longer than expected to carry out certain jobs and is just turning up when he wants despite saying he would be finished sooner even though no time-scale agreed

This confuses me.  If you are saying the camera recordings don't cover all the time he is on site, how can you be certain that he didn't return at times which aren't covered?  As has been said, he may have to leave to get materials.  He will also probably be charging for travel time too.

Too late now, but you should have at least got an estimate of the time the job was going to take before starting the work.  My brother-in-law will charge by the hour or by the day, but always gives an estimate of how long the job should take.

Martin_the_Unjust

Is he doing a good job?

is the amount of hours he is claiming reasonable for the amount of work done?

Will you want to employ him in the future?

GDB2222

gordonus said:

I have currently employed a local handyman who is doing some work in the garden for me such as erecting shed/slabbing etc (working at £20 hour) and has invoiced me for hours he was not at the property according to my security camera. However, I may not have all the times on the security video to see how many times he is claiming for hours not there.
What are my rights also he is halfway through the last job and at what point and how should I approach this as it is nearly a £1000 he is claiming for various days/hours whilst at work or out? We did not have any contract it is cash in hand, and think he does this as an additional job to his full-time job to make extra money. He also appears to be taking longer than expected to carry out certain jobs and is just turning up when he wants despite saying he would be finished sooner even though no time-scale agreed

Morally, you really ought to tackle him about the time discrepancy now. It’s not fair to let him finish the job first. It may mean that you need to find someone else to finish it off, or even DIY it.

Aylesbury_Duck

This is what happens when you take someone on so loosely.  You're expecting accurate record- and time-keeping from someone you've engaged on a "bloke from the pub, cash, no questions asked" basis.

The best way to deal with it is to ask him if he's done all the hours he says he has, because the work done suggests he hasn't.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

On the one hand the way the guy asks for payment and his affairs after that aren't our concern but on the other if you hire such people then you are more likely to have such problems.

If you was looking at consumer rights we'd need to know how your contract was formed to determine what type of contract it is. 

What's the specific details of the job?

You mention £1000 is this the cost so far or the amount you are disputing? If it's the amount due so far then how much of it are you disputing?

cc58

As others have said you've sort of left yourself in a situation to be taken advantage of.
You could perhaps list what you've have done and we could estimate hours worked for each job and see if it adds up to 50 but I think your only recourse will be your security camera but still it's quite loose

Keep_pedalling

GDB2222 said:

gordonus said:

I have currently employed a local handyman who is doing some work in the garden for me such as erecting shed/slabbing etc (working at £20 hour) and has invoiced me for hours he was not at the property according to my security camera. However, I may not have all the times on the security video to see how many times he is claiming for hours not there.
What are my rights also he is halfway through the last job and at what point and how should I approach this as it is nearly a £1000 he is claiming for various days/hours whilst at work or out? We did not have any contract it is cash in hand, and think he does this as an additional job to his full-time job to make extra money. He also appears to be taking longer than expected to carry out certain jobs and is just turning up when he wants despite saying he would be finished sooner even though no time-scale agreed

Morally, you really ought to tackle him about the time discrepancy now. It’s not fair to let him finish the job first. It may mean that you need to find someone else to finish it off, or even DIY it.

Are there any morals in a cash in hand transaction