Tradesman requesting money without invoice - AIBU to not want to pay?

Usually I'd do the same. Learned the hard way when I paid cash for my guttering, promised they'd send an invoice after and then they stopped responding, so when it came to selling the house a few years later I had absolutely no evidence of when the work had been done.

However for £30 call out and no actual physical work done I probably wouldnt have pushed it. Doesnt mean you should feel bad though, he acted really unprofessionally, I definitely wouldn't have messaged to apologise.

If he thought an invoice wasnt needed normal response would be to just say fine and send something over via email, would take less than a minute, then moan about it to his partner or mate for 5 mins after. Not sulk like a 5 year old because he's been found out for dodging tax!

I'd be telling your DH to pipe down, he can deal with tradies in the future if he thinks he knows it all. At the end of the day you aren't going to use this guy for anything in the future if he didnt know what he was on about with the actual job and was unprofessional to boot, so it's not like you've damaged a good working relationship.

You usually don't have to pay straight away or in cash. They usually send an invoice and you pay it.

He's fiddling his taxes; report him to the Inland Revenue. Can't understand why so many of us who pay the tax we owe don't get angrier about this crap.

Exactly. Write a letter. I did it with some bloke who tried to get me to pay in a cafe without ringing it up on the till first and got abusive when I questioned it. Don't know if anything came of it.

She's not refusing to pay. She just asked for an invoice to pay.

He could be a dodgy one (there was a feature today on BBC at 10 ISH). So you were lucky it was only £30 as there were horror stories

Or... It could be a tax dodger (as many companies are) but chap knows what he is doing and will give a good service.

But cash in hand work rarely involves an invoice.

what's it to do with your husband. the transaction ended when the chap huffed off, the end. nothing further to say

Cowboy. He came to give an estimate, you don't pay for estimates.

I would be extremely irritated by your husbands reaction too.
Yanbu.

Pay him his money, don’t be tight.

He quoted you £30 and came to do what you agreed him to do. He incurred costs such as petrol, his time and knowledge. YABU not paying him. Why do you bother with an invoice if you don’t want to give him the work - it’s up to him how he runs his business but he provided the service you agreed to pay for.

1. loads of people on this thread can’t read
2. you were not being unreasonable to ask for an invoice. Why should anyone support someone not paying their taxes
3. your husband was wrong and I’m surprised you second guessed yourself to keep him happy. I hope he’s not normally an arsehole.

The op didn't think he knew what he was talking about, just a chancer wanting to be paid cash in hand for doing nothing really. He was obviously scared off because he thought the op might report him.

It's not up to him it's the law, you can't take cash in hand and not put it through the books, he has to provide an invoice for the work done, ie, the inspection. If he won't he's obviously not paying tax on the money.

Maybe to go home and type out an invoice was a bit much for £30, probably thought it wasn't worth it as was doing a favour. Call outs where I am are much more than that and we usually get a one liner text/email to confirm payment.
A full invoice I would expect for materials and labour etc, not for a £30 quick call out done at reduced costs as a favour.

You can't do cash in hand work, all money you get paid has to be declared to HMRC. And you have to have a record of work done, payments made and a paper trail of invoices.

If it was agreed prior to him coming there would be the call out charge you should have paid him

I don't think I have ever had an invoice from a tradesman

Why is he alleging he's doing her a favour? Are they friends?
I get it's a bit of a faff for that cost but it looks dodgy to be so anti it.

I have never got an invoice for a call out fee. Actual work yes but not for the ‘turn up and look fee’.

Tax dodge, obviously, but i'd worry he'll be back to brick my windows!

This. 🙄

This is where I think people are sexist without even really realising it. Attributing higher amounts to men’s work than women’s. People think it’s absolutely normal to pay a woman to come round and clean their house for an hour or two and pay them £30. But a bloke pops over, pretends to be a surveyor, spout's nonsense op already knew about a wall, and people clamour to his defence that he shouldn’t be burdened with the onerous one minute task of emailing an invoice for his thirty quid.

I’ve done it myself. Had a bloke round to fix the TV, took him five minutes, (ten min drive from his office) when the invoice came through I thought ‘phew, only £130.’ Probably no GCSEs. Bottom table. Half hours work. What predominantly female role gets paid £260 an hour with no qualifications required?