£380 to put back two loose roof tiles
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djs34
Posts: 6 Forumite
I would be very grateful to get some perspective on this. My elderly and recently widowed Mum called me up just now incredibly upset now to talk about what she feels is an exorbitant roofing repair.
Last week she had a roofing company out to quote for the following job - 'refix two slipped slate tiles that had begun to cause a minor leak in very wet weather'. The sloped roof is ground floor level, approx. 4'6" high. They quoted her £380. I wish she'd talked to me or someone about it. I think she is feeling completely out of depth with managing the house etc since my Dads death.
Anyway, I think she envisaged a lot of work was needed with a quote that high, so she said 'yes'.
They came this morning, two of them. They finished the work (i.e. putting back the two slipped tiles) in 20 minutes. Given the low height, no scaffolding was needed). They then asked for payment of £380!
My Mum asked them to justify the cost. The reasons they gave were as follows:
1) the daily rate is £300 and they had no other work to go to!
2) there was a lot of paper work involved with the job that took time!
3) they saved her £800 by not using scaffolding.
At the moment my Mum hasn't paid them. Before I help her with this, I wanted to find out as best as I could who is being unreasonable here, the Roofers or my lovely Mum? and then, if it's the former, where do we go from here?
Thank you in advance.
Last week she had a roofing company out to quote for the following job - 'refix two slipped slate tiles that had begun to cause a minor leak in very wet weather'. The sloped roof is ground floor level, approx. 4'6" high. They quoted her £380. I wish she'd talked to me or someone about it. I think she is feeling completely out of depth with managing the house etc since my Dads death.
Anyway, I think she envisaged a lot of work was needed with a quote that high, so she said 'yes'.
They came this morning, two of them. They finished the work (i.e. putting back the two slipped tiles) in 20 minutes. Given the low height, no scaffolding was needed). They then asked for payment of £380!
My Mum asked them to justify the cost. The reasons they gave were as follows:
1) the daily rate is £300 and they had no other work to go to!
2) there was a lot of paper work involved with the job that took time!
3) they saved her £800 by not using scaffolding.
At the moment my Mum hasn't paid them. Before I help her with this, I wanted to find out as best as I could who is being unreasonable here, the Roofers or my lovely Mum? and then, if it's the former, where do we go from here?
Thank you in advance.
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Comments
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Your lovely mum, by the sounds of it.
She could ask if they would lower the price out of goodwill, but they're not obliged to, as they've completed the work for the agreed price.0 -
Surely if they were experienced roofers then they would have known up front that scaffolding was not required and that replacing two tiles was not a days work so both of those are irrelevant and the paperwork excuse is a load of cr*p.
Yes, they could argue that they didn't know how much work was required until they got up on the roof, but that should have been stated up front on the quote.
The problem is your mum accepted their quote and the work is now done."We act as though comfort and luxury are the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about” – Albert Einstein0 -
Thank you :-) Appreciate your answer.0
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Oh dear, looks like she is in the wrong at this point...... any tips for dealing with my upset Mum?!!! ;-)0
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Back in 1987 after the hurricane two of my tiles ended up, unbroken, on my front lawn. Roofers were working opposite and they replaced my tiles using a ladder and didn't charge anything! This may have been an oversight on their part, but it could be it wasn't worth their bother invoicing.0
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Legally I think you're in a bit of a pickle, but if they are genuine roofers it's a ridiculous amount and they have a reputation to uphold?... Or maybe not..
Make a counter offer and a promise not to go on social media and the local newspaper..0 -
silverwhistle wrote: »it's a ridiculous amount and they have a reputation to uphold?... Or maybe not..
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I googled them, half expecting terrible reviews I'm afraid but in fact everything is really positive!
Thank you all for your advice and thoughts. I am thinking of writing them a non threatening letter asking for a 'goodwill' reduction because in truth, it really does appear to be on the expensive side! Perhaps I can mention that when they quoted, they obviously thought it would be a bigger job than what it turned out to be etc0 -
Last big storm we had, four tiles came down. A local roofer, despite being very busy repairing storm damage on other house in the area, charged me £50 - This was on a typical 1920s semi, so quite high.
£380 is excessive - A call to the local trading standards office is in order methinks.Her courage will change the world.
Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.0 -
Have a quick check in any bushes in the area, Matt Allright is likely to be hiding in oneNever, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.0
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Just to give you a comparison i had a small leak roof last year on our kitchen extension roof which i temporary fixed with some bitumen paint and it worked untill last month, i started to get more leaks etc.. so i called a roofer he came out and replaced 5 top row tiles, the wooded batten underneeth and a full length of new lead chased into the wall etc... took 4 hours 1 chap on his own total price £350 imcluding materials.
I could have done it my self but was really busy with work and it would have taken me all day to do, we have had some heavy rain here in west yorkshire and the job was perfect no leaks as of yet
Hope this helps“People are caught up in an egotistic artificial rat race to display a false image to society. We want the biggest house, fanciest car, and we don't mind paying the sky high mortgage to put up that show. We sacrifice our biggest assets our health and time, We feel happy when we see people look up to us and see how successful we are”
Rat Race0
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