Being billed for extra work?

[wenkinnoc]

Hi guys.

I had an electrician who came out, because there was a fault in the system. £180 for the emergency call out. Then I was quoted £750 (if paid in cash) else £900 for by bank transfer/invoice.

fusebox was placed with a PCB one. 2 faults were identified in the circuit, necessitating a partial rewire. We are now being told we are being billed for extra work, the extra work being the 3 electricians restoring hot water and power. (the partial rewire remains outstanding). They were here for 9 hours to be fair. Will be given the invoice on Monday, but having paid over £1000 in total so far, Im struggling financially. My flatmate, went ahead without my knowledge and dealt with it all over the phone, no mention was made as to time, billing rate etc, or what would constitute overtime.

 

[MJPD29]

The cash bit is a bit cheeky, but without a prior written quote or agreement it's going to be hard to avoid the bill. Depending on what they actually did and parts fitted it could be a fair price or not, it's hard to tell without knowing. In future having a written agreement prior to commencing work with rates etc could avoid this, but sadly is no help to you now.

 

[Dustydazzler]

This is the trouble when you start letting someone do work without a proper estimate in place it can get ugly quickly.
If its any conciliation even the best of us gets burned from time to time. I had to get a wet pants in when we first moved to my current house to sort out a leak on a shower. I paid him cash in hand for 1.5 days work only to discover he didn't fix the leak properly (did a bodge job) so it started leaking again.

 

[wenkinnoc]

The cash bit is a bit cheeky, but without a prior written quote or agreement it's going to be hard to avoid the bill. Depending on what they actually did and parts fitted it could be a fair price or not, it's hard to tell without knowing. In future having a written agreement prior to commencing work with rates etc could avoid this, but sadly is no help to you now.

Ah sorry.

I have an email from the manager/guy who deals with the finances quoting me £750.

" The cost of the job is £750 we can book you for 30th Nov, thanks, D"

My flatmate then phoned him later on, discovering the £750 was excluding VAT. My flatmate paid the £900, asked for an invoice, and was told there would now be 2 invoices issued, one for the initial job, and the other for the "extra work".

 

[Dustydazzler]

Extra work being the Re-wire ?

They really shouldn't have under-taken a Re-wire without giving you an estimate first

 

[wenkinnoc]

No.

The reason we made contact in first place was that the power was turning off repeatedly and randomly. I thought it was the washing machine (I had a new plug and socket installed by a different electrician) and then the fusebox kept getting tripped. The £750 cost was for the job of upgrading the fusebox to a....PCB (I think thats what its called?) and trying to fix the cause of the fusebox tripping. The PCB was installed to aid in the diagnosis of the fault. They could not identify the fault, only that there was now 2 faults on the line/circuit. They altered the circuit/line to get the right side of my house, including the hout water, boiler, fridge etc up and running. (this is what counts as the extra work according to the manager).

The rewiring has not been specified, and not undertaken. We have power to the appliances using some stopgap/temp fix, but not an actual rewiring as far as I am aware.

 

[MJPD29]

Unless someone agreed to the extra work being carried out then its nort really their place to carry out the work and charge for it. Did your flatmate agree to this being done?

 

[wenkinnoc]

We were both present in the house at the time. The work was carried out, "right guys, thats your hot water and fridge working, we had to run an extension from a different socket etc". No one said "right we were only required to do 8 hours, but we've been here 9" or anything like that. We just let them get on with it. We were told after the fact it had been done. We were not told "that will be extra" etc.

 

[Dustydazzler]

And it took 3 electricians 9 hours to do that ?

 

[DPG]

Sounds like they've changed the consumer unit (aka fusebox) without doing any testing first.

Is it MCBs they mentioned? Or possibly RCDs?

Can you post a photo of the consumer unit.

 

[wenkinnoc]

Yes, they said the old fusebox which was made in the 80s, was ineffective. The upgraded fusebox, which says RCD protected, was installed on the basis that it would help with the diagnosis of the fault in the circuit, because the old one was not terribly useful in that regard. The first visit, they did try and identify the fault with the old fusebox, but identified the RCD would assist in this.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Yes, they said the old fusebox which was made in the 80s, was ineffective. The upgraded fusebox, which says RCD protected, was installed on the basis that it would help with the diagnosis of the fault in the circuit, because the old one was not terribly useful in that regard. The first visit, they did try and identify the fault with the old fusebox, but identified the RCD would assist in this.

That is call a BANG test which is a bit Cowboy

 

[DPG]

Yes, they said the old fusebox which was made in the 80s, was ineffective. The upgraded fusebox, which says RCD protected, was installed on the basis that it would help with the diagnosis of the fault in the circuit, because the old one was not terribly useful in that regard. The first visit, they did try and identify the fault with the old fusebox, but identified the RCD would assist in this.

Points to a lack of knowledge in testing and fault finding, although hard to be 100% certain

 

[wenkinnoc]

So to recap, I have an email where I am told that it would be £750 for the job. No mention is/was made whether this was an estimate or a quote. No mention in this email specifying a monetary sum, identified the presence of/possibility of other fees, extra work etc.

Based on this, where do I stand vis a vis the levying of these "additional" fees?

 

[DPG]

So to recap, I have an email where I am told that it would be £750 for the job. No mention is/was made whether this was an estimate or a quote. No mention in this email specifying a monetary sum, identified the presence of/possibility of other fees, extra work etc.

Based on this, where do I stand vis a vis the levying of these "additional" fees?

It's going to be really difficult if you have nothing in writing other than the amount.

 

[wenkinnoc]

Fair enough. That really sucks but, will need to accept it.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Bang Test
Cash in hand
Made up Extras

what could go wrong...

 

[DPG]

Fair enough. That really sucks but, will need to accept it.

Did they give you certificates for the work? And was it notified through a scheme (NICEIC etc)?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Did they give you certificates for the work?

Don't forget the building control notification

 

[wenkinnoc]

Certificates have not been issued, no.