Deducting for damages occured due to negliance

rabbituk

I have a contract with a local scaffolding company and currently have their scaffold errected outside my house. Unfortunately when the company arrived to errect the scaffolding they managed to reverse their truck that had some steel hooks hanging off the side into my slate gate post bringing down part of the stone wall with it. I was verbally told that they would contact me to arrange repair. I've been quoted £400 for the repair so it is something I would like them to pick up. Spoke with the director who confirmed that he would pay for this. But I've had nothing in writing and now I'm at the end of the initial inclusive hire period and have finished with the use of the scaffolding. I want the scaffolding to be taken down. I haven't paid the invoice yet because I was thinking that perhaps they will want to offset. There is a clause in the contract that states - if the invoice isn't paid in full then scaffolding will remain at an extra cost of £40 per week.

My question is, am I 'entitled' to hold back this money for the repair until I am convinced that they have repaired it without incurring extra hire fees and them leaving the scaffolding up longer (which in itself would be a nuisance because its on a shared passageway)?

born_again

Have you asked them?

rabbituk

I haven't asked them this yet. It seems a bit of a hostile act and hence why I wanted to see how others would view this. It's most likely that they are simply busy, don't get near a computer often to respond in writing and don't have any bad intent. Every time I get building work done things invariably seem to get broken in the process by careless errors. Most of the time it isn't anything big so suck it up and move on. This is a bit more expensive that I'm will to accept.

RefluentBeans

Pay under protest. It seems like you would still end up getting charged the late payment fee (as this is in the contract) and so every week that passes, you’ll be getting less money back and owing them more money. 

You can also call them up and ask if they can do another invoice where the £400 has been deducted already or get them to acknowledge that they are okay with £400 not being paid. They may prefer that or they may not. It depends on how it affects their taxes and accounting. 

If the company is local, you could ask to meet them face to face to clear things up. But if the payment is due soon, I would pay and email them saying that you’re paying to avoid late charges, and expect a refund of £400. 

For future reference, I always find an email after the phone call basically thanking them for speaking to you, and reminding them (and future you) of what was discussed in person or on the phone, then any ‘confusion’ can be cleared up and a paper trail Able to be formed. 

bris

Personally I wouldn't run up the £40 per week bill and treat the two separately.

Scaffolding at the property will just be an eyesore and not really going to make a difference to your case.

Have you given him the chance to fix the problem? You will need to at least give him the chance accepting the first quote isn't really fair and not they way its done, you need three quotes and the option of him sorting it. 

rabbituk

Thanks for all the comments. Yes I agree that getting 3 quotes would be considered fair. However I actually did ring more than 3 stonewallers in the area and of the 2 that responded, only 1 quoted. It's hassle in itself just getting quotes. I did also follow up each phone call with what was said in an email. However I cannot force people to reply to me in writing.

As it turned out, as I was in the area again last week (main residence is about 5 hours drive away) and I popped into the scaffolding company offices and they were perfectly reasonable and friendly. The quote I got (which took 3 weekly reminders to obtain) was from somebody they knew and use themselves so were happy to accept that as fair. They consequently issued a credit note against their original invoice and I paid that so met the off-hire part of the contract - i.e. no further weeks hire can accrue.

Thanks again.

m0bov

Pay to have the scaffolding removed, once you have settled the bill and they are off prem, LBA them and then SCC.

born_again

rabbituk said:

Thanks for all the comments. Yes I agree that getting 3 quotes would be considered fair. However I actually did ring more than 3 stonewallers in the area and of the 2 that responded, only 1 quoted. It's hassle in itself just getting quotes. I did also follow up each phone call with what was said in an email. However I cannot force people to reply to me in writing.

As it turned out, as I was in the area again last week (main residence is about 5 hours drive away) and I popped into the scaffolding company offices and they were perfectly reasonable and friendly. The quote I got (which took 3 weekly reminders to obtain) was from somebody they knew and use themselves so were happy to accept that as fair. They consequently issued a credit note against their original invoice and I paid that so met the off-hire part of the contract - i.e. no further weeks hire can accrue.

Thanks again.

Thanks for the update & nice to see that common sense prevailed & the easy out route for all worked. 👍

Now you just need to get the stonewaller to do the work 🤷‍♀️

Alderbank

rabbituk said:

...However I actually did ring more than 3 stonewallers in the area and of the 2 that responded, only 1 quoted. It's hassle in itself just getting quotes. I did also follow up each phone call with what was said in an email. However I cannot force people to reply to me in writing.

Oh, the irony!

From the OED:

stonewall
/ˈstəʊnwɔːl,ˌstəʊnˈwɔːl/
verb
past tense: stonewalled; past participle: stonewalled
delay or obstruct (a request, process, or person) by refusing to answer questions

 

DullGreyGuy

m0bov said:

Pay to have the scaffolding removed, once you have settled the bill and they are off prem, LBA them and then SCC.

Helps if you read the post before! The company have already agreed to pay but as the OP owed them more than they owed the OP they just paid the net amount. 

diinozzo

DullGreyGuy said:

m0bov said:

Pay to have the scaffolding removed, once you have settled the bill and they are off prem, LBA them and then SCC.

Helps if you read the post before! The company have already agreed to pay but as the OP owed them more than they owed the OP they just paid the net amount. 

Looks to me like cross posting.