Emergency plumber- have I been scammed? And what can I do?

diddlysquat23

We suddenly had a huge leak coming from upstairs into our dining room on Friday morning. I had to call an emergency plumber who came within an hour. He said he can do the works but he won’t know a definite price until he takes the ceiling down and finds the cause etc. He estimated £1200-£6000 which I had to agree to as the ceiling was going to come down on its own anyway. It was really scary and urgent.
My partner was at work but my dad was with me and said I didn’t really have a choice, which I know is true, so I agreed.
He found the cause and charged us £4500 in total which my dad has lent us the money for. I just can’t get my head round why it cost so much money. He took the ceiling down (didn’t fix it) and took some floorboards up upstairs and found the pipe and re-done/replaced with a new one. He has wrote us a good, lengthy report for the insurance company to try claim it back. But I just feel really anxious about it still.
I don’t really see what else I could’ve done as it was a real emergency, I didn’t exactly have time to get quotes. But the more I think of it, I do think we were probably massively overcharged or even scammed a bit.
Can I have other peoples thoughts please and if you think I’ve been mugged off, can you advise what you think I should do?
Obviously if my insurance pay it then it’s not a big deal but if they refuse to cover it or only some of it then it won’t be great for us.
Thank you in advance.

Jemma01

How long did it take to find the problem? Does the report reflect what you know to be true? Are you worried that the insurance won't cover it + fixing the ceiling?

Bigphil1474

If he did it all same day - day rate should be no more than £300-£400, add say 50% on top for it being an emergency (at most), and a bit for parts. Given Friday isn't a particularly unusual day (not a holiday), I can't see any reason why it would cost more than a £thousand, absolute max. Can you share the report wording or a picture of it (redact your personal details) Sounds like you weren't scammed, but probably ripped off. He was probably expecting insurance to just pay up.

For future, weren't you able to turn the water off, stop the leak, then contact your insurers to get their advice?

elsien

I don’t think you can say you have been scammed when you were clearly given a price range before agreeing to the work and the price was within that range.

Did you turn the water off to stop the water from escaping through the ceiling and give you time to think?

It is usual practice for people to go through the ceiling where possible because it’s easier than getting through the floorboards upstairs as a rule.

So how much of the ceiling actually needed to come down at that point in order to find the problem, was that proportionate and what does his invoice breakdown show with regards to callout fees, et cetera.

There is too limited information at the moment to know what would be a reasonable charge and what wouldn’t. How long did it take him?

stuart45

It's a lot of money, but he did estimate £1200-£6000. Agree with the 2 posters above about one of the first things to do when moving in is learn how to turn off the water.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6669864/emergency-plumber-have-i-been-scammed-and-what-can-i-do

How many people were on site for how long?

What parts were used?

diddlysquat23

Thanks everyone for your comments. I agree scammed is the wrong word.
Unfortunately myself and my dad were not able to turn off the water. We did try but the tap was too stiff. My partner was at work and didn’t get back in time but he said he would’ve been able to do it and therefore we wouldn’t have to have paid the plumber so much in such a rush - hindsight is a wonderful thing aye !

Just to answer some questions;

It was just 1 person on site and he was there for no more than 2 hours.
I would say I am a bit worried that the insurance won’t cover it, but only in the sense that they may say I shouldn’t have paid so much money in the first place.
As one of you said, it may just be that he’s confident the insurance will pay therefore tried his luck charging so much money.
I think for now what I’ll do is wait and if the insurance don’t cover that amount, I’ll go back to him and ask for an official breakdown and justification of why I was charged so much.
Bit of a tricky one I guess as I have already paid but thank you for the advice anyway

flaneurs_lobster

£4.5k for 2 hours work?

Does sound just a tad excessive, even if it did include some bits of pipe.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82012200#Comment_82012200

TBH, even the lowest estimate would have been rather steep.

notbritishgas

I think you should have spoken to your insurance company before employing the plumber.

diddlysquat23

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82012250#Comment_82012250

If I had waited to speak to my insurance, I wouldn’t have had a house left. The ceiling was about to fall through on its own and then whole house would’ve been flooded. If I had the time to wait and call my insurance then I would’ve shopped around and got more quotes first! It was an emergency.