Tradesman demans further payment

Farnham01

We had facia, soffits and due to a leak in the roof replacement of leadwork quoted and booked in October 2023.However during the work was being done, we asked to get additional facia and soffits replaced which were not included in the quote. Tradesman was happy to do so but he said in order to stay within the quote he will not replace the leadwork but will recycle the old one and fix the leak. We paid first installment 50% before work started and 50% after work was finished. However, April 2024 I got an email demanding further payment an additional GBP1000? I have been arguing the case that the agreement was that he will not replace the expensive leadwork and he failt to provide me with an updated invoice back in October 2023. Is he entitled to demand further payment or can I refuse it? 
Thank you for any advise on this. 

MeteredOut

He is entitled to demand and you are entitled to refuse.

That puts the onus on him to decide if he wants to take things further. eg, small claims court. 

Do you have the additional work discussion in writing anywhere. eg, texts, or was it all verbal?

Voyager2002

Farnham01 said:

We had facia, soffits and due to a leak in the roof replacement of leadwork quoted and booked in October 2023.However during the work was being done, we asked to get additional facia and soffits replaced which were not included in the quote. Tradesman was happy to do so but he said in order to stay within the quote he will not replace the leadwork but will recycle the old one and fix the leak. We paid first installment 50% before work started and 50% after work was finished. However, April 2024 I got an email demanding further payment an additional GBP1000? I have been arguing the case that the agreement was that he will not replace the expensive leadwork and he failt to provide me with an updated invoice back in October 2023. Is he entitled to demand further payment or can I refuse it? 
Thank you for any advise on this. 

What exactly did he say, and how, when he talked about "staying within the quote"?

elsien

Did he replace the expensive leadwork anyway, or didn't he? 

Arunmor

The natural thing for a tradesman to do is have a word and say because of xyz extra work or difficulties he will need to revise his quote, from what you say he never did that.  Is that correct?

Farnham01

Hi, thank you both for your comments. Firstly, he did not replace the leadwork but used the existing one and he never revised his quote. In my recent communication I even asked for a revised invoice to state that old leadwork was used to fix the leak and more material such as facia and soffits were bought for this job. Up until now he did not provide a revised invoice but he keeps emailing me and demanding more payment.

Farnham01

MeteredOut said:

He is entitled to demand and you are entitled to refuse.

That puts the onus on him to decide if he wants to take things further. eg, small claims court. 

Do you have the additional work discussion in writing anywhere. eg, texts, or was it all verbal?

Hi, no nothing in writing it was all verbally agreed and he said in order to stay within the quote he will not replace the leadwork and use the old existing which was still ok to be recycled and he could do the additional work around the garage. He should have provided me a revised invoiced back in October and before I paid the last 50% of the outstanding invoice.

MeteredOut

Farnham01 said:

MeteredOut said:

He is entitled to demand and you are entitled to refuse.

That puts the onus on him to decide if he wants to take things further. eg, small claims court. 

Do you have the additional work discussion in writing anywhere. eg, texts, or was it all verbal?

Hi, no nothing in writing it was all verbally agreed and he said in order to stay within the quote he will not replace the leadwork and use the old existing which was still ok to be recycled and he could do the additional work around the garage. He should have provided me a revised invoiced back in October and before I paid the last 50% of the outstanding invoice.

Were you expecting this different invoice to have a different total amount to originally agreed or was that just so that it it would state the changes to the agreed work (no new leadwork, new soffits etc)? Do you have any record of asking for that updated invoice?

And was there an original invoice, or just the original quote you mention here? They are different things.

Farnham01

Hi, they provided a quote beginning of August 2023, received 1st original invoice for 50% mid August and work started end September and 2nd invoice was paid mid October. I was never issued an updated invoice or quote to reflect the requested changes. It was all verbally agreed on 1st day of work and trader had nearly 2months to issue an updated invoice. Why wait nearly 7months? 

m0bov

Let him take you to court, then you can put your side of it. If the invoice was paid, that's it. He needs to send you an invoice of what the £1000 is for. You then dispute, then let court settle it.

MeteredOut

Farnham01 said:

Hi, they provided a quote beginning of August 2023, received 1st original invoice for 50% mid August and work started end September and 2nd invoice was paid mid October. I was never issued an updated invoice or quote to reflect the requested changes. It was all verbally agreed on 1st day of work and trader had nearly 2months to issue an updated invoice. Why wait nearly 7months? 

I think you need to let the 7 months thing go. Whilst frustrating, and shows the same lack of administrative professionalism that many traders share, you should concentrate on the legalities of whether the amount claimed is valid. The trader could feasibly wait up to 6 years before sending it and it might still be valid.

So it sounds like a "you said, he said" type discussion and you need to decide if you want to risk not paying, and him going down the small claims court route, or perhaps offering, eg, 50% as a compromise and both agree to walk away (you'd want that in writing). But, don't do anything until you get a new invoice.

Do you believe the alterations were "covered" by what you paid. ie. did the removal of new lead from the work cost about the same as the additional soffits etc?