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I hope this is the right place to post this, please redirect me if not. I've spent quite some time reading the forums, so I apologize if I've missed something that would have answered my questions.
What are the options when disputing an electrician's invoice? How do I ensure that I'm paying a fair rate for the work that was done when I know that I'm being overbilled (in this case, for hours where the electrician's employees sat around and did nothing)? Any advice is welcome.
Here's what's happening:
I recently received a shocking invoice from my electrician (who is a sub through my general contractor). The new invoice is for more than the total original quote for the work, and that's on top of another invoice I paid when the work was originally completed, bringing the total to more than $10,000 in excess of the quote.
At no time during the process did he ever give any kind of indication that he was encountering unexpected complications or in any other way warn me to expect a huge increase. There were a few small items that we added as we went along, but in each case he gave me an estimate, and the total for those should have been under $5,000.
I don't believe he is trying to purposely rip me off. I think the main problem comes from his employees overbilling hours. On almost every segment of the project (we were completely remodeling a few rooms, including a bathroom), they were repeatedly caught doing nothing at all. Work that he said would take an hour or two took them several full days. I repeatedly raised this concern with the GC, as did other subs whose work was delayed by the electrician's employees antics. I was told it was being taken care of. Ultimately, the electrician (the owner) had to come out an wrap up most of the work.
Once the bulk was completed, I met with the GC and the electrician, where the electrician acknowledged his workers had repeatedly screwed up, apologized, promised he would personally fix any remaining problems, and promised I wouldn't be billed for any more work past that point. (All the work was done at this point, and I had just paid an invoice that was just under the original quote, and all work past that point was correcting mistakes that were found).
Now that I've asked about this new invoice, he says that all the work took longer than expected, but that his workers were not shirking (despite multiple people witnessing them just sitting around for hours), and that the invoice won't be adjusted. When I asked him for documentation of the costs, he just sent a list that's very high level "electrical in room 1 = $xxxx" and so on). He is not providing receipts, time sheets, or anything else that would be more concrete.
I want to pay a fair rate for the work that was actually completed. I expect to pay more than the original quote since a few items were added on. However, I can't justify paying so much over with no real reason given except "the estimate was wrong, sorry."
What are my options?
I can't afford to take this to court, and I would never want to do so anyway. I like the owner and believe he is an honest man who is misplacing his trust in his employees.
I remember someone once telling me about how they went through a contractor dispute and the licensing board provided an inspector to go over the work, the estimate, etc. and essentially act as an arbitrator in deciding what the fair price should be. I can't find anything like that in my state, but maybe I'm using the wrong search terms?
Is it at least reasonable to ask the owner to produce receipts, time sheets, and other more concrete evidence? Even then, how would I know exactly how much should have been deducted for the employees wasting time? I was not able to be onsite 24/7, so I couldn't document their every move.
Thank you for taking the time to read. If I've messed anything up, please let me know, and I'll try to correct my mistakes.
What are the options when disputing an electrician's invoice? How do I ensure that I'm paying a fair rate for the work that was done when I know that I'm being overbilled (in this case, for hours where the electrician's employees sat around and did nothing)? Any advice is welcome.
Here's what's happening:
I recently received a shocking invoice from my electrician (who is a sub through my general contractor). The new invoice is for more than the total original quote for the work, and that's on top of another invoice I paid when the work was originally completed, bringing the total to more than $10,000 in excess of the quote.
At no time during the process did he ever give any kind of indication that he was encountering unexpected complications or in any other way warn me to expect a huge increase. There were a few small items that we added as we went along, but in each case he gave me an estimate, and the total for those should have been under $5,000.
I don't believe he is trying to purposely rip me off. I think the main problem comes from his employees overbilling hours. On almost every segment of the project (we were completely remodeling a few rooms, including a bathroom), they were repeatedly caught doing nothing at all. Work that he said would take an hour or two took them several full days. I repeatedly raised this concern with the GC, as did other subs whose work was delayed by the electrician's employees antics. I was told it was being taken care of. Ultimately, the electrician (the owner) had to come out an wrap up most of the work.
Once the bulk was completed, I met with the GC and the electrician, where the electrician acknowledged his workers had repeatedly screwed up, apologized, promised he would personally fix any remaining problems, and promised I wouldn't be billed for any more work past that point. (All the work was done at this point, and I had just paid an invoice that was just under the original quote, and all work past that point was correcting mistakes that were found).
Now that I've asked about this new invoice, he says that all the work took longer than expected, but that his workers were not shirking (despite multiple people witnessing them just sitting around for hours), and that the invoice won't be adjusted. When I asked him for documentation of the costs, he just sent a list that's very high level "electrical in room 1 = $xxxx" and so on). He is not providing receipts, time sheets, or anything else that would be more concrete.
I want to pay a fair rate for the work that was actually completed. I expect to pay more than the original quote since a few items were added on. However, I can't justify paying so much over with no real reason given except "the estimate was wrong, sorry."
What are my options?
I can't afford to take this to court, and I would never want to do so anyway. I like the owner and believe he is an honest man who is misplacing his trust in his employees.
I remember someone once telling me about how they went through a contractor dispute and the licensing board provided an inspector to go over the work, the estimate, etc. and essentially act as an arbitrator in deciding what the fair price should be. I can't find anything like that in my state, but maybe I'm using the wrong search terms?
Is it at least reasonable to ask the owner to produce receipts, time sheets, and other more concrete evidence? Even then, how would I know exactly how much should have been deducted for the employees wasting time? I was not able to be onsite 24/7, so I couldn't document their every move.
Thank you for taking the time to read. If I've messed anything up, please let me know, and I'll try to correct my mistakes.
