handyman/gardener

gordonus

Employed local, handyman at £20 hour who seems to be taking longer than verbally discussed with some small jobs and now got an invoice for nearly £1000 and listed hours he was not even there according to my security camera. Any advice suggested as he is currently finishing a job before I think about telling him.

Section62

gordonus said:

Employed local, handyman at £20 hour who seems to be taking longer than verbally discussed with some small jobs and now got an invoice for nearly £1000 and listed hours he was not even there according to my security camera. Any advice suggested as he is currently finishing a job before I think about telling him.

What was agreed about him buying materials?  Could those times relate to him going to merchants to buy what was needed to do the job?

Too late now, but this is one of the reasons why it is better to get quotes for a specific job (rather than a per-hour rate) and agree the details in writing.

Bendy_House

Could you list what he actually did? And what he bought.

How did you find him?

Murmansk

I work as a handyman and the vast majority of work I do is at my hourly rate. If I do a job that takes more than one day I send the customer a text each day to confirm what hours I've done and the current balance owed. 

GDB2222

£20 an hour is only around double the NMW. The guy has to provide his own transport and tools out of that, advertise for work, go out to do a quote, do all his accounts, and fill in a tax return (hopefully). He can't possibly have such a low hourly rate and also quote an exact amount of hours for each job, or he'll end up earning well under NMW.

Of course, that has nothing to do with charging for time when he's not on the job, but as others have said he may have been getting materials etc.

If you want a fixed quote, builders will do that, but they'll work it out on the basis of a much, much higher hourly rate. That gives them some leeway for when the job, inevitably, takes longer than expected. 

GDB2222

Murmansk said:

I work as a handyman and the vast majority of work I do is at my hourly rate. If I do a job that takes more than one day I send the customer a text each day to confirm what hours I've done and the current balance owed. 

Can I ask how much you charge per hour?

MovingForwards

More info here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6347573/invoice-from-handyman#latest

Sicard

It's best not to duplicate a post on two boards.

twopenny

I always ask for a quote per job

Even the one I've used for ages I stay in and keep a note of them anyway. Don't make it obvious and feed him tea and biscuits.

This is since I had one recommended by a neighbour but he wanted paying by the hour and one day I left for a fete but had to go straight back home for my camera only to find he had got settled straight in his car for the paper and coffee just 15mins after arriving.

Can happen to anyone - but £1000 makes you wonder just how much you've had done. That's 50hrs.  Not impossible.

Murmansk

GDB2222 said:

Murmansk said:

I work as a handyman and the vast majority of work I do is at my hourly rate. If I do a job that takes more than one day I send the customer a text each day to confirm what hours I've done and the current balance owed. 

Can I ask how much you charge per hour?

£30 per hour