plumbers claimform for estimate costs ..help

[Chopen]

Hello yes I am a new be

 

4 weeks ago we turned our heating on and it seemed we had a problem with the pump.

 

 

My Partner asked a friend if he could recommend a plumber.

...He was given a phone number

he phoned said he had been recommended and could they come to give us an estimate for work that might need to be done.

 

The Plumber came 2 days latter

I said hello at the door let him in showed him the tank/ boiler ( boiler is approx. 4 years old)

 

He immediately said our heating was installed all wrong and when he went out side to see the flue he said it needed to be cemented better for our safety and all thou not asked made up about 50ml of cement and filled around the flue.

 

I did not like his manner much and was pleased when he left

I gave him my email address so he could send his quote

as he left I told him I was getting another quote so I would chose who did the job.

 

At no time did he tell me he charges £70 for his estimate.

 

3 days later I receive email telling me he will charge me £1079.25 ......

...cleaning the system /new thermostats etc...

..I emailed him back telling him we would not be using him

but I would pay him for the cementing he did (2 minute job)

 

the next day he emailed me an invoice for £70 for estimate. also £1.00 for cementing.

 

My Partner replied to him telling him that at no time had he informed us of the cost of estimate and If he had we would not of asked him to come to our house. so there for we will not pay invoice.

 

1 over due invoice was then sent again my partner replied The plumbers reply was full of how our heating was not safe and he could get the gas cut off in the road to our house if we did not pay !!!!!!!

 

Today I get CCJ claim against me.

 

Sorry so long can any body give me some advice Please.

 

Oh and the new pump for my heating cost me £210.00 is now working well.

[AndyOrch]

Hi and welcome to CAG

 

By CCJ do you mean you have received a court claim or that you have recieved a Notice of Judgment for the plumber ?

 

Regards

 

Andy

[king12345]

This must be the only desperate plumber in UK trying to make money out of quotes.

All the plumbers I know are booked up for 4 months ahead and it's a very hard job to convince them to come out for an emergency.

Usually it takes 10 telephone calls.

I would fully defend the claim and accept to pay only the £1 for the cement.

Frankly I don't know anyone who charges money for a quote.

[BankFodder]

I think that this is a situation which needs to be looked at objectively and pragmatically.

 

You asked a plumber to come and visit you to give you a quote and at the same time he carried out some work.

 

Since then you have received an invoice which purports to be 1 pound for the cement and £70 for the quote. Maybe he's expressed it poorly but maybe what he's really charging for this for £70 for labour and 1 pound for the cement.

 

Certainly, it's probably unreasonable to expect a trader to spend time putting cement on the flue in order to seal it and charge only one pound for it.

 

Although you may not have agreed a price for this in advance, there is a rule of contract law which basically says that if you ask a commercial trader to carry out a service then there is an implied expectation that a reasonable price has been agreed. I would say that that would apply here. I don't know £71 is reasonable or unreasonable – but it seems to me that a mere £1 is unreasonably low.

 

In terms of quotes, it's all rather ambiguous. There is a culture of people coming round to doing quotes for jobs without charging because it is all part of the marketing of their service. On the other hand, there is quite a culture of people charging for quotes and then forgiving the charge if the work goes ahead.

 

Frankly I think that you are on a hiding to nothing. If you decide not to pay then you will have to hope that the plumber doesn't come to us for legal advice because I would advise him to start a small claim against you with a pretty good expectation of success for some level of payment.

 

You may disagree with a £71 and you may think that it's excessive – but I would certainly think that he has earned something – and certainly more than £1. You've obviously been decent enough to offer to pay him something, seeing as he made his way there and went back I would suggest that maybe half his hourly rate might be appropriate. Maybe that's 30 quid – I don't know

[Old Cogger]

defiantly on a hiding here and going to cost more in fees etc, asked a guy here servicing my boiler to fit the new taps to sink whilst on premises took all of 10 minutes cost £55.00 on top of the so called boiler service ( that boiler service is another matter - problems after he left and manufacturer asked when it was last serviced?? Gas Safe useless did not want to know or the MP)

[martin2006]

I spent many years as a registered gas installer.

 

In my experience, i would regularly be called out to a job and asked if there was any call out charge. I always answered that i did charge a £50 call out fee but, if, after diagnosis, the client went ahead with the job quoted for, then the call out charge was included as part of the final bill.

 

For example: call out charge £50, new pump £210.

On initial call out, received £50 call out fee, upon completion, invoiced for remaining £160.

 

The reason i did this is quite simple, many people call you out to diagnose and quote for repairs/installations etc, but once the quite has been done, they then cancel the repair/installation and do it themselves or get "john" from the local pub to do it cheaper.

 

I was had over many times by this and is why i introduced the policy.

 

I should add that if the request for a quote only, i did not charge for that, if you do your quote properly, you will not need to charge for that.

[obiter dictum]

The key with this me thinks is if the plumber made known that any quote will be charged per hour or part of at first point of contact or when he left. Did you agree to that charge and more to the point, why did he not ask for payment prior to leaving?

[martin2006]

As we have not been privvy to the invoice i woukd suggest the plumber has probably charged for a call out and undertaken necessary safety measures in cementing the flue to avoid the possible ingress of toxic fumes from coming back into the house.

His alternative would have been to isolate the boiler on an "immediately dangerous" basis.

He has done the OP a favour in not isolating the boiler which is exactly what BGas would have done, leaving the OP without any heating or hot water and charging a damn site more for the privilege!