To not pay this person till hes finished all the work

[salempickles]

recently had my house re-wired, the electrician was my dp's friend, I was very weary of hiring people we knew as it always leads to trouble.

The house renovations took longer than expected anyway just under a year, he was probably here for about 3-4 months in total spread out over that time, half way through we asked him for an invoice for everything so far, he laughed and said its ok, we explained no its not the money is running out so we need to know what you want us to pay,

We moved back in November anyway and came to an agreement to pay him £100 a month which he was happy with, he did the work in his own time so still had his own job going (not like he lost out on anything, this is just extra money to him). Since January we haven't heard anything from him, despite asking him to finish certain things, we have no plug sockets in the bedrooms, ive run extensions everywhere, the house alarm has never worked, i could go on but there's quite a few bits that still need finishing.

Fast forward to today his brother gets in touch and asks whats going on why haven't we paid him, basically trying to start an argument over it, the thing that winds me up is a, he never gets in contact himself, always asks his brother and b, doesn't respond to any texts or mesasges asking him to come and finish the work. He is a grown man, has kids etc so i don't understand why he cant just man up, i've now said to his brother when he gets in touch himself or comes and finishes the job he wants to be paid for then. Im 6 months pregnant and were struggling on 1 wage as it is, am i wrong or should i just carry on paying him, dp and him have already fallen out over his brother getting involved all the time so are barely on speaking terms, i wish we'd never had him here now.

sorry its long!

Why is he hiding behind his brother? he needs to grow the fuck up

YANBU - when he contacts you and finishes the work then pay him

Did you get a quote from him upfront for the work that needed doing? Do you know how much money you still owe him? I'd be tempted to give him a deadline to get the work finished if he wants his money, and if he doesn't meet it I'd find someone else to do the last few jobs.

I came on ready to tell you YABU unreasonable and should pay in stages people need money coming in and to buy materials etc..

Then I read it!

Erm what exactly would you be paying for last month? Doesnt sound like hes done anything!! YANBU but you need to either find out from him if and when the work will be finished or get someone else to finish it, you cant be running extensions around, sounds very unsafe, and the stress for you isnt good either.

Don't pay until he finishes it all, and you have had a few days to check it is all working OK and he hasn't cut corners, or buggered something up. If he is this rubbish when you owe him money, he will be 10 times worse when you don't.
[bitter experience]

Don't discuss anything with brother, just politely say you are happy to discuss it with DP's friend, but only DPs friend. Friend probably knows he's done a half-assed job and doesn't really want to deal with it.

Hopefully this will be a lesson to your DP to never involve friends and money!

He gave us a quote of a certain amount, we paid him bits and bobs through the year that we could afford, we also had to buy all the electrical equipment ourselves which alone came to nearly a thousand, we know exactly how much we have left to pay, but i want a plug socket in my bedroom, I'm surely not asking for much!

I doubt he'll come back till we have money for him, he does need to grow up, its sad cos his brother used to be a good friend to my dp, now all this has got in the way its just constantly the elephant in the room whenever we get together, but i actually cant be arsed with the pair of them now, they're like 10 year old's who just love the drama!

To be fair to him the work hes done is really good quality and hes gone above and beyond staying well into early mornings to help us out as we did most of the renovation work ourselves, just don't know whats changed though, he probably has a few days work left to do if even that....

I never wanted him to work for us, i always said keep friends and money separate, but knowing the quality of his work is why dp wanted him to do it, soooooo wish i had a time machine!

Why doesn't your DP deal with it? Am I missing something? It's his friend, you're obviously stressed over it, you're pregnant - why the hell is it your responsibility to faff around with the in and outs of it? I know they've fallen out but he needs to grow some balls and sort it. I'm sorry, grown men pushing their partners/brothers/whoever forward to sort stuff out annoys me.

Surely it could all be sorted out with a (calm) call from your dp to the 'friend' with a list of what you need doing v what he wants to be paid. You have said the work he has done is of a good standard, so he's not some cowboy, and they were friends once! Presumably he is doing it at a reasonably good (if not cheaper) rate than Joe Bloggs from the yellow pages would?

I hope you got a receipt every time you paid something to this man and kept the receipts for the materials that you bought for him to use.

If he takes you to Court for non-payment, you will need them. How can you prove that you have paid him anything if you have no receipts?

The amount he has had off you so far - is it equivalent to the amount you owe him for the work he has actually done for you?

If by carrying on paying him, you are building up a credit you should say so and say no, we will pay him for work done and not in advance of work being done.

However, if when you calculate it, he has done more work than the total you have paid him to date, then pay him the difference and say that brings us up to date, and any more will be paid after the work is done.

I would cut your losses and keep your money to pay another electrician. If you want to stick with this guy, then there is no way you should pay him until he has finished.